Its raining book adaptations for Netflix at this moment. The streaming platform just recently bought the rights to yet another interesting that is on its way to be published, for a major series adaptation. Netflix has bought the rights for the adaptation of “ Portrait of a Thief” by Grace Li, in a fierce and highly competitive bidding war. The book is set to be published on April 5th, 2022.
The book is said to be based on a true story of a certain Chinese art, that is vanishing from Western museums all over. The book tells the stories of friendships, the colonization of art and the complexities and issues faced by the Chinese American identity.
The adaptation will be produced by Michael Sugar and his production company Sugar23. The teaming up of Netflix and Sugar comes as a part of the multiyear deal between the production house and the streaming platform. Sugar has already worked with Netflix on various of its super famous projects like “13 Reasons Why”, “Maniac”, “The Laundromat” and others that they are working on at the moment.
Along with Michael Sugar producing the series, Grace Li, the author of the book who still is a full time student at Stanford Medical School, will executive produce the project. Ashley Zalta and Margaux Swerdloff, will also be executive producing the upcoming series. At this moment, the search for a writer by the makers is underway.
The book adaptation comes at a time when the celebration for the AAPI month just started. AAPI, which stands for Asian American and Pacific Highlander Heritage Month, celebrates the lives and work of Asian Americans in the States. Over the years, this has become a very significant month, as atrocities on the Asian American communities have significantly increased.
People from all different fields come over to spread awareness and educate people about the various cultures as well as heritage that each community brings with them. Netflix too has been an active participant in this program and has over the years extended its hands to show the support and recognition that Asian Americans deserve.
To celebrate this year’s AAPI Heritage Month, Netflix is launching a hub on the service dedicated to AAPI content. It also released a montage video that brings together all of our favorite Asian American characters together in one video. Netflix time and again has shown its proactiveness towards various causes, issues and programs that have burning topics all over.
With this book adaptation, Netflix is definitely going strong with the Asian American representation.
Take a look at Netflix’s AAPI montage video here:
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