The live-action remake of Moana lands in our cinemas on August 19, and for the occasion we spoke with its director Thomas Kail, a Broadway veteran lending his talents to cinema. What has made Moana’s story with Maui so meaningful to audiences over the years? How have the characters been revisited by the cast? How did the project’s most challenging moments get handled? In what way has the soundtrack been expanded? To find the answers to these questions you can watch the video interview below.
Moana Returns in Live-Action, with Dwayne Johnson’s Maui in the Flesh
Moana in live-action picks up the 2016 Moana from John Musker & Ron Clements: it centers on Moana (Catherine Laga’aia), the future chief of the Motunui island tribe, who currently faces hard times. Resources are scarce, and sailing beyond the forbidden reef seems to be the only way to remedy the situation, or at least to give them a fighting chance. The root cause of these circumstances is Te Fiti, the goddess of nature, deprived of her heart by the demigod Maui. Moana is unafraid to face the unknown: the journey ahead will also serve as a way to wholly embrace her identity.
The screenplay for this live-action Moana remake is penned by Jared Bush and Dana Ledoux Miller, with Bush serving as the original co-writer and the Creative Director of Walt Disney Animation Studios, and Miller as the co-author of the animated sequel Moana 2. The music returns from Mark Mancina, and the songs are crafted by Lin-Manuel Miranda, with a new track written especially for the end credits. Fun fact: Dwayne Johnson had indeed voiced the animated Maui in both installments, so—now portraying him in the flesh—he finds himself in the same situation once faced by Gerard Butler, who voiced Stoick in How to Train Your Dragon and later embodied him in the recent remake.
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