Christopher Brough’s production shingle Movie Plus Canada has signed up Hollywood director Jan de Bont to direct the English language coproduction Mulan, to be shot in Shanghai this fall.

The $30 million live-action drama will star Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) as a heroic Chinese girl-warrior made popular by Disney’s 1998 animated movie of the same name.

Mulan will be coproduced by Movie Plus, the UK-based Global Film Finance, the Beijing-based Bona International Film Group and SIMF Pictures.

The Mulan feature has been in the works since 2007 when Vancouver-based indie producer Longtale Entertainment first penciled in a Chinese language coproduction between Movie Plus’ Brough and Beijing-based PKU Starlight Group, with the movie to be shot at Hengdian Studios, China’s largest film studio.

In its most recent incarnation, Mulan as an English language coproduction will be directed by Bont, a veteran action director best known for Speed and Twister, and to be based on a screenplay by John Blickstead.

The movie is still slated for production at the giant Hengdian Studios, three hours from Shanghai.

Movie Plus Canada president Brough is a veteran Vancouver production player, having served as an executive producer at DIC Entertainment before becoming president of Mainframe Entertainment and, later, group president of Sextant Entertainment.

William Morris Endeavor will shop the North American rights to Mulan, while Arclight Films International’s affiliate Easternlight Films handle international sales outside China.

Movie Plus Canada’s other movie credits include The Monkey King, a 3-D computer animated coproduction with China partners The China Film Group and Easternlight Films, and The Trail of the Panda, a recent Walt Disney release filmed on location in China’s Sechzhuan province in 2008.