Posted in: Disney+, TV | Tagged: American Born Chinese, disney, Gene Luen Yang

American Born Chinese: Disney+, Shang-Chi Director Team for TV Adapt

Gene Luen Yang's acclaimed graphic novel American Born Chinese will become a TV series on Disney+ with Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings director Destin Daniel Cretton directing and executive producing for 20^th Television. This will be Cretton's first TV series. American Born Chinese was a 2006 National Book Award Finalist for Young People's Literature, the winner of the 2007 Eisner Award for Best Graphic Album: New, of the 2007 Michael L. Printz Award, and a 2007 Bank Street – Best Children's Book of the Year, among many accolades. It also has been recommended to teachers for classroom instruction.

American Born Chinese tells the story of Jin Wang, an average teenager juggling his high school social life with his immigrant home life. When he meets a new foreign student on the first day of the school year, even more worlds collide as Jin is unwittingly entangled in a battle of Chinese mythological gods. The action-comedy explores issues of identity, culture, and family, of course.

"Gene Luen Yang's book is a staple in American literature, and deeply important to a whole generation of readers," said Kelvin Yu. "Destin and Melvin are storytellers working at the highest level imaginable. It's all so exciting and so humbling to be a part of." Deadline reported that Kelvin Yu, who previously wrote for Bob's Burgers, will be the showrunner, and with his brother, novelist Charles Yu, serve as writers and executive producers. The latter's novel Interior Chinatown won the 2020 National Book Award for Fiction.  Other executive producers will be Melvin Mar and Jake Kasdan. Asher Goldstein and Gene Luen Yang will also be executive producers.

"We are delighted to continue our relationship with Melvin Mar and Jake Kasdan and thrilled that Destin Daniel Cretton is set to direct," said Ayo Davis, president of Disney Branded Television. "The team are visionaries in bringing character-driven adventures to life, and we cannot wait for our audience to experience this fantastically memorable and imaginative adaptation of the graphic novel. This is a great universal story that moves between worlds and explores the impact of culture, identity, and acceptance through the lens of adolescence."

Mar and Kasdan are executive producers of Disney+'s Doogie Kamealoha, M.D., another Disney Branded Television series produced by 20th Television, with American Born Chinese marking the latest collaboration between the Disney teams led by Dana Walden and Davis. 20th TV-based Mar and Kasdan previously executive produced the studio's comedy series Fresh Off the Boat, the first network sitcom featuring an Asian family in more than 20 years, which ran on ABC for six seasons and became the first series featuring an all-Asian-American main cast to surpass 100 episodes.

"This has been a labor of love for Melvin Mar, and like the force of nature he is, the team he has assembled in Kelvin, Destin, and Jake is as inspired and otherworldly as Gene's beautiful graphic novel," said 20th Television President Karey Burke. "We are so proud to be their studio and grateful to Ayo and everyone at Disney Branded Television and Disney+ for their belief in this series."

"Reading Kelvin's riveting adaptation of Gene's incredible novel had me laughing and crying and jumping out of my chair on every page," Cretton said. "I feel deeply connected to the characters in this story and the brilliant team bringing it to life. This show is going to be unlike anything we've experienced on TV, and I can't wait for the world to see what we're cooking up."

Like Cretton, Yang's recent work was focused on martial arts superhero Shang-Chi; he wrote a Shang-Chi comic book miniseries, which was published last year. "I feel so lucky to be working with this team," Yang said. "Melvin Mar is a man with a vision, and I'm deeply grateful that he took this project under his wing. Kelvin Yu is a phenomenal talent. His script brings to television everything I wanted to get across in my book. And Destin Cretton… who in America isn't a fan of Destin Cretton right now? I can't wait for him to bring his signature blend of action and heart to the show."

Yang is a life-long fan of Disney – as a child, he wanted to become an animator for the studio. "When I was in high school, I was such a big Disney fan that I had at least one Mickey Mouse item on me at all times: a wallet, a watch, a belt buckle, a t-shirt, something," he said. "Being a part of Disney+ is a dream come true."

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