Hulu has placed a 10-episode order for “Interior Chinatown,” a drama based on the award-winning book of the same name created by Charles Yu. PvNew first reported the series was in development in Oct. 2020.
Jimmy O. Yang will star in the series as Willis Wu, described as “a background character stuck doing work in a police procedural called ‘Black & White’ who has no idea of his leading man status. When he inadvertently becomes a witness to a crime, Willis begins to unravel a criminal web in Chinatown, revealing certain family secrets and what it feels like to be in the spotlight.”
Yang’s previous credits include “Love Hard,” “Crazy Rich Asians,” “Silicon Valley,” the latter of which he appeared in throughout its six-season run at HBO.
Rideback, Participant and Dive will executive produce the series which hails from 20th Television. Yu will also serve as showrunner and executive producer alongside Dan Lin, Lindsey Liberatore, Elsie Choi for Rideback. Taiki Waititi will direct the pilot as well as serve as an executive producer with Participant’s Jeff Skoll, Miura Kite, and Dive’s Garrett Basch.
Yu holds several years of writing experience in the TV space, having penned episodes of HBO’s “Westworld,” FX’s “Legion,” AMC’s “Lodge 49” and Facebook’s “Sorry For Your Loss.” His previous printed works include the novel “How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe,” published in 2010, and short story collections “Third Class Superhero” and “Sorry Please Thank You.”
Jimmy O. Yang is repped by Artists First, CAA, SRDA. Waititi represented by CAA, Manage-ment, ID and Yorn, Levine, Barnes, Krintzman, Rubenstein, Kohner, Endlich & Gellman. Yu is represented by UTA, The Book Group and Hansen Jacobson. Rideback is represented by UTA and Myman Greenspan. UTA brokered the series sale to Hulu.
“Interior Chinatown” is the latest of Hulu’s book-to-television adaptations, which includes recent series orders for “Tiny Beautiful Things,” “The Other Black Girl,” and “Black Cake.” The drama comes on the heels of Hulu’s critically-acclaimed adaptations such as “Nine Perfect Strangers,” “Normal People,” and “Conversations with Friends,” and the Emmy Award winning limited series “Dopesick.”
