Back in December, we reported details on a casting call that Disney put out looking for a Chinese actress to play the role of Mulan in a new live-action version of the 1998 animated film.
Today, the Hollywood Reporter has revealed that Niki Caro who directed the 2002 Maori family drama Whale Rider, will direct Disney’s live-action Mulan. In the 1998 film, Mulan sets out save her father from death in the army and secretly goes in his place and becomes one of China’s greatest heroines in the process. “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.”
“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 — Hero, House of Flying Daggers and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, for which he received an Oscar nomination — as well as many of China’s biggest hits, including Monster Hunt, Wolf Totem and Journey to the West.”
The new live-action Mulan is set to hit theaters on November 2, 2018
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
