Disney’s live-action adaptation of their animated film Mulan took a step forward today as the studio has picked Niki Caro to direct the project.
Caro previously directed the hit 2002 Maori family drama Whale Rider and has World War Two drama The Zookeper’s Wife opening later this year.
This marks the studio’s second recent pick of a woman to head a major tentpole project for them after Disney hired Ava DuVernay to oversee their adaption of the Madeline L’Engle young adult novel A Wrinkle In Time. Disney has been making the hiring of women directors something of a priority. Reportedly both Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins and Walking Dead and Game Of Thrones director Michelle MacLaren were on the studio’s shortlist for Mulan.
Ironically, Caro’s hiring here appears to take her out of eligibility to direct the female-led Captain Marvel over at Disney subsidiary Marvel Studios. There, she was on a short-list that also included Lesli Linka Glatter (Homeland) and Lorene Scafaria (Seeking A Friend For The End Of The World, 2012).
