Last week we learned that Jason Schwartzman, along with Paul Giamatti and Ruth Wilson, had joined the cast of Saving Mr. Banks, the new movie about the behind-the-scenes drama that led to the making of Mary Poppins. The actor/musician was hired to play Richard Morton Sherman, who is best known for writing the music for Mary Poppins, but he didn't work alone. Richard had his brother, Robert, working on the film as well and now the production of Saving Mr. Banks has found an actor to play Robert as well.
According to THR, B.J. Novak is set to star as Robert Sherman in the drama. Set to be directed by John Lee Hancock, who is best known for helming The Blind Side, the film will star Tom Hanks as Walt Disney, who works to try and get Emma Thompson's P.L. Travers to sell him the rights to her Mary Poppins story. Travers notoriously hated the finished product, particularly the animated sequences that the movie included, and refused to sell Disney the right to any of her other books after that. Colin Farrell is aboard the project as well. The film is gearing up to start production in September.
In addition to writing songs like "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" and "Chim Chim Cheer-ee," Richard and Robert Sherman also wrote music for films like The Jungle Book and even composed the Disney theme "It's A Small Word (After All)." Robert only died this past March.
Novak, of course, is still committed to his time on The Office, on which he serves as an actor, a writer and an executive producer, but has taken a few movie roles over the years, such as in 2009 when he played Pfc. Smithson Utivich in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds. He most recently appeared in Larry Charles' The Dictator and is set to return to his NBC comedy this fall.
