EXCLUSIVE: Writer-director Jessica Liu has added six for major supporting roles in her feature debut, A better life: Valérie Loo (American Horror Stories), Jim Lau (Horizon: an American saga), Fivel Stewart (Atypical), Kelly McCormack (Sorry, baby), Christine Ko (Ride hard), and Tim Chiou (The company you keep).
Production on the film has been completed, which we announced in August. As previously announced, the cast is led by Randall Park, Ming-Na Wen, Joel Kim Booster, Margaret Cho, Anirudh Pisharody and Yao.
Based on Liu’s proof of concept of the same name, A better life is a black comedy whose plot is as follows: when a revolutionary medical procedure promises to transform slackers into overachievers, an aging father sees his last chance to realize the American dream… thanks to his unemployed adult daughter.
Liu based the film on her experiences with her immigrant father and adapted it as a feature film under the mentorship of Park, with whom she connected through the Alliance of Women Directors. Annie Huang produced alongside Samantha Gao (Smoking Tigers), who also serves as executive producer, with production taking place in Los Angeles under the California Film and Television Tax Credit program.
Additional cast includes Sophia Xu (Beef), Rodney J. Hobbs (First man), Mel Mehrabian, Cassandra Blair, Chris Cortez, Lacey Claire Rogers, Homie Doroodian and Nick Rutherford.
Loo is represented by Brave Artists Management and Joseph Le Talent Agency; Lau by Raphael Berko and Media Artists Group; Stewart by Paradigm; McCormack of UTA, Noble, Caplan, Abrams in Toronto and Link Entertainment; KB by WME, Rise Management and Hansen, Jacobson; and Chiou by Zero Gravity Management.
