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Exclusive: Justin Chon (Blue Bayou) is in talks to direct Capsule, a new sci-fi film for 20th Century Studios.

The film’s current draft is by Elijah Bynum of Magazine Dreams fame and follows a young tech entrepreneur whose life is turned upside down when he mysteriously begins to receive metallic capsules containing messages from his future self.

Hutch Parker and Dan Wilson will produce for Hutch Parker Entertainment, alongside John Zaozirny, after bringing the original spec by Ian Shorr in to 20th Century Fox in 2013.

Actor-filmmaker Chon broke out behind the camera with a pair of acclaimed Sundance indies — the dramas Gook (2017) and Ms. Purple (2019), which were released by Samuel Goldwyn Films and Oscilloscope, respectively. The former is a black-and-white drama following two Korean American brothers amid the 1992 Los Angeles riots; the latter is a poignant film about a Korean American sibling relationship.

Making his feature directorial debut with the 2015 comedy Man Up,...

The Sublime biopic has found its Bradley Nowell, as “Riverdale” star Kj Apa takes on the role of the Long Beach band’s frontman, Variety has confirmed.

The film has also tapped director Justin Chon, who is penning the screenplay with author and co-founder of the streetwear brand The Hundreds, Bobby Hundreds, based on an original draft by Chris Mundy. The biopic is in development at the Sony-owned 3000 Pictures.

Peter Chernin, Jenno Topping and David Ready from Chernin Entertainment are producing. Original Sublime band members Bud Gaugh and Eric Wilson — as well as the late Nowell’s wife, Troy Nowell, and son, Jakob Nowell — are executive producing alongside Francis Lawrence. The project is being overseen by Marisa Paiva at 3000 Pictures and Jamie Spetner, director of development at Chernin Entertainment, who has been integral to the development of the film.

After Nowell died in 1996 due to a heroin overdose,...

Exclusive: Blue Bayou filmmaker Justin Chon has signed with WME and Blue Marble Management for representation.

Chon recently directed and executive produced the new Apple TV+ series Chief of War, starring Jason Momoa and produced by Chernin and Fifth Season. The series will premiere in 2024 on Apple TV+.

He also wrote, directed, and starred in the 2021 film Blue Bayou, which sold competitively to Focus Features and premiered at Cannes as part of the Un Certain Regard selection. In the film, Justin stars opposite Oscar winner Alicia Vikander. His fourth feature film, Jamojaya, which he wrote and directed, premiered at Sundance in 2023. Ms. Purple, which he wrote, directed and produced, premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. His feature, Gook, premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Next Audience Award.

Chon also executive produced and directed episodes of Apple TV+’s Peabody Award winning Season 1 of Pachinko.

Chon began...

Justin Chon — the actor and filmmaker behind films Blue Bayou and Gook — and Scooter Braun’s Sb Projects are developing a feature about the life and career of e-commerce giant and Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh.

Chon and Sb Projects have optioned the upcoming biography Wonder Boy: Tony Hsieh, Zappos and the Myth of Happiness in Silicon Valley (out via Henry Holt & Company on April 25) by The Wall Street Journal‘s Angel Au-Yeung and Forbes Magazine’s David Jeans.

Hsieh revolutionized e-commerce with Zappos, the online shoe retailer that offered customers free shipping and returns and put an extreme emphasis on customer service, a then-rare approach to online shopping. Internally, Zappos’ corporate culture was unique even among tech companies, and in 2013, Hsieh made headlines when he announced that the company would eliminate all titles.

The adaptation, according to the project’s description, will follow the life of Hsieh “an American...

There is no shortage of stories about fathers and their kids, specifically sons. But in Justin Chon’s film, “Jamojaya,” the relationship becomes bogged down with the added aspect of career and ambition. There’s the duty that a father feels toward his son and a son’s desire to take care of himself and fly away from his father. But amidst all that, the relationship that drives the story can become a bit muddled in the imagery and silences in the film at times.

Read More: 25 Most Anticipated Movies At The 2023 Sundance Film Festival

The movie focuses on James (Brian Imanuel), a rapper from Indonesia with growing popularity in the States.

Continue reading ‘Jamojaya’ Review: Justin Chon’s Showcases A Complex Father/Son Relationship In Drama With Momentum Issues [Sundance] at The Playlist.

Justin Chon has signed on to direct and executive produce the upcoming Jason Momoa Apple series “Chief of War,” Variety has learned exclusively.

The show was first reported as being set up at Apple earlier in April. Chon was in negotiations to join the series at that time, with his deal now officially closed. It is said to follow the epic telling of the unification and colonization of Hawaii from an indigenous point of view.

Chon will direct and executive produce the first two episodes of the series. It marks his latest directing venture with Apple, as Chon helmed and executive produced multiple episodes of the critically-acclaimed Apple series “Pachinko.” Chon most recently wrote, directed, and starred in the feature “Blue Bayou,” which also starred Alicia Vikander, Mark O’Brien, Linh Dan Pham, and Emory Cohen. The film sold to Focus Features and made its debut at the Cannes Film Festival.

“Dramaworld,” a pioneering Korean-American rom-com series, will debut on in the U.S. on IMDb TV, Amazon’s premium free streaming service, from this weekend.

Seasons one and two will both debut on IMDb TV from Feb. 12, 2022, with the launch marking the U.S. premiere of season two. The first season of “Dramaworld” originally debuted on Netflix and Viki.

The series follows an American girl who is obsessed with K-drama and is underwhelmed by her real life become catapulted into the world of the Korean dramas she obsesses over. There she meets a facilitator who keeps “Dramaworld” turning through deft but undetected intervention in each storyline. She tumbles headfirst into another show starring her K-drama crush but upsets the equilibrium of “Dramaworld” by kissing her hero.

Season two sees the return of leads Liv Hewson, Sean Dulake (“Operation Chromite”), Justin Chon and Nuri Bae (“Unstoppable”).

Notable new cast members joining...

Mubi is kicking off the new year with a selection of our 2021 highlights, including some of which haven’t picked up proper distribution yet. Most notably, their own release, Alexandre Koberidze’s dazzling What Do We See When We Look at the Sky?, will premiere along with a New Voices in Georgian Cinema series. Also arriving is Salomé Jashi’s Taming the Garden, Ana Katz’s The Dog Who Wouldn’t Be Quiet, Alex Camilleri’s Luzzu, and Nino Martínez Sosa’s Liborio.

As part of a series of first films, they’ll also feature works from Janicza Bravo, Noah Baumbach, Garrett Bradley, Lucile Hadzihalilovic, Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, Terry Gilliam, and more. A double bill of Federico Fellini classics, Nights of Cabiria and The White Sheik, will also come to the platform.

Check out the lineup below and get 30 days free here.

January 1 | Kicking & Screaming | Noah Baumbach | First Films First

January...

Justin Chon’s fierce heartbreaker, written and starring himself, centres on a Korean-American whose family is threatened by racist government policy

America’s equivalent of the UK’s Windrush scandal is the driving force behind this fierce heartbreaker from Korean-American star Justin Chon, who played Erik in the Twilight saga and got his directing breakthrough in 2017 with Gook, a drama set around the 1992 LA riots. Here, Chon writes, directs and stars as Antonio, who as a baby was given away for adoption by his immigrant Korean mother and brought up by negligent white parents. After a troubled past and spells in jail for stealing motorbikes, Antonio has turned his life around, working as a tattoo artist in New Orleans and married to a physical therapist, Kathy, played by Alicia Vikander – who, with no dubbing, sings a very nice karaoke version of Roy Orbison’s song about the beautiful Louisiana wetlands...

Exclusive: Details are emerging about Justin Chon’s (Blue Bayou) under-the-radar music drama Jamojaya, starring rapper Rich Brian. Recently wrapped in Hawaii, the film’s producing team includes Peter Luo (Crazy Rich Asians) and former Columbia/TriStar head Chris Lee.

Chon wrote, directed, and produced the English-language feature, which sees rising Indonesian rapper Brian make his acting debut.

Chon, whose Blue Bayou recently debuted at Cannes, has previously said the project is a “break-up story” of a father and son. The film charts the fallout after the son, whose career as a rapper is about to take off, hires a U.S manager and label to take over his career from his father who has steered it to date.

LA-based Stars Collective financed and is co-producing the project, which in addition to Chon, is produced by Alan Pao (Under The Silver Lake) and executive-produced by Chris Lee (Superman Returns), Peter...

Justin Chon’s Southern-set immigration drama “Blue Bayou” has the raw feel of a ’70s movie — a freewheeling 16mm camera, intimately scaled, in-your-face human drama a la John Cassevetes — but it’s a film that could likely only be made now. That’s even in spite of the film’s exploration of longstanding, trenchant issues of immigration and deportation in the United States.

Korean-American filmmaker Chon writes and directs himself as Antonio LeBlanc, a tattoo artist and father living in the Louisiana bayou with his wife, Kathy (Alicia Vikander), and her small daughter, Jessie (Sydney Kowalske). Kathy has another baby on the way. Despite being an adoptee from Korea, Antonio is as American a citizen as anyone, as he’s now lived in the U.S. for 30 years. But after a misunderstanding with police turns brutal, he ends up in jail, and ultimately in the bureaucratic hands of Ice. Suddenly,...

Justin Chon first came to the world’s attention playing Eric Yorkie, a supporting character in the Twilight movies. The global success of that young-vampires-in-love franchise helped Chon land lead roles in films such as 21 & Over, Revenge of the Green Dragons, and Seoul Searching, but all the while, the freshly minted movie star was honing his craft as a writer and director. First came 2015’s little-seen Man Up (“That was my film school”), then the breakthrough of Gook, which won the Next Audience Award at Sundance in 2017. A bracing look at the 1992 Rodney King riots from a […]

The post “Someone Needs to Shed Light On This Issue”: Justin Chon on His Adoptee Deportation Melodrama, Blue Bayou first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

After Antonio (Justin Chon) is wrongfully arrested in front of his wife Kathy (Alicia Vikander) and step-daughter Jessie (Sydney Kowalske), he’s surprised to learn he’s been flagged for deportation. Due to his adoptive parent’s oversight, Antonio, who was born in Korea but has lived in Louisiana since he was a toddler, doesn’t have citizenship. Justin Chon’s Blue Bayou is an amalgam of real stories like Antonio’s, among which there are thousands.

Blue Bayou is a successor to the elegiac modes of Moonlight (2016) and The Florida Project (2017) that aestheticized life on the margins in the American south. This style—naturalistic performances, handheld cameras, and soft focus—is intimate, touching, and completely familiar. But as Antoni’s life unravels through the second half, Chon slips from a delivery that is customarily moody to something almost overwrought, closer to melodrama. This is also when the film gets better.

A who’s who of some of the most famous faces among the Hollywood’s Asian diaspora turned out to support writer, director and actor Justin Chon at the Los Angeles premiere of his buzzed-about new film “Blue Bayou,” including Awkwafina, Benedict Wong, Jimmy O. Yang, Harry Shum, Jr., Manny Jacinto and George Takei.

Chong told Variety he was moved to craft the story — in which he stars as an Asian-American adoptee who’s lived the bulk of his life in a small Louisiana town and suddenly finds himself facing the terrifying prospect of an unjust deportation — after hearing of real adoptees facing similarly jarring circumstances.

“I started hearing through the adopted community that this issue is taking place, where adoptees who were brought here as young children and were now adults, getting deported after they were adopted by U.S, citizens,” said Chon, who headlines the film opposite Alicia Vikander.

Justin Chon has come a long way since he wowed Sundance audiences with his 2017 film "Gook." The writer and director of "Blue Bayou" is many years removed from being "that funny Asian guy" from "Twilight" who directed and starred in the provocative black-and-white drama about two Korean-American brothers on the first day of the 1992 L.A. race riots. It wasn't long until Chon had firmly established himself as one of the exciting Asian-American indie filmmakers to watch, following up with the 2019 family drama "Ms. Purple," which probed the generational tensions (and traumas) between Korean first and second-generation immigrants.

Now,...

The post Justin Chon and Alicia Vikander Search for the Definition of Home in Blue Bayou [Interview] appeared first on /Film.

Exclusive: Omono Okojie, who recurred as Cleo Sowande on the third season of Legacies, has been promoted to series regular for Season 4 of the CW drama.

Okojie plays Cleo, a new witch student at the Salvatore School, who bonds with Hope (Danielle Rose Russell) over their artistic passions. Free-spirited and self-reliant, Cleo is excited to find a new home at the school, and to earn a place in its Super Squad. She appeared in nine episodes in Season 3.

A spinoff of The Originals, Legacies features characters from both series and its predecessor, The Vampire Diaries. The series stars Danielle Rose Russell as 17-year-old Hope Mikaelson, descended from some of the most powerful vampire, werewolf and witch bloodlines. Set in The Salvatore Boarding School for the Young & Gifted, Legacies tells the ongoing story of a new generation of supernatural students as they learn what it means to be special in a...

Blue Bayou, a drama about America’s deeply flawed immigration system, had its world premiere Tuesday as part of the Un Certain Regard section at the Cannes Film Festival.

Written and directed by and starring Justin Chon, its reception from audience members (tears and applause) differed considerably from its reception from critics (it stands at a lowly 67 percent on Rotten Tomatoes), a cycle that seems likely to repeat beyond the borders of France, leaving the awards season prospects of the film — which Focus will release Sept. 17 — a big question mark.

Chon, who previously wrote and directed 2017’s Gook, which ...

Blue Bayou, a drama about America’s deeply flawed immigration system, had its world premiere Tuesday as part of the Un Certain Regard section at the Cannes Film Festival.

Written and directed by and starring Justin Chon, its reception from audience members (tears and applause) differed considerably from its reception from critics (it stands at a lowly 67 percent on Rotten Tomatoes), a cycle that seems likely to repeat beyond the borders of France, leaving the awards season prospects of the film — which Focus will release Sept. 17 — a big question mark.

Chon, who previously wrote and directed 2017’s Gook, which ...

The lovechild of passion and talent, Justin Chon’s “Blue Bayou” — a lyrical and emotional portrait of identity and family — is a piece that drums up lots of support within the film community, general audiences, and the Academy Awards in various branches. Leaving you in a puddle of tears by the end credits, the Cannes Film Festival selection could be a slam dunk for distributor Focus Features across all eligible categories, including best picture.

“Blue Bayou” tells the moving and timely story of Antonio LeBlanc (Chon), a Korean adoptee who is raised in a small town in the Louisiana bayou. There, he’s married to his wife Kathy (played by Oscar-winner Alicia Vikander) and is a step-dad to her daughter Jessie (played by newcomer Sydney Kowalske). Struggling to make a better life for his family, Antonio must confront his complicated past when he faces possible deportation from the only country he’s ever known.

To New Orleans family man Antonio LeBlanc (Justin Chon) and everyone close to him, he’s as American as the tattooed eagle spreading its wings defiantly across his throat, down to his lived-in Southern drawl acquired over more than three decades. To Ice authorities, however, he’s nothing more than a Korean immigrant with a criminal record and faulty paperwork, and they want him out.

Never mind that he has scarcely any memories of his motherland, having been brought out to the U.S. for adoption at the age of three, or that his all-American wife Kathy (Alicia Vikander) is carrying their second child: The system is the system, and its rules and loopholes exist to punish more than they protect. “Blue Bayou” holds little back as it rails against the cruelties and hypocrisies of American immigration law to stirring effect — though this emotional pile-driver of a film could stand...

"Are we getting kicked out?" "Nah, baby girl, I ain't going nowhere..." Focus Features has unveiled the first official trailer for Blue Bayou, the latest film from acclaimed Korean-American filmmaker Justin Chon, known for his other award-winning films Gook and Ms. Purple previously. This time around, Blue Bayou is premiering at the prestigious 2021 Cannes Film Festival playing in the Un Certain Regard category (his last two films premiered at Sundance instead). It's currently set for a limited release starting in September later this year. As a Korean-American man raised in the Louisiana bayou works hard to make a life for his family, he must confront the ghosts of his past as he discovers that he could be deported from the only country he has ever called home. Justin Chon stars with Alicia Vikander, Mark O'Brien, and Sydney Kowalske as Jessie. This is an impressive first look at this film, and...

Korean-American actor and filmmaker Justin Chon crafts a partly autobiographical tale with his latest film, “Blue Bayou.” Scooped by Focus Features out of the 2020 Cannes virtual market, “Blue Bayou” is Chon’s fourth feature after acclaimed festival favorites “Ms. Purple,” “Gook,” and “Man Up,” and he stars in his film alongside Alicia Vikander. As the film premieres at Cannes this week, watch the trailer below.

Here’s the official synopsis from Focus Features: “From award-winning writer/director Justin Chon, Blue Bayou is the moving and timely story of a uniquely American family fighting for their future. Antonio LeBlanc (Chon), a Korean adoptee raised in a small town in the Louisiana bayou, is married to the love of his life Kathy (Alicia Vikander) and stepdad to their beloved daughter Jessie. Struggling to make a better life for his family, he must confront the ghosts of his past when he discovers...

Boutique sales agency Asian Shadows has struck deals in Cannes on two of its key titles, “Coming Home Again,” directed by Wayne Wang and “Zero” by Soda Kazuhiro.

Asian Shadows is operating in person and online at the Cannes Market and is giving screenings to documentary “All About My Sisters” (world premiere at IFFR Bright Future last month) at the online market.

Examining themes of family, roots and food, “Coming Home Again” was sold to Zeta Filmes for Brazil and to Dae Sung Films for release in South Korea. Dae Sung says that it plans a theatrical release before the end of 2021.

That would represent a post-pandemic revival. The film premiered at the Toronto festival in September 2019 and shortly after played also at Tallinn. But its commercial career was halted by the worldwide cinema closures due to coronavirus.

The film stars Justin Chon, whose “Blue Bayou” appears this week in Un Certain Regard,...

For many people, Justin Chon might be best known for his acting role in the hugely successful “Twilight” franchise. However, if you’ve been following indie cinema for the past several years, his name has also come up as one of the best up-and-coming filmmakers working today, as is shown in his 2017 feature, “Gook.” Now, he returns with a Cannes feature, “Blue Bayou.”

Read More: Cannes Film Festival 2021 Preview: 25 Films To Watch

In honor of “Blue Bayou” arriving at Cannes, we’re getting our first good look at the new feature in a new clip that showcases Chon’s filmmaking talents, as well as his acting chops.

Continue reading ‘Blue Bayou’ First Look Clip: Justin Chon & Alicia Vikander Tackle Immigration Law In New Cannes Drama at The Playlist.

Exclusive: Curtiss Cook Jr. (The Day Shall Come) and Gbenga Akinnagbe (The Deuce) are joining the second season of Hulu drama Wu-Tang: An American Saga in recurring roles, portraying two key members of the Wu-Tang Clan universe.

Wu-Tang: An American Saga, from Wu-Tang Clan frontman The RZA, writer Alex Tse, Imagine Television and 20th Television, tells the story of the band starting in early 1990s. It looks at the group’s members, who grew up during the height of the crack cocaine epidemic, and tracks the Clan’s formation — a vision of Bobby Diggs aka The RZA, who strives to unite a dozen young black men who are torn between music and crime but eventually rise to become the unlikeliest of American success stories.

Season 2 picks up six months after the close of Season 1, with the Wu-Tang Clan having to overcome even more obstacles, odds and past beefs as they...

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May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, and to celebrate we’re honoring the incredible work of Aapi filmmakers. The recent Oscar dominance from Aapi filmmakers is long overdue, as auteurs like Bong Joon-ho and Chloe Zhao are among those finally being recognized for exquisite work.

Many of the best recent films from Aapi directors are streaming on platforms such as Hulu, Disney+, and Amazon Prime. In fact, the last two Best Picture winners, “Parasite” and “Nomadland,” are both available on Hulu. If you’re not a subscriber, you can sign up for as little as $5.99 a month. Disney+ is $7.99 a month, or you can try a bundle deal with Hulu and ESPN+ for $13.99 a month.

A second season of bilingual series “Dramaworld” takes to the airwaves across Asia from this week. The show is a fantasy about an American K-drama fan-girl who is supernaturally transported into the Korean drama scene and there must save her favorite leading man.

In Korea itself “Dramaworld” will play from Friday on A+E Networks’ Lifetime Korea channel and on the Cj Enm-backed streamer TVing. In Hong Kong, Taiwan and Southeast Asia it will play out on the international service of Chinese streamer iQIYI, while in Japan its home will be the country’s number three streamer U-Next.

In its first iteration, as a web drama with mini episodes, the show played from 2016 on Netflix and the Rakuten-owned streamer Viki.

Now presented as a long-form drama, the series was written by Josh Billig and Chris Martin, with Martin directing all episodes. Production was through Korean-American company Third Culture Content and Raemongraein a.

Focus Features has acquired the worldwide rights to “Blue Bayou,” the latest film from indie writer and director Justin Chon, the distributor announced Thursday.

The latest film from the director of “Ms. Purple” and “Gook” was acquired out of the Cannes Virtual Market from MacRo and Entertainment One, who financed “Blue Bayou.” Focus will distribute the film in the U.S., while Universal Pictures International will release it abroad.

Chon also co-stars in “Blue Bayou,” which he wrote and directed, along with Alicia Vikander, Mark O’Brien, Linh Dan Pham and Emory Cohen.

Also Read: Edgar Wright's 'Last Night in Soho' Gets New 2021 Release and First Look Image (Photo)

“Blue Bayou” tells the heartbreaking story of Antonio LeBlanc, a Korean adoptee raised in the United States who is forced to confront his distant past and what it means for his own future and his family’s when he unexpectedly faces deportation.

Editors’ Note: With full acknowledgment of the big-picture implications of a pandemic that has already claimed thousands of lives, cratered global economies and closed international borders, Deadline’s Coping With Covid-19 Crisis series is a forum for those in the entertainment space grappling with myriad consequences of seeing a great industry screech to a halt. The hope is for an exchange of ideas and experiences, and suggestions on how businesses and individuals can best ride out a crisis that doesn’t look like it will abate any time soon. If you have a story, email mike@deadline.com.

The month of May marks Asian Pacific American Heritage Month and three of the biggest Asian film festivals in the country — Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, Center For Asian American Media’s CAAMFest in San Francisco, and San Diego Asian Film Festival — were revving up to showcase films and projects from...

Wayne Wang is one of the pioneers of Asian-American cinema, often providing a unique voice on the topics of identity, immigration and integration. In his long and fruitful career, listing 22 feature-length films over the course of 44 years, he has made some of the biggest and most beloved indie hits like “The Joy Luck Club” (1993) and “Smoke” (1995), had his chance of earning Hollywood fame with “Maid in Manhattan” (2002), but he always came back to Asian-American themes. The other thing characteristic for Wang is the tendency to work with the material sourced in literature. Both stated facts hold for his latest film, “Coming Home Again”, which was shown at Toronto and Busan before having its European premiere in the official selection at Black Nights Film Festival in Tallinn.

However, “Coming Home Again” will take a special place in Wang’s filmography. The reason for that is the type of the material he works with: a deeply personal,...

It’s been downright thrilling to see the Twilight stars’ careers loosen up and expand after their stints in the culturally all-encompassing Ya adaptations. Robert Pattinson is in every arthouse genre picture, Kristen Stewart looks badass in the new Charlie’s Angels, and Justin Chon (who played nerdy Eric Yorkie in the Twilight films) is fast becoming an acclaimed writer/director/actor. Chon’s first three directed feature films — Man Up, Gook, and Ms. Purple — have all played to ecstatic reviews, and show the types of stories we don’t see in Hollywood enough. Now, Chon’s ready for …...

This week, Justin Chon’s Ms. Purple will make its Los Angeles debut at the Nuart, attempting to gain some traction when it expands to New York and other markets in the following weeks. The film premiered at Sundance to critical acclaim and was acquired by Oscilloscope shortly after. The intimate storytelling of Ms. Purple, which tells the tale of two estranged siblings in L.A.’s Koreatown, matches that of his previous film Gook, also a celebrated Sundance favorite.

Also opening this weekend is Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman’s documentary Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice from Greenwich Entertainment, chronicling the life of the iconic singer, her activism and how she became one of the most prominent voices in the music industry.

Although the weekend will be busy with the opening of the Toronto Film Festival, there will be plenty to watch at the Specialty box...

Loss is at the heart of Justin Chon’s searing new film, “Ms. Purple.” We fear it, dread it, don’t want to imagine our lives with it, and a number of us will fight like hell so not to lose the ones we love. But, as the long-suffering siblings of “Ms. Purple” learn, loss is every bit a part of living.

Kasie (Tiffany Chu) is the more responsible of the two. She’s trying to look after her terminally ill dad (James Kang), but after health aide after health aide quits, they tell her to make her peace with putting him in a hospice, where he can get better care. She refuses, eventually leaning on her wayward brother Carey (Teddy Lee) to come back home and help care for his estranged dad.

At nights, Kasie steps away from the domestic drama of her family to face another soul-crushing reality:...

Coming off of a critical and box office smash with Jordan Peele’s “Us,” Lupita Nyong’o isn’t done with the horror genre just yet, but she is giving herself a break by only playing one role in her next film. The Oscar winner next stars in “Little Monsters,” an Australian zombie comedy that’s inching closer to release after its acclaimed premiere at the Sundance Film Festival.

Nyong’o plays Miss Caroline, a kindergarten teacher chaperoning a field trip to a petting zoo that just happens to be located next to an army base. When a failed military experiment results in an outbreak of zombies, she has to keep her students alive while simultaneously assuring them that nobody is in danger. She tries to convince them that the zombie invasion is a massive game, and gets them all to play along. Who knew that “‘Shaun of the Dead...

As two former teen idols, both John Travolta and Devon Sawa know a thing or two about obsessive superfans. The two pair up in “The Fanatic,” a dramatic thriller about a middle-aged man whose obsession with a celebrity action star becomes dangerously intense. Travolta recently made waves with an unhinged performance as New York City mobster John Gotti in 2018’s “Gotti,” directed by “Entourage” star Kevin Connolly. Now he’s working with another unexpected director: former Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst.

Per the official synopsis: “Moose is a rabid movie fan who is obsessed with his favorite celebrity action hero, Hunter Dunbar (Devon Sawa). When he is cheated out of his opportunity to finally meet Hunter, Moose gets a little help from his friend Leah (Ana Golja), a well-connected paparazzi photographer, who knows how to find celebrity homes. Moose turns to stalking to get the celebrity interaction he feels he deserves,...

Korean-American director Justin Chon, whose 2017 breakout drama “Gook” won the Best of Next! Audience Award at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, returns with another poignant family drama, “Ms. Purple.” The film, which vied for the Dramatic Grand Jury Prize at Sundance 2019, will be released by Oscilloscope Laboratories on September 6.

“Ms. Purple” centers on a sister and brother, Kasie (Tiffany Chu) and Carey (Teddy Lee), raised and still living in the bustling Koreatown neighborhood of Los Angeles. Still reeling from being abandoned by their mother and brought up by their father, the estranged siblings are forced to reunite in the wake of their father’s looming death. With each of them grappling with impending tragedy in their own ways, Kasie must turn to sex work in order to support her father. Meanwhile, Carey, who ran away at 15, still resents his ailing father.

Out of Sundance, Indiewire’s Jude Dry called the film a “vivid,...

Relationships end for all kinds of reasons. People change, careers get in the way, better suitors present themselves. Unless, of course, you’re a character in an indie film set in New York. In that case, the only way to break up is to spend a day walking around the city discussing the relationship with a neurotic friend. Such is life in “The Narcissists,” a new film by Quincy Rose.

The official synopsis from Gravitas Films reads: “Brooklyn filmmaker Oliver has once again found himself at a crossroads, facing troubles with his long-term girlfriend Cassi and in a rut creatively. While meandering around New York City with his best friend, Oliver explains his latest screenplay, a narrative meditation curiously reflecting his own life, wherein a couple are forced to make a decision: stick together and commit to another year of cohabitation, or call it quits after five years and move out.

"My beautiful daughter. You're the only thing I have in this world." Oscilloscope Labs has debuted the first official trailer for an indie set in Koreatown, Los Angeles titled Ms. Purple, the latest film from acclaimed Korean-American filmmaker Justin Chon (of the films Man Up and Gook before this). This premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, and it also won the Grand Jury Prize at the Dallas Film Festival this spring. Ms. Purple stars Tiffany Chu as Kasie, a young woman who works a deadend job as a karaoke hostess in Koreatown. She reconnects with her estranged brother Carey in the final days of their father's life, struggling to make ends meet. The small cast includes Teddy Lee, Octavio Pizano, James Kang, and Jake Choi. An intimate character study about taking care of family and how tough life can be. Have a look. Here's the first official...

Ang Lee refuses to be pigeonholed. From period romances to VFX-heavy survival stories, cowboy romances to comic books, the director’s love of filmmaking isn’t limited by genre. The only thing he’s done twice is win an Oscar. A new Ang Lee movie is always an event, in part because you never know what you’re going to get, and because of the risks he’s willing to take to advance the art form.

His last film, “Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk,” was a critical and commercial misfire, but it broke new ground by being the first feature film shot in 120 frames per second. It brought a level of realism rarely seen in film, and the director is returning to the high frame rate for his latest movie, “Gemini Man.”

The science fiction thriller stars Will Smith as an assassin forced to take on a clone of his younger self,...

Specialty film sales agent Asian Shadows has picked up international rights to “Coming Home Again” by Wayne Wang, one of Asia’s most celebrated directors. The film, which tackles food, family and mortality, will premiere as a special presentation at the Toronto Intl. Film Festival in September.

Based on a short story of the same name published in The New Yorker by bestselling Korean-American novelist Lee Chang-rae, “Coming Home Again” charts the emotions of what is to be the last New Year’s Eve dinner together for an Asian American family whose mother has terminal cancer.

“’Coming Home Again’ is a universal film that touched us by its delicate portrait of a son-mother relationship, by its detailed attention to food, traditions and family roots, and [Wang’s] masterful mise-en-scène,” said Maria Ruggieri, head of sales and acquisitions at Asian Shadows. “Watching the film has been a coming home again for us, bringing...

Exclusive: After the warm reception it received at its world premiere at Sundance in January, Justin Chon’s sibling drama Ms. Purple has found a home. Oscilloscope Laboratories announced today that it has acquired North American rights to Ms. Purple which features breakout performances from Tiffany Chu and Teddy Lee. Oscilloscope, which was founded by the late great Beastie Boys member Adam Yauch, will release the film in theaters later this year.

“I am absolutely thrilled to be working with Oscilloscope for the release of Ms. Purple,” said Chon. “Their independent ideology has always been in line with what we envisioned for this film so we are excited to work together in its release. Oscilloscope is punk rock in an industry where punk rock no longer exists.”

Ms. Purple follows an Asian American sister and brother, Kasie (Chu) and Carey (Lee), who were raised and are now seemingly stuck in Koreatown,...

#GoldOpen, the Asian community movement that bought out theaters for showings of “Crazy Rich Asians,” has announced a new partnership with AMC Theaters.

The collaboration aims to streamline group movie-going, theater buyouts, bulk regular-price ticket purchasing, and more through a ticket buying system that includes a dedicated ticketing web page, purchasing support, and special events throughout the year. The We Company’s Meetup.com and Facebook Groups will also allow organizers to more easily distribute tickets, coordinate viewings, and meet other supporters.

In August, to support “Crazy Rich Asians,” the first major studio film with a majority Asian cast, #GoldOpen creators spread the word on social media that they were buying out theaters to draw a record box office. The film has since garnered over $238 million worldwide, making it the highest-grossing romantic comedy in the last decade.

Director @jonmchu: "Crazy Rich Asians is more than just a movie, it's a movement.

Imagine the scenario: A grandmother is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. What would her family do next? Maybe for many Americans, relatives would gather to say their goodbyes and discuss her final arrangements together. In Lulu Wang’s “The Farewell,” a Chinese family does it their own way: they keep the diagnosis secret from the grandmother and instead arrange a wedding as an excuse for everyone to (furtively) convene and give their last farewells to their matriarch.

The central conflict of the film hinges on anger from Billi (Awkwafina), who was raised in New York for most of her life, at a plan that she believes strips her grandmother’s individual rights. But from an Eastern perspective, it’s thought this strategy protects the sick from the burden of the news. After all, as Billi’s dad says, it’s not cancer that kills them. It’s fear.

“[My producer] has friends...

It’s not even December, and the Sundance Film Festival has announced more or less its entire feature film lineup, unveiling 112 films to be screened in Park City, Utah, over the course of the event, which runs from Jan. 23 – Feb. 2, 2019.

Last year, the Venice Film Festival invited just one woman director to screen her film in competition. Cannes carved out room for three. Sundance once again puts these male-dominated showcases to shame, unveiling a competition slate that is 53% female — nine of the 17 directors eligible for the festival’s top prize are women.

Examining the lineup as a whole, 45 of the 112 features accepted to Sundance were directed by one or more women, 40 were directed by a filmmaker of color, and 15 by people who identify as Lgbtqia. That’s just one of the many ways in which North America’s leading independent film festival continues to lead the charge when it comes...

“Crazy Rich Asians,” with a $35 million five-day opening, over-performed initial box office estimates, which had pegged the picture to open to $18 million just three weeks ago.

As with other groundbreaking films featuring diverse casts, tracking projections underestimated the opening weekend — the same thing that happened with “Black Panther,” “Wonder Woman,” “Girls Trip,” “Coco,” and others over the last few years.

Estimating the opening haul for any film is an inexact science, part market research and part gut feeling. Films with black, female, Asian-American, or Latino leads — groups grossly underrepresented in Hollywood — can be even harder to predict because of the lack of comparable films, or comps, some box office trackers say. Of course, studios are also conservative in their estimates, eager to not look bad by over-shooting the potential opening number.

One thing tracking can’t take into account for films like “Black Panther” and “Crazy Rich Asians” is concerted...

In 1993, Wayne Wang directed The Joy Luck Club, adapted from the best-selling novel by Amy Tan. It was the first Asian American-fronted film from a major studio and it was a watershed moment for Asian Americans in cinema — and it was a breakout role for Ming-Na Wen. Does this sound like a familiar story? It should because it’s a similar story to what is happening in 2018 with Crazy Rich Asians.

It’s a coincidence that The Joy Luck Club and Crazy Rich Asians are opening around the same point in the calendar 25 years apart, but there’ also a poetic symmetry to it (side note: actress Lisa Lu stars in both). The Joy Luck Club told a story about the relationships between Asian mothers and their American-born daughters, with Wen’s June at the center of it all. It explored cultural identity through an Asian American lens and paved the way for Crazy Rich Asians.

Film is a visual medium, and so it makes perfect sense that filmmakers would thrive on Instagram. From legendary auteurs like Martin Scorsese to emerging indie directors like Anna Rose Holmer, many of the most exciting voices in contemporary cinema have found the social media platform to be a great outlet for their excess artistic energies, travel pictures, and puppy photos. Some of these accounts are intensely personal, while others are more geared towards self-promotion, but all of them are well worth following for how they channel their creators’ unique sensibilities and make it that much easier for fans to engage with their work.

Here are the 40 best film directors to follow on Instagram.

Ana Lily Amirpour

Geared up to leave the house and run past the earthlings. #alien

A post shared by Ana Lily Amirpour (@lilyinapad) on Mar 17, 2018 at 1:12pm Pdt

Why You Should Follow Her:

The writer-director...

Exclusive: Justin Chon, the multi-hyphenate actor-writer-director whose film Gook won the Next category at this year's Sundance Film Festival, is partnering with MacRo on his next original feature. Chon will write and direct a yet untitled feature whose storyline is being kept under wraps for a late 2018 start. He was nominated last month as a "Director To Watch" at the 33rd Annual Film Independent Spirit Awards. Charles D. King, Kim Roth and Poppy Hanks will produce…...

The African American Film Critics Association has unveiled its picks for the top films and TV series of the year, bestowing Get Out with the award for best picture of 2017. Jordan Peele's horror-comedy also earned the awards for best directing, screenplay and actor (Daniel Kaluuya).

The world’s largest group of professional Black film critics also gave acting nods to Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri's Frances McDormand, Last Flag Flying's Laurence Fishburne, Girls Trip's Tiffany Haddish and Crown Heights' Lakeith Stanfield. Gook, Coco, Detroit, Step and Mudbound were also among the recognized films. ABC's Black-ish and OWN's Queen Sugar were named the top TV...

With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’ve taken it upon ourselves to highlight the titles that have recently hit platforms. Every week, one will be able to see the cream of the crop (or perhaps some simply interesting picks) of streaming titles (new and old) across platforms such as Netflix, iTunes, Amazon, and more (note: U.S. only). Check out our rundown for this week’s selections below.

The Adventures of Tintin (Steven Spielberg)

Leave it to Steven Spielberg to eke more thrills out of an animated feature than most directors could with every live-action tool at their disposal. The Adventures of Tintin is colored and paced like a child’s fantastical imagining of how Hergé’s comics might play in motion, and the extent to which viewers buy it depends largely on their willingness to give...