WIRE Buzz: Mulan sets wide Disney+ release; Friday the 13th box set tracks down lost gore; more

Looks like fans won't have to wait too long for Mulan to join the rest of Disney+'s streaming catalogue after its premium release on Sept. 4. 

Deadline reports that the upcoming film, which opted for an online "Premiere Access" release following the shutdown of theaters worldwide due to the coronavirus pandemic, will hit Disney+ for no extra charge on Dec. 4. Until then, fans will be able to purchase and stream the movie, which will remain in their collections as long as they remain subscribers to the service, for $29.99 — but only until 11:59 p.m. PT on Nov. 2, when premium access to the movie will end, leaving almost a month-long gap until it's available to everyone. 

Mulan won't be the first movie this year to go the premium VOD route for its release, having been preceded by the much anticipated Bill & Ted Face the Music as well as Dreamworks' Trolls World Tour and Warner Bro.s'. Scoob!. 

The Disney film is a live-action adaptation of their beloved 1998 animated movie of the same name, and will largely follow the original's plot, with the titular Mulan (Liu Yifei) pretending to be a man so she can take her ailing father's place in the Imperial Chinese Army, before going on to defend and save China.

Donnie Yen (Rogue One), Jason Scott Lee (Hawai Five-0), Yoson An (The Luminaries), Gong Li (Memoires of a Geisha), and Jet Li (The Expendables) also star in the film, which is directed by Niki Caro (North Country), and written by Rick Jaffa (Jurassic World), Amanda Silver (Jurassic World), Lauren Hynek (The Christmas Ball), and Elizabeth Martin (The Christmas Ball). 

Mulan will be available on Premiere Access on Disney+, starting Sept 4.

If you still can't get over the latest season of The Umbrella Academy, then you're not alone. 

Citing data compiled by streaming analytics firm FlixPatrol, Variety reports that Netflix's adaptation of Gerard Way's comic series was the streamer's most popular show in August, with the series having been featured consistently on the platform's "Daily Top 10" list, starting from the release of Season 2 on July 31. 

Acquired title Shameless came in second, followed closely by The Legend of Korra, the follow-up series, to Avatar: The Last Airbender, which only launched on the platform on Aug. 14, but has quickly gained a following as new fans flock to the series and old ones continue to rewatch it. This follows A:TLA's record set earlier this summer, when the animated show remained in first place on Netflix's daily list for 58 days after its release on the platform.

Rounding out the top five is World's Most Wanted, followed by Lucifer, which premiered the first part of its fifth season late last month on Aug. 21, which really speaks to the series' popularity. The fan-favorite series was rescued by Netflix after being cancelled by Fox in 2018. It will return to Netflix for a sixth and final season, though no release date has been set for that. 

The Umbrella Academy, The Legend of Korra, and Lucifer are all still streaming on Netflix. 

There's a lot for fans of Friday the 13th to look forward to later this year. Not only is Scream Factory releasing a 16-disc Blu-ray collection of the series on Oct. 13, but there's a special surprise waiting for fans of the first sequel in the series, Friday the 13th Part 2, in the form of recovered lost footage! 

As many longtime fans of the film series will know, Part 2 had a whole 48 seconds cut from it so as to not receive an X rating from the MPAA for its theatrical release. All of those moments feature a good amount of gore — hence their being cut — with characters being killed in gruesome ways on camera, without the film cutting away during the most horrific bits. 

The footage, which features one particular scene from the movie that sees a spear pierce a couple while they're having sex, was tracked down on an old VHS copy of the movie, as explained by Scream Factory in the Facebook post below.

"We do want to specifically call out one extra in advance because we’re still in shock and can’t believe our good luck in obtaining it," said Scream Factory of the footage, which will be included as a standalone extra, rather than edited back into the film. "For the first time ever, you will get to see the infamous deleted gore footage from 1981’s Friday the 13th Part 2! (And yes, it includes THAT 'Jeff and Sandra' scene). The footage is from a vintage VHS tape (we say this so to manage picture quality expectations) but it’s all there!"

They go on to add: "We couldn’t be more thrilled at this 'holy grail' discovery and we thank those immensely who helped us track it down."

And that's just part of a long and extensive list of extras. The Friday the 13th Blu-ray collection is available for pre-order on the Scream Factory website, where it will go on sale on Oct. 13.