UNITED KINGDOM: Tom Hanks keeps himself warm for the chilly world premiere of 'Saving Mr. Banks' with a handy cup of tea

Record ID: 221172

  • Title: UNITED KINGDOM: Tom Hanks keeps himself warm for the chilly world premiere of 'Saving Mr. Banks' with a handy cup of tea
  • Date: 20th October 2013
  • Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (OCTOBER 20, 2013) (REUTERS) **CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY** PULL FOCUS FROM CHERRY BLOSSOM TO REVEAL RED CARPET POSTER FOR 'SAVING MR. BANKS' CARPET WITH CHERRY BLOSSOM TREES ON IT TOM HANKS ARRIVES AND WAVES AT CROWD EMMA THOMPSON WALKS ACROSS CARPET COLIN FARRELL AND RUTH WILSON POSE FOR PHOTOGRAPHS CO-WRITER KELLY MARCEL TO REVEAL TOM HA
  • Embargoed: 4th November 2013 12:00
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  • Location: United Kingdom
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Reuters ID: LVA6QOCE93H16R3SYMOV76AD8WJO
  • Story Text: Twelve days after the 57th London Film Festival was opened by Tom Hanks with "Captain Phillips", the actor was back again to close the festival on Sunday (October 22) with the world premiere of
    "Saving Mr. Banks".
    After finishing the photocall, Hanks met with reporters clutching a cup of tea and exclaiming "It's bloody cold here in Leicester Square." When asked how he felt about bookending the festival, he joked "Yeah, what's that about? I think that crooks are involved and something evil went down and there should be an investigation immediately about how this happened."
    Like "Captain Phillips", Hanks is once again playing a real life person - this time the legendary studio boss Walt Disney in a story which shows the struggles he went through with author P.L. Travers (Emma Thompson) to get the now classic 'Mary Poppins' onto the big screen.
    The film is being distributed by Walt Disney Studio Motion Pictures, which Thompson found thrilling.
    "It's the first live action movie that Disney has done for really in 50 years. They've got behind something that's about the boss and a boss that's been so iconic and protective for many years so it's very brave of them actually and very exciting to see Disney as a corporation, as a film making group, making something like this which is a grown-up drama and that I thought was very thrilling," she said.
    In a last ditch attempt by Walt Disney to secure the rights, "Saving Mr. Banks" sees P.L. Travers make extraordinary demands when she is given final script approval, and every time Disney tries to negotiate she threatens to pull the production.
    Despite the fact that Disney are behind the film, Hanks says that unlike in the movie, there wasn't any attempt by the studio to try and alter the production and his performance therein.

    "There was a substantial amount of the man that we tried to get into - these little fragments. I think it's not just the happy Uncle Walt that made people's dreams come true. There was a pragmatic rather bare-knuckled businessman in there, who if charm didn't work and hard sell and negotiation didn't work either, well, then there was just some other place he'd have to go to make things happy," he explained.
    However, the movie doesn't just focus on the relationship between Disney and Travers. A second story is told in flashbacks where a young girl called 'Ginty' gets enchanted by her charismatic alcoholic father (Colin Farrell) while his wife (Ruth Wilson) suffers silently in the background as his drinking spirals out of control.
    Over the past few years, Farrell has been open about his former problems with alcohol, but he insisted at the premiere he didn't try to draw on his memories of those times when bringing the character to life.

    "I'm sure my experiences are in there somewhere but it was another life that I was telling and looking at so you try to respect that and not bring too much of your own stuff into it or it could get messy," he said.
    This isn't the first movie that Hanks has made with a title that 'saves someone'. He also starred in 1998 Oscar-winning "Saving Private Ryan".
    When asked how much more 'saving' he could do, he replied "I think that's about it. I think I'm going to try and save some stamps. I'm going... I'll save... what else can I save? I'll save little animals. And I'll save my pennies and save my pounds."

    "Saving Mr. Banks" goes on release in the UK and Ireland on November 29th, and then opens around the rest of the world from late December.
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