While all of the attention may be on the success of the live-action remake of Beauty and The Beast, some folks are turning their attention to the future of Disney's flesh and blood storytelling narratives. Which, of course, means that Mulan is going to come into the picture quite often, especially with director Niki Caro currently shepherding her latest film, The Zookeeper's Wife, into theaters. So naturally, with so much chatter about the same project, there are bound to be some wires crossed, and one of those wires has had to do with whether or not a musical component will be a part of the upcoming film. Apparently, there might be songs in Mulan after all, despite previous statements to the contrary.
The L.A. Times recently spoke with Caro, as part of her press rounds for The Zookeeper's Wife, and to everyone's surprise, she cast some doubt on the previously circulated news that there would be a lack of musical numbers in Mulan's re-imagining. Her exact words were as follows:
I don't know where that's come from. We've never talked about songs, and no decision has been made.
Now normally, a statement such as this would be par for the course, considering how early it is in the production process for Mulan. Even Niki Caro herself admits that there hasn't really been any work done on the project, and the musical numbers haven't entered the conversation yet. Then again, those musical numbers totally did come up this past week, and Caro herself actually said the complete opposite when previously questioned on the matter. Earlier this week, the director had made the following statement in an interview, which pretty clearly states the following take on the musical matter:
Yes, from what I understand, no songs right now, much to the horror of my children.
As if Caro's previous statements weren't enough, Disney's president of production Sean Bailey even said that he heard the project would be less of a musical, and more of a Ridley Scott-style action film. Of course, both Bailey and Caro's statements were couched in a certain degree of uncertainty as to the fate of such songs as "I'll Make A Man Out Of You," or "A Girl Worth Fighting For," so to say they were completely lying to the public is a falsehood in and of itself.
Rather, it feels like the folks behind Mulan may have been waiting to see what happened with Beauty and The Beast, before pitching anything extra they had to throw into Mulan's story. Despite the film being a runaway success after its initial release, the days leading up to revisiting Belle and The Beast still saw the most successful Disney reboots come from non-musical takes on old classics. Though now that this barrier has been broken, what with the 2017 redux of enchanted romance outgrossing its original animated form in a mere five days, it seems as if the deck has been reshuffled, and we might just get to hear "Honor To Us All" on the big screen once more.
Mulan has no concrete production schedule in play, but you can see Niki Caro's work on screen with The Zookeeper's Wife, which opens next Friday.
