Anthony Chen Lines Up First U.S.-Set Project; Film Set Against New York AIDS Epidemic Joins Giraffe Pictures’ Growing International Slate
deadline.comEXCLUSIVE: Drift director Anthony Chen is gearing up to direct his first US-set project, Heartbeat: A New York Story, about the rarely-told experiences of the Asian gay community during the AIDS epidemic in 1980s New York.
The English-language feature is based on a short story Tea For Two, by acclaimed Taiwanese writer Pai Hsien-yung, and is described as “an emotional and affecting story of self-discovery, grief and hope through the eyes of a Taiwanese gay man.” Singaporean playwright Joel Tan has adapted the short story for the screen.
Singapore-born Chen recently made his English-language debut on Drift, produced by Emilie Georges, Peter Spears and Naima Abed, which filmed in Greece and the UK and received its world premiere at Sundance Film Festival.
Heartbeat: A New York Story, which he hopes to start shooting next year, will be his first project filmed in the U.S. Chen’s Giraffe Pictures will produce the film with Chinese producer Lou Ying’s Paradigm Shift Entertainment.
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