New Hollywood production company will focus on AAPI projects

Hollywood veteran Mary Lee, left, will head A-Major Media.

A new production company focused on Asian American content has launched with a majority investment from Valence Media,  reports The Hollywood Reporter. 
A-Major Media is led by Mary Lee, a 15-year industry veteran who was most recently head of film at Justin Lin's Perfect Storm Entertainment, where she oversaw such upcoming projects as Warner Bros.' Space Jam 2, Legendary's Hot Wheels, Paramount's Lone Wolf and Cub and the upcoming adaptation of Steve James' Oscar-nominated documentary Abacus.

Lee, previously head of film at Justin Lin's Perfect Storm Entertainment, is developing projects for the newly formed A-Major Media with John Cho and Gemma Chan, among others.

The new company already has several projects in the hopper, including:

• I Believe in a Thing Called Love, Yulin Kuang's (CW Seed's I Ship It) adaptation of Maurene Goo's 2015 YA novel about a Korean-American girl who uses Korean drama techniques to woo the boy of her dreams. 

• An untitled autobiographical project based on the high school experiences of Fresh Off the Boat co-executive producer Kourtney Kang, who is writing and making her feature directorial debut.

• We Stan, about female friends and fellow K-pop stans, penned by Atypical writer Lauren Moon (who also is adapting 29 Dates for Disney+). A-Major will produce the comedy alongside Asian American music and media company 88rising and Korean American rapper and actor Jon "Dumbfoundead" Park.

A-Major also is in early development on an untitled television series produced by Gemma Chan and Franklin Leonard, among others.

“Looking back at my entire career, I think I’ve always tried in certain ways to champion Asian American stories or be involved with them, but it was just so much harder back then,” Lee tells THR. 

She called the success of such films as 2018’s Crazy Rich Asians and Searching as paradigm shifters. “To actually build a company and be able to champion Asian and Asian American artists and stories is something I really didn't think was possible until now," said Lee.

Lee is the latest Hollywood executive to take matters into her own hands to overcome the lack of movies about and by Asian Americans, featuring AAPI in front and behind the camera. Among the AAPI writers, actors and producers who have started their own production companies include Mindy Kaling, Daniel Dae Kim, Justin Lin, Jon M. Chu and Dan Lin.