The Man Reimagining Disney Classics for Today’s World

For greater than a decade, Sean Bailey has run Disney’s animated movie “reimagining” manufacturing facility with quiet effectivity and superhero-sized outcomes. His live-action “Aladdin” collected $1.1 billion on the field workplace, whereas a photorealistic “The Lion King” took in $1.7 billion. A live-action “Beauty and the Beast” delivered $1.3 billion.

Disney likes the money. The firm additionally views Mr. Bailey’s remake operation as essential to remaining related. Disney’s animated classics are treasured by followers, however most showcase concepts from one other period, particularly relating to gender roles: Be fairly, women, and issues may work out.

The reimaginings, as Mr. Bailey refers to his remakes, discover methods to make Disney tales much less retrograde. His heroines are empowered, and his casting emphasizes range. A live-action “Snow White,” set for launch subsequent 12 months, stars the Latina actress Rachel Zegler because the princess often called “the fairest of them all.” Yara Shahidi performed Tinker Bell within the latest “Peter Pan and Wendy,” making her the primary Black girl to painting the character onscreen.

“We want to reflect the world as it exists,” Mr. Bailey mentioned.

But that worldview — and enterprise technique — has more and more put Disney and Mr. Bailey, a low-profile and self-effacing govt, in the midst of a really loud, very unpolite cultural battle. For each one that applauds Disney, there appears to be a counterpart who complains about being force-fed “wokeness.”

Many corporations are discovering themselves on this vise — Target, Anheuser-Busch, Nike — however Disney, which has a robust affect on youngsters as they’re forming life beliefs, has been uniquely challenged. In this hyperpartisan second, each side of the political divide have been pounding on Disney to face with them, with films that come from Mr. Bailey’s nook of the Magic Kingdom as prime examples.

Consider his remake of “The Little Mermaid,” which arrived in theaters two weeks in the past and price an estimated $375 million to make and market. The new model scuttles problematic lyrics from the 1989 unique. (“It’s she who holds her tongue who gets a man.”) In the most important change, Halley Bailey, who’s Black, performs Ariel, the mermaid. Disney has lengthy depicted the character as white, together with at its theme parks.

Support for Ms. Bailey, notably from folks of coloration and movie critics, has been offset by a torrent of racist commentary on social media and film fan websites. Others have blasted “The Little Mermaid” for failing to acknowledge the horrors of slavery within the Caribbean. Just a few L.G.B.T.Q. folks have criticized Disney for hiring a straight male make-up artist for the villainous Ursula, whose look within the animated movie was impressed by a drag queen.

Disney has lengthy regarded these sorts of social media storms as tempests in teapots: trending as we speak, changed by a brand new grievance tomorrow. In 2017, as an illustration, a theater in Alabama refused to play the live-action “Beauty and the Beast” as a result of it contained a three-second glimpse of two males dancing in one another’s arms. It turned a worldwide news story. Ultimately, the fracas appeared to haven’t any affect on ticket gross sales.

The upshot? Disney hoped “The Little Mermaid” would generate as a lot as $1 billion worldwide, with the furor evaporating as soon as the movie arrived in theaters. Feedback scores from take a look at screenings have been robust, as have been early opinions. “Alan Menken just told me that he thinks this one is better than the animated film,” Robert A. Iger, Disney’s chief govt, mentioned on the movie’s premiere final month, referring to the Oscar-winning composer.

Instead, “The Little Mermaid” will prime out nearer to $600 million, field workplace analysts mentioned on Sunday, largely as a result of the movie faltered abroad, the place it was “review bombed,” with on-line trolls flooding film websites with racist one-star opinions. The movie has finished effectively in North America, outperforming “Aladdin” and receiving an A grade from ticket consumers in CinemaScore exit polls, though attendance by white moviegoers has been comfortable in some components of the United States, in response to analysts. Support from Black and Latino audiences have made up the slack.

Mr. Bailey declined to touch upon the racist responses to the movie. “While the international opening was softer than we would have liked, the film is playing exceptionally well which we believe sets us up for a very long run,” he mentioned on Saturday.

Mr. Bailey, 53, has survived field workplace shoals that have been far worse. His misfires embrace “The Lone Ranger” and “Jungle Cruise.” The much less mentioned about his live-action “Mulan,” the higher. But Disney has at all times supported him. “I’ve taken some big swings and had some big misses,” Mr. Bailey mentioned. “I’m grateful that the leadership of the company understands that is part of any creative business.”

Mr. Bailey has been president of Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture Production for 13 years — an eternity in Hollywood, the place movie chiefs are sometimes jettisoned each few years. Over that point, Disney has been roiled by govt firings, a number of restructuring efforts and shifting methods for movie distribution. The steady-handed Mr. Bailey, who’s in style with stars and their brokers, has helped present stability.

“He’s a nice, decent, respectful, fair guy who does his job quietly, without fanfare,” mentioned Kevin Huvane, a Creative Artists Agency co-chairman. “But that doesn’t mean that he is passive. Quite the opposite. He gets his hands dirty. If a deal isn’t working, he gets in there and he finds a way to make it happen.”

In 2014, as an illustration, Mr. Bailey flew to Budapest from Los Angeles at a second’s discover to have dinner with Angelina Jolie. She had agreed to star in “Maleficent” however gave the impression to be getting chilly toes after studying a revised script. Whatever he advised her labored; “Maleficent” and a sequel took in a mixed $1.3 billion.

“Sean is what we don’t see often these days, and certainly not in film,” Ms. Jolie mentioned by e-mail. “He’s consistent, stable and decent. When we have challenges, as all films do, he is even and fair. It may not be exciting for a story, but it is what we need more of.”

Disney’s live-action movies didn’t usually showcase girls earlier than Mr. Bailey arrived, and variety was nearly nonexistent. Mr. Bailey has nearly solely targeted on female-led tales. He has additionally championed younger actresses of coloration — Storm Reid, Nico Parker, Naomi Scott — and feminine administrators, together with Ava DuVernay (“A Wrinkle in Time”), Julia Hart (“Stargirl”) and Mira Nair (“Queen of Katwe”).

“I think what he is doing is vastly important,” mentioned Geena Davis, an actress and gender fairness activist. “It’s not just about inspiring little girls. It’s about normalizing for men and boys, making it perfectly normal to see a girl doing interesting and important things and taking up space.”

The subsequent movie from Mr. Bailey’s division, “Haunted Mansion,” arrives in theaters on July 28 and stars LaKeith Stanfield (an Oscar nominee for “Judas and the Black Messiah”), Rosario Dawson, Owen Wilson and Tiffany Haddish. “Haunted Mansion” was directed by Justin Simien, the creator of “Dear White People,” and impressed by a Disney theme park experience.

“I felt that we had an opportunity to try and create a really cool, Disney-appropriate PG-13 movie that does have some real scares but also charms and delights,” Mr. Bailey mentioned.

Mr. Bailey, who watched “The Little Mermaid” 18 occasions because it labored its manner by way of Disney’s pipeline, has greater than 50 films in numerous levels of improvement and manufacturing, together with live-action variations of “Moana,” “Hercules” and “Lilo and Stitch.” Yes, “Hocus Pocus 3” is going on. (His division makes two or three big-budget movies yearly for launch in theaters and three modestly budgeted films for Disney+.)

“Mufasa: The Lion King,” a photorealistic prequel directed by Barry Jenkins, the Oscar-winning “Moonlight” screenwriter, is scheduled for launch in 2024. Mr. Bailey mentioned “The Lion King” may broaden into “a big, epic saga” just like the “Star Wars” franchise. “There’s a lot of room to run if we can find the stories,” he mentioned.

Restarting the five-film “Pirates of the Caribbean” sequence is one other precedence, though nothing official has been introduced. “We think we have a really good, exciting story that honors the films that have come before but also has something new to say,” Mr. Bailey mentioned. Will the franchise’s problematic star, Johnny Depp, return as Captain Jack Sparrow? “Noncommittal at this point,” Mr. Bailey mentioned, seemingly inching the door open.

One of the knocks on Mr. Bailey is that he has not created a brand new franchise; nearly none of his bets on unique films have paid off. The sled-dog drama “Togo,” made for Disney+ in 2019, was a crucial hit that failed to interrupt out. “Tomorrowland,” an bold fantasy from 2015, crashed and burned. At some level, studios can’t endlessly recycle previous stuff. A Xerox of a Xerox of a Xerox finally ends up as a clean web page.

“It’s really hard to crack through and get an original, hugely commercial win,” Mr. Bailey mentioned. “We’re going to keep trying.” He pointed to a venture primarily based on “The Graveyard Book,” a few boy raised by the supernatural occupants of a cemetery.

Every studio has been struggling to provide you with unique hits. But the added glare that appears to come back with any Disney effort provides a level of issue.

Like Mr. Iger, Mr. Bailey doesn’t conceal his political leanings. He is near Senator Cory Booker, Democrat of New Jersey, a friendship that began in 2000, when Mr. Bailey held a fund-raiser for him in Hollywood. (Mr. Bailey has lots of well-known buddies. He goes manner again with Ben Affleck, helped Dwayne Johnson begin a tequila model and serves on the board of Robert Redford’s Sundance Institute.)

But Mr. Bailey is within the enterprise of creating films for everybody. That problem is a part of what retains his job fascinating, he mentioned.

“How do you deal with audiences that are changing outside our country, inside our country?” Mr. Bailey mentioned. “How do you tell stories — stories that matter to everyone — in a world that is increasingly polarized?”