EXCLUSIVE: Stars Collective has optioned the film rights to Fortune Sons: The 120 Chinese Boys Who Came to America, Went to School, and Revolutionized an Ancient Civilization, the critically acclaimed work of non-fiction from Liel Leibovitz and Matthew Miller.
The company plans to develop, fully finance and produce a feature adaptation alongside Academy Award winner Donna Gigliotti (Silver Linings Playbook, Hidden Figures). Yilong Liu will adapt the screenplay for the historical drama, with Stars Collective founder Peter Luo and Gigliotti to oversee the entire development and production process.
Published by W.W. Norton & Company in 2012, the book takes readers back to the twilight of the 19th century, when China — ravaged by poverty, population growth, and aggressive European armies — sent 120 young men to America to learn the secrets of Western innovation. Chosen by the Qing Dynasty, the boys attended some of New England’s finest schools, including Yale University, and were driven by a desire for progress and reform. Their lives in America influenced not only their thinking but also their nation’s endeavor to become a contemporary world power. When anti-Chinese fervor forced them back home, the young men had to overcome a suspicious imperial court and a country deeply resistant to change in technology and culture.
Fortunate Sons chronicles this extraordinary journey, weaving together the dramas of the boys’ personal lives with the tale of a nation’s endeavor to become a world power. Explains Gigliotti, “The historical importance of the boys’ mission is told through their personal stories that included meeting Mark Twain and Ulysses S. Grant, visiting the World’s Fair of 1876 and learning to excel at the game of baseball.” Many of these boys went on to become influential figures in China’s modernization efforts, shaping the country’s path toward becoming a contemporary world power.
In a statement on the project, Stars Collective Co-CEO Nancy Xu said, “‘Fortunate Sons’ is a poignant story that hits different in 2024 and makes for a compelling and introspective cinematic piece. Yilong Liu is an amazing writer whose adapted screenplay will match the power of the literary work that impressed so many and vaulted the book to best seller status.”
Added Stars Collective’s founder, Luo, of the collaboration with Gigliotti, “Donna is one of the finest producers in the world and an excellent partner for Stars Collective. We are thrilled to have a project we can work on together. The tone, style, and impact of this story require producers with creative expertise related to this material, and Donna possesses that instinctual excellence. We all see ‘Fortunate Sons’ as a story that resonates globally and will make a movie true to the source material.”
A Lila Acheson Wallace American playwriting fellow at The Juilliard School, Liu’s play The Book of Mountains and Seas received the Lambda Literary Award for Drama, while his play Good Enemy had its premiere off-Broadway at Minetta Lane Theatre as part of Audible Theater’s 2022-2023 season.
One of only nine women to win an Academy Award for Best Picture, Gigliotti won for Shakespeare in Love in 1999, subsequently scoring noms for her work on The Reader, Silver Linings Playbook, and Hidden Figures. Most recently producing Paramount’s 80 for Brady, her other credits include Beasts of No Nation, Let Me In, Vanity Fair and Emma, to name just a few.
Gigliotti and Stars Collective have an ongoing relationship dating back to 2021 when she joined the company’s advisory commission, serving as a creative mentor for emerging filmmakers supported by its creators’ program. Through this program, filmmakers are afforded the opportunity to develop content with the guidance of such industry luminaries as Sam Raimi, Jon M. Chu, Lu Chuan, Gianni Nunnari, Chris Lee, Paula Wagner, Patrick Wachsberger, and Eric Heumann, along with Gigliotti.
Founded in 2020, Stars Collective’s business model hinges on pairing globally renowned directors and producers for joint original IP development. To date, the company has produced Justin Chon’s Sundance drama Jamojaya and Neon’s upcoming adaptation of Stephen King’s short story The Monkey from Longlegs helmer Oz Perkins. Continuing its push into literary adaptations with the Fortunate Sons deal, Stars Collective most recently optioned film and TV rights to the chart-topping ghost story Leigh Howard and the Ghosts of Simmons – Pierce Manor from USA Today bestselling author Shawn M. Warner.
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