‘Mulan’ recruits Jason Scott Lee for kick-butt sequences
LOS ANGELES: Brace yourselves for some frantic kickbutt sequences in Disney’s liveaction version of Mulan.
Disney has just recruited Jason Scott Lee ( Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story) to portray a villainous warrior leader.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Lee, who is an American of Chinese and Hawaiian descent, portrays the scary Bori Khan, a warrior leader who is intent on avenging his father’s death.
He joins Gong Li on the antagonists’ side, while the heroine’s ( Liu Yifei’s) team includes Donnie Yen, relative New Zealand newcomer Yoson
He joins Gong Li on the antagonists’ side, while the heroine’s (Liu Yifei) team includes Donnie Yen.
An and Marco Polo’s Ron Yuan. Jet Li, Pitch Perfect’s Utkarsh Ambudkar, New Zealand actress Xana Tang and comic actor Chum Ehelepola round out the cast.
Jason Reed, Chris Bender, Jake Weiner and executive producer Bill Kong are producing the Niki Caro-helmed film, scheduled for a March 27, 2020 release. Executives Tendo Nagenda and Jessica Virtue are overseeing the production for Disney.
Lee is no stranger to Disney, having starred as Mowgli in Buena Vista’s 1994 live- action The Jungle Book and voiced a character in 2002’s animated Lilo & Stitch. But he may be best known for portraying the lead in Universal’s 1993 biopic Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story. His recent credits include Netflix’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny and indie film Burn Your Maps, starring Vera Farmiga and Jacob Tremblay.
Lee is represented by Untitled Entertainment and attorney Geoff Oblath of Jackoway Austen.
Notably, Disney had picked Liu Yifei to play Mulan following accusations against Hollywood of ‘whitewashing’.
The live- action adaptation of the 1998 animated movie will tell the tale of the famed Chinese heroine Hua Mulan.
According to information released by China’s Film Bureau, Mulan was registered as a “Chinese-assisted production” instead of “Chinese co-production,” meaning the film will be categorised as a foreign import and receive only 25 per cent of China box office revenues.