A Mary Poppins sequel is in the works at Walt Disney Pictures, Variety reports today, with Rob Marshall set to helm. According to the trade, the aim is to tell a story set 20 years after the original 1964 Disney musical.
Originally the central character in a series of children’s books by P.L. Travers, Mary Poppins was famously adapted for the screen in 1964 with Julie Andrews in the leading role. Dick Van Dyke co-starred in the Robert Stevenson film, which told the story of a magical nanny who comes to care for a British family, the Banks. The original film was set in the year 1910, so the Mary Poppins sequel will presumably take place in the 1930s. The aim, it is said, is for the new film to borrow story elements from Travers’ eight Mary Poppins books, including the first literary sequel, Mary Poppins Comes Back. Time will tell if Disney winds up using that as the new film’s official title.
Marshall, who was nominated for an Academy Award for 2002’s Chicago, has been working with Disney quite a bit. He helmed the franchise sequel Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides and most recently directed the Broadway musical adaptation Into the Woods.
The real world story behind Disney’s Mary Poppins was itself the focus of John Lee Hancock’s 2013 feature, Saving Mr. Banks. Scripted by Kelly Marcel and Sue Smith, Saving Mr. Banks stars Emma Thompson as Travers and Tom Hanks as Walt Disney.
The Mary Poppins sequel will be produced by John DeLuca and Marc Platt, who also worked with Marshall on Into the Woods.
