Saving Mr. Banks started production today! The Disney film chronicles Walt Disney pursuing the filming rights to the Mary Poppins books from author P.L. Travers.

Disney tweeted the news this morning, and also officially stated that Tom Hanks will be portraying Disney in the film as we previously reported. Deadline stated earlier this year that Emma Thompson will play P.L. Travers and rumored Colin Farrell to star as Travers’ father.

The black-list script written by Kelly Marcel (Terra Nova) follows the true story of how Disney courted Travers for the filming rights to her children’s books for fourteen years. Mary Poppins was “highly personal” to Travers, as the story reflected personal struggles and her relationship with her father, who died when she was seven years old. After watching the 1964 film with Julie Andrews and Dick van Dyke, Travers hated all of the animation sequences of the film and never sold any filming rights to Disney again. John Lee Hancock (The Blind Side) will helm the film.

Are you excited Hanks will star as Disney? What do you think about the film’s plot? Are you interested in seeing this film in theaters?