James Wan
MORE ASIAN writer-directors are making it on the global film scene these days, inspiring others to similarly work really hard to succeed and come up with hits. Two inspiring standouts:
James Wan, the director of “The Conjuring 2,” was born in Malaysia, but began his filmmaking career in Australia, where his first feature film, “Stygian,” won the Best Guerrilla Film citation at the Melbourne Underground Film Festival in 2000.
Since then, his horror film, “Saw,” enjoyed unexpectedly overwhelming success in the States and internationally, grossing over the $100-million mark that is the movie biz’s signal for the conferment of “hit” status.
This was over 80 times its tight production budget, so producers excitedly took notice and bankrolled sequels of the sleeper hit on a practically annual basis.
All told, the “Saw” franchise has been raking in multimillions and has in fact been hailed as the second highest-grossing horror franchise, with the “Friday the 13th” films edging ahead of it only by a millionaire’s nose.
Aside from the “Saw” movie series, Wan has megged other thriller-chillers, like “Dead Silence,” “Death Sentence,” “Insidious” and “The Conjuring.”
He also directed a “Fast and Furious” actioner, the seventh in the hit series, and impressed producers even more when his movie was cited as the most successful “Furious” flick of all, both at the box office and with reviewers.
No wonder New Line Cinema has signed him up to a long-term contract, leading off with “The Conjuring 2,” and following up with “Aquaman” and “Robotech.”
For his part, Jon M. Chu, the director of “Now You See Me, 2,” is a Chinese-American filmmaker who stood out as a director as early as his student years at the University of Southern California School of Cinema-Television.
He won the Princess Grace Award, the Dore Schary Award and the Jack Nicholson directing award. He was also an honoree for the IFP/West program, “Project: Involve.”
Jon Chu
Student short
After shooting his student short, “When The Kids Are Away,” Chu was managed by the William Morris Agency. He was attached to projects involving big studios like Sony Pictures, and was tapped to meg “Step Up 2: The Streets,” in 2008.
The dance drama was right up Chu’s alley because, aside from his cinematic involvements, he’s also in a dance crew called AC/DC.
Other dance-related movies he’s megged include “Step Up 3D” (2010), “The Legion of Extraordinary Dancers” (2011), “Step Up Revolution” (2012) and “Step Up: All In” (2014).
Aside from his dance-themed productions, Chu is known for megging the show biz docu, “Justin Bieber: Never Say Never” (2011) and “Justin Bieber’s Believe” (2013). He also produced and directed the full-length animated feature, “Jem and The Holograms” (2015).