Sony Pictures TV has signed 88rising, the emergent company that spotlights modern global Asian culture, to a first-look deal. The two will partner to develop scripted series centering Asian and Asian American culture, across all platforms, and 88rising has hired former Imagine and NBC exec Alex Lin to serve as its first development executive for film and television.
Since its founding in 2015, 88rising has quickly risen — pun unintended — from a record label for pan-Asian artists to a music, media and events company that in 2018 became the first to stage an Asian music festival in the United States (Head in the Clouds, dubbed “Asian Coachella,” at Los Angeles State Historic Park). The company, which launched a SiriusXM channel in December, has recently expanded its ambitions to encompass the screen. Its upcoming film projects include We Stan, a comedy about K-pop fans that it is producing alongside A-Major Media and rapper/actor Jon “Dumbfoundead” Park, and an untitled feature written and directed by Justin Chon featuring 88Rising rapper Rich Brian.
“Our company was founded on the goal of providing more authentic representation of Asian and Asian Americans and giving them a platform and an opportunity to be at the center of stories,” 88rising founder and CEO Sean Miyashiro said in a statement. “We are thrilled to expand our work and vision to television with the support of Sony to continue to make content that we want to make.”
“We are incredibly impressed with all that 88rising has achieved in music, media and storytelling,” Sony TV executive vice president of comedy development Glenn Adilman said in a statement. “We love everything they stand for and are thrilled to help bring their very unique and important Asian and Asian American stories to television and for the chance to work with their brilliant roster of artists.”
This article was originally published by The Hollywood Reporter.
