Kail Defends 'Moana' Live-Action Remake as Theatrical Revival
Get the Culture newsletter
Daily culture — film, music, books, the trends and ideas worth your attention. Free.
- Thomas Kail directed Disney's live-action 'Moana' remake (opening July 10), framing the project as a theatrical revival — same story and characters as the 2016 animated film, but with "different jokes," reordered scenes, and an existing script by Dana Ledoux Miller and Jared Bush.
- Lin-Manuel Miranda composed the original 'Moana' soundtrack during 'Hamilton' downtime, recruiting cast members like Phillipa Soo to record demos between rehearsals — Kail called the film 'a friend that lived in another town but moved to be really close to us.'
- Newcomer Catherine Laga'aia stars as Moana while Dwayne Johnson reprises his animated role as Maui as both star and producer, wearing a body suit designed to match his physique for practical reasons including rapid water transitions and animating Maui's tattoos.
- The film's most ambitious number was 'Where You Are,' featuring 200 dancers in a practical village set that Kail compared to site-specific theater — filmed in 110-degree humidity.
- Maui's wig was mandated after cultural advisors on the original pre-2016 film flagged that 'Maui's power and spirit comes from his hair,' Kail said, adding that audiences lose track of the hair once they're watching the full movie.
- Kail's 'Fiddler on the Roof' adaptation, with a script by Steven Levinson written just before the pandemic, remains without a home, though he hopes renewed musical appetite around 'Wicked' will spark interest.
- Hamilton's 10th-anniversary reunion plans — discussed during the 'Moana' Hawaii shoot in November 2024 — evolved into the original cast's Tonys medley performance, which Kail watched from the audience as '6,000 people explode.'
Why it matters: Disney's $2.4-billion-grossing 'Moana' franchise is being extended with a live-action remake that leans on Broadway pedigree (Kail, Miranda) rather than a wholesale reinvention, and the studio is betting that Johnson's star power plus a culturally vetted Maui look will anchor the film's opening weekend against a competitive summer slate.
