00:09A year after Crazy Rich Asians took the box office by storm,
00:13its sequels have been slow to launch. The Hollywood Reporter has exclusively learned
00:17that co-writer Adele Lim has exited the project amid a pay disparity dispute.
00:22Co-writer Peter Chiarelli, as an experienced feature writer who broke out with 2009's The Proposal,
00:27was to be paid a significantly higher fee than Lim, a veteran TV writer who had never pinned
00:32a feature until director John M. Chu hired her to work on the screenplay. Lim says being
00:36evaluated that way can't help but make you feel that is how they view my contributions.
00:40She also believes that women and people of color often are regarded as, quote,
00:44soy sauce, hired to sprinkle culturally specific details on a screenplay, rather than credited
00:49with the work of crafting the story.
00:51If Nick chose me, he would lose his family. And if he chose his family...
00:57He might spend the rest of his life resenting you.
00:59Lim declined to provide specific figures, but sources say that Warner Bros.' starting offers
01:03were between $800,000 and $1 million for Chiarelli and $110,000-plus for Lim.
01:09After Lim walked away from a deal last fall, production company Color Force spent about five months
01:14fielding other writers of Asian descent for the job. They then came back to Lim in February
01:19with an offer closer to parody with Chiarelli, who had volunteered to split his fee with her.
01:23But Lim passed. She says,
01:26Pete has been nothing but incredibly gracious, but what I make shouldn't be dependent on the
01:30generosity of the white guy writer. If I couldn't get pay equity after Crazy Rich Asians, I can't
01:35imagine what it would be like for anyone else. There's no realistic way to achieve true equity
01:40that way.
01:40For more on this story, head to THR.com. Until next time, for The Hollywood Reporter News,
01:44I'm Tiffany Taylor.
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