Bel-Air star Jabari Banks, Benedict Wong and Callina Liang are set to star in Bad Genius, an English-language remake of the Thai hit of the same name.
The movie, which JC Lee will direct from a screenplay he co-wrote with Julius Onah, is being made by Picturestart and Picture Perfect Federation. Shooting on the film is expected to begin in May.
Onah and Lee both wrote the 2019 film Luce, which starred Kelvin Harrison Jr., Octavia Spencer, Tim Roth and Naomi Watts. Onah also directed the film. Lee is making is feature directorial debut with the project.
Per The Hollywood Reporter, the movie is about a diverse group of young people that band together to combat the system of injustice and unfairness and topple the corrupt academic institutions around them in a high-stakes and high-octane thriller.
The original film, titled Chalard Games Goeng (Bad Genius), was written and directed by Nattawut Poonpiriya. The film was produced by the Thai film studio GDH 559 Company Limited. It broke box office records in Thailand when it was released in 2017 and was the highest-grossing Thai film that year.
International distribution partners include StudioCanal in the UK.
This will be the feature film debut of Banks, who has garnered acclaim for his role as Will the Peacock drama series Bel-Air.
