So Disney is playing coy with a few elements of Oz the Great and Powerful. For instance, we know from the previews and art that one of the wicked witches turns green… we just don’t know which one. And thus, the following TV spot was… Read More »Oz the Great and Powerful – Which Witch is Which?
(RtoL) Julie Andrews, Walt Disney and P.L. Travers
We’re still waiting for our Walt Disney bio-pic, but production has finally begun on a movie that focuses on one of the most interesting chapters in Walt’s life, his 20-year courting of P.L. Travers in order to secure the movie rights to her popular novels and the character Mary Poppins, and the testy partnership the upbeat filmmaker develops with the uptight author during the project’s pre-production in 1961. Walt knew he had a good thing there and the success of Mary Poppins allowed the Walt Disney Company to make many more innovations, including financing most of the 1967 expansion at Disneyland and transportation at WDW. This will be the first time Walt Disney has been portrayed in a dramatic movie production.
Two-time Academy Award-winner Tom Hanks (“Philadelphia,” “Forrest Gump”) will portray the legendary Disney alongside fellow double Oscar-winner Emma Thompson (“Howard’s End,” “Sense and Sensibility”) in the role of the prickly novelist. Before actually signing away the book’s rights, Travers’ demands for contractual script and character control circumvent not only Disney’s vision for the film adaptation, but also those of the creative team of screenwriter Don DaGradi and sibling composers Richard and Robert Sherman, whose original score and song (Chim-Chim-Cher-ee) would go on to win Oscars at the 1965 ceremonies (the film won five awards of its thirteen nominations).
“Saving Mr. Banks” will film entirely in the Los Angeles area, with key locations to include Disneyland in Anaheim and the Disney Studios in Burbank. Filming will conclude around Thanksgiving, 2012, with no specific 2013 release date yet set.
When Travers travels from London to Hollywood in 1961 to finally discuss Disney’s desire to bring her beloved character to the motion picture screen (a quest he began in the 1940s as a promise to his two daughters), Disney meets a prim, uncompromising sexagenarian not only suspect of the impresario’s concept for the film, but a woman struggling with her own past. During her stay in California, Travers’ reflects back on her childhood in 1906 Australia, a trying time for her family which not only molded her aspirations to write, but one that also inspired the characters in her 1934 book.
Read More »Production Begins on “Saving Mr. Banks” starring Tom Hanks as Walt Disney
The Walt Disney Studios in Burbank has long been suspected being a source of contaminated ground water with Chromium 6 and now the controversy is being stirred again. Chromium 6 is a known cancer causing heavy-metal used by air-conditioning systems to prevent corrosion. The Studios… Read More »Disney Studios Involved in Chromium 6 Contamination
The first photo of James Franco as the title character of “Oz: The Great and Powerful” has emerged on an Italian poster for the movie. Production began last year for the movie that is currently scheduled to hit theaters on March 8th, 2013. Along with… Read More »Italian Poster For Oz: The Great and Powerful
Disney has partnered with MSN to release the first trailer for its next animated feature – “Wreck-It Ralph”. I definitely recommend clicking the little button in the right corner and watching it in HD on full screen. There are a ton of great details hidden throughout (for instance, see if you can spot Paperman). The trailer also includes a first good luck at what the movie will be about.
Wreck-It Ralph lives in the video game world. After hours all the video game characters congregate at Grand Central Station and do things like have support groups for bad guys and meet other characters (including some from classic games like Bowser and Zangief and Q-Bert). Wreck-It Ralph decides that his role as a bad guy is no fun and he wants to be a good guy, so he decides to go visit some other games to see if he can handle the new role. That’s where the adventure begins.
Rich Moore directs and brings some of the humor and fun from his runs helming Futurama and The Simpsons. Starring voices include John C. Reilly, Sarah Silverman, Jack McBrayer and Jane Lynch. Wreck-It Ralph will start demolishing theaters everywhere November 2nd, 2012.
The full synopsis is below the jump:
Read More »First Trailer for Wreck-It Ralph from Walt Disney Animation Studios
Disney invites you to watch the first trailer of what is bound to be a modern fairytale “The Odd Life of Timothy Green” There’s a lot of star power in that one and it’s coming to theaters August 15. Here’s the plot synopsis: Academy Award®–nominated… Read More »New Disney Trailer: The Odd Life of Timothy Green
Like everyone in Hollywood, Nikki Finke has her own agenda. But even so, her insight into why Rich Ross was pushed out of the Walt Disney Studios President role is worth reading. Finke lays a lot of the blame at the feet of Disney CEO… Read More »Nikki Finke on Rich Ross’ Ouster
Producer Jerry Bruckheimer did every Disney fan a favor when he recently tweeted the first image from the set of The Lone Ranger. It gives us our first glance at Johnny Depp as Tonto and Armie Hammer as the Lone Ranger. Production began at the… Read More »Tonto and The Lone Ranger – First Picture of Legendary Duo