EXCLUSIVE: Kelly Marie Tran (Raya and the Last Dragon), Andie Ju (Beef) and Brandon Soo Hoo (The Tiger’s Apprentice) have entered production in Miami this week on Forge, an indie marking the feature directorial debut of Malaysian-born filmmaker Jing Ai Ng.
Tackling the myth of the model minority, the film is set in the underbelly of the Miami art world, where siblings Raymond (Hoo) and Coco Zhang (Ju) run a profitable forgery ring. When the Zhang siblings cross paths with a disgraced millionaire, they are coerced into creating counterfeit masterpieces as a front for his old American family’s art collection. Meanwhile, FBI Art Crimes agent Emily Lee ( Tran) moves to South Florida and attempts to find the culprits behind a new string of forgeries.
Liz Daering-Glass and Gabrielle Cordero are producing alongside Damian Bao (Port Authority) via his Qilinverse production banner. Dave A. Liu (Dìdi) is executive producing. Forge is the debut project under Ng and Daering-Glass’s label, Florida Man Films.
Ng, Daering-Glass, and Cordero are alums of the AFI Conservatory. Forge was developed as part of Film Independent’s Screenwriting Lab and Fast Track.
Breaking out with her role as Rose Tico in Star Wars: Episode VIII and IX, Tran voiced the lead role in Disney’s Raya and the Last Dragon and has also been seen on series like Sorry for Your Loss. Up next, she’ll be seen in Season 3 of Netflix’s Sweet Tooth, Hulu’s Control Freak, and Andrew Ahn’s reimagining of The Wedding Banquet.
Recently seen in Searchlight/Hulu’s The Greatest Hits and Netflix’s Beef, Ju’s other notable credits include Stargirl, 9-1-1, Westworld and Justin Chon’s Ms. Purple.
In addition to Netflix’s Mech Cadets, Hoo recently starred in Paramount+’s The Tiger’s Apprentice.
Tran is repped by CAA, M88, and Goodman, Genow, Schenkman; Ju by Momentum Talent and Literary Agency and Brave Artists Management; and Hoo by Paradigm, DreamScope Entertainment, and Yorn, Levine, Barnes.
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