Actor Riz Ahmed (Sound Of Metal) and writer-director Lulu Wang (The Farewell) are teaming up to produce a television adaptation of Lysley Tenorio‘s novel Son Of Good Fortune at Amazon.
The book follows the life of an undocumented Filipino teenager named Excel as he experiences first love, navigates a turbulent relationship with his former B-movie action star mother, and figures out how to pay back a massive debt.
Tenorio’s novel was met with critical acclaim upon publication, winning the New American Voices Award in 2020 and becoming a finalist for the Joyce Carol Oates Prize.
Ahmed will produce the show with his company, Left Handed Films, alongside Wang’s Local Time Productions. Andrew Lopez will adapt the novel and also serve as executive producer alongside Ahmed and Allie Moore of Left Handed Films. For Local Time, Wang and Dani Melia will also be executive producing while Tenorio has been brought on board as consulting producer.
Ahmed and Wang have proven to be extremely adept at creating deeply empathetic portrayals of characters who are in unenviable situations. They should be able to do the same here.
Beyond this project, Ahmed is also producing the BBC Two series Englistan, which will tell the story of three generations of a British Pakistani family. He’ll next be seen in sci-fi thriller Encounter, which begins streaming on Amazon on Friday, December 10.
Wang is currently working on Expats, another Amazon series, based on Janice Y.K. Lee‘s novel The Expatriates. She will serve as writer, director, executive producer, and showrunner.
She’s also working on a film adaptation of Alexander Weinstein‘s collection of science fiction short stories, Children Of The New World, as her follow-up to The Farewell.
#Peace.Love.SonOfGoodFortune
