Copyright Deadline
EXCLUSIVE: Writer-director Jessica Liu has added six for major supporting roles in her debut feature, Better Life: Valerie Loo (American Horror Stories), Jim Lau (Horizon: An American Saga), Fivel Stewart (Atypical), Kelly McCormack (Sorry, Baby), Christine Ko (Rolling Loud), and Tim Chiou (The Company You Keep). Production has wrapped on the film, which we broke news of 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 short of the same name, Better Life is a dark comedy whose logline is as follows: When a groundbreaking medical procedure promises to turn slackers into overachievers, an aging father sees it as his last chance to achieve the American Dream…through his unemployed adult daughter. Liu based the film on experiences with her immigrant father and adapted it as a feature 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 line producer, with production taking place in L.A. under the California Film & 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 by UTA, Noble, Caplan, Abrams in Toronto and Link Entertainment; Ko by WME, Rise Management, and Hansen, Jacobson; and Chiou by Zero Gravity Management.
