Xie Miao to lead US-set action thriller for Stars Collective
Xie Miao will headline an English-language action crime thriller set in the United States.
The project is in development at Stars Collective, which unveiled the plan on the sidelines of the Busan International Film Festival's Asian Contents & Film Market, the market in Busan where companies buy and sell film rights, according to Variety.
The film will aim for the grounded, realistic martial arts action seen in The Furious, the recent action film led by Xie. No director, cast beyond Xie, plot details or release date have been disclosed. It is at the development stage, the early phase when a company shapes a script and team before filming.
Producers on the thriller are Peter Luo, Wayne Wei Jiang and Wei Junzi, with Stars Collective co-CEO Nancy Xu producing for the company, according to Variety.
Xie began as a child actor and won multiple wushu championship titles. Wushu is the Chinese martial arts discipline practised as both sport and performance. He broke through opposite Jet Li, playing his son in The New Legend of Shaolin and My Father Is a Hero.
Since then he has led the Eye for an Eye franchise and headlined The Furious. That track record in hand-to-hand action is central to the new project.
Stars Collective is also building a wider slate. It has picked up Mandarin-language remake rights to the 2024 film Thelma and is developing that remake under the working title Grandma, Please. It has optioned the nonfiction book Fortunate Sons: The 120 Chinese Boys Who Came to America, Went to School, and Revolutionized an Ancient Civilization for screen adaptation with producer Donna Gigliotti, according to Variety.
The company launched in 2020 and is based in Los Angeles, with operations in China and Japan. It says it has more than 60 original properties in development across film, animation, games, merchandise and immersive experiences.
