Following Alice In Wonderland, Maleficent, the just-released Cinderella and the currently-filming Beauty And The Beast, Disney are heading east for their next live-action fairytale. The Mouse House are now putting together a new retelling of the Chinese legend **Mulan{
Disney, you'll recall, previously tackled Mulan with a classic animation in 1998, hence most of the internet this morning referring to the new iteration as a remake. Since the legend dates back to the sixth century, however, it seems a bit much to be calling the one with the proto-Donkey Eddie Murphy comedy dragon the "original version", as many are. The first film adaptation was a Chinese silent in 1927.
Whatever, in any telling, the thrust is a peasant girl who disguises herself as a man and takes her father's place in the army to go off and fight dastardly invading forces. The most recent live-action version was 2009's Mulan: Rise Of A Warrior, starring Zhao Wei. Jan De Bont (Speed) was planning a take with Zhang Ziyi a few years ago, but the indie production failed to come together.
Disney themselves returned to the Mulan well in 2005 with a straight-to-DVD animated sequel about Mulan getting married, but we'd imagine some grittier ass-kicking for the new movie. Some versions have Mulan committing suicide at the end, something we can probably rule out happening in the live-action Disney version right now. But that snow-bound sequence from the 1998 cartoon when Mulan drops a mountain on the Hun horde could certainly be something remounted with a cast, a location and a budget...
Producers Chris Bender and J.C. Spink (We're The Millers, I Am Number Four, Zombeavers) are among the producers of the live-action Mulan. There's no start date, director or cast in place yet.