The ancient tale of Mulan will be brought to the big screen once again in an English-language 3D film that is being funded by Walt Disney Pictures and produced by Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi.
Disney – which released an animated version of the story back in 1998 – has agreed to invest $100 million into the project, which will be directed by Charles Russel (The Scorpion King). Not too shockingly, Zhang is set to star in the lead role as well.
Mulan tells the story of the titular young woman, whose elderly father is ordered to return to military duty when external forces invade their Chinese homeland. The spirited gal chooses to instead impersonate a man and take her father’s place in the army – an act for which she could be executed, should she be discovered.
Help and a potential love interest arrives in the form of General Li, who risks his own life to protect Mulan and prevent her from being exposed. Singer-actor Wang Lee Hom is being pursued for the live-action role.
Ziyi is best known in the U.S. for her turns in martial arts films like Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and filmmaker Zhang Yimou’s Hero and House of Flying Daggers (see below). It doesn’t exactly require a stretch of the imagination to envision her in the role of the lady warrior, Mulan.
Unlike the in-development Cinderella and Tinker Bell movies, this live-action revision of an animated classic did not originate with Disney but was brought to them by Ziyi. What effect this will have on the development of the latest cinematic treatment of the Mulan legend is not clear at this point.
This is still a significant financial investment – even for the likes of the Mouse House – so I wouldn’t expect the final product to be especially gritty or adult-oriented. It will most likely have some lavish production values and be filled with PG-13 action sequences (a la Pirates of the Caribbean).
Production on Mulan is tentatively scheduled to begin in China this October.
Source: Channel NewsAsia
Loading ...
Cool!!!
Maybe she got burned for the lead in this version…
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1308138/
Ha Ha the Princess from the movie The Duel is playing Mulan, ROFLKINS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hx-tdoYWJns
hmmm…… no mention of a wisecracking dragon sidekick. lol
I wouldn’t be surprised if Disney mined their whole vault and started adapting everything into live action lol. How lame, unoriginal and down right disrespectful to the artists who helped craft those classics.
One thing’s for sure, The Almighty Dollar is King.
could be a really cool action movie.
mulan is everyones favorite disney princess movie
and no talking dragon, but i’m not against a small dragon that watches over her along the way as like a non-talking yoda
This interests me but I wonder if it’ll be more in the style of Pirates of The Caribbean or John Woo’s Red Cliff. I kinda hope that they try to make it a balance of both because it would like “The East meets The West” and it make for a good take on an action adventure if done right.
live action Mulan already exists…
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1308138/
Follow along, it’s already been said. Great to have it adapted again then. Nothing against Zhao Wei, she’s great too!
“Ziyi is best known in the U.S…”
Ziyi is her given name. Zhang is her surname.