Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.After this month’s elections, it seemed like nothing — and certainly nothing from California — could bring America together. But a burst of Hollywood blockbusters is achieving just that.Central to this cinematic escapism is Jon M Chu, director of Wicked, the film now lighting up the box office. Wicked took $114mn in the US on the crucial pre-Thanksgiving weekend, twice as much as Ridley Scott’s epic Gladiator II. Globally it is set to become the highest-grossing film adaptation of a Broadway musical.Chu, previously best known for 2018’s Crazy Rich Asians, is a soft-spoken yet bombastic filmmaker with a high bar. He likes to say that people should aspire to make the films that only they can make, and only tell stories that feel right for the moment.With Wicked, events fell into his lap. It is a prequel to the Wizard of Oz, in which the Wicked Witch of the West turns out to have been a victim, ostracised as a child for her green skin. Chu had hoped to make the film ever since seeing the stage version in 2003. Donald Trump’s re-election has made its themes of discrimination and truth sharply relevant.“There’s no yellow brick road and then maybe no wizard. Being uncomfortable, maybe yelling at each other a little bit, forgiving each other, having some grace for each other is the only way out,” Chu told NBC News. He has presented Wicked as a messy American fairytale. The film takes on bigotry and authoritarianism, while disguising such gravity in a whirl of choreography and pink dresses.Chu, 45, has identified himself with the misunderstood witch, saying that at times in his life he, like her, has been “green”. His own origin story lies in Silicon Valley. His parents emigrated from China and Taiwan, and set up a well-known Chinese restaurant in the Bay area, where he recalls his grandmother doing the accounts each evening with an abacus.They encouraged him to believe in America, and to immerse himself in the cultural scene. He began making films as a child, editing family camcorder videos. His hunger was extreme: at one point, he faked a security pass to access the Oscars press area.At film school, he and a collaborator convinced a camera company to give them an advanced digital camera to make a musical film. That short — about what stay-at-home mothers did while their kids were away — got him a meeting with Steven Spielberg aged just 23. Chu seemed on the fast track to Hollywood’s elite. But things fell apart: one idea lost a studio’s support, another stagnated.Chu found a slower route to the top. He directed some middling dance films and a couple of Justin Bieber documentaries. These were commercial successes, but Chu saw a problem: “Hollywood gave me a chance to make things before I’d figured out what I wanted to say,” he wrote in his memoir, Viewfinder. Having suffered anti-Asian racism (he was called Napalm in his fraternity at USC School of Cinematic Arts), he wanted to get back to questioning racial stereotypes.His response was Crazy Rich Asians, which encapsulated Chu’s own unresolved relationship with his heritage and was a breakthrough for Asian representation on screen. Netflix attempted to outbid Warner Bros for the film, but the book’s author Kevin Kwan, Chu and the film’s producers decided that the only way to address Hollywood’s years of neglect of Asian actors was to launch it in the cinema.Wicked has brought Asian actors to the fore again, including Michelle Yeoh and Bowen Yang. Some adults will find the film a cinematic gobstopper: sickly sweet and apparently interminable (it lasts 2 hours 40 mins, and only covers the first half of the stage show). Critics may point out Hollywood has again invested in an established brand, not taken a risk on new stories.The film’s promotional tour has also had its surreal moments. A journalist’s claim that audiences were “holding space” with the film’s defiant ballad “Defying Gravity” has become a meme. Co-stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo went viral for their emotional reaction. Wicked’s success will give Chu an even stronger platform to champion cinema. He fell out with Warner Bros after the studio released In the Heights, his adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s play, on streaming and in cinemas simultaneously. An early adopter of digital technology, he has soured on Silicon Valley’s influence on Hollywood, saying the relationship now resembles “a demolition derby”. Even in the days of huge Netflix cheques, he argues that cinema shapes culture in ways that low-commitment streaming does not. His hero is Steve Jobs, who understood both artistry and technology.The youngest of five siblings, Chu has five children himself. Three have been born since he started working on Wicked. (His wife gave birth to the fifth during the film’s premiere.) He has linked creativity to seeing the world through children’s eyes: “When Pixar was at its peak, with Toy Story and Finding Nemo and all those, they were all new parents.”Chu’s next assignments include the second part of Wicked, already filmed and out in late 2025. He is also adapting Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat. Before that, he is set to direct a biopic about Britney Spears. That is a different, and perhaps even messier, American fairytale — but one that could again achieve the rare feat of crossing the national divide.henry.mance@ft.com
