Like the coming of a comet portending huge events, the arrival of the first official stills from a movie usually means the trailer is not far behind. So it is with Saving Mr Banks, which whacked a picture online yesterday and has now followed through with the trailer over at Moviefone.
Saving Mr Banks finds Tom Hanks as Walt Disney, who, spurred on by an idea from his kids, decided to try to make beloved children’s story Mary Poppins into a film.
Unfortunately for Uncle Walt, author P.L. Travers (brought to grumpy life here by Emma Thompson) was none too thrilled at the idea, and Disney launched a charm offensive in an attempt to win her over, which culminated in flying her to LA and giving her a personal guided tour of Disneyland.
Still, Travers didn’t feel that Disney had quite gotten to the core of what Poppins is all about, and it takes some time for him to get to the core of the matter: the story is really about Travers’ own family, and, in particular, her father.
This promises to be light and breezy with some emotional overtones, anchored by Hanks and Thompson doing what they do best and acting the hell out of their roles. John Lee Hancock marshalled the action and Saving Mr Banks will be out on January 17 next year.