By Ed Diokno
Before he hit the big-time, and before Jon Chu was picked to direct the upcoming movie adaptation of Kevin Kwan’s best-selling book Crazy Rich Asians and before he directed two of the sequels in the Now You See Me movie franchise, Chu could be found in New York City taping his web series The Legion of Extraordinary Dancers. Watch (Adam G. Sevani) and Camille (Alyson Stoner) shuffling delightfully down the sidewalk to a remixed Frank Sinatra in 2010’s Step Up 3D? The dance was shot in one long take.
Crazy Rich Asians will be filmed in Singapore with an all-Asian cast. Chu was able to counter a producer who wanted to change one of the lead characters to a Euro American. No whitewashing here.
The story is a comedy of manners about the lavish lifestyles of the ultra-wealthy in Singapore, Hong Kong and Shanghai, as seen through the eyes of an American-born Chinese woman meeting her Singaporean boyfriend’s high-society family for the first time.