Watch: Tom Hanks Talks About Being Walt Disney for Saving Mr. Banks

Mary Poppins is inarguably one of Walt Disney's crowning achievements - up there with Steamboat Willie, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Disneyland. Saving Mr. Banks tells the story of that story, and how Walt Disney acquired the rights to author P.L. Travers's original book. Emma Thompson plays Travers, and Tom Hanks is the first person to play Walt Disney; Hanks talked about the pressure and importance of taking on such a high profile role in a new featurette for the film, below.

Watch: First Trailer for Saving Mr. Banks

Not long after the first look at Saving Mr Banks - Disney's retelling of the true story of Walt Disney's quest to adapt Mary Poppins from book to film - was revealed yesterday, the trailer has appeared online.

First Look: Saving Mr. Banks; Tom Hanks is Walt Disney

The first image for Disney's Saving Mr. Banks, starring Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson, has been revealed. Read below to find out more about the film and check out the exciting first look!

Rumour Overload: Toy Story 4 Confirmed For 2015? [UPDATED: No, it's not.]

Treat this one as a rumour until strongly indicated otherwise: some Colombian news outlets are reporting that Disney and Pixar have officially announced the long rumoured Toy Story 4 for 2015!

A Trifecta of Non-Animation Disney News: The Muppets 2, Hanks as Disney and #Bird2015

Yes, this is A113Animation. But, hell, we're all nerds aren't we? And this is all Disney-linked at least...

Saving Mr. Banks: Tom Hanks on Walt Disney

Production is now underway on one of the most anticipated films of 2013, Saving Mr. Banks. The film focuses on the almost decade-and-a-half long struggle by Walt Disney to acquire the film rights to P.L. Travers' Mary Poppins book series.

Academy Award winner Tom Hanks, who already has a link to Disney, providing the voice of Woody in the Toy Story franchise, has the unenviable task of portraying the immortal Walt Disney on screen for the first time ever. Fellow Academy Award winner Emma Thompson will play Travers, with supporting roles being played by Colin Farrell, Ruth Wilson, with Jason Schwartzman and B.J. Novak as the musical Sherman brothers. John Lee Hancock (The Blind Side) is directing from a script by Kelly Marcel.

Hanks spoke briefly to The Hollywood Reporter about Walt Disney and his preparation for the role. Asked whether it would be a "warts and all" portrayal, the Forrest Gump star said:

“He wasn’t a warty guy. There was the labor issues that were in the forties and stuff like that. But by and large, no.” With THR adding 'A three-pack-a-day smoker, Disney died of lung cancer in 1966 and Hanks said he would chain smoke his way through the movie, but that’s about as close as the production will get to any controversy or conjecture surrounding the iconic animator.'

This is fast becoming one of my most anticipated films of 2013. Saving Mr. Banks arrives in cinemas on 20th December, 2013.

New Lee Unkrich Film Underway at Pixar

Following on from the D23 announcements of two new Pixar movies - The Untitled Pixar Movie About Dinosaurs and The Untitled Pixar Movie That Takes You Inside The Mind - we now get a sniff of yet another Pixar movie in the works in Emeryville. As it turns out that Lee Unkrich, the director of the Best Picture nominated Toy Story 3, has just begun directing a new film.

Lee, an avid Twitter user, Tweeted on Thursday night "Tomorrow is a big day that may determine the next four years of my life. Wish me luck.", now, given that the creative cycle of an animated film at Pixar usually takes about four years, this would certainly point towards Lee pitching a new film to the Brain Trust.

The Pixar Times then tells us that he later Tweeted, before removing the Tweet, "Weekend: Relax. Monday: Get started on a new movie.”, so it appears as if the helmer of the highest-grossing animated film of all time's next project has been greenlit and I certainly can't wait to here more about it.

However, given that we have just passed D23 and the huge slab of news unveiled there, it is unlikely we will be finding out any substantial details about the film any time soon; other than the fact that, given an average of a four year production timeframe, the film will probably be released late 2015, or maybe pushed back to 2016 to allow more time. In my opinion, with Lee already being the director of the latest installment of the Toy Story franchise, it is highly likely that this film could be the ambiguously rumoured Toy Story 4, hinted at by Tom Hanks and John Lasseter. Hanks said he believed Pixar were working on it, he could have meant that Lee Unkrich was working on an idea for it, which has now been approved.

Now, I have often expressed my uneasiness about a fourth chapter in the Toy Story franchise, however many expressed similar concerns about Toy Story 3, and Lee did a stellar job with that, and I have no doubt he'd do the same with a fourth!

Lasseter Hints at Toy Story 4

The growing mountain of speculation grows, insisting that we will be seeing a Toy Story 4. Today, the hints come from the pioneer of Toy Story, John Lasseter.

Lasseter was on BBC Breakfast this morning (watch the snippet here), promoting the release of Cars 2 in the UK (it opens this Friday), the presenters then broached the subject of Toy Story 4. Namely, they asked about Tom Hanks' comments on the show last month.

Rather than flatly denying the rumours (fuelled this past week by IMDB), Lasseter merely said "yeah, I found that really interesting too", followed by a sly smile, some nodding and "we haven't announced anything", before switching the subject back to Cars 2.

If previous hints were easily dismissible as just rumours, this seems a lot more substantial.

I'm beginning to warm to the idea of a Toy Story 4, but only if I have to, I'd rather they leave it as it is, as the best trilogy of all time! I've no doubt Pixar would make a great film, but why bother? The third film tied everything off with a poignant, emotional and pitch perfect bow. Why risk ruining it?

I guess only time will tell.

More on Toy Story 4



Uh oh!

Following on from Tom Hanks' worrying interviews last month, where he said that Pixar is currently making Toy Story 4, we now get more to fuel the fire and the speculation. IMDB is listing Toy Story 4 for a 2015 release date.

This doesn't mean that it is definitely going to happen, however, in addition to Hanks' comments, it's certainly a big hint. A big worrying hint.

Pixar has never let us down before, and people reacted in much the same way to the announcement of Toy Story 3, however, I believe we have cause to be worried. Pixar ended the trilogy perfectly with Toy Story 3, and I don't think they could reach the emotional poignancy and perfection of 3, so why try? They're getting dangerously close to Shrek territory.

I guess only time will tell, I know I'd certainly pay to see Toy Story 4, but I'm sceptical.

Toy Story 4?

Is Toy Story 4 already in the works? According to Tom Hanks, the voice of Woody in the Toy Story franchise, Pixar are working on it now. Hanks appeared on BBC Breakfast this morning to promote his newest film, Larry Crowne. When asked whether we would see a Toy Story 4, Hanks responded "I think there will be. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. They’re working on it now."

This is obviously huge news, if it's true, however it's debatable as to whether it is. Last year, when Toy Story 3 came out, we were told that there was no plans for Toy Story 4, but that Tim Allen, the voice of Buzz Lightyear, had signed on in case Pixar decided to produce a fourth film. Don't take Hanks' word for it, as there are always ideas floating about at Pixar, it doesn't mean anything's set in stone.

However, this is still monumental. A fourth film could ruin the perfect ending of the third, but Pixar never cut corners with any Toy Story film before.

Check out the interview with Hanks here and skip to the 6 minute mark for the Toy Story news.

Thoughts?