director of the millennium

"Compared with the original version?" Liu Yifei frowned and began to think.

Of course she had watched the original animation. After all, when the "Mulan" animation was popular in China, she was just over ten years old and she also loved watching this animated film.

But after thinking about it carefully, she shook her head and said, "The script of this live-action movie is still very different from the original animation."

"After all, the original animation was less than 90 minutes long, which was a bit short, and the original version was too traditional. It was almost an ancient Chinese story, except for the interesting Mushu dragon."

"Disney's current live-action princess films are still mainly magical, so this time's "Mulan" movie also adds a lot of magical elements, including a witch, and the settings of various protagonists are also richer, and the grassland Khan also appears."

"The scene is definitely more grand, it's an S-class Hollywood production."

Hearing this, the corners of Wu Yuan's mouth twitched. How come, after a year, this "Mulan" is still the same as he remembered.

It is true that Disney does attach great importance to this princess film and is indeed targeting the global market. It can be said that it has put a lot of effort into this film. Even the promotional song is in four languages.

However, if the script of this movie doesn’t change at all, and if it encounters force majeure such as the epidemic, then the possibility of this movie flopping is almost 100%!

"When does the crew plan to start filming?" Wu Yuan asked again with a frown.

"It will be in the second half of next year. The early preparations will still take a lot of time. The costume team alone has more than 40 people, and more than 1000 sets of costumes need to be made. It may take more than three months to complete."

"Adding to the selection of filming locations and set construction, it may take until the second half of next year for filming to start. If all goes well, it will not be released until early 2021 or summer 2021."

"The Disney people told me that this movie will be the most important project for Disney in the next two years, and it is more important than Beauty and the Beast!"

"Beauty and the Beast" is a live-action princess film released by Disney last year. The heroine is Emma Watson, who became a global celebrity for her role as Hermione and became the "first love" of a generation of young British and American people.

This movie received little response in China, and only earned 5 million yuan at the domestic box office when it was released last year. However, its performance in the global market is terrifying, with a North American box office of over 5 million US dollars and a global box office of 12.63 billion US dollars, becoming the world's number one box office in 2017.

It was also because of the outstanding performance of this movie that Disney turned its attention to live-action princess films.

Before this, after the end of the "Pirates of the Caribbean" series, Disney had not been able to launch any live-action movies with international influence, and once again went back to the old path of animated movies.

However, in the field of animated films, Disney is facing increasing competitive pressure. DreamWorks is rising in front, and Universal, which holds the "Despicable Me" series IP, is competing for the market in the back. Although Disney's "Zootopia" also performed very well, it is no longer the same as the 90s when Disney was the only dominant player.

Under such circumstances, Disney has re-opened the market for live-action princess films, which must be taken very seriously.

Therefore, even under Wu Yuan's butterfly effect, Hollywood has taken the threat of Chinese films more seriously. In the past two or three years, after the Chinese film market surpassed North America, Hollywood giants have even been secretly discussing how to suppress Chinese films.

Under such circumstances, Disney hesitated for two years and finally decided to make a live-action movie of "Mulan", which shows its determination and attitude.

There is no way. Disney was originally hesitating between the two IPs, "Mulan" and "The Mermaid". These two IPs are both excellent princess films for Disney.

In the end, Disney chose "Mulan" because the animated film "Mulan" has achieved great success worldwide, especially in the European and American markets, where its cultural elements are very well accepted. These elements not only did not become an obstacle to the audience's understanding, but instead became a plus for the film. It can be said that the animated film "Mulan" was able to represent Disney princess films until the emergence of "Frozen", which replaced "Mulan".

However, it is quite difficult to adapt "Frozen" into a live-action movie, and the animation value of this IP is still very high, so it is not yet time to adapt it into a live-action version.

That leaves Disney with this option.

"Hmm," Wu Yuan thought for a while before hesitating and said, "If the earliest it will be released is in early 2021, it's not impossible to shoot it."

“Just being a part of this film would be very risky.”

"Disney's live-action princess movies will not be accepted by Chinese audiences, especially movies with a Chinese cultural background. If the script is similar to the Mulan animation, it may be a win-win situation for both sides."

"But if Disney were to drastically change the script and add in settings like witches and spirits, domestic audiences would definitely not be interested and might even criticize it as a bad movie."

"If you really want to make this movie, you have to consider the polarization of word of mouth that this movie may face."

"But if the target is purely overseas markets, this movie is indeed a good choice."

Although Wu Yuan is well aware of how badly the original Mulan movie was criticized in China, it is undeniable that this movie was aimed at the international market rather than the domestic market from the very beginning.

It is normal that domestic audiences do not like Disney-style princess movies.

The word-of-mouth feedback for the live-action movie "Mulan" abroad is actually quite good. Even though it encountered the force majeure of the epidemic, the movie was forced to be released on Disney+ streaming media without even being released in theaters. However, its performance after being released on streaming media is really good, whether it is on-demand data, reviews, or the number of paying users attracted, they are all very impressive.

The movie even gained a group of fans overseas, who spontaneously promoted the movie on foreign social media platforms and took photos holding various "Mulan" materials.

In general, as a Disney princess film aimed at the global market, especially the European and American markets, "Mulan" is qualified.

It’s just that this movie cannot please Chinese movie fans, and even its "heretical" content will disgust Chinese movie fans.

But even if Liu Yifei were to take on this movie, her main consideration was to expand the international market. Her influence in China is already high enough, and she doesn't need to use domestic box office results to prove herself.

It would be beneficial for her to take on the film "Mulan", especially now that the film's start date has been postponed, so it will not be scheduled for release until early 2021 at the earliest.

But Wu Yuan is very clear that by that time Disney will definitely choose to postpone the release. In the original time and space, "Mulan" was released on streaming media in August 2020 because it could not be delayed any longer. It has been 8 years from the casting in 2017 to 2020. No matter how big Disney is, it cannot afford to delay.

But now that it has been postponed for a year, there is a high probability that the film will be able to be released in theaters normally. I can't say that it can get as good box office as "Beauty and the Beast", but with Disney's influence, the global box office of 5-8 million US dollars is still guaranteed.

In this way, this is a good cake! (End of this chapter)