Originally published March 19, 2017. Updated November 30, 2022.
With Beauty and the Beast raking in the cash at the box office and The Lion King gearing up to go into production this Spring, Disney’s president of Motion Picture Production Sean Bailey has been chatting to Vulture about the studio’s live-action adaptations of its animated classics, focussing on two projects in particular in Aladdin and Mulan.
“[Guy Ritche] became interested in doing a Disney movie and we talked a lot about it,” said Bailey. “When we talked about Aladdin, he said, ‘My stories are really about street hustlers. That’s what I know how to do. And Aladdin is a classic street hustler who makes good.’ Guy’s got his own version of that story in his life. But he wanted to honor and respect the Disney of it all. We never want to feel like we have a playbook to these things because we worry it’ll make us creatively complacent. The idea of a highly energized Guy Ritchie Disney musical felt like, Oh, we haven’t done that before.”
A casting call was recently issued for Aladdin, calling for Middle Eastern actors aged between 18 and 25 to play the roles of Aladdin and Princess Jasmine.
Meanwhile, Bailey also spoke about the Mulan adaptation, which is set to be directed by Niki Caro (Whale Rider, The Zookeeper’s Wife): “Mulan is clearly an empowered-female story but we can also do something new in this reimagining, make it a little more muscular, stronger, with touch of Ridley Scott. Obviously the idea of working with collaborators in China is an interesting opportunity too.”
The article also goes on to reveal that Mulan is not expected to feature musical numbers, although plans could change as it heads towards production.
Are you looking forward to Guy Ritchie’s Aladdin and Niki Caro’s Mulan? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below…
