After a long pause in its development following pay disparity issues, a ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ sequel is officially underway, introducing Chinese Australian filmmaker, Amy Wang as the new screenwriter.
Based on the bestselling novel by Kevin Kwan, ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ became the first major Hollywood movie featuring a majority Asian and Asian American cast in 25 years, since 1993’s The Joy Luck Club. After its release, the film was announced as the highest-grossing romantic comedy of the past decade, making a whopping $237 million worldwide at the box office.
A sequel for back-to-back production was immediately greenlit by Warner Bros, however, development plans stalled after it was revealed that one of the original screenwriters, Adele Lim, had been paid roughly an eighth of what her co-writer, Peter Chiarelli, was being paid. It was said that Chiarelli’s experience on feature films was the reason for his higher pay, while Lim had only TV writing credits to her name before being onboarded as a writer for Crazy Rich Asians.
Despite negotiations to have Lim return for the second film, she declined the revised offer, subsequently departing the sequel, and went on to co-write the script for Disney’s animated film, ‘Raya and the Last Dragon’.
According to Deadline, Wang is set to be the sole screenwriter for the much anticipated film, replacing both Chiarelli and Lim.
Wang was born in Hangzhou China, and moved to Australia when she was just six years old. Navigating life in the West became difficult. “Being a Chinese-Australian filmmaker has been difficult for me. Growing up in a culture that was so inherently different from my ethnicity made me hate who I was,” said Wang.
But despite this, Wang excelled in her passion as a filmmaker, undertaking a Bachelor of Media Arts and Production at UTS, and then going on to complete a Masters degree at the prestigious American Film Institute. She has since won a Cannes Lion award for her short Unnatural, and has worked on shows such as Criminal Minds, Downtown Abbey and How to Get Away With Murder.
While the sequel’s details remain under wraps, it is likely to be based on the second book of Kwan’s trilogy, China Rich Girlfriend, with Constance Wu and Henry Golding returning as lead characters Rachel and Nick.