The holdup: notoriously prickly Travers was staunchly against selling the screen rights, particularly to a studio she feared would overly sentimentalize her work. In 1962, the author Pamela Travers – known to the public by the initials PL Travers – arrived in Los Angeles on a flight from London, her first-class ticket having been paid for by Walt Disney. By the time Julie Andrews' titular heaven-sent nanny quite literally descended from the clouds into the Banks family's Cherry Tree Lane home — and into theaters across America — in August 1964, about 20 years had passed since Disney made that promise to his young daughter. But with characteristic aplomb, Travers invited herself. The film is correct that Disney gave Travers script approval; it was apparently the only time he had ever granted this right to anyone outside his company, except for government censors during the second world war.
“My suspicion is that the songs moved her.”. Take your favorite fandoms with you and never miss a beat. After a fortnight, Travers departed, refusing to allow the film to go ahead. In the ’60s, her royalties were less and less, so she became more motivated by the money. How Did P.L. Amy Henderson, the National Portrait Gallery's historian emerita, is a cultural historian specializing in the lively arts—particularly media-generated celebrity culture. This is a great premise for a movie, and the scenes in which the unstoppable force of Walt Disney meets the immovable object of PL Travers are terrific – as are those in which she is driven around by a needlessly chirpy chauffeur (Paul Giamatti), and faces down screenwriter Don DaGradi (Bradley Whitford) and songwriting brothers Robert and Richard Sherman (BJ Novak and Jason Schwartzman). The film's legacy remains undeniable.
This isn't easy, for Travers is a misanthrope, highly strung and fiercely protective of her books. I suddenly realized that there is a book through which Aunt Sass, stern and tender, secret and proud, anonymous and loving, stalks with her silent feet. Can Scientists Stop the Plague of the Spotted Lanternfly?
© 2020 Biography and the Biography logo are registered trademarks of A&E Television Networks, LLC. “She was absolutely atypical of her times,” says the film’s producer, Alison Owen. Even though Mary Poppins still remains a classic hit, Travers apparently still didn’t like it. The aunt becomes a physical model for Mary Poppins, replete with a giant carpetbag filled with amazing stuff and an umbrella with a parrot-head handle.
Admittedly, most writers are a bit like that, but Travers is at the extreme end of the spectrum.
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In a recent interview in More, Thompson talked about how “it was wonderful to play this relationship between two people who’ve been very damaged as children and yet responded to that damage differently.
“When he first read the script, he cried,” says Marcel. The problem some viewers will have when it comes to historical accuracy is not what is included, but what isn't.
Top-notch performances give Saving Mr Banks some supercalifragilisticexpialidocius moments. Photographs From the Last Quiet Places on Earth.
You will find her occasionally in the pages of Mary Poppins.”. “She was furious at everybody and everybody was furious at her,” Hanks says. After consulting a Californian astrologer, she refused to adopt his twin brother Anthony.