With Disney's recent surge in adapting their animated classics into live-action blockbusters, they've found that the fairy tale adaptation business is a crowded one. Disney's The Jungle Book had a rival project in Jungle Book: Origins, Universal is matching The Little Mermaid with a project of their own, and now Sony has found a director for Mulan just days after Disney announced a 2018 release date for their film
Sony has hired Game of Thrones and Fringe director Alex Graves to helm their version of the Chinese legend, which tells the story of Hua Mulan, a female who poses as a man to fight in a great war in place of her aging father. Jason Keller, who previously penned a different rival fairy tale film, Mirror Mirror, is writing the screenplay for this as well.
So with Disney still trying to find a director for their film, and names such as Ang Lee passing on it, this gives Sony an edge in getting Mulan to screens first. [THR]
