David Farnor | On 19, Aug 2020

Daniel Dae Kim and Randall Park are teaming up for a heist flick at Amazon Studios.

That sentence alone is enough to catch anyone’s attention, with Randall Park a global star thanks to his work in the Marvel Cinematic Universe building on his turns in Fresh Off the Boat, The Interview and Veep, not to mention the hit Netflix rom-com Always Be My Maybe. That saw him cross paths on screen with Daniel Dae Kim, who is best known for his portrayal of Chin Ho Kelly on Hawaii Five-0 for seven seasons, and for his turn as Jin Soo Kwon on Lost, but is far from solely an on-camera star. His career has seen him also produce dozens of episodes of The Good Doctor and direct an episode of Hawaii Five-0, and his company 3AD – founded to amplify storytelling featuring underrepresented characters and cultures – inking a first-look TV deal with Amazon Studios.

This film is outside of that agreement, but was picked up by Amazon in a heated bidding war. Written by Young Il Kim (Billions and Black List script Rodham), it’s loosely centred on a group of old high school friends who reunite for a heist.

“I think it has nods to Ocean’s 11, The Full Monty as well as Better Luck Tomorrow,” Kim told Deadline, which broke the news. “It’s a story that kind of highlights community, friendship, unity in a very familiar genre that people I think will enjoy.”

Kim and Park are old friends, with the duo hatching the idea for the project alongside 3AD’s Head of Development John Cheng. They will lead the project, with an ensemble made up of primarily Asian-American actors.

“There is an appetite to see this kind of a movie with an Asian-American cast and that is a really promising sign of the times,” Kim told Deadline.

Kim and Park said in a joint statement: “We can’t wait to join with Young to tell this special story of friendship, pride and community. We’re also very grateful to Amazon for their exceptional enthusiasm and support.”

“We love heist movies,” Kim commented. “We want to be inclusive and we feel like there’s a story here to be told. It’s super exciting… Randall and I have wanted to do something together for a while. This is just a great reason to bring together talented actors who have been friends for a really long time and really have fun on a project that, with any luck, will be able to make an impact.”

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