Chopin Starring Eddie Liu and Violett Beane Officially Wraps Production
The upcoming feature film Chopin, starring Eddie Liu (“Kung Fu,” Never Have I Ever, “Silicon Valley”) and Violett Beane (“God Friended Me”, “The Flash”), has officially wrapped a 25-day shoot on June 4th, 2023. Chopin is the feature directorial debut from decorated commercial director and co-founder of Valiant Pictures, Vincent Lin.
The film, written by Lin, also stars Golden Horse Film Award winner Leon Dai (Your Name Engraved Herein, Cannot Live Without You) and Taiwanese legend Wu Min (The Queen!). Additional cast features Jake Manley (“The Order”), Michael Bow (The Maze Runner, “S.W.A.T”) and Janet Hsieh (“Fun Taiwan”, Home). Producers include Valiant Pictures’ co-founder Matthew D’Amato (Clementine, Snakehead) and Guo Guo (Tribeca Festival Best Screenplay and AT&T Presents winner Smoking Tigers, Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power), with casting directors Ashley Ingram and Michael D’Amato (The United States vs. Billie Holiday, When They See Us).
Synopsis: Chopin tells the story of Chopin Wu (Eddie Liu), who returns home to small-town America where he grew up to amend an estranged relationship with his workaholic father (Leon Dai). With a sudden appearance from his ailing grandmother (Wu Min), he is confronted by a past he had left behind. In the midst of a health crisis and a broken family, Chopin is forced to re-examine old relationships, embrace a heritage he once denied, and discover the importance of family and identity.
On filming his directorial debut, Lin acknowledges the challenges and gives credit to his team, saying, “You got to be crazy to want to make movies. Independent film isn’t exactly a walk in the park. As much as you, the director, say you would do anything to tell your story the way you want to, the truth is you’ll be fighting a tight schedule, working on a limited budget with limited resources, and facing obstacles you never even knew you'd face. Because of that, the film you set out to make tends to evolve. Hopefully, as the director, it’s for the better and you adapt and steer it the right way by challenging, inspiring, and pushing your team to not only care, but want to proudly put their names on something you create together.”
“It's been such a rich experience getting to tell this story with this amazing cast and crew and bring these characters to life. I feel like I know these characters in my own life in some way; I know some of our audience will feel an emotional familiarity with them too. I can't wait for us to share this film,” says Eddie Liu.
Liu is repped by Greene & Associates Talent Agency. Beane by Gersh, Venture Entertainment Partners and Goodman, Genow, Schenkman. Manley is represented by Luber Roklin Entertainment, The Gersh Agency and The Initiative Group. The film is slated to premiere in early 2024.
Biographies
Eddie Liu is an American actor who was born in Queens, New York to Chinese immigrant parents. His first major television credit was a recurring role on HBO’s Emmy-nominated comedy Silicon Valley and a guest-starring role on Comedy Central’s Broad City and Time Traveling Bong. Liu’s breakout role was in Mindy Kaling's international hit Never Have I Ever on Netflix. Eddie portrayed Henry Yan in the action drama Kung Fu during its three seasons on the CW.
One of the leads of CBS’ dramedy God Friended Me, which ran for two seasons, Beane is otherwise best known on the TV side for her role as DC Comics superhero Jesse Quick in The CW’s The Flash, having also recurred on HBO’s The Leftovers and Fox’s The Resident. She also starred in Uni and Blumhouse’s horror thriller Truth or Dare, which grossed over $95M worldwide, and will next be seen starring opposite Mandy Patinkin in Hulu’s series Career Opportunities in Murder & Mayhem from ABC Signature.
One of the most sought-after leading men in Taiwan, Leon Dai (戴立忍) has earned two Golden Bell Awards for Best Leading Actor in a television series, as well as a grand total of 14 nominations and seven wins from the Golden Horse Film Festival. His film Can’t Live WIthout You (不能没有你) won five awards at the 46th Golden Horse Film Awards, including Best Director (Leon Dai), Best Original Screenplay (Leon Dai, and Chen Wen-Pin), Best Feature Film, Outstanding Film of the Year, and the Audience Choice Award. Leon has played a wide variety of characters throughout his career, including the vulnerable Chang Jia-Han, who mended a broken heart in Your Heart Engraved Herein (刻在你心底的名字), winner of the Best Supporting Actor at Osaka Film Festival, as well as the rough-around-the-edges, yet incredibly funny gangster with a heart of gold in Elena (愛琳娜). With a career spanning many decades, Leon has solidified his lifelong legacy within Taiwanese Cinema.
Wu Min has the title of "National Grandma” in Taiwan. Her film career began more than half a century ago and she gained popularity with the TV series "Thirteen Birds to Peter and Aunt" playing the role of 'Grandma Birdy'. Wu Min has acted in countless dramas with recent films including The Spiral Cage, Triad Princess, The Gangsters Daughter, and David Loman 2.
Canadian actor Jake Manley is best known for his roles as the lead of Netflix’s “The Order”, ‘Dean Taylor’ in Infamous opposite Bella Thorne, ‘York’ in Holidate alongside Emma Roberts, ‘Brad’ in the NBC series “Heroes Reborn”, ‘Fisher Webb’ in the CW series “iZombie”, and ‘George Waller’ in Brotherhood. Previous credits also include the Amazon series “The Consultant” opposite Christoph Waltz, Roland Emmerich’s Midway, Isaac Eaton’s Welcome to Redville, Pursuit opposite John Cusack and Emile Hirsch, as well as A Dog’s Journey with Dennis Quaid. He will soon be seen in Mario Van Peebles western Outlaws opposite Whoopi Goldberg and Lionsgate’s new thriller Do Not Enter.
Michael Bow is an actor known for his frequent collaborations with Wong Fu Productions. He recently recurred as the Kpop Star Warrior Simon Lau on “Kung Fu” (Warner Bros. HBOMax, CW). His credits include guest starring roles in “The Blacklist” (NBC), “The Company You Keep” (ABC), “NCIS: LA” (CBS) as well as appearances in “911: Lonestar” (FOX), “Hacks” (HBOMax) The Maze Runner, “How To Get Away With Murder” (ABC), “Grey’s Anatomy” (ABC), “S.W.A.T.” (CBS) and more.
Janet Hsieh is a Texan-Taiwanese award-winning travel show host, actor, producer, published author of ten books, and a concert violinist. She stars in Netflix’s “A Taiwanese Tale of Two Cities” and “The Ghost Bride”, and HBO’s “Adventure of the Ring” for which she received a Golden Bell nomination for Best Supporting Actress. She is the Mandarin voice of Princess Anna of Disney’s Frozen, and will be appearing in the upcoming Paramount+ feature, Love in Taipei. As the host of Discovery’s longest running travel show in Asia, “Fun Taiwan”, Janet is also the producer of the documentary feature for Discovery, Heartbeat, and will be guest starring in Netflix’s “Somebody Feed Phil”.
Vincent Lin is a Taiwanese-American writer, director, and alongside executive producer Matthew D’Amato, co-founder of Valiant Pictures. A decorated commercial director, whose advertising accolades include Cannes Lions, Clios, Tellys, Webbys, and D&AD Pencil Awards. His short films have also been awarded the Panavision New Filmmaker Grant, MNET Grand Jury Award, and NBC Universal Short Film Festival Best Director and Audience Awards (Love, NY). His work has been licensed to HBO, Time Warner, Hulu, and Comcast. He is the former Media Board Member for Taiwanese American Professionals NY (501c3), on the judging committee for NYU’s The Purple List, the shots Awards, and an Outstanding 50 honouree by the Asian American Business Development Centre. Chopin is his feature film directorial debut
