Lily Gladstone and Bowen Yang have been selected to star in an upcoming remake of Ang Lee’s 1993 romcom The Wedding Banquet. The reboot will be directed by Andrew Ahn from a screenplay by Ahn and James Schamus. The screenplay for the 1993 movie had been co-written by Lee, Schamus, and Neil Peng.
According to Variety, which broke the news, plansare to start shooting the reboot in Vancouver next month for a release during 2025. The picture is being coproduced by Bleecker Street and ShivHans Pictures, which have secured the North American distribution rights.
Lily Gladstone recently delighted audiences for her role in Martin Scorsese’s acclaimed Killers of the Flower Moon. The actress will next be seen starring opposite Riley Keough in Under the Bridge, a true-crime drama series for Hulu. Bowen Yang, a member of the cast of Saturday Night Live, will appear later this year in Universal’s screen adaptation of the musical Wicked. Also starring in the cast of the remake will be Kelly Marie Tran, Yuh-jung Youn and Joan Chen.
The 1993 Wedding Banquet followed the travails of a gay Taiwanese-American man who agrees to marry a woman artist so she can obtain her green card. The film was a critical success, winning Oscar and Golden Globe nominations as well as the Golden Bear award at the Berlin Film Festival, where it premiered.
The upcoming remake will also explore the same-sex dynamic, this time in the Korean community, as described in the film’s official synopsis: “When Min’s boyfriend Chris rejects his spontaneous marriage proposal, he convinces his best friend Angela to marry him instead, paying for her partner Liz’s IVF treatments in exchange for his green card. Their plans for a subtle city hall elopement are turned upside down when Min’s grandmother makes a surprise trip from Seoul to throw them an extravagant Korean wedding banquet.”
In announcing the reboot, Ang Lee was quoted as saying: “It warms my heart to see how my film from so many years ago has inspired a new generation to reimagine a new and different version. I look forward to seeing what Andrew Ahn and his wonderful cast create.”
Additional comments were made by Bleecker Street’s founder and CEO Andrew Karpen, who said: “I’m delighted to re-team with my longtime friend and colleague, James Schamus, on this inspired reimagining of a classic romcom for the modern era. Andrew Ahn is a force to be reckoned with and I’m very excited to see the new heights that he and James will take this story to.”
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