A "Mary Poppins" live-action musical is being planned by Disney and it will be a sequel to the 1964 classic hit.
According to Entertainment Weekly the movie has already tapped director, Rob Marshall, to oversee the reboot. Marshall last directed the live-action musical "Into The Woods" that starred Anna Kendrick and Meryl Streep.
The news outlet further confirmed that the new "Mary Poppins" movie will take place 20 years after the original story and will deal with Mary's adventures with the Banks family. The stories will be based on the seven other novels P.L. Travers wrote about the nanny.
According to another Entertainment Weekly report, Anne Hathaway is favored to lead the movie based on bets done by BoyleSports in Ireland. "Hollywood's leading ladies will all be vying for this role but given her striking resemblance to Julie Andrews, Anne Hathaway is the early favorite," said Joe Crilly, the spokesperson for William Hill, via BBC. The other popular choices for the role of Mary Poppins include Kristin Bell, Anna Kendrick, Emily Blunt and Amy Adams.
According to Vanity Fair, this version will feature new songs that will be written and scored by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman ("Smash"), while David Magee ("Life of Pi") will write the screenplay. In fact, the people behind the movie are already collaborating with Disney and the Travers family, and they have "earned support from Poppins' co-composer Richard Sherman, who penned the original film's famous songs like 'Chim Chim Cher-ee' and 'Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious' with his late brother, Robert," the outlet reported.
It should be noted that Travers had been against the adaptation of her "Mary Poppins" novel when the Disney studios asked her permission. This was detailed in the movie "Saving Mr. Banks," which was shown in 2013.
The original "Mary Poppins," which ran in theaters in 1964 and was a huge hit, starred Julie Andrews and earned a total of 13 Oscar nominations. Andrews won the Best Actress award for this, according to CBS News.
Details as to when the new "Mary Poppins" will come to theaters have not yet been revealed, but the adaptation follows a string of other live-action movies that Disney has been making of late. Recently, the studio has unveiled the first trailer for "The Jungle Book" and the company is also in the midst of filming "Beauty and the Beast" with Emma Watson, Dan Stevens, Josh Gad, Ewan McGregor and Luke Evans.
