Since everyone online is doing dream casts of Disney’s live action Mulan , I figured we should do one, too. Who would you nominate? To get you started, here’s mine:
Mulan: Ni Ni
- She’s gorgeous #Cfensi, # Ni Ni, #Gorgeous + Beautiful
- She rides on whales and kisses lions, so she’s clearly a Disney princess.
- She’s in the right age group (sorry, Ming-na Wen and Lucy Liu)
- Her English is good
- It’ll answer jjss08’s questions about how she would look in hanfu
- She’s only the most photogenic Chinese actress ever
Shang: Wang Leehom
He can sing, he can dance, he can act, he’s good-looking, he has abs, he can fight, his English is perfect, he’s perfect, why isn’t he cast yet? (P.S. Whatever happened to that rumor about him and Zhang Ziyi starring in Disney’s Mulan and why didn’t it come true? )
Younger alternative : Aarif Rahman, take everything about Wang Leehom, including age, and multiply by some fraction strictly less than one.
Shawn Dou, who’s a better actor than Aarif Rahman and Wang Leehom. Also he’s Canadian so English shouldn’t be an issue.
Other alternative: M.I.C. Yaoyao, because I think he has decent pronunciation(?) and he’s gorgeous. Mostly because I’m just in a M.I.C. phase. Plus, maybe then Xiaoxin can play Mulan since their teacher sung as Mulan before.
That’s all I can think of now, what are your thoughts?
Ni Ni X Aarif Lee, please and thank you. The only problem I could see: the small height difference and Aarif sounding a bit on the British side when he speaks English (which is understandable). If this is an English film, which I would assume it is if it’s under Disney, then there are other non-Chinese alternatives too. Claudia Kim from Avengers 2 for example! Once Warrior’s Gate comes out though, there is definitely a chance for Ni Ni to garner further interest in the American film industry (and, thus, interest from Disney).
Given that this is a Hollywood production, aren’t we being a little bit optimistic in assuming that the characters won’t all be played by white actors? = _ =
I’m pretty sure given the background story of Mulan they have to cast Asian actors/actresses otherwise it might as well not be called Mulan.
I think they’re going to probably cast at least Mulan as Asian given the huge anticipated backlash otherwise. Not sure if she’ll be Chinese or even full Asian, though. Like the girl who plays Chloe Bennet’s mom in SHIELD is clearly mixed and had horrible Chinese even though she’s suppose to be from Hunan …
Chloe Bennett as Mulan then? Although I had no idea she was half Chinese at first, she has perfect English and good Mandarin (former pop star in China!). And she currently works for ABC, which is owned by Disney.
There was a rumour that Lee-hom was auditioning for the role of Iron First, the 4th Netflix/Marvel tv series. That would be cool if it was true.
Yeah, Dichen Lachman is an Australian actress. She’s half-Tibetan. I guess she sort of looks like a more pointy Pan Chen? But she doesn’t really pull off Hunanese anywhere near convincingly, does she?
We can probably say with confidence that Mulan will be played by a Chinese (American) actress, but I’m half-expecting to see a lot of Korean cast members. It seems that any Asian role in Hollywood that doesn’t feature Ken Wantanabe ends up going to a Korean or biracial actor, depending on how “ethnic” they’re casting.
But Disney will probably play up to the China market a lot with this one, so… we’ll see, I guess.
It may sound cliche, but I would love to see Liu Shi Shi as Mulan. If not for Disney than for a series. In ‘Sound of the Desert’ there was a period of time when she was disguised as a boy in General WuJi’s camp and it dawned on me how much she looked like Mulan. Shi Shi can be pretty kick-ass too with her dance background. With the right stunt teacher and choreographer, she could be an action star.
For the actor, I’ll get back to you on that one
I hate you; now (whoever they cast) I’ll always think about how we /could/ have had Ni Ni as Mulan in a (presumably) super high-budget Disney film. I didn’t really like the live action version of Cinderella though (even though the costumes were clearly really expensive), so…hoping they do a better job with Mulan.
Cinderella is potentially the most boring Disney story ever, though. Even Snow White had the poisoned apple and heart-cutting to make things exciting. I imagine Beauty and the Beast and Mulan to be a lot more fun.
Also, doesn’t that photo of her just liven up the entire front page? I can’t believe she looks so good even in a snapshot.
Ni Ni in martial arts training for new film. Let’s get down to business ~
http://www.weibo.com/2554404125/CekaCvF4o
Ahaha that comment about Aarif Rahman though. So true. He actually resembles Wang Leehom so much.
I hope they don’t force the Asian actors to have an accent, like that abhorrent show fresh off the boat. This movie should be in Chinese with subtitles, or if they find Asian American actors, let them speak accent-free!
They can make them speak with British accents.