Actor, Director and 3AD Producer Daniel Dae Kim (ABC’s The Good Doctor, Hawaii Five-0, LOST), five-time Grammy- and Emmy-nominated comedian and actress Margaret Cho, Academy Award-nominated screenwriter Richard LaGravenese (The Fisher King, Behind the Candelabra, A Little Princess), renowned best-selling YA author Jenny Han (To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before) and Emmy award-winning writer Jessica Gao (Silicon Valley, Rick and Morty) will travel to Shanghai, China December 12-14 to participate in the 4th annual Pearl Studio Brain Trust Summit. Their attendance was announced today by Peilin Chou, Chief Creative Officer for Pearl Studio.
Originally launched in 2015, the summit is designed as a think tank to advance the company and its core creative objectives. Pearl invites thought leaders, content creators, influencers, storytellers and innovators from around the globe to come to Pearl Studio headquarters for three days of brainstorming, goal exploration and project ideation. The studio’s upcoming Glen Keane directed animated musical Over the Moon was first conceived at this summit in 2015.
Previous participants in the Pearl Brain Trust Summit include such luminaries as Crazy Rich Asians screenwriter Adele Lim, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Junot Diaz, Tony Award-winning playwright David Henry Hwang, Master of None creator Alan Yang, legendary screen actress Joan Chen, and many more.
One of the highlights of this year’s event will be a panel discussion on December 13, “Creating for Awakening Audiences,” which reinforces the Pearl mission, but also opens a dialogue about how audiences (particularly audiences in China) are evolving and awakening. The panel, open to the media, will feature all five guests and will be moderated by Chou.
“The Brain Trust Summit has become highly anticipated within the creative community in China, not only because of our history of curating such exciting and renowned guests, but even more so because there is a palpable change that is occurring with respect to representation of unheard voices in global entertainment,” said Chou. “This summit has always been a wellspring of new ideas and bold vision, and a highlight of our year at Pearl Studio. We are enormously thrilled and honored to have such incredible participants joining us again this year. Their talent and thought leadership is helping to shape the entertainment landscape in magnificent ways, and we can’t wait to share this experience with them and the community.”
Pearl Studio, formerly known as Oriental DreamWorks, is the studio behind the critically-acclaimed Kung Fu Panda 3, one of the most successful China/U.S. co-productions of all time generating more than $500 million in worldwide box office revenues. The company’s mission is to be a premier family entertainment brand creating original world-class films that enchant, inspire, and awaken audiences around the globe.
