Welcome to the $100 million club, Niki Caro. The “McFarland, USA” director is reteaming with Disney to helm its live-action “Mulan” remake, The Hollywood Reporter confirms. With this gig, Caro becomes the fourth female filmmaker to secure a $100 million-plus budget. Her predecessors are Kathryn Bigelow (“K-19: The Widowmaker”), Patty Jenkins (“Wonder Woman”), and Ava DuVernay (“A Wrinkle in Time”).
“Disney also considered other women for its woman-warrior project, including ‘Wonder Woman’s’ Patty Jenkins and Michelle MacLaren (‘Breaking Bad,’ ‘The Walking Dead,’ ‘Game of Thrones’). Caro’s hiring likely takes her out of the running for ‘Captain Marvel,’ the studio’s first female-fronted superhero movie,” THR writes. In the summer of 2016 it was being reported that Caro, Lesli Linka Glatter (“Homeland”), and Lorene Scafaria (“The Meddler”) were on the shortlist of directors being considered for the project. The film still doesn’t have a director attached, but we know that Oscar winner Brie Larson will play the title role.
THR reports that “Disney and producers Chris Bender, Jason Reed, and Jake Weiner are taking pains to assure fans that ‘Mulan’ will be culturally authentic. The studio had initially sought an Asian director for the project, meeting with Ang Lee (who passed, citing scheduling) and ‘Rogue One’ star Jiang Wen, a hit director in his native China.” We find it odd that Disney seems to have sought an “Asian director” rather than an “Asian woman director” given the subject matter of “Mulan” and the ongoing conversation about Hollywood’s discriminatory attitude towards female filmmakers.
Sony’s upcoming live-action version of “Mulan” is being directed by a white man.
“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,” THR writes. Unfriendly reminder: The title of the movie is “Mulan” and it’s centered on a woman warrior. The source adds, “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.” Thank goodness. This doesn’t exactly warrant celebration because it’s the way it should be. THR reveals that Disney “is focusing its casting search in mainland China for the main roles, including the legendary woman warrior herself.”
The animated version of “Mulan” was released in 1998. The film follows Fa Mulan, who disguises herself as a man and enlists in the Chinese Army to take her elderly father’s place.
Caro’s next feature, “The Zookeeper’s Wife,” hits theaters March 31. The drama stars Jessica Chastain and is based on a true story: It centers on Polish couple Jan and Antonina Żabiński, who helped 300 Jews flee the Warsaw Ghetto during the Holocaust by hiding them in animal cages. Chastain wrote a guest feature for The Hollywood Reporter about filming “The Zookeeper’s Wife.” “In this industry, female filmmakers have had a really hard time of it,” the two-time Oscar nominee observed, citing the the fact that only about “four percent of Hollywood studio movies are directed by women.”
“Whale Rider,” Caro’s 2002 Maori coming-of-age drama, won Best Foreign Film at the Independent Spirit Awards and snagged the Sundance Audience Award in the World Cinema category.
Caro has a number of projects in the works. The New Zealand-born filmmaker directed the premiere episode of “Anne,” Netflix’s upcoming eight-episode series based on Canadian author L.M. Montgomery’s much-loved “Anne of Green Gables” books. “Callas,” a biopic about opera legend Maria Callas, which she wrote and directed, is in pre-production.
