Fremantle and its Singapore-based production company Beach House Pictures said Thursday at the Asia TV Forum & Market that they are partnering with Vietnam‘s Anh Teu Studio on a film adaptation of Dumb Luck (Số đỏ), Vietnamese author Vũ Trọng Phụng’s acclaimed 1936 satirical novel.
Filmmaker Phan Gia Nhật Linh (Em Va Trinh, The Girl From Yesterday, Sweet 20) will write and direct the feature adaptation, with Lê Thanh Phong, Yuno Choi and Vũ Quỳnh Hà signed on to produce. Popular Vietnamese signer Mono will play the story’s memorable lead role of Red-Haired Xuân.
The production companies’ official story summary for the project reads: “Dumb Luck is set in 1930s Vietnam, a period marked by significant social transformations when the country experienced the final years of French colonial rule and the emergence of Vietnamese nationalist and reformist movements, coinciding with the growing influence of global consumer culture. The film follows the implausible and hilarious adventures of Red-Haired Xuân, an unscrupulous vagrant, as he rises from poverty to the top of society and becomes revered as the poster child of the country’s Europeanization movement.”
Dumb Luck was banned from 1954 to 1986 in Vietnam due to its frank depictions of sexuality, but it has remained one of the country’s most discussed and celebrated satirical novels, offering a pointed critique of the hypocrisies of late colonialist society. An excerpt from the novel, The Happiness of a Family in Mourning, is part of the official literature curriculum in all Vietnamese public high schools, and the novel has been widely translated around the world — but Fremantle’s new project is the title’s very first film adaptation.
“I’m so happy to bring this wonderful Vietnamese story to international audiences,” said writer/director Linh in a statement.
Added Christian Vesper, CEO of global drama and film at Fremantle: “I am excited about our first film collaboration with our colleagues at Beach House Pictures, along with the great team at ATS, and delighted that we are able to bring such an iconic novel to life. Linh is an outstanding director, and Dumb Luck underlines our commitment to supporting the finest talent in the global film industry.”
Conor Zorn, head of scripted at Beach House added: “Dumb Luck‘s sharp satire and poignant themes of class struggle and division by influential Vietnamese writer Vu Trong Phung still resonate profoundly in today’s world. We are thrilled to be partnering with one of Vietnam’s best storytellers, director Linh, to bring this remarkable story to the big screen.”
Dumb Luck will be a Vietnam-Korea-Singapore co-production, produced by Anh Teu Studio and Sidus and Teu Entertainment (SATE), in collaboration with Beach House Pictures.
The producers are Yuno Choi for Sidus and Teu Entertainment, Le Thanh Phong for A Viet Media, Vu Quynh Ha for CJ HK Entertainment and Phan Gia Nhat Linh for Anh Teu Studio. Among the Executive Producers are Conor Zorn, Donovan Chan and Jocelyn Little for Beach House Pictures; Christian Vesper and Simon Judd for Fremantle and Handae Rhee for Sidus. The film will be distributed by CJ CGV in Vietnam.
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