West Hollywood will be the setting for a film about a gay couple who journey to Taipei and Bangkok to find a way to find a surrogate mother for their child.
The film, “Baby Steps,” will shoot for 18 days in Taipei in December and an additional 18 days in Los Angeles according to Film Biz Asia. It has a production budget of $1 to $2 million.
It is being backed by Li-Kong Hsu, the Taiwanese producer who backed Ang Lee’s “The Wedding Banquet,” a 1993 film about a gay Taiwanese immigrant in New York City who marries a mainland Chinese woman to make his parents happy and get a green card for her, causing trouble with his own lover. The writer-director is Stephen Israel, who produced the independent comedy “G.B.F.” (Gay Best Friend).
“Baby Steps” is likely to be as controversial, at least in China, as the “The Wedding Banquet.” It is unlikely that it will be approved for release in China. It may encounter difficulties in Taiwan as well, where surrogate parenting is illegal.
The film’s director is Barney Cheng, who was born in Taipei and grew up in Los Angeles. Grace Guei, a leading Taiwanese actor who also was in “The Wedding Banquet,” will play the mother of one of the men.
“I loved the script because it addresses issues for a gay family realistically,” said Hsu in an interview with Hollywood Reporter. “I’m not afraid of the controversy as I want to encourage a dialogue.”
