It's been a banner year for Awkwafina, earning accolades for her starring role in The Farewell, and joining the blockbuster sequel Jumanji: The Next Level. And now she's flexing her newfound muscle to develop a new film about a little-known influence of Chinese-American culture.
Awkwafina will produce and star in a feature film about the impact of Chinatown restaurants on the west coast punk scene. Madeline Leung Coleman wrote the script, which his based on the Topic.com article “How Chinese Food Fueled the Rise of California Punk".
Here's how Deadline describes it: "the article explores how, during the recession of the late 1970s and early 1980s, Chinatown restaurants from Sacramento to San Francisco started renting their banquet halls for rehearsal space and booking the young bands of nascent West Coast punk as dinner entertainment to bring in additional business. The article puts shine on these Chinese and Filipino restaurants and how they became some of California’s most important venues and the focal point of the seminal West Coast punk music scene."
No director is attached at this point, but this is likely to be a sought-after project. It wouldn't be surprising to see Awkwafina select an Asian filmmaker to more authentically bring this story to life.
