Disney just announced production has begun on Niki Caro’s highly-anticipated live-action version of Mulan, and released the first photo of actress Liu Yifei as the title character. That’s her above, obviously, looking as fierce and badarse as one would have hoped.
Yifei was found after a long search to cast the part and will join an impressive cast including Donnie Yen (Rogue One), Jason Scott Lee (Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story), Yoson An (The Meg), Utkarsh Ambudkar (Pitch Perfect), Tzi Ma (Arrival), Rosalind Chao (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), Gong Li (Memoirs of a Geisha) and Jet Li (Hero, both the movie and in real life), just to name a few.
There’s still no word whether or not Caro’s version of the legendary story will use any of the music from the popular 1998 Disney animated film, which has been a point of contention (among other things) for a while. But the story everyone knows and loves, about a young woman masquerading as a man to fight for her family and people, is still intact no matter what.
Mulan will be shooting on location in New Zealand and China, and is aiming for a US release date of 27 March 2020.
Comments
23 responses to “Mulan Has Arrived In This Very First Look At Disney’s Live-Action Film”
No Ming-Na Wen? 🙁
I’ll watch it either way (Donnie!), but, still… I’d hoped she’d at least make an appearance, if not a lead role.
Clearly Hollywood ageism at work. They’d rather cast a 30-year-old than a 54-year-old. (I love Mingna though)
But she looks like she’s still in her 30s…
Good genes!
Haha, very cool!
神仙姐姐!
Although I’m happy that Liu Yifei has been cast, in that Mulan won’t be ‘whitewashed’, I do take issue with the fact that the legend of Hua Mulan has her coming from northern China (Hebei in the Sui Tang novel, although this was written quite some time later). Liu Yifei was born in Wuhan, which is about 800km from Hebei. Of course, we are talking Han ethnicity for both Hua Mulan and Liu Yifei, so this does ameliorate the situation somewhat. Still would have liked to see a native 河北人 cast in the role, as there are many talented actresses from the Province. Oh well, 随便什么,I guess… looking forward to seeing it!
Wait, what. So you’re nitpicking that the actress should of been from the correct region?
Just playing 🙂
No such problems with the music. Donnie Osmond knows no culture.
Given the Batwoman kerfuffle that is going on at the moment, that was a quality post.
Mulan was good as is.
When are they going to make another original cartoon movie ffs.
They’ve been putting out cartoon movies every year.
Uhm what? Since Mulan (1998) was released Disney has put out 25 original animated films. Not included in this tally are any film where I know they used source material or I am not sure of source material.
Look it up.
I think Frozen 2 is next *crosses fingers*
All the modern movies are 3D Animated, I wouldn’t really call them cartoons.
They haven’t done anything 2D since Winnie The Pooh from 2011.
Mulan was a girl?!
I saw people’s reactions and were asking how this is going to work as just a movie (with no musical numbers) and I just realised probably no western audience has seen the 2009 movie (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1308138/)
I am utterly mixed in casting Liu Yifei, but that’s mostly because I’ve only seen like 4 movies she’s in
They should have the “make a man out of you” one at least. There’s a lot of good stuff in Mulan but that was one of the best bits. They shouldn’t axe it
sure if they can fit it in… I think randomly slotting it in would be… odd? haha
Needs more Chow Yun Fat
To be fair, you could say that about virtually anything and still be correct.
https://youtu.be/203OAQYDKNw
I’m more disappointed that you mentioned Rogue One as the movie for Donnie Yen than anything else. Ugh.