EXCLUSIVE: Here’s a fun one. We can reveal that a Mary Poppins TV series is in the works.
Rather than retelling the Disney film Mary Poppins starring Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke from the 1960s, we understand the live action TV adaptation plans to go back to P. L. Travers’ original eight Mary Poppins books and open up the larger, stranger world she created.
The Mary Poppins of the novels is often noted for being more mysterious, mercurial and dangerous than her film incarnation, and the adventures in the books are magical, surreal and sometimes frightening.
The series is being developed and produced by Tom Winchester for Pure Fiction Television, the indie backed by Slow Horses and Heartstopper outfit See-Saw Films and UK talent agency Hamilton Hodell.
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Winchester is developing the series on behalf of the trustees of the P.L Travers estate from whom he has optioned the rights. We hear that very early-stage conversations are taking place with Disney, and that Winchester is approaching top level showrunners. As we understand it, the project doesn’t need Disney’s buy-in from a rights perspective, but there’s hope the studio might want to join the project given their history with the IP. Nothing has been agreed to that effect so far. Things are still at pitch stage.
Mary Poppins is a rich IP – Travers’ successful books were most famously adapted by Disney into the Oscar winning musical with Andrews and Van Dyke. But Travers openly critcised Disney’s vision for the 1964 film and their fallout was the basis for the film Saving Mr. Banks starring Emma Thompson and Tom Hanks. Disney’s 2018 sequel, Mary Poppins Returns, starred Emily Blunt and Lin-Manuel Miranda and was directed by Rob Marshall who produced the musical fantasy comedy film alongside John DeLuca and Marc Platt.
Winchester isn’t a stranger to adapting legacy IP. He was a producer on the first season of FX’s Emmy-winning series Shōgun, based on the novel by James Clavell. He is also developing Barry Eisler’s 18 popular John Rain assassin books into a series for Apple TV.
Pure Fiction and Disney declined to comment.
Editor’s note: The Dish is a regular column for Deadline journos to plant their flag in deals, hires and firings and industry developments before they’re fully baked. The column is inspired by Mike Fleming Jr’s longtime trade column of the same name.
