Lulu Wang — whose latest film “The Farewell” opens this weekend — has set her sights on her next directorial project in Alexander Weinstein’s “Children of the New World.”
Plot details for the science-fiction film are being kept under wraps, but Wang is adapting the feature based on Weinstein’s collection of short stories of the same name.
Dani Melia and Peter Saraf at Big Beach announced on Monday that they will produce the film along with Votiv’s Justin Lothrop. Brent Stiefel from Votiv will serve as an executive producer.
“Lulu and I have been friends for years now and we’re very excited to be collaborating with her on such an incredible project,” Lothrop said in a statement. “When we started on this journey with her, I don’t think we could have imagined a better partner than Big Beach, and we couldn’t be more pleased about working with them on this.”
“Children of the New World,” published in 2016, is Weinstein’s debut work. The collection introduces readers to a near-future full of social media implants, memory manufacturers, dangerously immersive virtual reality games, and frighteningly intuitive robots, according to Weinstein’s site. Many of the characters in the stories live in a utopian future of instant connection and technological gratification that belies an unbridgeable human distance, while others inhabit a post-collapse landscape made primitive by disaster.
Big Beach also collaborated with Wang on “The Farewell,” starring Awkwafina (Nora Lum), which premiered earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival. “The Farewell” won the Audience Award at Sundance London, Atlanta Film Festival, LA Asian Pacific Film Festival and Cinetopia, and will be released in select theaters by A24 on Friday.
“I could not have made ‘The Farewell’ without my fantastic producers at Big Beach, so I’m looking forward to this new collaboration, with them and Votiv, to continue exploring the evolving dynamics of family,” Wang said in a statement.
In “The Farewell,” which Wang also wrote based on real experiences, Awkwafina stars as Billi, a Chinese-born writer who moved to America when she was six years old. The film centers around Billi’s family’s decision not to tell their beloved matriarch, Nai Nai, that she has been diagnosed with lung cancer and doesn’t have long to live. Instead, they throw together a wedding back in China so that everyone in the family can, in effect, say their goodbyes.
“We had an incredible experience collaborating with Lulu Wang on ‘The Farewell’ and are thrilled to be making another film with this visionary director, this time working alongside Votiv and exploring a completely different space and genre,” Melia said in a statement.
In addition to “The Farewell,” Big Beach’s upcoming film releases include TriStar’s “It’s A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” from Marielle Heller and starring Tom Hanks and Matthew Rhys. The production hub is also behind Starz’s new series “Vida,” currently in its second season, and “Sorry For Your Loss,” which is preparing to shoot its second season for Facebook Watch.
Votiv films, a development finance and production company, is best known for their work on “Free In Deed,” “As You Are” and “Obvious Child.”
Lulu Wang is represented by UTA and Circle of Confusion.