The Walt
Disney Company acquires drama spec script “Saving Mr. Banks” from writer Kelly
Marcel. From Deadline:
The Walt Disney Company is near a deal to
acquire Saving Mr. Banks, the Kelly Marcel-scripted saga of how Walt Disney
persuaded Australian author P.L. Travers to sell him the rights to make a film
out of Mary Poppins. That courtship took 14 years. Disney seems a natural place
for the script, considering the studio owns many rights from making the 1964
classic film that starred Julie Andrews, Dick Van Dyke and David Tomlinson, the
latter of whom played Mr. Banks in the film. Also, what studio is better
equipped to make its founder, Walt Disney, a major character in a feature film?
If you had
come to me for advice, telling me you had this idea for a spec script about
Walt Disney’s attempt to convince P.L. Travers to sell him the rights to “Mary
Poppins,” I would have been emphatically clear with my response: “Don’t do it!”
There are multiple rights issues, it’s a period piece, it takes place over 14
years, and so on with my list of reasons based on conventional wisdom.
Fortunately
Kelly Marcel, a London-based writer who is co-creator of the TV series “Terra
Nova,” came nowhere near me, followed her passion and creative instincts, and —
here’s the key — wrote a great script, one that landed on the 2011 Black List.
