Indeed, because of the animated Disney film, the character Mulan has become one of the most recognizable symbols of Chinese culture worldwide. Baby girls adopted from China have been named Mulan by their American parents. Disney has staged musical versions of the movie Mulan from Mexico to the Philippines. And posing for a photo with Mulan is a must for hordes of tourists at Hong Kong Disneyland. (See China’s long road to prosperity.)

Although it was too American for audiences in China (where it performed abysmally), Disney’s Mulan was a smash hit in the rest of the world, where it reeled in $300 million. That didn’t sit well with some Chinese, including Guo Shu, executive president of Starlight International Media Group, an entertainment company based in Beijing. “We commit ourselves to be a media with a sense of national responsibility,” she told the state-run People’s Daily. “Now that foreigners can produce a popular movie out of the story Hua Mulan, why can’t we Chinese present its own to the world?”

In 2006, she announced the production of a Chinese Mulan, and now that version has opened to reclaim the global Mulan-mania. On Nov. 27, the $12 million, mainland-funded live-action war epic premiered in mainland China, Singapore and Malaysia. It will hit screens in Hong Kong this week, and negotiations are on the table for release dates in the U.S. and Europe. (See pictures of Shanghai.)

The film’s Hong Kong director, Jingle Ma, says the new 115-minute Mulan is a sweeping melodrama that depicts the central character as an action hero, dutiful daughter and wistful romantic. The film stars Vicki Zhao Wei, who shot to fame in the late 1990s playing the wide-eyed lead role in the television series Princess Pearl. Zhao may have gotten the role because of her tomboy image in action films such as Red Cliff and So Close, but in Mulan, she appears with full makeup and long, glossy fingernails — even as a soldier.

While the Disney film wove comedy into a Disney-esque plot about a young girl breaking out of the confines of tradition to pursue her own destiny, the new Mulan focuses on patriotism, filial piety, romance and the difficulties of war. The formula is part of an evolving mainland genre that has seen filmmakers incorporating more nuanced, entertaining storytelling into patriotic plots. “China is anxious to be part of the global community. There’s a lot of concern over soft power right now,” says Poshek Fu, professor of cinema studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “Movies are a strong projection of that desire.”

The new Mulan is at least the 10th film version of the Hua Mulan tale (”Hua” is the heroine’s surname). Many of the previous films — like Mulan Joins the Army, released in 1939 in Japanese-occupied Shanghai — carried political messages during turbulent periods in the country’s history. In 1956, after the Communist Party had banned American films and nationalized the country’s film studios, a state-sponsored Hua Mulan was released, touting the party’s egalitarian gender policy. After many Chinese filmmakers fled communist-controlled China, the Shaw Brothers studio in Hong Kong gave overseas Chinese audiences a vision of a unified China in its 1963 film The Lady General Hua Mulan.

The latest Mulan is not the only post-Disney attempt to remake the folktale. In 2003, there was talk of a version starring Michelle Yeoh and Chow Yun-Fat. In 2006, the Weinstein Co. announced a big-budget Mulan film that would star Zhang Ziyi. Director Ma says his version comes at just the right time. “Eleven years ago, just because someone else made this film didn’t mean that we had to come back and make our version right away,” he says. “It was better to wait for things to cool down before we made our own Mulan. Back then, the Chinese market wasn’t mature yet, but now it’s ready.”

But there’s a foreign presence even in this Chinese attempt to take back its own. The Russian entertainer Vitas plays the role of a singer from a distant land held hostage by the nomadic and militant Rouran tribe, which is set on invading Chinese territory. The casting choice, Ma explained, was a simple marketing decision. Starlight International represents Vitas in China. And, who knows, the Russian actor could be key to the new Mulan’s conquest of foreign audiences. Take that, Disney.

Should that stateside estimate hold up, “2012,” will inch out Emmerich’s previous opening day record for 2004’s “The Day After Tomorrow” which clocked in at $23.5 million. In play at 3,404 theaters, “2012″ also marked the second best first day for a Sony release outside the summer season, following last November’s “Quantum of Solace” which generated $27 million.

The final three-day weekend for “Tomorrow,”which unspooled over the Memorial Day frame, was $68.7 million.

Booked in 58 territories abroad, “2012″ reeled in $36 million on Friday, putting its international total at an estimated $58.4 million and its worldwide tally at $82.1 million.

After a soft opening weekend, “Disney’s A Christmas Carol”slipped 38% from its opening day a week ago, grossing $5.6 million off 3,683 in second. The current B.O. for the motion capture film starring Jim Carrey stands at $46.6 million.

Placing third, Overture Films’ “The Men Who Stare at Goats” took $1.95 million off 2,453, down 58% in its second Friday for an eight-day cume of $19.2 million.

Lionsgate’s expansion of “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” surged over two fold from its limited bow a week ago in 18 locales, reaping $1.92 million from 174. The Lee Daniels drama currently counts a domestic B.O. of $4.7 million.

Universal’s sci-fi thriller “The Fourth Kind” landed fifth at the onset of its sophomore sesh with $1.8 million, down 65% on 2,530 and a running B.O. of $17.6 million.

Focus Features’ Blighty comedy “Pirate Radio” fell outside the top 10 with $882,000 from 882 for a per site of $1,000.

Wes Anderson’s stop-motion animated film “Fantastic Mr. Fox” from Fox Searchlight drew $72,000 from four sites for a boffo theater average of $17,880. Lending their voices to “Mr. Fox” are George Clooney in the title role and Meryl Streep as Mrs. Fox as well as other thesps from Anderson’s cinematic repertoire including Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Owen Wilson and Willem Dafoe.

Columbia Pictures is the latest studio to rev up a Marvel project on the heels of Disney’s pact to acquire Marvel Entertainment in a $4 billion deal.

Col is working on a second installment of “Ghost Rider,” with David Goyer in early talks to create the story and supervise writers for a film expected to once again star Nicolas Cage. Former Marvel topper Avi Arad, Michael De Luca and Steven Paul are producing, with Gary Foster as exec producer.

The “Ghost Rider” push comes amid a flurry of activity with Marvel characters at Sony, Fox, Universal and Paramount. The movement is necessary for those studios to retain rights to their respective Marvel superheroes. If the properties languish, the rights can be reclaimed by Marvel Entertainment, which is what happened with such properties as Dr. Strange, Black Panther and Iron Man. Iron Man was gathering dust at New Line for some time before Marvel turned the property into a self-financed blockbuster last year.

Fox is rebooting “Fantastic Four” with “Green Lantern” scribe Michael Green and producer Akiva Goldsman; mobilizing a “Wolverine” sequel and several “X-Men” spinoffs; quietly developing a new version of “Daredevil”; and working on a Silver Surfer film.

Sony recently set James Vanderbilt to write the fifth and sixth installments in the “Spider-Man” series, and Universal continues work on “Sub-Mariner.” Par continues as distributor for “Iron Man 2,” and other Marvel superhero pics at the studio are expected to include “Thor” and “Captain America.”

Through a spokesman, Goyer said he hadn’t signed on to a second “Ghost Rider” yet. But plans are already under way to base the sequel on a “Ghost Rider” script written years ago by Goyer, whose superhero work includes hit screen transfers of DC’s “Batman Begins” and Marvel’s “Blade” franchise. The original “Ghost Rider” was scripted by director Mark Steven Johnson.

Arad told Daily Variety that Hollywood’s unquenchable interest in Marvel properties and the pricetag that the company is fetching from Disney is a validation of the strategy that he and Ike Perlmutter executed at Marvel starting in the early 1990s. Arad ran Marvel from 1993 through 2007, when he left to start a film company with son Ari just after Marvel locked in a $525 million credit facility.

Arad said he left because he was exhausted and because he was convinced that his No. 2, Kevin Feige, was ready to take over. Arad’s confidence in Feige is reinforced by the fact that the exec has emerged as a possible replacement for Disney film topper Dick Cook after making a strong impression on Disney topper Bob Iger during the acquisition negotiations that concluded in late August (Daily Variety, Sept. 1).

Arad said the current demand for Marvel properties stands in sharp contrast to the company’s fortunes in the late 1990s, when it was in bankruptcy and Arad and Perlmutter persuaded creditors to spurn an offer of $350 million in cash from Carl Icahn. Arad was convinced at the time that “Spider-Man” alone could be turned into a billion-dollar movie enterprise. Since that time, “X-Men” and “Blade” have also joined the billion-dollar B.O. club, and “Iron Man” is well on its way.

Arad mentioned Dr. Strange, Nick Fury, Power Pack, Guardians of the Galaxy and the Avengers as prime movie properties.

“I had this poster of the Marvel universe, with these beautifully drawn characters, and we used to say you could throw a dart, hit a character and make a hit movie under the Marvel brand,” Arad said. “There is a long list yet to be unleashed. I think this will look like a smart deal over time because Disney is a company that knows how to exploit a brand.”

Arad is separately developing a slate that includes the Catherine Hardwicke-directed adaptation of the James Patterson book series “Maximum Ride” at Columbia and “Ghost in the Shell” for DreamWorks. Arad has also secured rights to make a CG-animated feature based on the venerable strongman Popeye.

Sci-fi films are often read as allegory. The provenance of District 9 has led some to see it as a reflection on apartheid. Perhaps, however, it has as much to tell us about the future as the past. Apartheid, like its last-century sibling, the holocaust, was seen by its instigators a way of disposing of the indigenous other. District 9 deals with our response to intrusion from outside.

An alien spacecraft breaks down over Johannesburg. God knows, that city has enough problems, without a sudden influx of troublesome and unintelligible strangers. Why couldn’t it have been Stellenbosch, the hard-pressed Jo’burgers might have inquired, just as Dover’s beleaguered burghers ask why their unwelcome cross-Channel guests couldn’t have been visited instead on the bleeding-hearts of Hampstead.

District 9 may remind South African audiences less of apartheid’s victims than of the Zimbabwean refugees who in recent years have been flooding across the Limpopo; fugitives welcomed by their southern neighbours with 12-ft electric fences topped by razor-wire. Of those who’ve managed to breach these defences, scores have been murdered by South Africans fearful of the newcomers’ supposed designs on their property, jobs and womenfolk. Survivors have been herded into insanitary, shelter-less camps even less inviting than those provided for their interplanetary counterparts in Johannesburg’s District 9.

Audiences in other parts of the world may also recognise local analogues of the film’s setup, as immigration disrupts communities across the globe. In Britain, we may not yet have resorted to concentration camps, but the apparent distaste of many for new arrivals of top 10 asia movies has helped fill detention centres in France whose conditions have prompted self-mutilation, attempted suicides, arson and riots.

Climate change, with its consequential food and water shortages, seems likely to trigger population movements on a scale much greater than anything we’ve seen so far. More and more societies will face waves of would-be incomers bringing with them unfamiliar habits, downward pressure on wages, burdens for public services and strange cooking smells.

One of the many virtues of District 9 is that it doesn’t duck the real threats immigrants pose to their hosts. Its aliens are unruly, ungrateful, slovenly and ill-tempered. They eat cat food, just as West Indian newcomers to England were once reputed to subsist on Kit-e-Kat sandwiches. They indulge in antisocial behaviour, usher in bestiality and perpetrate acts of violence.

Though they’re treated with unthinking heartlessness by their custodians, they’re also the beneficiaries of the kind of bureaucratic rectitude that our own asylum seekers would doubtless recognise. No one suggests that they should simply be exterminated. They can’t be evicted from their camp until they’ve signed a consent form. Nonetheless, their predicament is far more affecting than you might have expected.

Plenty of films have pitied the poor immigrant. Yet, the adventitious status of District 9’s hapless occupants turns out to make their plight more, not less, affecting than that of many of the big screen’s human scatterlings. This time, we’re not presented simply with one tribe muscling in on a rival but conspecific tribe’s patch. We’re shown a challenge to territorial control in the purest of forms.

You can’t dismiss shipwrecked aliens as economic migrants, suggest that their homeland needs their services or demand that they should be repatriated. There’s no escaping a direct appeal for a share of your space from fellow beings who need it.

As a result, you’re forced to wonder why the chance inhabitants of any particular place are accorded so much privilege. Is it right that incumbents alone should determine the fate of would-be new arrivals? Possession may be nine tenths of the law, but what about the other tenth?

Maybe extreme exigency should invest the desperate with emergency rights of the kind currently enjoyed only by those in proven fear of persecution. Perhaps the dispossessed should be formally entitled to claim a share of turf whose more fortunate existing occupants seek only to repel them.

As District 9’s credits roll, we learn that South Africa’s encamped alien population has come to be numbered in millions. Eventually, their human counterparts may be billions-strong. It’s time we faced up to what that’s going to entail. This film gives us a much-needed prod.

In the present day and age, no blockbuster movie can escape the fate of being pirated. However, the popularity of the various rips and titles can differ drastically, and a recent leak of a high quality version of Sci-Fi thriller District 9 might become a record breaker.

Two weeks ago a Telesync version of District 9 already found its way onto the Internet, but the rate at which the freshly released R5 release is being downloaded easily beats all other titles released in 2009 to date.

At the time of writing the movie has been downloaded over a million times on BitTorrent alone, less than 24 hours after it first surfaced. There are a few dozen torrents out there already, and the most popular one has over 50,000 people downloading the movie simultaneously.

At the US box office District 9 has grossed a mediocre $100 million since its official release three weeks ago, which puts it in the 20th spot of all movies released this year. In comparison, the latest Transformers movie grossed a similar amount in its opening weekend. Whether the pirated versions of District 9 will slow down the sales of theater tickets remains to be seen.

In the comment section of the 10 Best Asia Movies some people say they’re not going to download the movie before they’ve seen it on the big screen, while others who’ve already seen it in theater justify the download because they can’t wait for the DVD to come out. We’re pretty sure though that the execs at the movie studio won’t be as excited about the movie’s online availability as some of the downloaders are.

Nu Image/Millennium Films has greenlit the franchise’s fifth installment, with Sylvester Stallone starring and directing, repeating his duties from 2008’s “Rambo.”

The upcoming project’s storyline revolves around Rambo fighting his way through human traffickers and drug lords to rescue a young girl abducted near the U.S.-Mexico border. Production will start in the spring.

The film will be produced by Avi Lerner, Kevin King Templeton and John Thompson. Danny Dimbort, Trevor Short and Boaz Davidson will exec produce.

Stallone had indicated in interviews that a fifth Rambo was in the works. He teamed with Nu Image/Millennium on the 2008 project, which grossed $42 million domestically and $113 million overseas.

Nu Image/Millennium is in post-production on “Expendables,” starring Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li and Mickey Rourke. The actioner’s set for release on April 23 through Lionsgate.

Rambo first appeared in the 1982 pic “First Blood,” followed in 1985 by “First Blood II” and in 1988 by “Rambo III.”

Tarantino debuted the list this weekend on the Sirius channel Little Steven’s Underground Garage, and also used his two-hour special to tell personal anecdotes about each song and, randomly, to bash The Matrix Reloaded. Here’s the lineup:

· Wu Tang Clan – “The Rulez”
· KT Tunstall – “Hold On”
· Bob Dylan – “Political World”
· Barbra Streisand – “Stony End”
· Andy Kim – “Lay A Little Lovin’ On Me”
· Sir Douglas Quintet – “Mendocino”
· David Bowie – “Cat People (Putting Out The Fire)”
· Jay Z – “S. Carter”
· Roy Orbison – “There Won’t Be Many Coming Home”
· Jason Mraz – “I’m Yours (Acoustic)”
· Maroon 5 – “Wake Up Call”
· Steve Poltz – “Waterfalls”
· Britney Spears – “My Prerogative”

Perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised that the noted American Idol superfan carries a torch for the mainstream pop of Spears and Mraz, but to see those selections nestled so close to the Bowie song that actually made it into Basterds conjures up an alternate version of the film to go along with its alternate history: Basterds’ suspenseful, Nazi-killing climax, set to Britney’s yelping remake of Bobby Brown.

“I feel a certain commitment to that group of people that I worked with and we still enjoy doing it, when we do it. There is no reason why not to come together and do it again. If they can pull it off, we’ll find some reason to make it.”

The film could be out in 2012, Anderson said.

Anderson and Duchnovy starred in The X-Files on TV all through the 1990s.  The two films came out in 1998 and 2008.

1. Audiences Appreciate Originality

It’s easy to pinpoint a large number of films that influenced District 9, from Alien Nation and Black Hawk Down to The Fly and Aliens, but at the end of the day this is a movie that took a lot of existing ideas and mashed them together to create something new and different. It was not based on an existing property or brand, which in this day and age, is nothing short of a miracle. People have been ranting about the endless stream of sequels and remakes for years now, but this time someone finally delivered a summer event movie that wasn’t either of those things, amd moviegoers responded with enthusiasm.

2. Experience Isn’t Everything

It has been said that the reason the Halo feature film fell apart was because studio execs didn’t want to put the movie in the hands of first-time director Neill Blomkamp. While I don’t know if I buy that completely, there’s no doubt that a lot of people questioned Blomkamp’s ability to deliver a feature-length blockbuster even though he had a stellar resume of short films and commercials to back him up. In the end, his lack of experience was probably a strength because it allowed him to think outside the box and avoid simply serving up more of the same old crap. This also applies to the cast, which primarily consisted of unknowns, and lead actor Sharlto Copley who turned in an amazing performance with his first major role on screen. Talent can be found in many different places, sometimes you just have to give people a chance to prove themselves.

3. Blockbuster Budgets are Bloated

This probably goes without saying, but Hollywood blockbusters are getting to be way too expensive nowadays. Spider-Man 3 supposedly cost over $250 million to make, and you have to wonder where all that money went when District 9 cost just $30 million by comparison. Obviously a lot of the money went to the actors’ salaries, but as D9 proved, you don’t necessarily need big names to sell a tentpole film. If more movies had smaller budgets, studios could afford to finance more projects, and take more risks with them too.

4. Mystery Draws People In

Last year Cloverfield proved that viral marketing can be a very successful way to promote a movie, and District 9 also featured a unique and creative marketing campaign that got people talking. The key here is that both movies maintained a certain level of mystery right through to their release date, and resisted showing off all the most impressive visual effects in commercials and trailers. Let’s stop spoiling the entire movie for people ahead of time. You can still get them into the theatre by hinting at the possibilities, and your reward will be strong word of mouth after they see it.

5. Action is More Thrilling When It’s Rated R

One of the things that really struck me about District 9 is the fact that it does not pull any punches in terms of action. It is rated R for a very good reason, and that is because it is gruesome and violent at times — but not in a cheap or exploitative way. It makes the experience more visceral and exciting. Although I’ve defended PG-13 action movies in the past, this just reminded me how awesome it is to see a movie like Terminator 2 on the big screen and truly feel shocked and involved in the action. Peter Jackson of all people knows that a little gore goes a long way!Check Out The Top 20 Comic Book Characters on the Big Screen!!!What do you think, will District 9 be a true wake-up call to Hollywood, or is it just another flash in the pan?

“While I’ve been making this film I’ve been thinking that maybe this will be my last documentary. Or maybe for a while… I have been working on two screenplays over the last couple of years. One’s a comedy, one’s a mystery, and I really want to do this.”

This is where all the Michael Moore haters come out and say that he’s already been peddling fiction for years. In all seriousness, many will remember that he wrote and directed the John Candy comedy Canadian Bacon back in 1995, which wasn’t all that well-received, but I could certainly seem him doing another comedy with a political edge. (The mystery sounds a bit odd though.) Perhaps Moore is sensing that his credibility as a documentary filmmaker is crumbling, or it could be that he has accomplished everything he wanted to in that realm, and he’s looking for a new challenge. Would you like to see Michael Moore take a break from documentaries for a while? What about permanently?

It’s been speculated that a major holdup to the big-screen version is a strong reluctance on the part of James Gandolfini to sign on to the project.

But, according to a chatty Lorraine Bracco, that rumor is way off the mark.

“I don’t think it’s that at all,” says Bracco about Gandolfini’s supposed cold feet. “I think it’s really trying to get the right script. Without the right script, it’s really not worth doing.”

Bracco isn’t shy about making her concerns heard. “We’ve all talked to David to give him a kick in the booty to get it right,” she says pointedly.

While HBO mouthpieces yesterday shot down any talk about the existence of a script, claiming it is “just rumor,” Steve Van Zandt recently added to the buzz.

The “Sopranos” alum and Bruce Springsteen bandmate let slip to a Belfast newspaper that his character, Sil – who was struggling for his life in the show’s abrupt ending – “is still alive.”

Go figure.

And Bracco doesn’t sound like she’s planning to stop at just one movie.

“I want us to be like ‘Sex and the City’ or ‘The Bourne Identity,’” she gushed. “I want to make a million of them.”