Disney to remake Mulan as Live Action Film

Disney is planning to make a live action remake of the hit animated movie Mulan. The original movie was an animated one and was released in 1998.

Seeing the success of Disney’s successful live action Cinderella, the studio is now planning to make another live action movie and this time it is going to be Mulan. THR reports that Disney has bought a script from writer Elizabeth Martin and Lauren Hynek.

The story of Mulan centers on the Chinese legend Hua Mulan, who is a female warrior, who was the main character of Disney’s 1998 animated movie. Apart from this Chris Bender and J.C. Spink will be producing this new project. 

The original 1998 animated Mulan was directed by Tony Bancroft and Barry Cook. The movie basically is about a female warrior who disguises herself as a man in order to take her father’s place in the army and go to war. In this movie Mulan is also accompanied by her trusted dragon sidekick Mushu.

She then joins the camps and becomes a skilled warrior and eventually one of the country’s greatest heroines. This animated movie had earned $304.3 million worldwide and earned a Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations. The movie also had a sequel which came out in 2005 as Mulan II.  

It seems that Disney is now focusing on its live action versions of its classic animated films. The recent Cinderella that starred Lily James has earned around $336.2 million worldwide to date since it came out three weeks ago.

Apart from Cinderella Disney also released Alice in Wonderland in 2010 and the movie had grossed $1.02 billion worldwide. Then the 2014 hit Maleficent that starred Angelina Jolie as the iconic villainess went on to earn an astounding $758.4 million worldwide. So it seems from these figures that Disney is headed in the right direction. 

Disney is currently engrossed in the making of another live action retelling of Beauty and the Beast. The movie will be starring the famous Harry Potter actress Emma Watson and Dan Stevens.

Audra McDonald has also joined the cast of this movie recently. The movie will be directed by Bill Condon and is all set to be released on March 17, 2017. Moreover in 2016, Disney fans will be able to see a new version of The Jungle Book and the sequel of Alice in Wonderland. Then there is also news that Disney is working on a live action version of Dumbo.

According to Disney movies like Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast help in keeping the princess toy franchise alive by creating an entire line of DVDs, books, toys and clothing.

Apart from this the induction of new princesses such as Elsa and Anna from the hit movie Frozen has helped Disney to add to their lineup. Now why Disney is so much interested in developing live action movies is that this helps to bring in older crowds as most adults do not go to see and animated movie. 

Now by creating Mulan it seems that Disney might want to look diverse but it is more likely that the studio is targeting the Asian market. The Chinese box office it $4.8 billion in 2014 making it the first foreign market to cross the $4 billion mark. Moreover Mulan is the only Asian princess in the Disney lineup it is the best chance of targeting the Chinese market.