Mulan (Live-Action)

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Disney's Divinity
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Re: Mulan (Live-Action)

Post by Disney's Divinity »

Well, I enjoyed Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin both, and they hewed pretty close to the originals. And they were definitely superior to Alice in Wonderland and Maleficent for me; I could enjoy aspects of those (like Jolie and HBC / Hathaway) while cringing through the rest. So I can't agree with you there. These films are destined to be inferior products regardless of what direction they take, but those similarities to the originals--and the attempt to expound on story ideas from the originals--is all that allows them to at least tread water instead of sinking outright.
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Re: Mulan (Live-Action)

Post by D82 »

The original 'Mulan' director and animator are happy that Disney's upcoming remake isn't a carbon copy of the animated classic
https://www.insider.com/what-mulan-dire ... ke-2019-10
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Re: Mulan (Live-Action)

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And I wonder how much Disney paid them to put out this statement. :lol: Not that it matters to me what the original director feels anyway. Disney’s trying to cash in on consumers’ nostalgia without getting the backlash that comes from the severe—and unnecessary—changes they’ve made to the film that created that nostalgia in the first place. They don’t get to have it both ways although they’ll always try.
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Re: Mulan (Live-Action)

Post by Kyle »

I don't have a hard time believing them, without even reading the comments its pretty simple. The lion king took the original and did all the same things but worse. You come away just wanting to rewatch the original.

Edit: oh I didn't realize one was Tony Bancroft. I Really don't have issue trusting him, he really holds nothing back when criticizing Disney since he left.
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Re: Mulan (Live-Action)

Post by Sotiris »

I hope they're doing this to add songs but I doubt it.

Disney’s Live-Action ‘Mulan’ Remake To Undergo Extensive Reshoots
https://thedisinsider.com/2019/10/18/ex ... -reshoots/
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Re: Mulan (Live-Action)

Post by Farerb »

I think it has more to do with that situation in Hong Kong and China.
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Re: Mulan (Live-Action)

Post by UmbrellaFish »

A four month reshoot? Aren’t entire movies shot in less time? Something big is happening here... I hope the songs are returning.

Through February?!? No way in hell this movie makes it out in March. What an embarrassing mess.
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Re: Mulan (Live-Action)

Post by Disney's Divinity »

Yes, some online have supposed the lead actress may be replaced. Which wouldn't bother me, because the past two weeks I'd been wondering if I should refuse to give money to this film not just for the actress' comments, but for Disney's capitulations to China in general as seen by the story/soundtrack changes.
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Re: Mulan (Live-Action)

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Skyler Shuler wrote:Should be stated I have no idea why this film is going through reshoots, but four months is unusual for a film like this so close to release.
Source: https://twitter.com/Skylerhxc/status/11 ... 9065682944
Christopher Marc wrote:Been hearing that Liu Yifei's performance hasn't been terribly great, so I wouldn't be surprised if her scenes are being reshot. However, four months even on a film of this scale is a lot of time to be spent on scenes to be redone/replaced. Four months would indicate either action sequences need to be redone or the main actor's scenes are terrible. I doubt it's structure or story problems, 'cause the story is pretty basic.
Source: https://twitter.com/_ChristopherM/statu ... 7171245056
Christopher Marc wrote:I’ve heard some second-hand information that the acting in the film hasn’t been terribly up to Disney standards, which could be supported with this news of four months worth of reshoots.
Source: https://hnentertainment.co/disneys-live ... -reshoots/
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Re: Mulan (Live-Action)

Post by UmbrellaFish »

How can she possibly be that bad? I don’t know her work, but I know she’s a veteran actor and I would have trusted that Disney would have cast the right person to headline a major production like this. Speculatively, if they outright fired her, wouldn’t they have a PR disaster with mainland China?
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Re: Mulan (Live-Action)

Post by Sotiris »

They're not going to replace her. They're probably going to assign her an acting coach and reshoot some of her scenes. When she was first cast, I did hear from various Chinese people on social media that they consider her wooden as an actress with a limited range and that she only got ahead because of her looks. If that's true, it remains to be seen.
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Re: Mulan (Live-Action)

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Why wasn’t an acting coach brought in during the initial filming then? Somebody wasn’t doing their job if the lead actress was so bad it’s led to four months of reshoots.
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Re: Mulan (Live-Action)

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UmbrellaFish wrote:Why wasn’t an acting coach brought in during the initial filming then?
Probably because they didn't anticipate that a famous actress who starred in many Chinese blockbusters would need one. I mean Disney didn't anticipate Alden Ehrenreich needing a coach when first shooting Solo but assigned him one during reshoots.
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Re: Mulan (Live-Action)

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What I mean is bad acting is apparent on set. If this is a trend with Disney movies (I don’t follow Star Wars so I wasn’t aware of a precedent), they are making huge mistakes in casting and they are wasting money. Did she even do a screen test? I mean casting is such an elementary element of filmmaking.
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Re: Mulan (Live-Action)

Post by Sotiris »

I doubt she did a screen test but who knows? I remember Ewan McGregor admitting to being cast as Lumiere sight unseen. No audition, no screen test, nothing. Something that came back to bite them when they discovered he couldn't do a French accent for the life of him and had to hire him a vocal coach. The casting process in live-action Disney films is severely lacking. That's how so many roles in their films are miscast (in my opinion). They value recognizability over anything else. Casting greatly affects the quality of a film even when the roles are not demanding or challenging. It can really make or break a film. Scorsese said that "more than ninety percent of directing a picture is the right casting" and I truly believe that.
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Re: Mulan (Live-Action)

Post by thedisneyspirit »

I hope this finally wakes people up to the situation in China and people see Disney doesn't mind oppressive governments as long as they give them money.
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Re: Mulan (Live-Action)

Post by estefan »

There's now another account that says it's only the traditional few weeks of re-shoots.

The trades haven't reported anything about the reshoots (I believe Hollywood Reporter was the first to break the news about the extensive Rogue One reshoots), which is why I'm unsurprisingly skeptical about these Mulan reshoots taking several months.
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Re: Mulan (Live-Action)

Post by rodrigo_ca »

At this point I'd rather believe a source I've never seen over the DisInsider (at least until The Little Mermaid starring Harry Styles premieres)
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Re: Mulan (Live-Action)

Post by Sotiris »

Daniel Richtman wrote:Since I see the news are already out there...There were some casting grids going around for Mulan reshoots saying they'll take a couple of months. Starting this month. I know there was a report from China saying this isn't the case but I trust an official casting grid more than I trust China. Plus they said the same thing about Dark Phoenix and we know how this turned out...Not saying Mulan is gonna end up being a bad movie, I really hope it'll be great but they are reshooting it and for more than just two weeks. That's it.
Source: https://twitter.com/DanielRPK/status/11 ... 3085708288
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Re: Mulan (Live-Action)

Post by Sotiris »

Cover for the tie-in book "Mulan: Before the Sword" and interview with the author.

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National Book Award finalist Grace Lin will publish Mulan: Before the Sword next year, an original middle-grade novel that sets the Disney heroine’s story just before the events that transpire in the upcoming Walt Disney Studios live-action film, Mulan. As the synopsis goes: “When Hua Mulan’s beloved little sister is bitten by a poisonous spider, Mulan embarks on a quest filled with incredible encounters and obstacles in order to save her.”
Source: https://ew.com/books/2019/10/24/grace-l ... r-excerpt/
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