In its continuing effort to turn stories it has previously made as animated adventures into live-action productions, Disney alighted on Mulan back in 2015. It's now barreling through the pre-production stage and the star has been found. Chinese actress Liu Yifei (AKA Crystal Liu) will play the lead.
Niki Caro is directing the film, and dispatched a team of casting directors across five continents, whittling down nearly 1,000 candidates for the role, focusing on Chinese women to play Hua Mulan, who disguises herself as a man to take her father's place in the army in fifth-century China.
Liu has a huge following in China after breaking out in TV, and has appeared in movies such as The Forbidden Kingdom and 2014's Outcast. More recently, fantasy romance Once Upon A Time became a huge hit at the Chinese summer box office.
With a script that has seen work from Lauren Hynek, Elizabeth Martin, Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, the new Mulan is aiming to be on screens in 2019.