One of the biggest issues that seems to be coming forth to stall any chance of a Crazy Rich Asians 2 from coming out seems to have to do with just who they can get as a writer and whether or not they can get the same cast members to return. As Ryan Scott from MovieWeb writes the pay diversity between the two writers, one being man and one a woman, is quite significant and as you can imagine there’s a bit of a dispute as to why that is. There’s no way to argue around it since quite honestly if both are helping to write the script they should be getting equal pay, especially since they seem to be pretty equal when it comes to how much their contributing. That being said though this is another case of men being paid far more than women when in truth it’s a matter of both being paid way too much in the opinions of some since being paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to write a script is a dream come true, but at the same time it seems like a very obscene thing in terms of how much the average writer tends to make.
Putting that aside for the moment however there’s also the issue of whether the same cast members are going to be able to come back any time soon since a few of them happen to be in high demand at the moment and it’s not likely that their schedules are going to clear up all that quickly. It’s amusing really as Sarah El-Mahmoud from CinemaBlend has reminded people that there are plans to make this movie into a trilogy. Whether or not that will happen is hard to say now that things are in such an uproar since Adele Lim, one of the writers, has decided to back out after the huge pay dispute. If it was simply getting the actors back it might still be a possibility, but thus far the studio has called up a number of writers and the other writer on the movie has even offered to share his salary with Lim, but to no avail. On one hand the disparity in their pay is something that is hard to fathom since when it comes to experience Lim has written quite a bit more than her co-writer since she’s been involved in a large number of TV episodes. The sad part is that it’s because she’s written for TV that might be seen as a hindrance when it comes to her pay. If it was for the fact that she’s a woman and one of color then there’s nothing else to say other than the studio needs to wise up, which is something that needs to be said anyway.
Had the pay disparity been only a few thousand or even tens of thousands of dollars it might seem that Lim was just being a bit petty, and if he had less experience than her co-writer it might have been deemed the same way. But with her experience and the fact that she is being paid several hundreds of thousands of dollars less (excuse me while I roll my eyes at these numbers) there is a very definite issue. Thinking that writers can make this much for a single screenplay is kind of hard to believe even if the facts are that it happens all the time. But thinking that someone gets paid so little for their efforts when compared to someone that is helping to co-write the script is something that goes beyond any kind of easy explanation that one might want to give. If the movie gets made at all at this point it might be something substandard to the first movie, which did quite well upon release, or it might happen if Lim is offered the same amount as her co-writer, though given the fact that she walked away it’s kind of hard to say whether or not she’ll be making her way back.
According to Hugh Armitage of Digital Spy shooting for the movie wouldn’t even start until 2020, but unless the issue that’s been stalling it at this point is figured out that seems like an optimistic idea at best. There’s a good possibility that it will happen and that we will see the second movie roll out in a couple of years, but until we get news that the dispute has been settled it’s not likely that the studio is going to settle for just any writer since it would take bringing someone in and filling them in on everything that’s happened so far. That kind of task would be just another detriment that the studio doesn’t need at this point. Hopefully they’ll find a way to solve this and make everyone involved happy at the same time, keep your fingers crossed.
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