As Disney continues to make live-action adaptations/reboots of their animated movies a pillar of their film slate, the studio is aggressively finding the best talent around town to help them realize their ambitions. The choices are sometimes left-field — such as Alex Ross Perry writing “Winnie The Pooh” or Guy Ritchie directing “Aladdin“ — but the opportunity to play in Disney’s big sandbox can be hard to resist for many. Except for Ang Lee.
READ MORE: 2017 Best Director Oscar Predictions
THR reveals that as Disney searches for a (preferably Asian) director for their live-action “Mulan,” due in cinemas in 2018, one person who has turned down the gig is Lee. And really, who can blame him? The director who pushed the technological envelope with “Life Of Pi,” and is doing it again with this fall’s high-frame-rate drama “Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk,” has more than enough to toys to play with already. And given his last blockbuster outing was the roundly criticized “Hulk,” who can blame him if he’d rather pursue his own projects instead, one of which includes his long-developing 3D boxing drama about the sport that will be set in the ’60s and ’70s, and is apparently poised to go next.
So the search will continue, and while Disney doesn’t quite have to worry about the competition, Sony does have a rival project brewing too, but it’s not expected to be ready until years after Disney’s. Which begs the question why bother in the first place.
“Mulan” opens on November 2, 2018.