August 11, 2018, 03:29 AM 
Talk about having a decent run this 2018 so far.
Singapore is set to get some honourable mentions in the media internationally the next couple of weeks, mere months after the June 12 Trump-Kim summit put the tiny red dot on the world map.
The Crazy Rich Asians movie is opening on Aug. 15, and interest worldwide is high, judging by pre-release hype and critical feedback.
Why is Crazy Rich Asians a big deal?
This movie is the first major American studio release since 1993’s The Joy Luck Club to feature a predominantly Asian and Asian-American cast.
The Chinese and Chinese-American actors are cast alongside performers from Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Japan.
Names familiar to local audiences here include Constance Wu, Henry Golding, Ronny Chieng, Ken Jeong and Fiona Xie.
This movie is the Hollywood adaptation of Singaporean Kevin Kwan’s bestselling novel.
It is directed by Asian-American director Jon M Chu (Now You See Me 2).
Filming took place in 2017 on location in Singapore as well as various parts of Malaysia.
The drama in the movie revolves around the uber wealthy elite in Singapore. This means scenes featuring Singapore will be seen worldwide.
This movie has broken the typical Asian stereotype on screen, where Asians are cast as bookish nerds, voiceless vixens and unsuccessful villains.
What is the pre-release hype?
Crazy Rich Asians has scored a perfect 100 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 23 reviews so far.
Rotten Tomatoes works as an aggregator of reviews and tabulates the individual reviews from major reviewers into a overall score, and this reflects that the movie has been reviewed positively thus far.
The audience "Want to See" rating is also a high of 93 percent.
The movie is expected to rake in US$20 million to US$30 million in the first five-day opening weekend.
Why is Singapore a fortunate beneficiary?
Kwan's novel came out in 2013 and became a hit. The book was Kwan channelling what he knew of the nouveau riche from growing up in Singapore and Malaysia.
The book sold more than a million copies and has been translated into more than 20 languages.
It has been described as a relatable story that happens to be about Asians. And it so happens to be set in Singapore.
It is unlike many previous Asian stories that got made into a Hollywood movie, such as Memoirs of a Geisha or Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
Crazy Rich Asians is a contemporary satirical romantic comedy set in modern-day Singapore.
Could have ended up on Netflix
And the entire project could have been derailed at many points before it went into production.
There was a suggestion early on by a producer to make Constance Wu's character a white woman instead. This revelation has since drawn howls of derision whenever this anecdote is related to the press.
And then there was the talk about making the movie more mainland Chinese-centric to cater to the China market as the audiences there could be milked as well.
But the movie's director resisted that.
Crazy Rich Asians could have also ended up being shown on Netflix instead of having an international theatrical release.
It was revealed that Netflix dangled a massive seven-digit paycheck and full artistic freedom to Kwan, Chu and all major stakeholders involved, in exchange for the adaptation rights.
However, Kwan and Chua stuck to their guns and insisted on wanting to make a big screen movie that would pave the way for future Asian stories. They went with Warner Bros. eventually.
The current mood in Hollywood has been ripe for a movie such as Crazy Rich Asians as there was a build-up of a blow back to all the whitewashing that came before this current moment.
[related_story]
Crazy Rich Asians opens in Singapore on Aug. 22.
If you like what you read, follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Telegram to get the latest updates.