Summer’s waning months produced a number of looks at the new live-action version of Disney’s Mulan. Now, there are reports that the film will be undergoing some pretty hefty reshoots as the filmmakers try to get everything in order before next March when the film is due out. The DInsider is reporting that four months of reshoots are coming starting this month. All of this should last through February which might sound pretty dire to some fans. Most modern movies undergo these types of reshoots now though. For example, Avengers: Endgame‘s triumphant moment with Tony Stark didn’t even get shot and put into the film until very late in the game. Getting things right on the front-end will save the team a lot of headaches on the back-end.
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DInsider is also saying that the reshoots are focused on significant battle sequences in the film. The sweeping momentum from the 1998 animated feature would be a little tricky to capture without some heavy lifting from visual effects. It does make sense that some of this time with the property would be devoted to figuring that whole business out. There might be a little more pressure on the film now that the other recent live-action Disney movies have really been a gigantic success for the company. The Lion King crushed in the first half of Summer and Aladdin continues to steadily rake in that cash as well.
Producer Jason Reed told Empire Magazine that the film would be taking a look at the central conflict at the heart of the 1998 feature from some different perspectives. Capturing that sense of scale would be key if some of his inspirations are to be believed.
“We’re thinking about how [Lawrence of Arabia director] David Lean or [Ran director Akira] Kurosawa might approach something like this,” producer Jason Reed revealed to Empire.
Of course, in Mulan, the Emperor of China issues a decree that one man per family must serve in the Imperial Army to defend the country from Northern invaders. Hua Mulan, the eldest daughter of an honored warrior, steps in to take her ailing father’s place on the battlefield. Masquerading as a man, Hua Jun, she faces numerous tests along the way and must harness her inner-strength to embrace her true potential.
Mulan features a celebrated international cast including: Yifei Liu as Mulan; Donnie Yen as Commander Tung; Jason Scott Lee as Böri Khan; Yoson An as Cheng Honghui; with Gong Li as Xianniang and Jet Li as the Emperor. The film is directed by Niki Caro from a screenplay by Rick Jaffa & Amanda Silver and Elizabeth Martin & Lauren Hynek based on the narrative poem “The Ballad of Mulan.”
Despite these setbacks, Mulan will land in theaters on March 27, 2020.
