Disney recently announced a release date for their upcominglive-action Mulan movie, but now they are in need of a director to tackle the project. The studio is reportedly hoping to find an Asian director to take on the adaptation, and their first choice was Academy Award winnerAng Lee. Unfortunately for the House of Mouse, he has passed onMulan, so the search will have to continue.
The Hollywood Reporterbroke the news thatAng Leepassed up the opportunity, but no reason was given. Sony recently also announced that they had their own plans to do alive-actiontake onMulanand they are distributingAng Lee’s latest movieBilly Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk. This is purely speculative, but it is very possible that Sony could also be courting the director for theirMulanmovie, which is maybe why he passed up Disney’s offer. Or he just may not be interested for some reason.
The collective internet seemed to be ecstatic when Disney made theirMulanplans official recently, but the project quickly found its way to a little bit ofcontroversy. Details on an early draft of the script for the movie leaked, which revealed awhite male lead. Given all of the recent uproar with whitewashing in Hollywood, people were not happy. Disney has come out since and made it clear that the cast of the live-actionMulanwill be all-Asian. In addition, the studio seems to really want an Asian director, if possible. Sadly, unless something changes, it just won’t beAng Lee.
The originalMulancentered on the title character, voiced byAgents of S.H.I.E.L.DstarMing-Na Wen, who disguises herself as a man to take her ailing father’s place on the battlefield. With the help of her beloved dragon sidekick Mushu, who was voiced byEddie Murphy, she transforms into a brave warrior who becomes one of her country’s most honored heroines. The original voice cast also includedMiguel Ferrer,Harvey Fierstein,June Foray,James Hong,Pat Morita,B.D. WongandGeorge Takei.
Disney has had a ton of success with their live-action adaptations of animated classics lately, which has prompted them to move ahead with movies likeMulan.Cinderellaproved to be a massive hit last year, bringing in $543 million worldwide.The Jungle Bookdid even better for the studio this year, bringing in just shy of $1 billion. Next year we will see a live-action take onBeauty and the Beast, which is likely to continue the trend of success for these live-action takes. Disney’s live-actionMulanis currently set for release onNovember 9, 2018.
