BBC news-Screen Talk: Miley's mileage

Screen Talk: Miley's mileage



By Stuart Kemp of the Hollywood Reporter
The transition from little girl family star to lady actress looking for grown-up material is an oft-trodden but rocky road for many of Hollywood's finest.

Next up for the long walk to serious adulthood in showbiz land is Miley Cyrus (above left). A Disney princess for years, she is now eyeing an adaptation of Lisa
McMann's young-adult paranormal-thriller novel Wake as her vehicle to the world of grown ups. Christopher Landon, the co-writer of Disturbia, is adapting the book
for the screen. Wake is the first of three novels by McMann about a 17-year-old girl named Janie who has the unwanted ability to become sucked into people's dreams. Not surprisingly, she sees things she would rather not see.

He won't be back yet



Overheard recently in Los Angeles, but not from the mouth of Arnold Schwarzenegger: "Your script, give it to me." It seems that plans for an animated Terminator
movie are on hold due to a messy rights situation. Pacificor, the franchise-rights holder, recently sent a cease-and-desist letter to Hannover House, the firm
that announced the animation last week. Pacificor says it did not "license or authorize" the movie, called Terminator 3000, and wants co-producers Hannover and
Red Bear Entertainment to stop talking it up. Eric Parkinson, the CEO of Hannover House, maintains that he gained animation rights to the franchise as part of his
compensation package when exiting as CEO of Hemdale, the company that produced the first Terminator film.

Lucky breaks



The TV star Sarah Wayne Callies (above centre) is breaking out the typewriter after a successful move to film acting. The actress, a series regular on Fox's
Prison Break, has adapted Campbell Geeslin's children's book Elena's Serenade, about a girl who crosses the Mexican desert to become a glass-blower, for the big
screen. Her adaptation has been given the Hollywood thumbs-up, attracting an option deal from the producer Cameron Lamb. Callies' star is on the rise; her movie
resumé is expanding also. She just wrapped turns in a trio of indie movies including the horror thriller Faces in the Crowd.

Ideas are currency



The global financial crisis hit Hollywood as much as any other industry: credit was hard to come by, big buck investors were laid low and corporations started
keeping things simple. What better breeding ground for a movie script idea? The writer J C Chandor has come up with Margin Call, a script he will direct based
around employees of an investment bank over a tumultuous 24-hour period during the 2008 financial collapse. Simon Baker, of The Mentalist fame, is set to star
alongside Britain's own Paul Bettany (above right). Baker will portray a ruthless, high- powered securities broker who oversees characters played by Kevin Spacey,
Stanley Tucci and Zachary Quinto and drives his colleagues to win by any means necessary. Bettany will play a top-tier trader, unabashedly unafraid even as the
crisis deepens. Just don't mention it sounding very like Wall Street all those years ago. Greed is, after all, good.

A blaze of Charisma



What a name for an actress. Charisma Carpenter, named after a perfume by her mother, is aiming to build up her movie roles after regular turns on Buffy the Vampire
Slayer, Angel and Veronica Mars. After an outing in The Expendables alongside Sly Stallone, Jason Statham and co, Carpenter is now lined up alongside Ty Olsson to
star in Crash Site. The film details the story of a family vacation in the woods, during which a couple must fight their way back to civilization through injuries,
creepy critters and wild animals after their Jeep crashes. Jason Bourque is directing.

BBC News - Entertainment in Disney's Mulan takes a hammer to a Chinese

Disney's Mulan takes a hammer to a Chinese takes a hammer to a Chinese puzzle

The new live action update will hopefully do better than this animated effort, which pillages and burns its way through sixth-century Chinese history



Culture shock ... Disney makes free with an ancient Chinese ballad in its 1998 film. Poor Mulan. All photographs: Walt Disney Company/Ronald Grant Archive


Director: Tony Bancroft and Barry Cook
Entertainment grade: B+
History grade: E


1. Mulan
2. Production year: 1998
3. Country: USA
4. Cert (UK): U
5. Runtime: 93 mins
6. Directors: Barry Cook, Tony Bancroft
7. Cast: Eddie Murphy, George Takei, Ming-Na Wen, Pat Morita
8. More on this film

Mulan was a legendary Chinese heroine, said to have disguised herself as a man and joined an army.

People



Going down in flames ... cute talking dragon explains Disney's plot to Mulan

It seems young Mulan is too clumsy to qualify as a decent potential bride, even after a makeover song. But her father stops obsessing about that when he is
called up to serve in the Chinese army against an invasion. Mulan disguises herself as a man to go in her father's place. So far,
so accurate to the Ballad of Mulan, the poem originally written down in the sixth century that is the only real evidence for Mulan's existence. Researchers
have tended to identify Mulan with the Northern Wei dynasty, probably during the fifth or sixth century when its territory was frequently invaded.

War



Fire away ... Mulan goes to join the war with talking dragon still prattling


Speaking of frequent invasions, a whole load of foreigners suddenly swarms over the Great Wall of China. These are identified as the Huns. Oh dear.
The Hunnic empire was at its largest under the famous Attila (ruled 434-453), who may have been a contemporary of Mulan's, if she existed.
But the eastern limit of Attila's territory was around the Caucasus, 3,000 miles from Northern Wei territory, and the thrust of his military
efforts was westwards into Europe, not eastwards to China. So this isn't Attila. Some scholars think the Huns were linked with the Xiongnu,
a central Asian tribal confederacy that did frequently go to war with the Han dynasty of China in the third century. But that was at least a couple of
hundred years before Mulan's time, and in any case the link between the Xiongnu and the Huns is disputed. It's not at all obvious who these fellows
are supposed to be, though, thanks to Disney, it's very obvious they're the baddies.
Race



Horses for sources ... I thought the Huns lived 3,000 miles away?
Disney's Huns are a bunch of evil-looking semi-monsters with handlebar moustaches. Their leader, Shan Yu, has sunken yellow eyes, vampire teeth
and massive claws. And to think they wasted the makeover song on Mulan. The movie's Shan Yu is more or less fictional. There was a famous Chinese warrior
called Xiang Yu who went to war with the Han emperor in the third century, but he wasn't a Hun. Or a Xiongnu. This is a right old mess, and more than a
little bit racist. Whoever the film's Huns are, they'd have a right to be really quite cross.
Violence




Clutching at straws ... Disney struggles to make Mulan both a killer and a heroine
Mulan herself gets made over again, this time as a soldier, and with the other troops goes to face the Hun army. This puts the film in a quandary. War notoriously involves violence and death, but Disney heroines do not whip out swords and hack people to death in a frenzied bloodlust, leaving severed limbs and straggly entrails all over the place. Disney heroines sing nice songs to woodland creatures and tidy up cottages for dwarves. Gingerly, the film attempts to tread a middle path, implying that Mulan annihilates most of the Hun army by causing an avalanche, and having her dispatch Shan Yu with a load of fireworks. Very pretty. But still technically killing. "My little baby, off to destroy people," sighs her talking dragon happily. The Ballad of Mulan doesn't go in for visceral descriptions, but it does mention that Mulan travelled 10,000 miles in the service of the war machine, that she was away for 10 years, and that 100 battles were fought. It's a stretch to imagine she pulled this off without hacking at least a few people to death. There's no talking dragon, either.


Verdict


Dragon lady ... the real Mulan would probably have burned down your house


There is little historical evidence on Mulan and her time, but this film has managed to make a complete hash of it anyway. Still, as Disney heroines go, Mulan herself is a clear improvement on the standard-issue drippy princess. If a dwarf asked her to tidy his cottage, she'd probably burn it down.

BBC News - Entertainment in Mulan English-language film

Zhang Ziyi to star in Mulan English-language film

The actress will be trained with bow and arrow for the role

Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi is to team up with Speed director Jan de Bont to make an English-language version of the Chinese legend Mulan.

The ancient folk story of a woman who replaces her father in battle, was made famous worldwide by an animated Disney film in 1998.

A Chinese-language version of the tale was released last year.

Producer Christopher Brough told The Associated Press that filming will begin this year in eastern China.

Ziyi shot to stardom after starring in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and has since gone on to appear in several high profile Hollywood movies, including Rush Hour 2 and Memoirs of a Geisha.

The actress will undergo bow and arrow and combat training for her latest role.

Her manager Ling Lucas said: "She has complete trust in Jan de Bont to turn Mulan into a memorable screen legend."