Fa Mulan is coming to the big screen. Latest reports claimed Sony Pictures will bring the first live-action "Mulan" movie to life.
On Sept. 8, Thursday, Sony Pictures former executive, Doug Belgrad, declared that he will co-finance the live-action "Mulan" movie, Variety reported. The planned project, which will be produced and co-financed by a Chinese partner, will be shot in China with a yet-to-be-announced mostly Chinese cast.
There is no word yet on who will write and direct the live-action movie, but it will be supervised and part-funded by 2.0 Entertainment. They will also co-finance other upcoming movies, including "Bad Boys 3", "Zombieland 2", "Peter Rabbit" and the "Charlies Angels" reboot.
The live-action "Mulan" movie is based on an actual historic figure, Hua Mulan, who assumes her aged father's place in the army. She was among the most skilled warriors China ever saw.
Not long after the news made noise on the web, about 90,000 individuals had signed a petition calling for Sony Pictures to practice greater cultural sensitivity when casting the live-action "Mulan" movie. Petition founder, Natalie Molnar, stated casting white Caucasian actors and actresses in roles originally intended to be characters of "color" had an immediate and harmful effects on both the film and its audience.
"Whitewashing implies that people of color cannot be heroes (although they may at times be villains or supporting characters), leaving it far more difficult for countless children around the world to see themselves in the stories they love and think that they too can make a difference," Molnar wrote, as quoted by Metro. "It perpetuates a standard of beauty and goodness wherein whites are considered the ideal and norm."
Meanwhile, this is not the first time that classic fairytales are being remade into a live-action film. First, there was 2014's "Maleficent," which was then trailed byJon Favreau's "The Jungle Book" and Kenneth Branagh's "Cinderella."
The live-action adaptation of the 1991 animated musical film, "Beauty and the Beast," is now slated to hit the movie theaters on March 17, 2017. It stars an ensemble cast that includes Emma Watson, Dan Stevens, Luke Evans, Kevin Kline and Josh Gad, with the voices of Ewan McGregor, Stanley Tucci, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Audra McDonald, Ian McKellen, and Emma Thompson.
Check out Walt Disney's 1998 animated 'Mulan' film below: