MagazinAisle

Category: Entertainment

  • ‘Shadow Transit’ FilMart Success Paves Way for Act3 and BlackOps Studios Asia Co-Production ‘A Thread of Steel’ (EXCLUSIVE)

    ‘Shadow Transit’ FilMart Success Paves Way for Act3 and BlackOps Studios Asia Co-Production ‘A Thread of Steel’ (EXCLUSIVE)

    Hong Kong-based Act3 and Manila-based BlackOps Studios Asia have unveiled “A Thread of Steel,” a historical action drama, as the first major co-production under a newly formalized partnership, with Qymira set to star and director Pedring Lopez attached to helm.

    The deal came together at the Hong Kong FilMart, where the companies’ previous collaboration “Shadow Transit” drew strong interest from international buyers and industry partners during a market screening. That response set the stage for the deeper tie-up now underway. APL Films, handling global sales and distribution on “Shadow Transit,” has begun marketing the title to buyers worldwide.

    “A Thread of Steel” will be shot at Hengdian World Studios in China. Grounded in a historical setting, the film weaves together action, drama and character-focused narrative, with both companies aiming to deliver a production of international scale built on distinctly Asian storytelling.

    “This project represents the true beginning of our long-term creative vision,” Leslie Loh of Act3 said in a statement. “‘A Thread of Steel’ is exactly the kind of cinematic storytelling we want to champion – ambitious in scale, emotionally grounded, and designed for global audiences.”

    Lopez, who founded BlackOps Studios Asia and has built his reputation on visceral genre filmmaking, said the FilMart reception to “Shadow Transit” validated the direction both companies are pursuing. “With ‘A Thread of Steel,’ we’re expanding that vision into something even more cinematic – combining historical scope, action, and powerful character storytelling,” he said.

    Beyond the lead title, the partnership has a broader slate of genre features in development targeting both theatrical and streaming markets internationally, with further announcements expected in the months ahead.

  • ‘Oldboy’ Scribe’s Disney+ Crime Thriller ‘Gold Land’ Sets April Premiere

    ‘Oldboy’ Scribe’s Disney+ Crime Thriller ‘Gold Land’ Sets April Premiere

    Disney+ has set an April 29 premiere for “Gold Land,” a Korean crime thriller marking the streaming debut of “Oldboy” screenwriter Hwang Jo-yoon.

    Hwang Jo-yoon (“Oldboy,” “Memoir of a Murderer”) wrote the thriller about a woman whose relationship with a pilot leads her into dangerous territory when she’s manipulated into assisting smugglers. Soon she’s fleeing with stolen gold, headed back to the hometown she left behind.

    Park Bo-young (“Light Shop”) plays Kim Heeju, with Kim Sung-cheol (“No Way Out,” “Troll Factory”) as Woogy, one of her pursuers from the smuggling ring. Kim Sung-hoon (“Chief Detective 1958,” “Confidential Assignment”) directs.

    “Gold Land” debuts with two episodes April 29, then releases two episodes weekly until the May 27 finale.

    The streamer has also set an April 10 premiere for “Perfect Crown,” a romantic comedy starring IU (“When Life Gives You Tangerines,” “My Mister”) and Byeon Woo-seok (“Lovely Runner,” “Strong Girl Nam-soon”). The series centers on a beloved royal family member facing internal palace conflicts who enters into a strategic marriage with a corporate dynasty heir, only to find their calculated arrangement complicated by genuine feelings. Park Joon-hwa (“Alchemy of Souls,” “What’s Wrong With Secretary Kim”) directs from a script by Yoo Ji-won. “Perfect Crown” will stream on Disney+ internationally and on Hulu in the United States.

    Both titles expand Disney+’s Korean programming, which will also feature “Portraits of Delusion” (working title) with Suzy and Kim Seon-ho; “The Remarried Empress” with Shin Min-a, Ju Ji-hoon, Lee Jong-suk and Lee Se-young; plus second seasons of “Made In Korea” and “A Shop For Killers.” Current Korean offerings include espionage series “Made In Korea,” political thriller “Tempest” and fortune-telling competition “Battle of Fates.”

  • Everything ‘The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives’ Cast Had Said About the Taylor Frankie Paul Controversy

    So far, Jessi Draper is the only Mormon Wives star to directly and publicly tackle the leaked domestic video, the pause in production on season five of the Hulu show and the cancellation of Taylor’s Bachelorette season. The businesswoman appeared on Alex Cooper’s Call Her Daddy podcast on Wednesday, March 25, of which she was initially booked to speak about her divorce. 

    At the top of the interview, Alex clarified that they filmed the episode on Friday, March 20, a day after ABC pulled The Bachelorette. Jessi started by noting that the cast knew of the video published by TMZ, but they had not seen it.

    “I don’t like to judge someone in their darkest moment. I don’t want to judge the person, I’ll judge the mistake,” she said. “And Taylor really has made a lot of changes, and that’s what’s so hard for me, is this is my real friend, and she does have a really good heart and I love her so much.”

    Of seeing the TMZ video, Jessi said it was “so hard.” She continued, “I tell her this all the time, that it’s not who Taylor is. She got caught in a really bad cycle, and just seeing that video, and yes, the child being involved is awful; everyone involved is really hard. But Taylor’s such a good person and she’s made some mistakes, so has Dakota, and I’m not saying any of it’s right, but I know Taylor as a person.”

    “I’ve seen Taylor in her darkest moments, holding her, crying, I’ve been there for her, so I know what goes on behind-the-scenes,” Draper continued. “I want this to be maybe a wake up call for them, and let’s get them healthy and happy and move forward, and I believe people can come back from things like this. I just want the kids to be safe and happy and healthy.”

    Jessi said she “wasn’t super surprised” when ABC pulled Taylor’s Bachelorette season, but that it made her “so sad” because she saw her while filming for the dating show, “and she was a different person.” She also revealed that right after the news broke, Taylor called her.

    The Mormon Wives star also spoke about the filming pause, clarifying that there were two breaks in production on season five. Draper explained that the first pause came from production “when we found out he filed a police report. So this was before it broke,” referring to news that a second domestic assault investigation was initiated by the Draper City Police Department following a February incident involving Taylor and Dakota. (The police told People that “allegations have been made in both directions” and “contact was made with involved parties on [Feb.] 24th and 25th.”)

    Jessi said a second pause in production came from the Mormon Wives cast. “A little bit before news broke, but we knew it probably was going to, us girls decided. We went to production and the network and they were all so supportive,” she said.

    She admitted she does not know what the current controversy surrounding Taylor and the show at large means for the future of Mormon Wives, but that she would potentially feel comfortable to pick up cameras since the information is now public.

  • Fathom Entertainment CEO to Step Down

    Fathom Entertainment CEO to Step Down

    The CEO of Fathom Entertainment, the specialty distributor jointly owned by major theater chains AMC, Cinemark and Regal, is retiring after a nine-year run in the role.

    “Now is the right time for me to begin the process of stepping down from a full-time executive role and transition to retirement, while also an opportune inflection point in the history of Fathom Entertainment to find its next leader,” CEO Ray Nutt said in a statement on Wednesday.

    Having headed up the specialty distributor of niche theatrical experiences for nearly a decade, the exec is expected to participate in the search for his replacement now underway. He joined Fathom as CEO in 2017 after sitting on the company’s board of directors while serving as senior vp of business relations at then Regal Entertainment Group, now Regal Cineworld.  

    Colorado-based Fathom Entertainment is owned three ways by the major cinema chains. The company’s theatrical content includes one-off cinematic events, from live broadcasts of opera, stage plays and live concert pics to anniversary rereleases of classic Hollywood films. 

    Adam Aron, chairman and CEO of AMC Entertainment, in a statement said: “Ray Nutt’s longtime leadership of Fathom Entertainment has delivered meaningful benefits to AMC, the broader theatrical exhibition industry, and, most importantly, moviegoers nationwide. Under his direction, Fathom has further strengthened its position as the leading force in alternative theatrical experiences, broadening the scope of content available to AMC guests.”

    Eduardo Acuna, CEO of Regal Cineworld, and Sean Gamble, president and CEO of Cinemark, also paid tribute to Nutt with their own statements. Among the exec’s milestones was rebranding Fathom Events, an events-based distributor for cinemas, as Fathom Entertainment, a leading specialty distributor in the U.S. theatrical marketplace for event movies.

  • ‘Harry Potter’ Drops First Looks at HBO’s Snape, Draco Malfoy, Dumbledore, McGonagall and More in Magical Trailer

    ‘Harry Potter’ Drops First Looks at HBO’s Snape, Draco Malfoy, Dumbledore, McGonagall and More in Magical Trailer

    HBO’s “Harry Potter” series has released an official trailer, giving a peek into the new take on the Wizarding World as it makes its way to TV.

    Newcomer Dominic McLaughlin stars as Harry Potter, the 11-year old wizard previously brought to life by Daniel Radcliffe. Alastair Stout and Arabella Stanton play his best friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, as they enroll at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

    The new show is a massive undertaking by HBO, which is adapting all seven of author J.K. Rowling’s books into seven seasons of television. The first eight-episode season is set to release this Christmas and takes on the first book, which was published in the U.S. as “The Sorceror’s Stone” and in the U.K. as “The Philosopher’s Stone.” (HBO is opting to use the U.K. title.)

    The cast also includes John Lithgow as Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts; Janet McTeer as Prof. McGonagall; Paapa Essiedu as Prof. Snape; Nick Frost as Hagrid; Luke Thallon as Prof. Quirrell; Paul Whitehouse as Argus Filch; Bertie Carvel as Cornelius Fudge; Johnny Flynn as Lucius Malfoy and more. Many young actors are getting their first major roles on the series as well. Lox Pratt plays Draco Malfoy; Leo Earley plays Seamus Finnegan; Rory Wilmot plays Neville Longbottom; Gracie Cochrane plays Ginny Weasley; and Elijah Oshin plays Dean Thomas.

    HBO dropped a first-look image on March 24 that showed McLaughlin as Harry in Gryffindor robes as he approaches the Quidditch pitch on the Hogwarts school grounds, surrounded by other students in their school clothes. The following day, the network released a trailer that introduced several more major characters.

  • Reed Hastings Says Netflix’s Biggest Risk Is if YouTube Content ‘Boosted With AI’ Becomes ‘Cool and Sexy’

    Reed Hastings Says Netflix’s Biggest Risk Is if YouTube Content ‘Boosted With AI’ Becomes ‘Cool and Sexy’

    Reed Hastings, co-founder and former CEO of Netflix, has gone into semi-retirement — and he now spends much of his time attending to the Utah ski resort he bought in 2023.

    But he continues to serve on Netflix’s board as chairman of Netflix, and in a new interview, the exec spoke about the biggest risk facing Netflix: if AI-generated free content on platforms like YouTube becomes compelling enough to drive people to stop paying for Netflix.

    In an interview with syndicated TV show “In Depth With Graham Bensinger,” Hastings said that he is “very confident” about the future of subscription entertainment. But he said Netflix has “a couple” of risks, mostly involving AI. He put it this way: “Does AI transform content creation in ways such that young people only watch YouTube, and YouTube content boosted with AI becomes cool and sexy enough that that takes all their time.”

    Hastings said that Netflix has to “use AI well enough to improve our content, along with all the talent that we work with, so that we’re worth paying for. So YouTube’s free, and we’re a subscription, and so we have to justify, which has been the history of television, starting with HBO: Why pay for television? That was the initial thing. And HBO proved that they could do content good enough that it was worth paying for. And so the challenge for us is to use AI to improve the storytelling.”

    Hastings, who stepped down as CEO of Netflix in early 2023 after leading the company for 25 years, is majority owner of Utah’s Powder Mountain ski resort. He bought the place in a 2023 deal for undisclosed terms under which he assumed the resort’s $100 million-plus in debt, per the New York Times.

    About leaving as CEO, Hastings said, “So imagine you’re in a 25-year marriage, like I was with Netflix, and then suddenly you’re cast out. You’re free.”

    About taking over Powder Mountain, he said, “this was sort of my rebound business.”

    “This opportunity came and this was like somebody to love me, and it was like I could run something and take it over,” Hastings said about buying the ski resort. “I loved this place and, and love it still. So it was [that] I could do something impactful that I cared about, something totally different than Netflix — very visceral, working on everything from menus to lifts to design of different buildings to creating a community, compared to a high scale internet business.”

    Also in the interview, Hastings said that after he stepped aside as CEO of Netflix, he cut his alcohol intake from three glasses a day down to one. He said he was self-medicating to deal with the stress of running the company.

    “When I was working, I was stress eating and stress drinking,” Hastings told Bensinger. “When you’re self-medicating like that, you don’t know what would it be without it.”

    Watch clips from episode of “In Depth With Graham Bensinger” featuring Hastings, scheduled to air across the U.S. in broadcast syndication on March 28:

  • Joseph and Kendra Duggar Charged With Child Endangerment Amid Expanding Investigation

    Joseph and Kendra Duggar Charged With Child Endangerment Amid Expanding Investigation

    Kendra Duggar, the wife of 19 Kids and Counting’s Joseph Duggar, was arrested two days after him on a separate set of child endangerment and false imprisonment charges, all of which he is also now facing and which are reportedly the result of an investigation of their family home related to the separate charges that brought his arrest for inappropriate contact with a 9-year-old in 2020, which sent the former reality TV personality to jail last week.

    Kendra Duggar, 27, and Joseph Duggar, 31, were both charged on March 20 with four counts of endangering the welfare of a minor and four counts of false imprisonment after an investigation, according to a release from local police in Tontitown, Ark. She was arrested on Friday and booked into the Washington County Detention Center in Fayetteville just before 5 p.m. local time; she was released on bond by 6:20 p.m. and is set to return to court on April 29, according to local records.

    An “active and ongoing” investigation is underway related to the charges, police noted in the release, and “Arkansas law limits the amount of information that can be publicly released in cases involving minors and other sensitive circumstances.”

    “To protect the integrity of the investigation and the privacy of those involved, no further details will be provided at this time,” Tontitown police stated.

    The arrest of Kendra and the charges the couple now face result directly from the investigation into Joseph Duggar after he apparently admitted to a 9-year-old girl’s accusation that he molested her while the couple was on vacation in Florida in 2020. Following his March 18 arrest in Arkansas on a warrant out of Bay County, Fla., a police investigation of the couple’s home reportedly found that the locks to the bedrooms were on the exterior of the doors, according to a source close to the family who spoke with People.

    The couple’s four children are: Garrett David, born in 2018; Addison Renee, born in 2019; Brooklyn Praise, born in 2021; and Justus, born in 2022.

    Notably, the Duggar family had placed locks on the doors of their children’s bedrooms to keep the eldest son, Josh Duggar, away from them; in 2015, it was discovered that Josh Duggar molested several underage girls from 2000 to 2004, when he was between the ages of 12 and 16. This included four of his sisters. He is currently serving a 12-year, seven-month prison sentence.

    The unearthing of apparently admitted child molestation among members of the famous Duggar family roared back to life last week when, according to police, father of four Joseph Duggar was confronted by the accusing girl’s father about her recent recounting of what happened six years ago, at which point police say Joseph admitted to “unlawful sexual contact.”

    “As the vacation continued, he also asked her to sit next to him on a couch and covered them with a blanket. During this time, Joseph manipulated the victim’s underwear and grazed her genitals. He would also continue to rub his hands on her thighs,” the statement from the Bay County Sheriff’s Office said.

    He was charged in Bay County with lewd and lascivious behavior — molestation of a victim less than 12 years old — and lewd and lascivious behavior conducted by a person 18 years or older. He is being held at the Washington County Detention Facility awaiting extradition to Florida.

    Attorneys and a family spokesperson did not immediately return calls or messages sent by The Hollywood Reporter on Wednesday. A spokesperson for the Duggar family noted previously that Kendra’s charges are in no way related to the charges filed against Joseph.

    Joseph and Kendra could face up to eight years in prison if convicted of all charges.

    Jinger Duggar, 32, was one of the first of the family to speak out on her own about Joseph’s arrest. On her podcast with her husband, Jinger & Jeremy, she noted it’s “been one of those weeks that feels like years.”

    “I did not think my heart could break like it has this week,” Jinger told her audience. “The pain and heartbreak that we’ve had over this and just thinking of how it’s affected so many — yeah, it’s just unthinkable. It’s so hard and painful on many levels.”

  • ‘Mormon Wives’ Star Jessi Draper Hopes Taylor Frankie Paul Domestic Violence Video Is a “Wake Up Call”: “It’s Not Who Taylor Is”

    The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives may be on a production pause, but news circling the series’ cast has not slowed down.

    Jessi Draper appeared on the Call Her Daddy podcast Wednesday, where she joined Alex Cooper to discuss the ins and outs of her marriage, having recently announced she is getting divorced. However, the host noted at the top of their interview that the episode was filmed last Friday, March 20, and the two first addressed the fallout after a video was leaked of the events leading up to her Mormon Wives co-star’s Taylor Frankie Paul‘s 2023 domestic violence arrest.

    Draper said the Mormon Wives cast knew there was footage of the incident but had never seen it, noting that she did not want to judge Paul in a dark moment.

    “The police had [the video] and they talked about it, and we all just were like, OK. I don’t like to judge someone in their darkest moment. I don’t want to judge the person, I’ll judge the mistake,” she said. “And Taylor really has made a lot of changes, and that’s what’s so hard for me, is this is my real friend, and she does have a really good heart and I love her so much.”

    The reality star and businesswoman added that seeing the video was “so hard, because there’s so much pain underneath the surface for Taylor.” She continued, “I tell her this all the time, that it’s not who Taylor is. She got caught in a really bad cycle, and just seeing that video, and yes, the child being involved is awful; everyone involved is really hard. But Taylor’s such a good person and she’s made some mistakes, so has Dakota, and I’m not saying any of it’s right, but I know Taylor as a person, and it’s so easy to speculate about these people on a reality show.”

    “I think when you watch [the show,] we’re characters, we’re not real people, but this is our real lives. And I’ve seen Taylor in her darkest moments, holding her, crying, I’ve been there for her, so I know what goes on behind-the-scenes,” Draper said. “I want this to be maybe a wake up call for them, and let’s get them healthy and happy and move forward, and I believe people can come back from things like this. I just want the kids to be safe and happy and healthy.”

    When Draper was announced as the latest guest on Cooper’s podcast, Paul commented on a promotional video on the Call Her Daddy Instagram in support of her co-star. The Bachelorette season 22 lead wrote, “We love a person that speaks truth even when difficult.”

    Draper’s Call Her Daddy episode was also filmed a day after ABC announced it would pull Paul’s season of The Bachelorette last Thursday. She told Cooper that she “wasn’t super surprised” when the news came out, “because I felt like there was a lot of discourse online that they probably needed to.” However, Draper said she was “so sad” because she saw Paul during filming for the dating show, “and she was a different person.”

    “I saw Taylor during that journey, and she was a different person. I genuinely feel like she needed to get away from Dakota. She stepped into a really confident, amazing era. I saw her twice, and I was like, ‘Your aura’s different. Your energy’s different.’ And it was like the old Taylor again,” she added. “So I am so sad because I really want people to see that side of Taylor, and maybe one day they will, who knows.”

    Right after ABC announced The Bachelorette season 22 had been pulled, Draper said she received no heads-up about the news, and Paul called her shortly after. “Taylor was calling me, I had two missed calls from her and I was like, ‘Oh, shit,’ so I answered and she was like, ‘How are you?’”

    The Mormon Wives star herself was navigating her own personal conflict last Thursday, as her husband, Jordan Ngatikaura, notably filed for divorce (on the same day as the heavy news cycle). Draper said she was “blindsided” when he filed because they had agreed to do so together and had not told their children prior.

    Elsewhere, Draper told Cooper that she had spoken to Paul just ahead of the filming of the podcast episode, “and she seemed pretty positive today. And I think she knows that this is going to be a long and scary journey. And the thing about Taylor, she always tells the truth. She’s known for that, and I think she’s going to handle this in the best way possible. And I think she’s taking a beat to figure that out.”

    The Mormon Wives star also explained speculation of when filming on season five officially halted. The cast has indicated that they were the ones to communicate that they wanted to stop production, though following the publishing of an NBC News report on Friday, which detailed a March 7 Zoom call with the cast and three Disney executives, including Rob Mills, The Hollywood Reporter reported that the call was held for executives to tell the women the show was going on pause amid their own investigation, separate from police.

    On the podcast, Draper explained that the first pause came from production “when we found out he filed a police report. So this was before it broke,” referring to news that a second domestic assault investigation was initiated by the Draper City Police Department following a February incident involving Dakota Mortensen. (The police told People that “allegations have been made in both directions” and “contact was made with involved parties on [Feb.] 24th and 25th.”)

    A second pause in production came from the Mormon Wives cast, Draper said. “A little bit before news broke, but we knew it probably was going to, us girls decided, so we went to production and the network and they were all so supportive,” she said.

    “Me and the girls, we did decide to stop filming when we found this out, because we were starting to hear things a little bit before it leaked, and we just didn’t want to be filming and say the wrong thing on camera, not knowing the whole story yet,” she explained. “We didn’t want to have to process all this information for the first time and then also be speaking about it. So we just thought for everyone’s mental health, let’s take a beat and not film right now.”

    Draper also noted that she was shocked that Mortensen decided to file a report about the alleged February incident “because I’m sure there are situations in the past where he could have and didn’t, and same with her, so because of that, I was like, ‘Why now?’ But I don’t know the reason behind it. Everyone’s kind of speculating on that, but I think maybe he had hit a limit. I genuinely have no idea.”

    The Mormon Wives star admitted that she does not know what all of the news circling Paul means for the future of the Hulu show, but that they’re waiting for the dust to settle before jumping back into filming. However, she did note that she would potentially feel comfortable to pick up cameras since the information is now public.

    Draper explained, “I think now we’re at a point where we’re like, OK, the world knows and the info’s out there, and so now we’re good and we can speak on the things we know and we can talk about it in a real way, rather than before, we were like, ‘We don’t even know if this is gonna get out,’ so we didn’t know if we could even talk about it when we were filming. Now, we can.”

    Early Wednesday, after Draper’s episode of Call Her Daddy was released, NBC News reported that Paul is under investigation for an alleged third domestic violence incident, also involving her ex Mortensen, that allegedly occurred in 2024. (All three alleged incidents have involved Paul and Mortensen.)

  • Usher Says Diddy ‘Has Been Misrepresented’ After Sex Trafficking Trial: ‘Certain People Are Prosecuted’ and ‘Not Recognized for the Greatness They Offer’

    Usher Says Diddy ‘Has Been Misrepresented’ After Sex Trafficking Trial: ‘Certain People Are Prosecuted’ and ‘Not Recognized for the Greatness They Offer’

    Usher recently gave a video interview to Forbes where he defended Sean “Diddy” Combs and said the disgraced rapper and entertainment mogul has been “misrepresented.” 

    The Bad Boy Records founder was sentenced in October to 50 months behind bars after he was convicted on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. (His release from prison has since been moved up to April 2028.) Combs’ 2025 criminal trial ended with a split verdict, as he was acquitted of racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking, avoiding serious charges that could have landed him in prison for decades.

    Asked by Forbes to name a word that comes to mind when he heard Combs’ name, Usher responded: “Legacy.”

    “In many ways, I think certain people are prosecuted and maybe not recognized for the greatness that they offer,” Usher explained. “I don’t have anything negative to say about Sean Combs because my experience was not what the world has seen and how he’s been misrepresented. I’m not saying that every man is perfect. I’m not saying that all of us don’t have flaws. But I can’t with any sense of humanity not recognize the valuable contributions that this man made for us as Black entrepreneurs, for us as businessmen, for us as people who have transitioned culture and ideas into something that’s tangible.”

    “So many people benefitted from what he created and I acknowledge that,” Usher continued, adding: “That’s who I see that man as. And that’s what I choose to remember. I put respect on his name because I realized that what I learned as a businessman before I even understood what business was came as a result of seeing the incredible things that he was able to do and the way that he positioned himself as a businessman.”

    Combs’ 2025 trial began in early May and featured 34 witnesses accusing the rapper-producer of crimes ranging from drug distribution to physical abuse to sexual assault. A key piece of video evidence from 2016 depicted Combs violently beating his then-girlfriend Casandra “Cassie” Ventura, the star witness of the trial who delivered a grueling four-day testimony. During the trial, Combs’ lawyers admitted to his pattern of domestic violence, reminding the jury that Combs was not charged with that specific crime.

    Combs’ lead counsel Marc Agnifilo said in an interview with Variety after the trial that his client was hoping to “make something special out of his life,” adding that making more music is “way down the road.”

    Watch Usher’s full interview with Forbes in the video below.

  • Oscar-Winning Pioneering Chinese-American Cinematographer James Wong Howe Gets Biopic, With Herman Yau to Direct (EXCLUSIVE)

    Oscar-Winning Pioneering Chinese-American Cinematographer James Wong Howe Gets Biopic, With Herman Yau to Direct (EXCLUSIVE)

    Hong Kong filmmaker Herman Yau has been attached to direct “The Cinematographer,” a biographical feature on the life of pioneering Chinese-American cinematographer James Wong Howe.

    The attachment was made during the recently concluded Hong Kong FilMart.

    Award-winning art director and costume designer Man Lim Chung, best known for “In the Mood for Love,” has also joined the production, taking on both design roles. His reputation for meticulous period work will be central to recreating the world Wong Howe inhabited across more than five decades in Hollywood, from the silent era through the Golden Age of cinema.

    Yau, whose credits span more than 100 films including the “Shock Wave” and the “White Storm” franchises, brings a career defined by versatility across drama, action, historical and socially conscious filmmaking. His attachment marks a significant step forward for what is being positioned as an international co-production aimed at global audiences.

    “The Cinematographer” would be the first-ever biopic devoted to Wong, a two-time Academy Award winner who collected 10 nominations for best cinematography over the course of his career, winning for “The Rose Tattoo” (1955) and “Hud” (1963). His other nominated films were “Algiers” (1938), “Abe Lincoln in Illinois” (1940), “Kings Row” (1942), “The North Star” (1943), “Air Force” (1943), “The Old Man and the Sea” (1958), “Seconds” (1966) and “Funny Lady” (1975) – his final film as cinematographer. Members of the International Cinematographers Guild have ranked him among the 10 most influential cinematographers in film history.

    Wong was born in Guangdong, China, and went to the U.S. at the age of five, eventually settling in Washington state. As a teenager he competed as a professional boxer before finding his way to Hollywood, where he first sought work carrying equipment for Jesse Lasky Studios in 1917 – only to be redirected to lighter duties, given his slight frame. He became a slate boy for Cecil B. DeMille, working his way up through the ranks while nurturing a parallel passion for still photography. He shot his first features as cinematographer in 1923. He was billed simply as James Howe until 1933, when MGM added “Wong” to his screen credit.

    Over the decades that followed, Wong redefined the visual grammar of American cinema through his mastery of wide-angle lenses, low-key lighting techniques and his development of the crab dolly. His collaborators included some of the most significant directors in Hollywood history, among them Michael Curtiz, John Frankenheimer, Sidney Lumet and Martin Ritt, with a roster of stars stretching from Humphrey Bogart and James Cagney to Paul Newman, Rock Hudson and Barbra Streisand.

    His professional ascent came at considerable personal cost. Wong was unable to obtain U.S. citizenship until the Chinese Exclusion Act was repealed in 1943, despite having lived in the country for nearly four decades. His marriage to novelist Sanora Babb – the couple wed in Paris in 1937 – went legally unrecognized in California until 1948, when the state’s anti-miscegenation law was lifted. Even then, the union could not be publicly acknowledged, as mixed-race marriage ran afoul of the morality clauses in his studio contracts. During World War II, Wong took to wearing a button reading “I am Chinese” to make clear he was not Japanese.

    “When I did my research for my PhD thesis, I learnt that there were a number of Chinese filmmakers, including actors/actresses and behind-the-scene filmmakers (Anna May Wong, Esther Eng, etc.), who were so remarkable in Hollywood before and after WWII in the last century. They were the pioneers in the wild west, to fight for representation on screen and off screen, and to showcase their talent,” Yau told Variety. “James Wong Howe was one of them, perhaps the highest achieved one. Maybe it’s also because I worked as a cinematographer for many years as well as a director, I’m particularly interested in his journey and how he navigated Hollywood at that time with his cameras and vision. It’s a story that needs to be told with authenticity.”

    “The Cinematographer” was created by Hiu Man Chan, who will serve as executive producer and leads NGO U.K.-China Film Collab. Chan’s credits include the upcoming “My Indian Boyfriend: the Golden Mile” and a Bertrand Russell biopic. The project was selected for the AFM market pitch in 2020 but faced prolonged development setbacks during the pandemic, with casting remaining the central challenge.

    “The most difficult part for this project is its casting; the lead actor is crucial for the film. I have been casting for the past few years, but have yet found the right actor to play ‘Jimmie’,” Chan said.

    The FilMart meeting with Yau, Chan added, gave the project fresh footing. “Meeting Herman Yau in person during FilMart this month for the first time provided some new grounding to the project. The legendary story left behind by ‘Jimmie’ is so important that I want to do it with justice. Even though it has come a long way, I am thankful to FilMart where new lights were shed in Hong Kong,” Chan said.

    The production plans to shoot across multiple locations tracing Wong’s journey from China to Hollywood. Casting and international co-production partners are expected to be revealed in the coming months.