BIG MOVIE
Mulan038 | W W W. S C I FI N OW.CO.U K
MULAN IS THE LATEST OF DISNEY’S ANIMATED CLASSICS TO GET
THE LIVE ACTION TREATMENT. WE TALK TO DIRECTOR NIKI CARO
ABOUT BRINGING MULAN TO A NEW KIND OF LIFEWORDS JOSH SLATER-WILLIAMSI
t’s early January 2020 and SciFiNow is among
what’s apparently the first audience to see select
full scenes from one of the year’s most intriguing
blockbuster prospects. We’re very impressed by the
thrilling scale and tender, moving intimacy of the
wildly different sequences we’re shown. And this is
somewhat surprising because this film is one of those
oft-dreaded propositions: a remake.
Well, yes and no to it being a strict remake of
another movie. Disney’s new Mulan is definitely a
live-action update of its own animated film from 1998,
but the character of Hua Mulan originates in a famous
story first told over 1,500 years ago, in which a young
woman, disguised as a man, took her aging father’s
place in the army. In paying tribute to various versions
of the story, as well as the character’s importance for
Chinese audiences, the new Mulan is a very different
beast from its Disney predecessor.
Development on this adaptation began in 2015, with
Niki Caro being hired to direct in February 2017. Caro
had not previously directed an action film, but the
New Zealand filmmaker had a critical and commercial
success for Disney on her resume already: the
Kevin Costner sports drama McFarland, USA (2015).
Additionally, two of her prior features prominently
showcased her skill with stories of women standing
up to or navigating their way through traditionally
male-dominated spaces. Her first American film,
North Country (2005), told an account of the first
major successful sexual harassment case in the UnitedStates, and her breakthrough debut feature, Whale
Rider (2002), made in New Zealand, told the story of
a young Māori girl fighting to fulfil her destiny in the
context of a patriarchal tribe.
Disney is said to have sought an Asian director for
Mulan at first, with Ang Lee among those reportedly
meeting with the studio but passing. Though Caro’s
hiring is a boost in a studio system where women-
helmed mega-budget blockbusters are still rare,
the optics of a white filmmaker directing a Chinese
story are not lost on her. “McFarland, USA also had
a very specific set of cultural requirements because
it was set in the Mexican-American fieldworker
community,” Caro tells SciFiNow. “So, I think Disney
felt very comfortable that I could handle the cultural
imperatives of making a movie like this.”
William Kong, the Hong Kong-based producer
of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and other
international crossover smashes, was hired by Disney
as an Executive Producer on the film. “Bill was the first
person I spoke to,” Caro continues. “I’m not Chinese,
and I’m not Māori either in regards to when I did
Whale Rider. But I have made a lot of movies outside
of my culture and I have a way of doing it where I take
the responsibility of the cultural authenticity very, very
seriously. And so, the first thing I wanted to do when I
got this job was to speak to Bill and start to have those
conversations about how I might deliver a film that
everybody loves, but, in particular, that Chinese – and
Asian people too, generally – can feel very proud of in