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Saving Mr. Banks
Author P.L. Travers looks back on her childhood while reluctantly meeting with Walt Disney, who seeks to adapt her Mary Poppins books for the big screen.
2013 · Directed by John Lee Hancock · 126 min · Comedy · Drama · History · Screenplay in the scene database · 11 frames
Tagline
Where her book ended, their story began.
Plot
In London 1961, literary agent Diarmuid Russell urges financially strapped author Pamela "P. L." Travers to travel to Los Angeles and meet with Walt Disney, who has pursued the film rights to her Mary Poppins stories for 20 years after having promised his daughters to produce a film based on the books. Travers has steadfastly resisted Disney's efforts, fearing what he will do to her character. Having written nothing new and her book royalties having dried up, she risks losing her house. Russell reminds her that Disney has agreed to two major stipulations (no animation and unprecedented script approval) before she finally agrees to go.
Flashbacks depict Travers's difficult childhood in Allora, Queensland, Australia in 1906, which became the inspiration for much of Mary Poppins. Travers idolized her loving, imaginative father, Travers Robert Goff, but his chronic alcoholism resulted in his repeated dismissals, strained her parents' marriage and caused her distressed mother's attempted suicide. Goff died from tuberculosis when Travers was eight years old. Prior to his death, her mother's stern, practical sister came to live with the family and later served as Travers's main inspiration for the Mary Poppins character.
In Los Angeles, Travers is shocked by the city's nature and the overly perky inhabitants, personified by her friendly limousine driver, Ralph. At the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, Travers meets the creative team who are developing Mary Poppins for the screen: screenwriter Don DaGradi and songwriters Richard and Robert Sherman. She finds their presumptions and casual manners highly improper, a view that she also holds of the jocular Disney.
Plot summary from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.
Crew
- Written by: Kelly Marcel, Sue Smith
- Cinematography: John Schwartzman
- Edited by: Mark Livolsi
- Music: Thomas Newman
- Production design: Michael Corenblith
- Produced by: Ian Collie, Alison Owen, Philip Steuer
Cast
- Emma Thompson as P.L. Travers
- Tom Hanks as Walt Disney
- Colin Farrell as Travers Robert Goff
- Paul Giamatti as Ralph
- Ruth Wilson as Margaret Goff
- Jason Schwartzman as Richard Sherman
- Bradley Whitford as Don DaGradi
- Annie Rose Buckley as Ginty
- B.J. Novak as Robert Sherman
- Kathy Baker as Tommie
Production
- Country: Australia, United Kingdom, United States of America
- Language: English
- Studios: Hopscotch Features, Walt Disney Pictures, Ruby Films, Essential Media and Entertainment
- Budget: $35,000,000
- Box office: $112,544,580
- Themes: biography, based on true story, death of father, alcoholism, author, writer, aftercreditsstinger, disneyland, 1960s, film production
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