’90s THE SKY’S THE LIMIT
Screenwriter Lauren Hynek ’96 writes women as heroes on the big screen. by Megan Tady | Photos by Wendell D’Ambrosia
F
ive years ago, in search
of their next film project, screenwriters Lauren Hynek and Elizabeth Martin were throwing ideas against the wall like spaghetti, willing one of them to stick. One thing was certain: they wanted to write a movie featuring a strong female heroine. The writing duo found its answer in an ancient 360-word Chinese poem, “Ballad of Mulan,” about a young woman who disguises herself as a man to replace her ailing father in the army. Disney had already made an animated film based on this poem in 1998 (“Mulan”), but since the company didn’t own the rights to the poem, Hynek and Martin were able to begin penning a live-action version on spec with the hopes that a film company would purchase it. In the midst of writing, Disney announced a focus on updating older animated films with liveaction movies. “Mulan” was on the list. “We were not done with the script yet, but when we saw Disney’s press release, we said, ‘Oh my God, write faster. Write
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faster,’” Hynek says. Sitting side by side in Los Angeles, Hynek and Martin wrote furiously, and then they pitched the script to Disney. Two days later, the company snapped it up. “Even now, it still doesn’t feel 100 percent real,” Hynek says. The movie, directed by Niki Caro—who wrote and directed the critically acclaimed film “Whale Rider”—will be released on March 27, 2020, five years and one day after Hynek and Martin sold the screenplay. “And that’s fast tracked,” she says. Call “Mulan” their “big break”—but the truth is, Hynek and Martin have been aspiring screenwriters for years, fueled by a dogged determination, a “keep-your-butt-in-the-chair” motto, and several ounces of audaciousness. In fact, it was this audaciousness that introduced them to the writerly life two decades ago when they began to muse: How hard could it be to write a movie? Surely, not that hard. Originally actors and theater denizens, Hynek and Martin, who is a Hotchkiss School graduate, bonded at a summer
“HOW HARD CAN WRITING BE? I WANT TO DO IT. I’M GOING TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO DO IT. I’M GOING TO KEEP DOING IT UNTIL I GET GOOD AT IT, AND THEN I’M GOING TO KEEP DOING IT UNTIL SOMEONE PAYS ME TO DO IT.”
