Where do we stand on revamps? I can’t help but feel somewhat fatigued by the idea that Hollywood is so devoid of new ideas that it has to pilfer its past. Sometimes, though, you hear of a “reimagining” that makes you hopeful: the cast feels so right, you think: it would take a miracle to balls this up. I’m thinking of next year’s Mary Poppins sequel and its star, English actor Emily Blunt (who is joined in the reboot by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Meryl Streep).
London-born Blunt, 34, started on the stage, but I first paid attention to her in the 2006 film adaptation of The Devil Wears Prada (she was Bafta-nominated). Her character (also called Emily) is a delightful tyrant: a dead-eyed bitch with lashings of eyeliner and a drolly wicked tongue.
My favourite thing about Blunt is her “steel magnolia” voice: on first impression, slightly tremulous, but carrying an undercurrent of something hard. Her CV is a mix, with some baffling choices (romantic sci-fi The Adjustment Bureau), some bad ones (horror The Wolfman) and some real corkers (crime thriller Sicario). But my favourite Blunt performance is in Edge Of Tomorrow, in which she plays a war hero who repeatedly kicks Tom Cruise’s ass – and you never doubt she could do the same in real life.
It’s a wonderful duality, because in real life Blunt (along with her husband, US actor John Krasinski) projects a supremely chilled-out vibe: appealingly down-to-earth, self-deprecatingly funny and, above all, staunchly practical, in a very British way.
And since that is basically Mary Poppins in a nutshell, I have faith. Don’t let me down, Emily.
