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Niki Caro has been announced as the director for Disney’s upcoming live-action take on “Mulan.”
This makes Caro, whose 2005 drama “North Country” was nominated for two Academy Awards, the second woman at Walt Disney Studios to direct a film with a budget of over $100 million. Ava DuVernay is the first, with family fantasy film “A Wrinkle in Time,” due out in 2018.
Caro is already developing a reputation for running an inclusive set. Earlier this year actress Jessica Chastain gushed about working with her on “The Zookeeper’s Wife.”
She also took to Twitter to celebrate the news that Caro had been hired for “Mulan,” posting, “I need this in my life. Like yesterday … #Mulan #NikiCaro.”
It’s a smart move for the studio now, particularly with a female-driven story, since the company got flak recently for basically suggesting no women directors were good enough to tackle the “Star Wars” films.
Lucasfilm – which is owned by Disney – Chief Kathleen Kennedy had said, “We want to make sure that when we bring a female director in to do ‘Star Wars,’ they’re set up for success. They’re gigantic films, and you can’t come into them with essentially no experience.”
Choosing Caro for a big film like “Mulan” shows that the company does have faith in talented, female directors. And that they exist.
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Hiring Caro also helps to up the paltry number of women working in prominent roles on films, as a pathetic four percent of last year’s top 100 movies had a woman behind the camera, per a report by Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University.
Of course, Disney’s choice does make for a lack of cultural representation on set, seeing as many hoped they would go with an Asian director. Previous reports had suggested the studio was considering “Life of Pi” director Ang Lee and “Rogue One” star Jiang Wen.
But the company insists it’s not going to pull a “Doctor Strange” or “Ghost in the Shell”and whitewash the entire film.
They’ve worked with Chinese cultural consultants as well as their own China-based team, and brought on Bill Kong as executive producer. The successful, Hong Kong-based producer is responsible for films such as “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” and “House of Flying Daggers.”
A female director is great news, but many are still worried that the live-action “Mulan” will be whitewashed.
Disney also came under fire this past fall, after reports surfaced that the film’s spec script featured non-Chinese characters, such as a white male lead. Disney quickly denied those claims, however. Hopefully we won’t have another “The Great Wall” on our hands.
It’s no surprise that they’re tackling this Disney classic now – the cartoon came out in 1998 – following the success of 2015’s live-action “Cinderella” and “The Jungle Book” in 2016.
But let’s just hope this latest hire means Disney’s “Mulan” is heading in the right direction.
