Adele Lim, co-author of "Crazy Rich Asians", leaves the sequel because of a pay gap

It's been a year since "Crazy Rich Asians" opened the box office spot, grossed $ 238.5 million worldwide and became a groundbreaking demonstration of US-Asian representation in the industry entertainment.

Now, the two sequels of the blockbuster, adapted from the trilogy of best-selling author Kevin Kwan, are on hold – and a pay gap is to blame.

Adele Lim, co-screenwriter of the first film, left the project due to a pay gap between her and her colleague Peter Chiarelli, according to The Hollywood Reporter. According to sources, Lim, an experienced television writer whose feature film was dedicated to the screenplay "Crazy Rich Asians," was seen offering $ 110,000 and more to track, a small fraction of the 800,000 to $ 1 million available. for Chiarelli.

"Being evaluated in this way can only help you to feel that it is so that they see my contributions," Lim told THR.

Originally, Lim had left the deal with Warner Bros. last fall and another counter-offer in February, the amount of which was not fair, in his opinion. The entertainment company allegedly explained to the representatives of Lim that the quotes were standard ranges based on experience and that the creation of an exception would create a troubling precedent in the industry.

Lim began his career on Hollywood television in 2000 and has worked on series such as "One Tree Hill", "Private Practice" and "Lethal Weapon". His co-writer, Chiarelli, found his great fortune in Hollywood writing for the movie "The Proposal" in 2009. After learning about the discrepancy between him and his co-writer, Chiarelli would have voluntarily shared his higher earnings with it to reach parity. .

"Pete has been incredibly courteous, but what I do should not depend on the generosity of the writer," said Lim at THR. "If I could not get pay equity after [“Crazy Rich Asians”], I can not imagine what it would be for anyone else, since the value of what you are worth is to have established quotes from previous movies, what women of color would have never been. [hired for]. There is no realistic way to achieve this real equity. "

Working on "Crazy Rich Asians" is tantamount to writing "the love letter that I have never had a chance to write," said the writer and producer of origin Malaysian. She was hired directly by director Jon Chu to add cultural specificity and emotional authenticity to the script – a requirement before Michelle Yeoh, who plays the film's director, Eleanor Young, agrees to sign. . In collaboration with Chu, Lim has created an original scene of the film – in which Eleanor and her so-called daughter-in-law play a game loaded with mahjong – which the director calls the most important of the film.

Ms. Lim told THR that she thought women and people of color were often referred to as "soy sauce", which meant that she favored diversity to recruit culturally specific details. in a scenario rather than shaping it from scratch.

Lim joined the screenwriting team "Crazy Rich Asians" after the film's production studio had already enlisted Chiarelli's work. The studio spent five months battling other writers of Asian descent after Lim refused the job for the first time, before he returned with another (unsuccessful) offer.