EXCLUSIVE: LA-based Endless Media and Hong Kong’s The Laundromatte are prepping sci-fi series Invasian, based on the short film from writer/director Joshua Wong. The English-language project’s development has been fast-tracked and plans are to shoot in Hong Kong when coronavirus stoppages have eased. Producers are Endless’ Najeeb Khuda and Gavin Lurie with Joshua Wong and Sofaye Wong of The Laundromatte. Check out the short film’s teaser below.
Invasian kicks off after a mysterious signal is transmitted through cellular devices across Hong Kong, subduing and immobilizing the population, and leaving only a group of ragtag kids — with no phones — and a bunch of technophobic senior citizens to rally together against the robot invasion.
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Billed as a global series, Invasian will be the follow-up to Wong’s feature directorial debut The Calm Beyond, which stars Kara Wang (Top Gun: Maverick, Good Trouble), and is currently in post-production.
Wong, who is Creative Director of The Laundromatte, is an award-winning commercials director. In the run-up to Star Wars: The Force Awakens, he directed two spots for the regional market. Working alongside LucasFilm, his story introduced the first Chinese Jedi and was the first official Star Wars creative to be developed and produced outside of North America.
Says Wong, “With the world at a standstill, the best thing creators can do is create. Invasian is a project I’m incredibly excited about, with an ethnically diverse cast of characters and ages, dealing very relevant and scarily current topics and themes told through a sci-fi lens. Nothing like this has come out of Asia and my team and I are pumped to bring it to life.”
Khuda adds, “As a company predicated on discovering and cultivating emerging global talent, we’re thrilled to continue our relationship with Joshua to help produce this inventive new series. As soon as he pitched the project to us we saw the endless possibilities; drawing shades of the most entertaining coming of age stories we grew up with, mixed with bombastic sci-fi action all set in a visually stunning city like Hong Kong, which we think we have barely scratched the surface of in English-language filmmaking.”
Endless Media is currently producing a number of feature films including Teddy Bears Are For Lovers, based on the short film of the same name; Die Like Lovers, the feature directorial debut of Jesse Atlas and based on his award winning short film; and a feature adaptation of author Ken Liu’s short story Reborn.
Here’s the Invasion teaser:
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