Jamie Ford to Turn Bestseller into Movie

Half-Chinese author Jamie Ford has signed on to work with film producers to turn his bestselling novel Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet into a movie, reports KRTV. Ford has even agreed to write the screenplay adaptation himself, something that not many authors choose to do.

The historical fiction novel is a story of the Chinese American Henry Lee’s experiences with racism and his friendship with the Japanese American Keiko Okabe, who is incarcerated with her family during World War II.

Having been approached by dozens of producers already, Ford hasn’t found the ‘right fit’ until now. Some Hollywood producers have gone so far as to say that the film would not be a success unless the male lead was played by a white man, inherently shutting down the approach to racial attitudes that the novel takes. “Other filmmakers, they intimated that they were going to change my main characters quite a bit, even the ethnicity of my main characters, and my main characters are Chinese and Japanese, and that’s integral to the story, and I wasn’t willing to let that stuff go,” Ford stated. The film producers Ford has agreed to work with are not presenting these same issues, making them the right choice for him.

So it begins… pic.twitter.com/UMQEJP2Thk

— Jamie Ford (@JamieFord) April 10, 2017

 
Ford will continue to work on the screenplay while the producers search for a director throughout April and May. In the case that the film project falls through before it reaches fruition, Ford will maintain ownership of the screenplay for potential future use.

Related:

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Sacramento Bee: Jamie Ford Follows up Best Seller with Orphan’s Search for his Mother

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