Vietnamese-American’s award winning novel seems set to become TV series

American studio A24 is likely to buy the rights to Viet Thanh Nguyen’s novel ‘The Sympathizer’ for a possible TV series directed by South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook.

« Thrilled to finally announce that A24 has optioned ‘The Sympathizer’ for TV, with director Park Chan-wook, whose films include ‘The Handmaiden’, » the Vietnamese-American novelist wrote on Twitter on April 7.

« His ‘Oldboy’ was a big influence on ‘The Sympathizer,’ and I can’t imagine a better person to direct this TV adaptation. »

The indie studio and distributor retweeted his posts on its social media pages.

Nguyen, 50, a professor of English and American studies and ethnicity at the University of California, the U.S., made his writing debut with ‘The Sympathizer’ in 2015 and promptly won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction and the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature among a handful of other honors.

It became the first book to win the Edgar Award and Pulitzer Prize in the same year.

It depicts the story of a Vietnamese man coming to the U.S. and later returning to his home country after years.

A24 is an independent film distributor that has made its name betting on quirky, artisanal movies like ‘Moonlight,’ ‘Lady Bird,’ ‘The Farewell,’ and ‘Minari.’

By Long Nguyen – VnExpress.net – April 8, 2021