Friday, May 19, 2023

Janet Yang on breaking the rules to bring ‘The Joy Luck Club’ to the screen


So I forged ahead, blind to the obstacles. Eventually, Amy attracted the talents of director Wayne Wang and co-writer Ron Bass and we had a “package.” The best decision they made was to actually write the script rather than beg for funds to develop it. That way, it would be exactly what we all wanted and no one could take the project away from us. But the “package” had no big names in the cast.

Through our merry-go-round of meetings, we suffered through questions like: Can you put more Americans in it? We knew they meant white Americans.

We received one—just one—greenlight, thanks to Jeffrey Katzenberg at Disney. And that’s all we needed.

Postscript: While Jeffrey wholeheartedly supported the movie, the marketing department presented initial mock-ups of posters where not one Asian face was presented in full. Some were in woodcuts, others showed the backs of heads. They were flummoxed when we confronted them as to why, and we fortunately prevailed.

Lessons: Forget about the rules. Prove instead that it can be done. Don’t worry about all the no’s—all you need is one yes. Stick to your guns.



source



from Digital Marketing Education https://ift.tt/EItArbV

No comments:

Post a Comment