Disney is looking to take us back across the rooftops of London and back into the world inside sidewalk chalk drawings. The Hollywood Reporter is stating that the studio has put into development a sequel to their 1964 classic Mary Poppins which starred Julie Andrews and Dick van Dyke. Rob Marshall is set to direct with Life Of Pi scripter David Magee handling the screenplay details. Like the original, the new film will be a musical with Hairspray songwriting team Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman providing all new original songs and score.
According to the Reporter –
The new story will be set around 20 years after the tale of the classic 1964 movie…. It will also take its cues from the book series that P.L. Travers wrote. (The original, published in 1934 is based largely on the first book. The last book in the series was released in 1988.)
It is interesting to note that this new film will be set twenty years after the first. There may be just enough time there for the Banks children to have grown up and have their own children who could use a magical nanny.
It is also interesting to note that the first film was set in the early 1920s, which means that a sequel set two decades later would pretty much be set smack dab in the midst of World War Two. Let’s just enjoy the thought for a moment of Mary Poppins Versus The Nazis, even though we know that won’t be the story. But it does raise the question as to how she could morally justify to herself remaining on the sidelines during her country’s times of crisis like this.
