Hong Kong filmmaker Herman Yau has been attached to direct “The Cinematographer,” a biographical feature on the life of pioneering Chinese-American cinematographer James Wong Howe.
The attachment was made during the recently concluded Hong Kong FilMart.
Award-winning art director and costume designer Man Lim Chung, best known for “In the Mood for Love,” has also joined the production, taking on both design roles. His reputation for meticulous period work will be central to recreating the world Wong Howe inhabited across more than five decades in Hollywood, from the silent era through the Golden Age of cinema.
Yau, whose credits span more than 100 films including the “Shock Wave” and the “White Storm” franchises, brings a career defined by versatility across drama, action, historical and socially conscious filmmaking. His attachment marks a significant step forward for what is being positioned as an international co-production aimed at global audiences.
“The Cinematographer” would be the first-ever biopic devoted to Wong, a two-time Academy Award winner who collected 10 nominations for best cinematography over the course of his career, winning for “The Rose Tattoo” (1955) and “Hud” (1963). His other nominated films were “Algiers” (1938), “Abe Lincoln in Illinois” (1940), “Kings Row” (1942), “The North Star” (1943), “Air Force” (1943), “The Old Man and the Sea” (1958), “Seconds” (1966) and “Funny Lady” (1975) – his final film as cinematographer. Members of the International Cinematographers Guild have ranked him among the 10 most influential cinematographers in film history.
Wong was born in Guangdong, China, and went to the U.S. at the age of five, eventually settling in Washington state. As a teenager he competed as a professional boxer before finding his way to Hollywood, where he first sought work carrying equipment for Jesse Lasky Studios in 1917 – only to be redirected to lighter duties, given his slight frame. He became a slate boy for Cecil B. DeMille, working his way up through the ranks while nurturing a parallel passion for still photography. He shot his first features as cinematographer in 1923. He was billed simply as James Howe until 1933, when MGM added “Wong” to his screen credit.
Over the decades that followed, Wong redefined the visual grammar of American cinema through his mastery of wide-angle lenses, low-key lighting techniques and his development of the crab dolly. His collaborators included some of the most significant directors in Hollywood history, among them Michael Curtiz, John Frankenheimer, Sidney Lumet and Martin Ritt, with a roster of stars stretching from Humphrey Bogart and James Cagney to Paul Newman, Rock Hudson and Barbra Streisand.
His professional ascent came at considerable personal cost. Wong was unable to obtain U.S. citizenship until the Chinese Exclusion Act was repealed in 1943, despite having lived in the country for nearly four decades. His marriage to novelist Sanora Babb – the couple wed in Paris in 1937 – went legally unrecognized in California until 1948, when the state’s anti-miscegenation law was lifted. Even then, the union could not be publicly acknowledged, as mixed-race marriage ran afoul of the morality clauses in his studio contracts. During World War II, Wong took to wearing a button reading “I am Chinese” to make clear he was not Japanese.
“When I did my research for my PhD thesis, I learnt that there were a number of Chinese filmmakers, including actors/actresses and behind-the-scene filmmakers (Anna May Wong, Esther Eng, etc.), who were so remarkable in Hollywood before and after WWII in the last century. They were the pioneers in the wild west, to fight for representation on screen and off screen, and to showcase their talent,” Yau told Variety. “James Wong Howe was one of them, perhaps the highest achieved one. Maybe it’s also because I worked as a cinematographer for many years as well as a director, I’m particularly interested in his journey and how he navigated Hollywood at that time with his cameras and vision. It’s a story that needs to be told with authenticity.”
“The Cinematographer” was created by Hiu Man Chan, who will serve as executive producer and leads NGO U.K.-China Film Collab. Chan’s credits include the upcoming “My Indian Boyfriend: the Golden Mile” and a Bertrand Russell biopic. The project was selected for the AFM market pitch in 2020 but faced prolonged development setbacks during the pandemic, with casting remaining the central challenge.
“The most difficult part for this project is its casting; the lead actor is crucial for the film. I have been casting for the past few years, but have yet found the right actor to play ‘Jimmie’,” Chan said.
The FilMart meeting with Yau, Chan added, gave the project fresh footing. “Meeting Herman Yau in person during FilMart this month for the first time provided some new grounding to the project. The legendary story left behind by ‘Jimmie’ is so important that I want to do it with justice. Even though it has come a long way, I am thankful to FilMart where new lights were shed in Hong Kong,” Chan said.
The production plans to shoot across multiple locations tracing Wong’s journey from China to Hollywood. Casting and international co-production partners are expected to be revealed in the coming months.
Leave a Reply