While Disney’s known for being a family-friendly company that often doesn’t find itself embroiled in political or social scandal, one of its upcoming projects has landed in hot water on a number of occasions. The studio’s live-action remake of Mulan, which is set to release early next year, has come under fire for something as (relatively) unimportant as the removal of the much-beloved Mushu, to more serious allegations, such as claims of historical inaccuracies.
Of course, there are a number of controversies linked to China as well, as the country has been accused of using social media manipulation to promote the film and the lead actress, Liu Yifei, has been criticized for siding with the Chinese government over pro-democracy Hong Kong protestors. And as if all that wasn’t enough, more bad news arrived just the other day.
A new report from Skyler Shuler of The DisInsider claimed that the movie had to undergo extensive reshoots to help fix up some “significant battle sequences,” with Shuler stating that additional photography would last four months. And while there was initially some cause for concern, it turns out that The DisInsider’s report was false.
Chinese film and box office analyst Gavin Feng took to Twitter this week to tell us that Shuler’s claims are incorrect, noting that the reshoots would only last a couple of weeks at most and not four months. As Gavin points out, additional photography isn’t uncommon, either, especially for movies of this size. After all, Mulan‘s estimated budget is pegged at $290 to $300 million, which would make it one of the most expensive films of all time.
With all this in mind, there’s a good chance that Mulan will still release on schedule and avoid any potential delay. And with a premiere date of March 27th on the docket, we won’t have to wait too long to check out the highly-anticipated live-action remake for ourselves.