Jo Koy's funny upbringing as a Filipino American inspires a movie

Comedian Jo Koy played to a sold-out audience at San Francisco's 18,000-seat Chase Center and held them in the palm of his hand throughout his entire set.

During his monologue, he often told stories about growing up in Seattle by a strict single  Filipina mother. The audience, the majority of which were Filipino Americans, guffawed as they recognized their own relatives.

Being raised by a Filipino mother is a major part of his routine. "I really bonded with my mom," says Koy. "That's why I identify with being Asian, with being Filipino. Those stories are true. It’s from my heart. It’s what I lived growing up so that’s all I can talk about."

Now his Filipino American family -- at least the comedic version of his family -- will be the subject of an upcoming movie titled Easter Sunday, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

As the title suggests, the Amblin Partners project centers around a family gathering to celebrate Easter Sunday.

“This is a dream come true for me to work with such a legendary production company like Amblin who have produced some of my all-time favorite movies from Jurassic Park to 1917. I’m so honored to be a part of the Amblin family, and to have them help bring my personal stories to the big screen,” Koy said Tuesday in a statement.

Besides being the subjects of the movie, Asian Americans will be behind the camera as well.  Rick and Morty writer Jessica Gao and Silicon Valley star Jimmy O. Yang are among the executive producers. Dan Lin's Rideback will. be partnering with Amblin for the comedy. Comedian and writer Ken Cheng (Wilfred) will write the screenplay.  

Easter Sunday will be released domestically by Universal Pictures.

Koy, who says he has been doing standup comedy for over 30 years, was named the “Stand-Up Comedian of the Year” at the Just for Laughs Comedy Festival in Montreal in 2018. His Netflix special "Live From Seattle" albun reached No. 1 on the 2019 Billboard comedy album chart.

“Jo is one of the most popular comics working today and I’m delighted to be starting this journey with him. Jo’s comedy is at once unique to his life and his experiences, and at the same time relatable and familiar to us all," added Holly Bario, Amblin Partners’ president of production. "With every performance he shares his comedy, his heart and his family with us. His poor family ... who will now be lovingly made fun of in a whole new medium. To them, I apologize.”

TGIF Feature: All Asian cast lip-syncs to BTS

ASAM NEWS

STEVE AOKI'S latest music is receiving national praise for its all Asian cast.
The video is for a K-Pop group BTS’s first English-language track, “Waste It On Me,” which Aoki produced. According to Hello Giggles, BTS do not appear in the video. Instead, the group enlisted the help of an Asian American cast and crew to produce the video.

According to Variety, Joe Hahn, who is best known as a DJ for Linkin Park, directed the video. It stars Ken Jeong, Ross Butler, and Jamie Chung. The supporting cast includes Leonard Nam, Jimmy O. Yang, Vincent Rodriguez, and many more. Aoki’s half-sister and model, Devon Aoki also makes an appearance.

Variety reports that learning “Waste it On Me” was the number one song in the world on Apple music inspired Aoki to produce a music video with an all Asian cast.

“When I found out that ‘Waste It On Me’ was the number one song in the world on Apple Music I realized that this track represented more than just me and BTS,” said Aoki. “It’s bigger than music, it represents a Korean band and one Asian American DJ that can show other Asians they are also apart of the global commercial musical landscape. I feel so deeply about the Asian footprint in music culture that I wanted the music video to have an entirely Asian cast and director.”

Aoki released the music video on Monday. It has almost 6 million views.
________________________________________________________________________________

'Crazy Rich Asians' preview: 'It's not a movie, it's a movement.'

INSTAGRAM / JIMMY O.YANG

Some of the 'Crazy Rich Asians' cast were on hand for the special preview, including, from left, Nico Santos, Gemma Chan, Henry Golding, Constance Wu, Jimmy O. Yang and Awkafina.

A SPECIAL PREVIEW of the upcoming movie, Crazy Rich Asians, was held in L.A. last night. In the audience were a whole bunch of AAPI influencers (Hey, why wasn't Views From the Edge invited?).

The initial response: overwhelming, tears, joy, pride, emotional. 

My two favorite tweets: From director John M. Chu, "It's not a movie, it's a movement." 

And we get this from from Andre J. Daughtry. He said what, I've been thinking : Crazy Rich Asians is to AAPI as Black Panther is for African/Americans. That's putting a lot of pressure on the film adaptation of Kevin Kwan's best-selling novel.

 Take a look at the sampling of the responses below for yourself. For more critiques, go to Next Shark.

I swear, we're not in the PR business, much less promoting a particular movie, but if you're not getting revved up about Crazy Rich Asians, which will premiere Aug. 17, then ... 
_________________________________________________________________________________

It's a wrap for 'Crazy Rich Asians', the movie

INSTAGRAM / JIMMY O. YANG

The remaining cast members of Crazy Rich Asians gather for the last day of shooting in Singapore

FRIDAY (June 23) was the last day of filming in Singapore for the movie adaptation of Kevin Kwan's Crazy Rich Asians. 

Director John M. Chu created a congenial environment for bonding for the cast members so the end of Singapore shooting was bittersweet - more like the last day of high school. A great experience, new friendships made and being part of something historic coming to and end.

It is the first Hollywood motion picture with an all-Asian cast since the Joy Luck Club 25 years ago.

Comedian Ronny Chieng of The Daily Show summed it up in a social media posting:

From their social media postings, you can tell the cast members from around the world were having a good time in Singapore. Judging by some of the gorgeous photos of the production, this movie will be an ode to Singapore, much like Woody Allen did films centered around Paris, New York City and San Francisco.

In many of the scenes of Crazy Rich Asians, Singapore will be a star.

Kris Aquino and lead actress Constance Wu.

Several of the supporting actors were sworn to secrecy to not reveal what roles they would be portraying. Such is the case with Ken Jeong and Manila's "Queen of All Media" Kris Aquino, the latter rumored to be playing a member of Burmese royalty.

As author Kevin Kwan said, part of the fun is guessing who will be playing certain characters. Jeong could be one of the patriaarchs of one of the super wealthy Singaporean families or he could be the role of "Eddie," one of the innumerable cousins trying to live up to family standards. The frantic character could make use of Jeong's physical comedic skills.

Anyone who's read the novel knows that the cast of characters is huge including numerous aunts, uncles, cousins, second cousins and the clusters of friends.

The worldwide search for actors proved dating for director Chu, who opened up casting calls on the internet, hoping to find the perfect actors for each role. The search netted Henry Golding, a Singaporean TV personality who has never appeared in a motion picture before being cast as Nick Young, the male lead in the novel and movie.

RELATED: How would you cast Crazy Rich Asians?

Actors, many of whom had to be able to speak with the Singaporean accent, a bit British, came from as far away as London (Gemma Chan), Australia (Ronny Chieng, Chris Pang, Remy Hill) and the United States (Constance Wu, Nico Santos, Jimmy O. Yang, Harry Shum Jr., Ken Jeong, Awkwafina).

The cast went out to dinner together and had a thing about Karaoke. They apparently had pretty much had a good time, according to their social media feeds and Singapore's gossip columnists.

What happens on the last day of filming and you host of people who are definitely not camera-shy? You end up with this photo.

What actors do when a camera is pointed their way.

The cast, as you can tell from the Instagram and Twitter photos, is one of the most attractive-looking casts ever - no matter what ethnicity.

The scene now moves to Hollywood for editing, scoring and marketing. No date has been announced for its premiere.

By the time filming ended, stars Constance Wu was back in the U.S.  preparing for the fourth season of Fresh Off the Boat and Michelle Yeoh was filming the CBS product, Star Trek: Discovery. that will debut this fall.

Kevin Kwan is making the rounds promoting the concluding novel of the Rich Asians trilogy, Rich People's Problems that was published last month. Will there be a second movie in the franchise based on the middle novel, China Rich Girlfriend.? Stay tuned.

###