According to Entertainment Weekly, director Rob Marshall ("Chicago," "Into the Woods") and producers John DeLuca and Marc Platt are behind the project, which will reset Poppins in Depression-era London, some 20 years after the setting of the 1964 Disney film starring Julie Andrews, and will pull from existing Poppins tales in the rest of author P.L. Travers' 1934-88 children's book series.
EW reports that the film is not being billed as a sequel, rather it will explore many of Poppins' adventures that Travers wrote about in her eight-book series.
Shaiman and Wittman, who also wrote music for the NBC musical drama "Smash," will compose original songs with David Magee ("Finding Neverland," "Life of Pi") attached to pen the screenplay.
Disney and Marshall are collaborating with the Travers estate, and the team has earned support from Richard Sherman, who penned the Disney film's score with his late brother, Robert.
"Mary Poppins," featuring a score by the Sherman brothers, was adapted into a Broadway musical with a book by Julian Fellowes, opening Nov. 16, 2006, at the New Amsterdam Theatre.