Saving Mr. Banks is a 2013 American-Australian-British biographical comedy-drama film directed by John Lee Hancock from a screenplay written by Kelly Marcel and Sue Smith. Centered on the development of the 1964 Walt Disney Studios film Mary Poppins, the film stars Emma Thompson as author P. L. Travers and Tom Hanks as filmmaker Walt Disney, with supporting performances from Colin Farrell, Paul Giamatti, Jason Schwartzman, Bradley Whitford, Ruth Wilson, B. J. Novak, Rachel Griffiths, and Kathy Baker. Named after the father in Travers' story, the film depicts the author's fortnight-long briefing in 1961 Los Angeles as she is persuaded by Disney, in his attempts to obtain the screen rights to her novels. Produced by Walt Disney Pictures, Ruby Films and Essential Media and Entertainment in association with BBC Films and Hopscotch Features, Saving Mr. Banks was shot entirely in the Southern California area, primarily at the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, where a majority of the film's narrative takes place. The film was released theatrically in the UK on November 29, 2013, and in the United States on December 13, 2013, where it was met with positive reviews, with praise directed towards the acting, screenplay, and production merits—Thompson received BAFTA Award, Golden Globe Award, SAG Award, and Critic's Choice Award nominations for Best Actress, while Thomas Newman received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Score. The film was also a box office success, grossing $112 million worldwide against a $35 million budget.
Movie Details:
Directed by: John Lee Hancock
Produced by: Alison Owen, Ian Collie, Philip Steuer
Written by: Kelly Marcel, Sue Smith
Starring: Emma Thompson, Tom Hanks, Paul Giamatti, Jason Schwartzman, Bradley Whitford, Colin Farrell
Music by: Thomas Newman
Cinematography: John Schwartzman
Edited by: Mark Livolsi
Production company: Walt Disney Pictures, BBC Films, Essential Media Entertainment, Ruby Films, Hopscotch Features
Distributed by: Walt Disney Studios, Motion Pictures
Release date(s): October 20, 2013 (BFI London Film Festival), November 8, 2013 (AFI Film Festival), November 29, 2013 (UK & Ireland),
December 13, 2013 (US)
Running time: 125 minutes
Country: Australia, United Kingdom, United States
Language: English
Budget: $35 million
Box office: $112,544,580
Source: Wikipedia n IMDB
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Plot:
In London in 1961, financially struggling author Pamela "P. L." Travers (Emma Thompson) reluctantly agrees to travel to Los Angeles to meet with Walt Disney (Tom Hanks) at the urging of her agent Diarmuid Russell (Ronan Vibert). Disney has been courting Travers for 20 years, seeking to acquire the film rights to her Mary Poppins stories, on account of his daughters' request to make a film based on the character. Travers, however, has been extremely hesitant to allow Disney to adapt her creation to the screen because he is known primarily as a producer of animated films, which Travers openly disdains. Her youth in Allora, Queensland in 1906 is depicted through flashbacks, and is shown to be the inspiration for much of Mary Poppins. Travers was very close to her handsome and charismatic father Travers Robert Goff (Colin Farrell), who fought a losing battle against alcoholism, which hastens his death from consumption. Upon her arrival in Los Angeles, Travers is disgusted by what she feels is the city’s unreality, as well as by the naïve optimism and intrusive friendliness of its inhabitants, personified by her assigned limo driver, Ralph (Paul Giamatti). At the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, Travers begins collaborating with the creative team assigned to develop Mary Poppins for the screen, screenwriter Don DaGradi (Bradley Whitford), and music composers Richard and Robert Sherman (Jason Schwartzman and B.J. Novak respectively). She finds their presumptions and casual manners as highly improper, a view she also reciprocates on the jocular Disney upon meeting him in person. Travers’ working relationship with the creative team is difficult from the outset, with her insistence that Mary Poppins is the enemy of sentiment and whimsy. Disney and his associates are puzzled by Travers’ disdain for fantasy, given the fantastical nature of the Mary Poppins story, as well as Travers’ own richly imaginative childhood existence. Travers has particular trouble with the team’s depiction of George Banks. Travers describes Banks’ characterization as completely off-base and leaves a session distraught. The team begins to grasp how deeply personal the Mary Poppins stories are to Travers, and how many of the work’s characters are directly inspired by Travers’ own past. Travers' collaboration with the team continues, although she is increasingly disengaged as painful memories from her past numb her in the present. Seeking to find out what’s troubling her, Disney invites Travers to Disneyland, which—along with her progressive friendship with Ralph, the creative team’s revisions to George Banks, and the insertion of a new song to close the film—help to soften Travers. Her imagination begins to reawaken, and she engages enthusiastically with the creative team. This progress is upended, however, when Travers discovers that an animation sequence is being planned for the film, a decision that she has been adamantly against accepting. She confronts and denounces a protesting Disney, angrily declaring that she will not sign over the film rights and returns to London. Disney discovers that Travers is writing under a pen name; her real name being Helen Goff. Equipped with new insight, he departs for London, determined to salvage the film. Appearing unexpectedly at Travers’ residence, Disney opens up—describing his own less-than-ideal childhood, while stressing the healing value of his art—and urges her to shed her deeply rooted disappointment with the world. Travers relents and grants him the film rights. Three years later, in 1964, Mary Poppins is nearing its world premiere at Grauman's Chinese Theatre. Travers has not been invited because Disney fears that she will give the film negative publicity. Goaded by her agent, Travers returns to Los Angeles, showing up uninvited in Disney’s office, and finagles an invitation to the premiere. She watches Mary Poppins initially with scorn, reacting with particular dismay to the animated sequence. She slowly warms to the film, however, and is ultimately surprised to find herself overcome by emotion, touched by the depiction of George Banks’ redemption, which clearly possesses a powerful personal significance for her.
