A new Filipino American historical crime drama called Concepción is in the works, Deadline reports.
Set between 1992 and 2020, Concepción follows kingpin Paulo “Pepe” Concepción and his family as they live in Historic Filipinotown in Los Angeles. According to a summary posted on IMDb, the Concepción family turns to crime after desperately chasing the American dream. As “Lolo Pepe” builds a powerful criminal network through gambling, extortion, drug sales, and more illegal acts to support his family and neighborhood, the show’s characters must “desperately try to maintain their humanity” in an “unfair city.”
The show, however, is not just about crime. Deadline reports it will also feature Filipino American identity, history, and family as well.
According to Asian Journal, Concepción is a joint project between Only Humans Production in the U.S. and ABS-CBN, a Filipino production company. The show’s creator is Craig Obligación Wilson, a Los Angeles-based film creative who is a partner with numerous FilAm community organizations. Award-winning screenwriter Lynn Harrod serves as writer and co-showrunner alongside Wilson.
Few names have been attached to the show yet. So far, other confirmed creatives involved include producer Jeremiah Abraham, the CEO of Tremendous Communications who has previously worked on franchises including Crazy Rich Asians and Harry Potter. Asian Journal reports that actor Reggie Lee, who has appeared in Prison Break, Grimm, The Dark Knight Rises, The Fast and the Furious, and other notable franchises, will co-produce and play an unspecified role.
Other info, such as the show’s release date, has also not yet been announced. However, a promotional poster credited to Harrod has been posted on IMDb. The image shows a man in a white suit smoking a cigar who is superimposed on a Historic Filipinotown street. At the center of the poster is the show’s name, “Concepción: A Crime Family Drama,” surrounded by a stylized black eagle with guns for wings. A tagline underneath reads “Family is Everything.”
The development of Concepción comes alongside a push to feature more Filipino American stories in an industry that has historically failed to prioritize those voices. For the creatives involved, the show marks an exciting opportunity to collaborate with a Filipino company while also bringing a uniquely Filipino story to an American audience.
“I am thrilled that ABS-CBN Corporation, with their wealth of resources in the Philippines, is joining us in this journey to hopefully bring this first Filipino-American drama with its dynamic scope and universal values to screens,” Lee told Deadline.
“Asian Americans have a wealth of stories and experiences that Hollywood has only begun to acknowledge,” Abraham added. “I’m glad to produce such a unique project that I’m sure will captivate audiences everywhere.”
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Why is it that the East Asian tropes of recent immigrants/forever foreigners, gangsters/warlords, prostitutes/ massage parlor workers, and/or nerds are the only ones that America will feature about Asians? Shang Chi’s father was a warlord/gangster and Shang Chi himself was a gangster who murdered. In this show, ‘“Lolo Pepe” builds a powerful criminal network through gambling, extortion, drug sales, and more illegal acts to support his family and neighborhood…’ Where is the East Asian “Roots?” The “Roots” 1970’s miniseries showed the horrific treatment of African slaves and how the African slaves overcame racism with courage and heart to become Americans that blacks can be proud of. How about a show or miniseries to showcase how the East Asian communities’ humanity, courage, kindness, perserverance, heartbreak, humility, dignity, and virtue brought them through almost two centuries of American racism, hatred, beatings, lynchings, and ostracism, yet rose above all that? How about a miniseries which interweaves the Chinese immigrant experience to build supportive, generous, viable communities which slowly included newer Asian immigrants like the Japanese, Filipinos, Koreans, etc. over the decades as each new Asian and Pacific Islander immigrant wave arrives on the shores of America? There are many multi-cultural Asian-Americans in the USA with the blood of many East Asian, Hawaiian, and Pacific Islanders. How about a show which tells of how despite cruel treatments, the AAPI community not only throve, but became American success stories we can be proud of? Where is the book or movie about the Chinese-American family that challenged Jim Crow laws decades before Brown v. Board of Education? https://www.ozy.com/true-and-stories/the-forgotten-chinese-american-family-that-challenged-jim-crow/80484/