Normally, “Colin Farrell†and “Disney†wouldn’t go together in the same sentence. We’re far more used to seeing the handsomely scruffy Irishman in foul-mouthed comedies like In Bruges or slick action thrillers like this summer’s Total Recall. But this bit of casting news has us very excited for a family-friendly project that might actually lead to a fresh take on a familiar classic.
Farrell is the latest name added to Saving Mr. Banks, a behind-the-scenes drama starring Tom Hanks as Walt Disney and Emma Thompson as Australian author P.L. Travers, who sold Disney the rights to make a film out of her work Mary Poppins. According to Deadline, Farrell will play Travers’ father, the inspiration for the workaholic characer George Banks in the famous musical. Given Farrell’s age, in relation to Thompson, we’re guessing that means he’ll be featured in flashbacks? Anything’s possible, I suppose.
John Lee Hancock is on board to direct Banks from a screenplay by Kelly Marcel. The film reportedly will weave through the precarious relationship forged between Disney and Travers, who was reluctant to surrender her material to the persuasive studio head and, later, so despised the animated sequences in the Mary Poppins film that she refused to sell any of her other material to other studios.
Is Farrell a strange choice to play a demanding dad in Banks? Or at this point, do you believe that the versatile actor has what it takes to share a screen with the likes of Thompson and Hanks (even if he’s never actually in a scene with them)? Let us know you thoughts.
cinemablend