East Bay, a uplifting dark comedy starring Constance Wu (Fresh off the Boat, Crazy Rich Asians), Kavi Ramachandran Ladnier (NCIS: Los Angeles, The Sex Lives of College Girls), and Daniel Yoon (Post Concussion), has been picked up by Level 33 Entertainment for North American distribution and world sales, Variety reported exclusively.
The film centers on a middle-aged man who feels let down by his immigrant parents and accepts the fact that he is a failure. He then turns to some of his close friends, whose live’s have also haven’t gone exactly as planned, for guidance. As he gets his life back on track, he beings to have bizarre hallucinations that make him question reality.
East Bay‘s writer and director Daniel Yoon is a former environmental worker and management consultant. Yoon had previously written and directed the 1999 film Post Concussion, a semi-autobiographical story about a man recovering from a head injury.
In East Bay, Yoon portrays the male lead, while Wu and Ladnier play a close friend and a member of the support team respectively.
“In ‘East Bay,’ Constance Wu beautifully plays an unusually complex character, one that’s radically different from her other roles, and to me it’s the finest performance of [her] career. Kavi Ramachandran Ladnier is truly spectacular in the film as well”, said Yoon in an interview with Variety. “The cast, as a whole, created some memorable, even iconic, performances. It was a huge stroke of luck to be able to have such an exceptionally talented group as a part of ‘East Bay’.”.
Andreas Olavarria, president and CEO of Level 33, also had high praise for the film. In the same interview with Variety, Olavarria said “Daniel Yoon has demonstrated tremendous ingenuity and resourcefulness – wearing many hats and bringing together a talented team – in crafting the brilliant, deceptively intricate and surprisingly funny film that is ‘East Bay’”.
The deal was negotiated by Glen Reynolds of Circus Road and Olavarria on behalf of Level 33. East Bay is set to be released in theaters on April 26, and on demand on May 31.
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