Niki Caro, who broke through with the 2002 Maori family drama “Whale Rider”, will direct Disney’s live-action “Mulan”
Female directed tent-poles films are still rare, Caro will be the second woman at the studio to direct a movie budgeted at over $100 million. (Ava DuVernay is the first, with “A Wrinkle in Time” also a Disney film.) Disney also considered other women for its woman-warrior project, including “Wonder Woman”director Patty Jenkins and Michelle MacLaren ( “Game of Thrones)
Disney and producers Chris Bender, Jason Reed and Jake Weiner are taking pains to assure fans that “Mulan” will be culturally authentic. In addition to extensive conversations with Chinese cultural consultants and working closely with Disney’s own China-based team, the studio is bringing on Hong Kong-based super-producer Bill Kong as executive producer. Kong produced the most successful Chinese films to cross over including — “ Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”, for which he received an Oscar nomination.
Last fall, controversy briefly arose when reports surfaced that the original spec that Disney purchased, written by Lauren Hynek and Elizabeth Martin, featured non-Chinese characters, including a white male lead. Disney quickly responded that Mulan and all primary characters in its movie, which has been rewritten by Jurassic World’s Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, will remain Chinese. The studio is focusing its casting search in main land China for the main roles, including the legendary woman warrior herself.
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