Mary Poppins
On 14 September 2015, Disney announced a new "Mary Poppins" film was to be made, with a new plot and new songs, although in P. L. Travers' final will, another movie version was not to be made according to her wishes. The film is directed by Rob Marshall and written by David Magee. Songs are composed by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, who both received support from Richard Sherman, who, along with his late brother-collaborator Robert Sherman wrote the iconic song score of the original "Mary Poppins" film. The film is not a reboot or remake of the original 1964 film; in this film Mary Poppins revisits the now-adult Banks children from the first film and takes charge of the three children of Michael Banks. It is loosely based on the other seven "Mary Poppins" books by Travers, and expands beyond them. Emily Blunt stars as Mary Poppins, alongside Lin-Manuel Miranda in the role of Jack, a similar character to Dick Van Dyke's "Bert" from the first film. It was announced on 31 May 2016 that the film would be titled "Mary Poppins Returns" and would take place in Depression-era London, 25 years after the events of the original film. Emily Mortimer and Ben Whishaw play grown-up Jane and Michael Banks. The release date was 21 December 2018 in the US and the UK.
Mary Poppins (film)
The film changed the book's storyline in a number of places. For example, Mary, when approaching the house, controlled the wind rather than the other way around. As another example, the father, rather than the mother, interviewed Mary for the nanny position. A number of other changes were necessary to condense the story into feature length. In the film, there are only two Banks children, Jane and Michael. The satirical and mysterious aspects of the original book gave way to a cheerful and "Disney-fied" tone. Mary Poppins' character as portrayed by Andrews in the film is somewhat less vain and more sympathetic towards the children compared to the rather cold and intimidating nanny of the original book. Bert, as played by Van Dyke, was a composite of several characters from Travers' stories. Travers demanded that any suggestions of romance between Mary and Bert be eliminated, so lyrics were written for "Jolly Holiday" that clearly indicated that their friendship was purely platonic; some subtle hints of romance, however, did remain in the finished film.