Ang Lee’s ‘Gold Mountain’ Wraps 4-Month Production, Marking His First Film in Nearly Eight Years

Finally, Ang Lee’s “Gold Mountain,” which last year quietly pushed its production start date to qualify for the next batch of California tax-incentivized productions, has wrapped production in California. That’s practically a four-month shoot, which might hint at something epic here.

Chedi Chang, Sophia Xu, Yao, Zine Tseng, and Owen Teague star in “Gold Mountain.” Chang-rae Lee, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, wrote the latest draft of the script. Jack Fisk, a legendary production designer, is in charge of the film’s visual look — including sets, locations, props, and environments.

Emmanuel Lubezki (“The Tree of Life”) is no longer onboard as DP. He was replaced by Joshua James Richards, whose credits include three Chloé Zhao films — “Songs My Brothers Taught Me,” “The Rider,” and “Nomadland” — all of which were influenced by Lubezki’s photography in his Terrence Malick films.

Today, Richards posted “that’s a wrap” on Instagram, adding that “working with a legend [Jack Fisk] is one thing, getting to call him a friend is a gift.”

“Gold Mountain” is set during the dying embers of the American Gold Rush and tells the story of two orphaned Chinese American immigrants navigating a brutal, unforgiving Western frontier. The film is 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 filmmaker’s first narrative outing since 2019’s “Gemini Man.”

There’s something comforting about Lee returning to this kind of material — personal, historical, and rooted in feeling. The Taiwanese auteur behind “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” “Brokeback Mountain,” “Sense and Sensibility,” 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 for him — especially after his tech-obsessed filmmaking of the last 14 years (“Life of Pi,” “Billy Lynn’s Halftime Walk,” “Gemini Man”).

“Gold Mountain” is set to be Lee’s first film in almost eight years — Cannes 2027 rumors will inevitably start circling this one.