Riley Keough is ready for rock stardom — and Niki Caro will help chart her rise and fall. “The Girlfriend Experience” alumna has been tapped to lead “Daisy Jones & The Six,” an upcoming Amazon series tracing the dramatic rise and fall of a fictional rock band in the ’70s, and Caro is locked in to direct multiple episodes of the musical drama, including its first. Deadline confirmed the news.
Based on Taylor Jenkins Reid’s best-selling novel of the same name, “Daisy Jones & The Six” sees Keough playing Daisy Jones, a woman “born into privilege but ignored by her selfish parents. Daisy goes on to become a ‘spirited and enigmatic singer-songwriter.'”
Caro is among the project’s exec producers, as are Hello Sunshine’s Reese Witherspoon and Lauren Neustadter.
“Mad Max: Fury Road,” Andrea Arnold’s “American Honey,” and So Yong Kim’s “Love Song” are among Keough’s credits. Her most recent pic, “Earthquake Bird,” just dropped on Netflix. The psychological thriller is set in 1989 Tokyo and tells the story of a young female expat (Alicia Vikander, “Tomb Raider”) accused of murder when her friend (Keough) goes missing.
Caro’s last film, 2017 Jessica Chastain-starrer “The Zookeeper’s Wife,” told the story of a couple who helped save hundreds of people and animals during the German invasion. “McFarland, USA,” “North Country,” and “Whale Rider” are among her other credits. Caro’s live-action take on “Mulan” is set to bow March 27, and she also has a biopic about Maria Callas on the way. Noomi Rapace (“Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan”) is portraying the opera singer. Caro won a DGA Award for directing the pilot for Netflix’s “Anne With an ‘E.'”
“The fact that I’m working is great and I feel very fortunate, but the fact that so many highly skilled, gifted women [directors] are not, it’s shameful,” Caro has said.