‘Crazy Rich Asians’ sequel slated to be filmed in China
HONG KONG: Crazy Rich Asians has not even been screened in China, but its producers are already preparing to film its sequel over in Shanghai.
Producer John Penotti, president of SK Global, said that China Rich Girlfriend is targeting a shoot in Shanghai. He made the revelation on Monday in Los Angeles at the Chinese American Film Festival’s CoProduction Summit.
The sequel is an adaptation of novelist Kevin Kwan’s second book in the “Asians” series. It is located substantially in China and is set two years after the events of Crazy Rich Asians.
Penotti said that it is currently unclear whether the producers will attempt to structure China Rich Girlfriend as an official China-US co-production. ““We certainly tried to make the ( first) film as a China- US coproduction. But (as a company, we) haven’t been very good at doing co-productions.” Crazy Rich Asians was a Warner Bros. Pictures release and presentation, and produced by SK Global, Starlight Culture, Color Force, Ivanhoe Pictures, Electric Somewhere.
It was released in North America in August and in most Asian territories in September and October. To date it has grossed US$ 232 million ( RM974 million) worldwide, including US$ 177 million in North America.
Obtaining a China release has
I have no idea whether the film will be a hit in China. We tried to make it true to our culture. We knew we couldn’t make every Asian happy, we can’t make every Chinese happy. Adele Lim, screenwriter
the potential to lift the film’s results to another level, but five weeks ahead of its outing its expected box- office performance is unclear. “I have no idea whether the film will be a hit in China,” said Adele Lim, the film’s screenwriter. “We tried to make it true to our culture. We knew we couldn’t make every Asian happy, we can’t make every Chinese happy.”
After a prolonged approval process, which often seemed in doubt, the film recently obtained a Nov 30 release date for China. Penotti said that no cuts have been requested by the censors and regulators in China.
Penotti speculated that the spicier elements of the book may have given the Chinese censors initial cause for concern, and that the finished film’s approval may have been held up by organisational changes within the Chinese government. “We were never told there was something specific. There was an upheaval over the approval process over the last few months. We fell prey to that, rather than anything content-related,” said Penotti.