The ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ sequels have lost a writer in a row over pay.
Producers on the upcoming movies had hired the 2018 comedy’s scribes, Adele Lim and Peter Charelli but Adele has now walked away from the project after she was allegedly offered a fee "significantly" lower than her collaborator.
Adele – who has written for several TV shows including ‘Dynasty’, ‘Private Practice’ and ‘One Tree Hill’ – told The Hollywood Reporter: "Being evaluated that way can’t help but make you feel that is how they view my contributions."
She also admitted she felt women of colour are viewed as "soy sauce" and hired to work purely for cultural specificities, rather than to have a substantial role in telling a story.
According to the outlet, Warner Bros. offered around $800,000- $1 million for the more experienced movie writer Peter and $110,000 to Adele, explaining to her representatives the quotes were industry standard and based on experience.
They later upped the offer in February for something closer to parity with Peter, who also volunteered to split his fee, but Adele passed.
She said: "Pete has been nothing but incredibly gracious, but what I make shouldn’t be dependent on the generosity of the white-guy writer.
"If I couldn’t get pay equity after ‘CRA’, I can’t imagine what it would be like for anyone else, given that the standard for how much you’re worth is having established quotes from previous movies, which women of color would never have been [hired for]. There’s no realistic way to achieve true equity that way."
Peter is currently writing back-to-back sequels – based on Kevin Kwan’s other sequels, ‘China Rich Girlfriend’ and ‘Rich People Problems’ – with director Jon M. Chu, and the filmmaker hopes to bring back the original cast, including Constance Wu, Henry Golding, Gemma Chan and Awkwafina, but won’t rush into a release date for either movie, which will likely shoot together next year.
The director said: "There’s too much responsibility and too much precedent from the first movie that the last thing I want to do is just hit a date and release the movie.
"There’s still too much work to do. Our focus isn’t on the timeline, it’s on getting the story right."
Crazy Rich Asians in writer row
