Things are revving up when it comes to Ang Lee’s “Gold Mountain,” which last year quietly pushed its production start date to qualify for the next batch of California’s tax-incentivized productions. The film is expected to spend over $30 million during this shoot in the Golden State.
I can now confirm Zhang Ziyi and Fala Chen (“Warrior”) have the lead roles, and production is set to begin next month in El Dorado, California. Three-time Oscar-winning cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki (“Tree of Life”), who recently shot Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s “Digger,” is still onboard as DP.
This is a reunion for Zhang Ziyi and Ang Lee, over 25 years in the making, as she starred in “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” which helped launch her career and led to roles in such films as “Hero,” “House of Flying Daggers,” “Memoirs of a Geisha,” and “The Grandmaster.”
With his Bruce Lee film in limbo, Lee recently pivoted toward “Gold Mountain,” an adaptation of C. Pam Zhang’s acclaimed debut novel “How Much of These Hills Is Gold.” Originally conceived as a limited series, the project has since evolved into a feature film under Lee’s direction. It marks the “Life of Pi” filmmaker’s first narrative outing since 2019’s “Gemini Man.”
Set during the dying embers of the American Gold Rush, “Gold Mountain” tells the story of two orphaned Chinese-American immigrants navigating a brutal, unforgiving Western frontier.
The script comes from Korean-American playwright Hansol Jung, best known for her work on Apple TV+’s “Pachinko.” Avy Kaufman, a longtime Lee collaborator, is overseeing casting.
There’s something comforting about Lee returning to this kind of material — personal, historical, and immigrant-rooted. The Taiwanese auteur behind “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” “Brokeback Mountain,” and “The Ice Storm” has always worked best when exploring cultural dislocation and identity. The story being told in “Gold Mountain” feels right at home.