Montecito Pictures buys rights to BIG IN CHINA

Ivan Reitman and Tom Pollock have purchased the film rights to journalist Alan Paul’s new memoir Big in China: My Unlikely Adventure Raising a Family, Playing the Blues and Reinventing Myself in Beijing for Montecito Pictures. Paul’s memoir arrived in stores on March 1 from HarperCollins. The book recounts "his time in Beijing, where he relocated from suburban New Jersey with his family when his wife, Rebecca Blumenstein, was named The Wall Street Journal’s China bureau chief."

Here is a description of the story from The Hollywood Reporter:

"Becoming a stay-at-home dad, Paul spent hours exploring the city while his three young children were in school. One day, he wandered into a guitar shop to see if someone might be able to fix his guitar, which had been damaged en route to China.

 

He struck up a conversation with Woodie Wu, a young guitarist and owner of the shop. Paul’s own musical talents had been long dormant, but together, he and Wu forming a blues quintet with two other Chinese musicians and an American (the U.S. Treasury representative to China).

 

Woodie Alan, the name of their band, took the Beijing club scene by storm and became a national touring sensation.

 

Big in China is both an account of one man’s personal transformation, and a portrait of a complex nation—still not understood by most Westerners—as it modernizes. Paul first began chronicling his adventures in The Expat Life, the award-winning Wall Street Journal online column. His memoir expands on his experiences."

 

The project has been sent out to writers and is planned for Reitman to direct. The film will be produced by Montecito exec, Ali Bell. She served as producer on the Ivan-Reitman-directed No String's Attached starring Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher for Paramount and Montecito. I have always wanted to visit China and think the story sounds pretty interesting. 

Is this a film you are interested in seeing?