Variety reports that INFERNAL AFFAIRS trilogy director Andrew Lau will be helming REVENGE OF THE GREEN DRAGONS, a fact-based crime drama about the rise and fall of a notorious Chinese street gang in New York’s Chinatown. The crime plot intersects with the story of immigrants chasing the American dream.
What is especially cool about this project is that it’s based on an investigative article written for the New Yorker by Fredric Dannen, a veteran journalist, Hong Kong movie aficionado and author of the book “Hong Kong Babylon: An Insider’s Guide to the Hollywood of the East.” That is a book I have had in my possession for close to a decade and I count it among a handful of books that helped jumpstart my interest in running this site.
Dannen says he previously turned down several movie adaptation offers. “I didn’t want to see the article debased into a YEAR OF THE DRAGON-style gangster movie.”
GREEN DRAGONS is being produced by The 7th Floor’s Allen Bain and Jesse Scolaro along with Lau. Co-producers include Andrew Loo and Artfire’s Arar Katz and Art Spigel.
Dannen’s article, originally published in 1992 can be found on The New Yorker’s web site although registration is required.
The Green Dragons were a New York-based gang founded in 1986 by Paul Wong, whom the Drug Enforcement Agency claimed was a major heroin smuggler. They were one of the more notorious examples of a new breed of violent Asian gangs operating in the U.S. and were responsible kidnapping rival gang members, committing at least seven murders and extorting money from dozens of local Chinese restaurants. In 1990, local and federal law enforcement officers rounded up 16 gang members and 29 weapons in a raid on a safe house in order to thwart a planned assault on rival gang, the White Tigers.
Some Googling will turn up more information on this gang and its violent history. It’s definitely meaty material for a filmmaker of Lau’s talents to sink his teeth into and should make for an interesting film.
Sources: Variety, New York Times
Related Topics:Andrew Lau • upcoming
