A $30 million live-action version of Mulan, the legend of a heroic Chinese girl-warrior popularized by Disney's 1998 animated movie, will be among the first films made by Xinhua Media Entertainment in partnership with the state-run China Film Group.
Brough and Stephen Waterman of MoviePlus in Los Angeles will produce with XME managing director David Lee, the former head of the Weinstein Co.'s Asia film fund.
"China Film and Xinhua came in with significant funding to make this a co-production when we met them at Cannes in May," Brough said. "They liked that we were taking a Hollywood approach to a classic Chinese story."
Brough said the new version of the film about a girl who goes to war in her injured father's stead was written by debut Canadian screenwriter Iris Rey and would differ from the Disney version.
"The Disney 'toon version takes a four-foot-high viewpoint from a child's perspective. We will introduce Mulan at an older age and blend her story with a romance," Brough said. "Mulan is China's Joan of Arc story."
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