Emily Blunt is Having a Jolly Good Time in New Photo From MARY POPPINS RETURNS
We've got a new photo for you to check out for the highly anticipated Disney film Mary Poppins Returns. It features Emily Blunt as Mary Poppins joyfully dancing in the streets of London. While talking about the film with EW, director Gary Marshall drives home the fact that this is not a remake of the original film:
"There’s never been a moment when I’ve felt like I want to in any way re-do the original. The thing that’s so mortifying is when people say it’s a remake. Never. No one could touch that. But can we continue the tradition of that storytelling with our own cast, with our own world, with our own sensibility? There’s so much more story to tell, and it’s because the character’s so great."
I like the fact that they are continuing the story. It's set in the same place on Cherry Tree Lane but is 25 years later. In an effort to embrace the 1964 film but stay true to the further adventures of P.L. Travers’ eight-book series, Marshall explains:
"We felt it was important to not only reflect the depression era [of the books], but that there had to be a very important reason for Mary to come back. It had to be something true and real, and so in our film, Michael’s a young father who has three kids and has not only lost his wife, but because of the time period, has also lost his whole sense of wonder and joy and optimism."
Sounds like the same kind of story formula that was used to tell the story of Christopher Robin. Regardless, I'm still excited about the film because it's Mary Poppins!
The film is set in 1930s depression-era London (the time period of the original novels) and is drawn from the wealth of material in PL Travers’ additional seven books. In the story, Michael (Whishaw) and Jane (Mortimer) are now grown up, with Michael, his three children and their housekeeper, Ellen (Walters), living on Cherry Tree Lane. After Michael suffers a personal loss, the enigmatic nanny Mary Poppins (Blunt) re-enters the lives of the Banks family, and, along with the optimistic street lamplighter Jack (Miranda), uses her unique magical skills to help the family rediscover the joy and wonder missing in their lives. Mary Poppins also introduces the children to a new assortment of colorful and whimsical characters, including her eccentric cousin, Topsy (Streep).
Mary Poppins Returns is slated for release December 25, 2018.