‘Mulan’ release date postponed again
Disney delayed the theatrical release of ‘Mulan’ for a third time, all but officially putting an end to Hollywood’s hopes of salvaging a summer movie season.
The studio’s live-action remake was slated to debut in theaters on July 24. Instead, ‘Mulan’ will hit the big screen on Aug. 21, Variety wrote.
The move comes after news that Warner Bros. postponed the release of ‘Tenet,’ a sci-fi epic from director Christopher Nolan, for a second time. That film is now expected to debut on Aug. 12.
With ‘Tenet’s’ vacancy from release calendars, ‘Mulan’ was positioned to be the first major film to reignite movie going in North America. While Nolan, a preeminent supporter of movie theaters, had planned to usher audiences back to cinemas with ‘Tenet,’ industry insiders suggest that Disney didn’t want ‘Mulan’ to be the test case for new movies amid the pandemic.
‘Mulan,’ which cost $200 million to make, is expected to strongly resonate in China. But Chinese movie theaters are all currently closed, without a known reopening date. Given the importance of ‘Mulan’ in China, it would have been risky to release the movie and leave Chinese audiences behind.
This is the third time Disney has delayed ‘Mulan,’ which was directed by Niki Caro and stars Liu Yifei. It was originally set to open on March 27, but was pulled two weeks before as coronavirus began to spread in North America. The studio moved the film to the end of July, but some found that to be an optimistic delay since there was no guarantee that cinemas would be able to reopen to a significant degree by then.
Like the 1998 animated version, ‘Mulan’ follows a warrior who disguises herself as a man to spare her elderly father from having to serve in the military. It’s the first of Disney’s live-action remakes to be rated PG13, due to sequences of violence.
A rare Qur’an written on Chinese paper sold at auction for £7,016,250.
Dating from the 15th century, this Timurid or Aq Qoyunlu Qur’an from Iran was copied onto pages of Ming-era paper, that is gold flecked and in rich shades of deep blue, turquoise, pink purple, green, orange and cream, thenational.ae reported.
As part of the Art of the Islamic and Indian Worlds Including Oriental Rugs and Carpets sale, at the auctioneers Christie’s London, it is described as being an “exceptional” example, with calligraphy contained within elegant blue and gold lines, and pages decorated with gold roundel verse markers, and surah headings in gold.
Astonishingly beautiful, the book is covered with a stamped and gilt Safavid binding, while the pages inside have thuluth calligraphy in gold ruled panels, with medallions in the margin illuminated in white, blue and gold.
Prior to the sale it was expected to fetch between £600,000 and £900,000, however the bidding on the night was fast paced, and the final price realized on June 25 was £7,016,250.
Details of the buyer have not been released.