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The long-awaited sequel to Crazy Rich Asians looks back on track as Chinese-Australian writer Amy Wang has been hired as the sole writer to replace the co-writers of the first instalment following a pay parity dispute.
Wang, a story editor on Netflix’s Brothers Sun, is the sole credited writer on the sequel.
The sequel will be directed by Jon M Chu and original cast members Henry Golding and Constance Wu will return.
The naming of Wang as the sole writer has put the project back on track.
Sequel stalled
The sequel to the first movie was announced shortly after Crazy Rich Asians hit the screens in 2018.
As talks for the sequel were ongoing, the pandemic struck.
Golding has said that with pandemic restrictions lifting worldwide, he “can’t wait to get back to Singapore”, where the first installment was filmed.
Pay dispute issue
Peter Chiarelli and Adele Lim wrote the first Crazy Rich Asians movie.
Lim subsequently exited negotiations in 2019 for her return to the sequel after it was revealed that Chiarelli was allegedly going to be paid almost 10 times more than her.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Lim was reportedly offered around US$110,000 compared to Chiarelli's far more lucrative US$800,000 to US$1 million deal.
Warner Bros explained the pay disparity was due to Chiarelli having more experience penning feature films, including The Proposal and Now You See Me 2, while Lim was predominantly known as a TV writer.
Producers reportedly spent five months trying to replace Lim in February 2019 before they approached her with a higher number.
Chiarelli then offered to split his fee with Lim to bridge the gap, but Lim declined.
She told The Hollywood Reporter: "Pete has been nothing but incredibly gracious, but what I make shouldn't be dependent on the generosity of the white-guy writer."
Move to walk away lauded
Director Chu posted a lengthy statement on Twitter at the time in support of Lim’s decision to leave the franchise.
“I’m proud that she was able to stand up for her own measure of worth and walk away when she felt like she was being undervalued,” he wrote.
After her departure from the movie, Lim told The Hollywood Reporter that women and people of colour were often treated as “soy sauce” in the film industry.
She said they were hired to add cultural flavour without being credited fairly for their contributions.
“Being evaluated that way can’t help but make you feel that is how they view my contributions,” she said.
First movie a money-maker
The original 2018 movie grossed nearly US$240 million at the global box office.
In 2020, Golding had already explained why it was taking so long to get the sequel out after the successful first movie.
He told IndieWire that Chu was “still at that stage with trying to create a viable storyline for the next two movies”.
Golding continued: “Sometimes, it’s really difficult to translate [the original books] onto the big screen, and with the pressure of trying to keep up the same interest we had with the first movie. The bar has already been raised really high.”
In September 2020, Golding told Digital Spy that he had spoken to Chu, and was told the sequel's script was still unfinished at that time.
"It's a very complicated process because, visually, sometimes a novel doesn't make as much sense as it would on the screen in a direct adaptation. So you have to really change it up to make it interesting," Golding said.
What sequel will be about
Crazy Rich Asians 2 will likely focus on Rachel, Constance Wu's character, and her relationship with her birth father and half-brother.
But storylines for fan favorites like Awkwafina's Peik Lin Goh, who does not factor heavily in the follow-up books, would deviate greatly from the source material.
The screenwriters are expected to draw narrative threads from the original and the book sequel, China Rich Girlfriend, as well as invent new storylines for the characters, like Peik Lin, who were created or had an increased role for the first movie.
Top photo via Warner Bros
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