Emily Blunt in talks to play Mary Poppins in Disney sequel
The Sicario actress may take the titular role in follow-up to the 1964 classic
She's played a catty fashionista, the stone-cold queen of England, and a rifle-wielding FBI agent; but things may be about to turn sweeter (a whole spoonful so?) for Emily Blunt, who is in talks to play Mary Poppins in Disney's forthcoming sequel.
Blunt, whose first lead role was Queen Victoria in 2009's The Young Victoria and whose most recent blockbuster was action-thriller Sicario, is currently in talks with Disney. She has always been their first choice for the role, according to Variety. But, as Blunt is expecting her second child, the casting depends on whether the production powerhouse can schedule accordingly.
The sequel will be set in Depression-era London, 20 years after the first film which took place in pre-World War One London. Julie Andrews played Poppins, the nanny that magically turns up and transforms the lives of a widowed family. The unhappy banker (David Tomlinson) who employs her and his squeaky-clean children fall under her spell: she has a penchant for cleaning, a love of 14-syllable words, and is, all things considered “practically perfect in every way.”
The 1964 film, which also starred Dick Van Dyke as the token "cockney" chimney-sweep, took over $100 million at box offices worldwide and won five Oscars. One of these was the Best Actress award for Julie Andrews, who brought her bright-eyed charm and musical prowess to the enchanting nanny. The film had a catalogue of sunny, well-crafted songs – such as A Spoonful of Sugar – and it wove animation and live action in an unprecedented way; at the time it was pioneering, and now it is a children's film treasure.
If she does take the role – which everybody hopes she will – Blunt will be reunited with Into the Woods director Rob Marshall, who was also behind musical films Chicago and Nine. The songs in the new version will be written by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, who won a Tony award for Hairspray.
Marshall told Vulture in October that the film will be an "extension" of the original, using different storylines from the eight Mary Poppins books written by PL Travers.
