Morose Poppins
“DISNEY TO MAKE MARY POPPINS SEQUEL”
I happen to have an available script…
Bert is killed in World War I. You’d think a chimney sweep would have more immunity to chlorine gas. The widowed Mary Poppins tries losing herself in physical abandon and that does help D.H. Lawrence with his writer’s block.
Exercising her long-sought right to vote, Mrs. Banks proudly marches to the polling place and contracts the Spanish Flu. Mr. Banks will always blame Lloyd-George for her death.
Flying over London, Mary Poppins is shot down in the Battle of Britain. The victorious pilot has an umbrella painted on his Messerschmitt.
Young Michael Banks goes to Cambridge and meets Guy Burgess. Michael is taken under Guy’s left wing…and other appendages. The least of Michael’s transformations is becoming a Soviet spy. He eventually defects and the shabby old pensioner in Moscow will drink himself to death.
Having gone through four husbands, three fortunes, and innumerable scandals, Jane Banks is now in a nursing home near Brighton. Among her escapades, she had affairs with both the Duke and Duchess of Windsor; but who didn’t? The Golden Flapper is said to be a literary inspiration for Evelyn Waugh and a medical one for Alexander Fleming.
Yes, the history may be a little sordid for Disney but perfect for HBO. And there are other children’s classics worth a sequel. How about John Le Carre’s “Wind in the Willows”? Who is the Mole in MI6?