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.
P. L. Travers
The musical film adaptation "Mary Poppins" was released by Walt Disney Pictures in 1964. Primarily based on the original 1934 novel of the same name, it also lifted elements from the 1935 sequel "Mary Poppins Comes Back". The novels were loved by Disney's daughters when they were children, and Disney had spent 20 years trying to purchase the film rights to "Mary Poppins", which included visits to Travers at her home in London. In 1961, Travers arrived in Los Angeles on a flight from London, her first-class ticket having been paid for by Disney, and he finally succeeded in purchasing the rights. Travers was an adviser in the production, but she disapproved of the Poppins character in its Disney version, with harsher aspects diluted; she felt ambivalent about the music; and she so hated the use of animation that she ruled out any further adaptations of the series. She received no invitation to the film's star-studded première until she "embarrassed a Disney executive into extending one". At the after-party, she said loudly “Well. The first thing that has to go is the animation sequence.” Disney replied, "Pamela, the ship has sailed", and walked away.