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WIRE Buzz: Mulan might be pushed again; pandemic thriller Songbird sets cast; and Ravage
After vacating its original release date in late March as a result of the growing pandemic, Disney's live-action Mulan remake may end up getting pushed for the second time.
Per sources close to The Hollywood Reporter, the growing rate of coronavirus cases in states throughout the U.S. has "Hollywood ... increasingly concerned that the late summer tentpole will have to give up its date and relocate to safer shores."
As it stands, Mulan is currently set for release on Friday, July 24 and will be followed a week later by Christopher Nolan's Tenet (itself delayed by two weeks). THR points out that the success of both films is heavily reliant on theaters in New York and Los Angeles, which haven't set reopening dates yet. Earlier this month, the National Association of Theatre Owners predicted that theaters would be back at 90 percent operation by mid-to-late July.
Most chains are planning to open their doors again between late June and early July, with reduced occupancy quotas, distanced seating charts, mandatory mask requirements, and rigorous sanitization practices. Fandango has a nifty resource to help you keep track of it all.
Mulan was directed by Niki Caro and stars Liu Yifei in the title role.
Deadline brings word that Songbird — a pandemic-centric thriller (what, you mean reality?) — has locked in its ensemble cast of Demi Moore, Craig Robinson, Paul Walter Hauser, and Peter Stormare.
Michael Bay is co-producing the film, which was written by Adam Mason and Simon Boyes. Mason (Into the Dark) is also hopping into the director's chair. The project is set to be one of the first movies to restart production in Los Angeles. It "will utilize strict social distancing practices and innovative techniques that will allow for shooting to begin imminently," writes Deadline.
Said to be modeled in the vein of Cloverfield and Paranormal Activity, Songbird is set in a near future, where the virus is still raging among the population. A reinforced lockdown, martial law, and murderous vigilantes have turned Los Angeles into a dystopian class system.
However, the main narrative is more of a love story. The protagonist is an essential delivery man with virus immunity, who must traverse the city's dangers to be with his isolating girlfriend. Moore is playing the matriarch of "a well-connected family ... who will stop at nothing to protect her family and maintain her way of life."
In another bit of Deadline reporting, we learn that survival horror flick, Ravage, is getting a U.S. release from Brainstorm Media. Written and directed by Teddy Grennan, the movie centers on a nature photographer (Succession's Annabelle Dexter-Jones) who is kidnapped after witnessing a violent crime in the woods. Using her wits to escape, the photographer begins to take out her captors, one at a time.
Bruce Dern (Freaks) and Robert Longstreet (Doctor Sleep) co-star.
"We're thrilled to be working for the first time with VMI on Ravage and excited to bring a stylish, satisfying and gritty female-led horror film to U.S. audiences," Michelle Shwarzstein, Brainstorm Media's Vice President of Marketing and Acquisitions, said in a statement to DL.
"This will be the first of many partnerships with Brainstorm Media and we felt that Ravage was the perfect fit. Ravage is exciting, raw and Anabelle Dexter Jones is one of the best female protagonists that the audience will root for till the end," added JD Beaufils, VMI's President of Sales.
The film premiered last year at the Genre Blast Film Festival in Virginia.
