By Shania Russell
Translator: Qin Tian
Proofreading: Easy two three
Source: Slash Film (October 8, 2021)
"Picking Gold" captured the hearts of many audiences as soon as it was released in 2018, which is a romantic comedy that combines love and family elements. The release of "The Golden Harvest" was also seen as a watershed moment in Hollywood, as it was the first film since 1993 to be produced by a major studio and starred almost exclusively by Asian-American actors.
"Picking Gold"
The film received a double hit at the word-of-mouth box office, so naturally, after its success, Warner Bros. announced that they intended to shoot a sequel right away. This step is also natural, because "Picking Gold" is based on the first of Kevin Kwan's trilogy novel "Crazy Asian Rich", and the other two are natural adaptation material.
But since then, the movement of the sequel to the "Gold Harvest" movie has become quite quiet. So we began to wonder what delayed the release of the film's highly anticipated sequel.
When will "Gold Picking 2" meet the audience
"Gold Picking" landed in theaters in August 2018 and grossed more than $30 million in its first weekend. The film grossed $238.5 million worldwide, and after its success, a sequel was soon booked by Warner.
Just that month, the project for the second film entered the development phase, and all the actors and directors were ready to shoot. At the time, Warner planned to start filming as soon as the script was completed, but there has been no follow-up since the news was announced.
Late last year, the film's lead actor, Henry Golding, admitted that the film's creative team was still working intensively to revise the script. He told the media:
"Warner bought the rights to Kevin's last two books, and the creators were trying to find a way to switch the books from the text of the novel to the script before they started filming. This is a very complicated process, because visually, sometimes a novel that looks attractive is adapted into a movie, but it loses its value. So we had to find something unique about this series that made the second movie interesting. Given that it is still in the early stages of development, the release date of "Picking Gold 2" is still uncertain."
What will "Picking Gold 2" say?
The plot of "Picking Gold" respects the plot in the novel, so "Picking Gold 2" is likely to have the same effect.
The first part of Crazy Asian Rich was published in 2013, and the second part of "China's Rich Girlfriend" was published in 2015. In the second novel, Rachel (Wu Tianmin) reunites with her long-lost father, giving the audience a further glimpse into the life of a Chinese billionaire, compared to the wealth of the Singaporean family in the first novel, which looks worthless.
In fact, the title of "Crazy Asian Rich: China's Rich Girlfriend" is Yang Nick's mother, Yang Aili (Yang Ziqiong), who exclaims: "These people are not rich, they are rich enough to rival the country, because they are rich people in China!" 」
The plot of the second novel also refers to the renewed relationship between Astrid (Jama Chen) and her ex-boyfriend Charlie Wu (Shum Yongkang), who appears in the closing segment of "Picking Gold". For a brief moment, they exchanged glances and smiled at each other, hinting at what was about to happen.
In the second novel, although they are both married to different people, the author still deepens their relationship, and one of the major differences between "Picking Gold" and the plot of the original novel is that Astrid's marriage has come to an end, and she leaves her husband at the end of the film. But don't worry, Gold Quest 2 will definitely find other ways to complicate their love.
What else do we know about Gold Picking 2?
When Warner immediately announced in 2018 that they were going to make a second film, all the main actors were seen as going to continue to play their respective roles. However, because "Gold Picking 2" has been in the development stage in recent years, and many of the stars in the film are in the ascendancy of their careers, the busy schedule may allow them to miss the shooting of "Gold Picking 2".
If all goes well, Henry Goldin and Wu Tianmin will once again play the golden couple of Nick and Rachel, while Jama Chan and Shum Yongkang (Astrid and Charlie Wu) will be the next couple to steal the limelight.
Other key roles include Yang Aili played by Yang Ziqiong, Kelly played by Chen Qionghua, Grandma played by Lu Yan, and Lin Pei played by Okafina. Still, this is just a small list of predictions from the sequel stars shining.
Who will be the writer and director of "Gold Quest 2"?
The first part of "Picking Gold" was directed by Zhu Haowei. After making the film, he started to get extremely busy. In 2021, Zhu Haowei filmed the song and dance film "In the Highlands".
In 2022, the film version of "Magic Bad Witch" directed by him will also be released. Henry Golding also joked in an interview with the media that Zhu Haowei's high popularity is one of the reasons for the delay in the release of "Picking Gold 2":
"For sequels, it seems like it's going to be hard to get every actor because they're all making their own films. But the most important thing is to get Zhu Haowei!"
Mr. Zhu said he still intends to direct a second film, but he may need a new screenwriter before filming begins. The writers of "The Golden Harvest" were Peter Chiarelli and Adele Lin, both of whom were initially determined to continue writing the script for the sequel. However, since Adele Lin and Chiarelli were paid too much, she later resigned.
As the media reported, Warner gave Chiarelli about $800,000 to $1 million for the script, but only $110,000 for Adele Lin. Notably, as an experienced TV writer, Adele Lin, the only Asian-American screenwriter on the film, told The Hollywood Reporter that she had no interest in the sequel.
"Women and people of color are often just Hollywood 'spices' — I just seem to have been hired to write these Asian jokes on the script, and I think that's what they think the writers of "Gold Picking 2" should be, which is a denial of my sincere, creative screenwriting work." 」