Beach House Pictures to adapt iconic Vietnamese novel Dumb Luck (SỐ ĐỎ)

Fremantle, Beach House Pictures (BHP), a Fremantle Company, and Anh Teu Studio (ATS)announced at ATF today the film adaptation of Dumb Luck (SỐ ĐỎ) based on Vũ Trọng Phụng’s 1936 novel, widely regarded as the most popular Vietnamese novel of the twentieth century.

The director and screenwriter is the award-winning Phan Gia Nhật Linh (EM VÀ TRỊNH, TRẠNG TÍ, THE GIRL FROM YESTERDAY and SWEET 20) and the producers are Lê Thanh Phong, Yuno Choi and Vũ Quỳnh Hà. Vietnamese chart-topping pop singer and musician Mono will play the lead role of Red-Haired Xuân.

Dumb Luck is set in 1930s Vietnam, a period marked by significant social transformations when the country experienced the final years of French colonial rule and the emergence of Vietnamese nationalist and reformist movements, coinciding with the growing influence of global consumer culture. The film follows the implausible and hilarious adventures of Red-Haired Xuân, an unscrupulous vagrant, as he rises from poverty to the top of society and becomes revered as the poster child of the country's Europeanization movement.

Vũ Trọng Phụng (1912-1939) is considered to be the greatest Vietnamese writer of the twentieth century. His satirical works have been compared to those by Balzac, and his stark portrayals of sexuality led to serious reprimands by the French colonial administration in Hanoi. Dumb Luck was banned from 1954 till 1986 and today it remains one of the most discussed and celebrated novels in Vietnam. An excerpt from the novel, The Happiness of a Family in Mourning, is included in the official literature curriculum in all Vietnamese high schools. Dumb Luck has been published in translation throughout the world, including in the US, China, Germany and the UK and this is its first film adaptation.

Director, writer and producer Phan Gia Nhật Linh commented: “I’m so happy to bring this wonderful Vietnamese story to international audiences and to make this film with our Anh Teu Studio in collaboration with international companies - Beach House Pictures and Fremantle - for the first time.”

Christian Vesper, CEO Global Drama & Film, Fremantle, said: “I am excited about our first film collaboration with our colleagues at Beach House Pictures, along with the great team at ATS, and delighted that we are able to bring such an iconic novel to life. Linh is an outstanding director, and Dumb Luck underlines our commitment to supporting the finest talent in the global film industry.”

Conor Zorn, Head of Scripted, Beach House Pictures, added: “Dumb Luck's sharp satire and poignant themes of class struggle and division by influential Vietnamese writer Vu Trong Phung still resonate profoundly in today's world. We are thrilled to be partnering with one of Vietnam's best storytellers, director Linh, to bring this remarkable story to the big screen.”

Dumb Luck is a Vietnam-Korea-Singapore co-production written & directed by Phan Gia Nhat Linh, produced by Anh Teu Studio (ATS) and Sidus and Teu Entertainment (SATE), in collaboration with Beach House Pictures, a Fremantle Company. The producers are Yuno Choi for Sidus and Teu Entertainment, Le Thanh Phong for A Viet Media, Vu Quynh Ha for CJ HK Entertainment and Phan Gia Nhat Linh for Anh Teu Studio. Among the Executive Producers are Conor Zorn, Donovan Chan and Jocelyn Little for Beach House Pictures, Christian Vesper and Simon Judd for Fremantle and Handae Rhee for Sidus. The film will be distributed by CJ CGV in Vietnam.