Section:GDN 1N PaGe:29 Edition Date:190907 Edition:01 Zone:S Sent at 6/9/2019 14:50 cYanmaGentaYellowb
Saturday 7 September 2019 The Guardian •
National^29
Crazy Rich Asians writer
quits over huge pay gap
Streaming fi rms drive
surge in UK-made TV
Edward Helmore
New York
A writer for Crazy Rich Asians has
dropped out of two planned sequels
to the hit romantic comedy, after learn-
ing she would be paid about an eighth
of what another writer would earn.
Mark Sweney
Media business correspondent
Netfl ix and Amazon almost doubled
the amount spent on British-made TV
shows last year to £280m as big-budget
shows such as The Crown and Good
Omens drove the UK production sec-
tor to a record high.
The fi lming spree helped drive the
sector to more than £3bn in annual rev-
enues for the fi rst time, according to
Pact, the body that represents UK inde-
pendent TV production companies.
“It is boom time for British produc-
tion,” sa id Kate Harwood of Euston
Films, which has made shows for
the US streaming service Hulu and
recently made Dublin Murders with
the BBC and the US network Starz. “ It is
a tremendous period of opportunity.”
The emergence of online streaming
has given a signifi cant income boost
to the industry, even taking on some
shows that began on the domestic
airwaves, such as Channel 4’s Black
Mirror, now a major Netfl ix series.
Netfl ix and Amazon led an 87%
increase in spending by overseas
on-demand services, from £150m in
2017 to nearly £300m, with Netfl ix
in particular ramping up its rate of
British-made shows.
In recent years Netfl ix and Ama-
zon have emerged as big contributors
to a domestic fi lm and TV production
industry whose main pillars were
broadcasters such as the BBC, ITV,
Channel 4 and Sky, as well as the Hol-
lywood fi lm studios.
The spending boom from the two
US tech giants has put the squeeze on
the availability of studio space to shoot
(£90,000). The paper said that such a
disparity was not unusual in Holly-
wood. Before Crazy Rich Asians, Lim
worked in TV. Chiarelli has hit movies
on his CV, including the 2009 Sandra
Bullock and Ryan Reynolds rom com
The Proposal.
Crazy Rich Asians, which made
$238m at the box offi ce, is credited
with uncovering a new audience. Its
sequels will be based on two other
books by Kevin Kwan , China Rich Girl-
friend and Rich People Problems.
Lim reportedly rejected an off er
from Chiarelli to split his fee, voicingshows and fi lms. In July, Netfl ix, which
made more than 40 productions in the
UK last year, including Top Boy , struck
a deal to take over Shepperton Studios
as a permanent production base to
enable it to keep a smooth fl ow of TV
shows and fi lms.
The shortage of fi lming space has
led some broadcasters to seek crea-
tive solutions, with the emergence of
“pop-up” studio sites. ITV uses a for-
mer military airbase in Yorkshire to
fi lm the hit drama Victoria and a con-
verted carpet warehouse in Neasden,
north-west London, was used as the
fi lming base for another ITV produc-
tion, Mr Selfridge.
A strategy of providing a continual
pipeline of new content has fuelled the
rapid growth of Netfl ix, which has 151
million global subscribers, with 11 mil-
lion in the UK, and Amazon’s Prime
Video, which has 85 million subscrib-
ers worldwide and more than 8 million
in the UK.
The UK TV production sector is hop-
ing for another fi llip as Disney ramps
up spending on programming for
its new service, which includes the
$100m (£81m) Star Wars series The
Mandalorian , which is to launch on
12 November.
The Pact report also highlights
the booming popularity of British-
made shows in international markets
as sales of programmes such as The
Bodyguard, The Cry , Line of Duty and
Peaky Blinders hit £214m.
International revenues, which have
grown more than 90% since 2013, hit a
record £962m last year. “These fi gures
show that there is a huge international
market looking for quality British con-
tent,” said Pact’s chair, Sara Geater.concern that producers viewed her
ability to provide a distinct cultural
sensibility as her only value to the
screenplay. She said Chiarelli had been
“incredibly gracious” but insisted her
pay “shouldn’t be dependent on the
generosity of the white guy writer”.
“If I couldn’t get pay equity after
CRA,” she said, “I can’t imagine what
it would be like for anyone else, given
that the standard for how much
you’re worth is having established
quotes from previous movies, which
women of colour would never have
been [hired for].”▲ Top Boy was one of more than 40 shows made by Netflix in the UK last year
Adele Lim, born in Malaysia, told
the Hollywood Reporter her perspec-
tive was too often used as “soy sauce”- a dressing added to give a project the
mere feel of cultural authenticity.
The magazine reported that the
writer Peter Chiarelli stood to make
$800,000 to $1m from the two movies,
while Lim would get “$110,000-plus”
▲ Adele Lim says she was treated as
‘soy sauce’ to add authenticityPHOTOGRAPH: CHRIS HARRIS/NETFLIXRELEASED BY "What's News" vk.com/wsnws TELEGRAM: t.me/whatsnws