Jimmy O. Yang (Space Force), Jessica Gao (executive producer of Marvel’s forthcoming She-Hulk) and Ken Cheng‘s (HBO’s upcoming House of Chow) production banner Crab Club is teaming up with Jon M. Chu (who stays busy!) for a feature adaptation based on Alex Palmer’s 2018 GQ article The Great Chinese Art Heist.
The Warner Bros. film marks a reunion between Yang and Chu who worked together on the game-changing adaptation of Kevin Kwan’s novel Crazy Rich Asians.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Chu is attached to direct the pic which recounts a series of sometimes intricate and cinematic thefts from museums and palaces across Europe of Chinese art and antiquities. The majority of the items came from a time when European armies had invaded and looted the Chinese Empire, with many coming from the sacking of the Old Summer Palace in 1840, one of the most humiliating events in Chinese history. Among the questions tackled by the article are, should museums return the ancient pieces; is there a stealth plan, perhaps by the government, to reacquire them; or could patriotic Chinese billionaires be behind it?
Gao and Cheng are set to write the adaptation while Chu is producing with his Electric Somewhere Co. partner, Lance Johnson, along with GQ Studios.
Chu is coming off of the celebrated feature adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Tony award-winning In the Heights. Next up for the filmmaker is the adaptation of another iconic musical: Wicked.
Yang, Gao and Cheng’s Crab Club recently wrapped production on their first feature, the very Filipino-centric Easter Sunday, a comedy inspired by stand-up Jo Koy’s life experiences. The film written by Cheng also stars Eva Noblezada, Brandon Wardell, Tia Carrere, Lou Diamond Phillips and Eugene Cordero with Jay Chandrasekhar directing.
