Theresa Kang’s Passion for ‘Pachinko’ Led Her to Founding Blue Marble Pictures and Management
It’s rare for the right project to come to the right person at the right time, but in the case of “Pachinko,” that’s exactly what happened. Long before Blue Marble Pictures and Blue Marble Management’s founder and CEO Theresa Kang ever picked up Min Jin Lee’s novel, she was poised to help bring this particular story to the screen.
When Kang encountered the 2017 book, she was still working as an agent for WME. “A lot of books get discussed at agencies,” she told TheWrap. “But I remember when I heard about this one, I was like, ‘Wait a minute, Zainichi Koreans in Japan?'”
A saga that tells the story of one family over generations, “Pachinko” revolves around a Korean family who immigrated to Japan before World War II and how they grapple with their identities in a country that’s ceaselessly hostile to them. While completing her anthropology minor at UCLA, Kang ended up writing an essay on the little-known topic. So when Lee’s book ended up in her lap while she was a partner at WME, she knew she was meant to help adapt it. She also had a showrunner in mind.
“I knew that Soo [Hugh] was the right writer because I have represented her for so long, and that means I knew her intimately. Part of my job as a representative and as a producer is connecting the right artist to the right idea and vice versa,” Kang said.
Even though Hugh initially passed because of the emotional weight and high stakes of the material, Kang continued to ask the showrunner to give the project a chance.
“She was like, ‘It’s too hard. I don’t want to go into our past. I don’t want to go into our journey. It’s a lot,'” Kang, who is Korean American, recalled. Hugh eventually agreed to read the book while on a flight from working on AMC’s “The Terror.” “[Hugh] called me when she landed, and she was crying.”
The rest is critically acclaimed history. Kang connected Hugh to executive producer Michael Ellenberg, who founded Media Res. Together, they went on to create one of the most ambitious and praised shows on television, Apple TV+’s “Pachinko,” which is currently in its second season.
It’s this passion to connecting artists to projects they care about that inspired Kang to make the switch from working at WME for 17 years to launching Blue Marble Management and Blue Marble Pictures, which currently has an overall deal with Apple TV+.
“I felt a bit of a calling [to producing],” Kang said. Under Blue Marble Management, Kang represents heavy hitters such as Alfonso Cuarón, Lena Waithe, Gillian Flynn, Chris Terrio, Simon Beaufoy, Prentice Penny, Justin Chon, Little Marvin and David Jenkins.
“The way Blue Marble Pictures and Blue Marble Management interacts is we don’t produce everything my clients do,” Kang said. “We may not be the right producer for every project my client has, and I’m very aware about that. However, when there is a project my client has and I think we are the best producers for it, I will definitely raise my hand.”
At the moment, Blue Marble Management represents “about a dozen” clients, and Kang in interested in signing a few more “select clients” in 2024 and 2025. “I have a diverse range of clients, and through representing them, I talk to all the agencies and all the studios. So even though my company’s exclusive to Apple, I still talk to everybody,” she said.
Here’s how Kang transformed her years working as an agent and a partner — as well as her love of film and storytelling — into a specialized production experience.
“Pachinko” is a hard sell since it’s a show that is predominantly in Korean and Japanese. Do you think that Hollywood is becoming a bit more hungry for non-English language stories?
I would say Hollywood is more open to these stories. There’s no outgoing phone call. If they hear about a project being pitched that happens to be non-English language, there’s definitely more openness. There’s still an ease to English language.
Does it have to be the right factors and metrics? Yes, of course. A lot of Americans are watching Korean content as well as shows and films from every country. But what was remarkable about “Shōgun,” when I was talking to someone at FX, is that the majority of Hulu viewers of “Shōgun” watched it in subtitles and not dubbing, which to me signifies a sea change.
When you’re looking to produce projects, what are you really looking for?
I’m always thinking about, can we get this set up and sold? Can we envision it actually getting made? There’s no crystal ball for this … I’m also thinking about one of the questions that I always ask our producing team: Do you love it? Because if you love it, it’s going to be great. If you can support the showrunner or the filmmaker because you love it too, there’s a better chance of it being great.
Also, producing is sometimes around the clock, especially with “Pachinko.” When we start pre-production and production, your day starts at 4 p.m. … You’ve already had a whole day of English-language projects and talking to clients.
I know this with my clients, too. The thing that wakes them up at night, like, ‘I have this great idea. I gotta write it down on my nightstand’ and they’re constantly thinking about it, that’s exciting. It’s not that those shows or films are necessarily going to be the most watched. Sometimes they are, by the way. But it means that the journey of it is going to be very passion filled. We can’t ever predict the destination, but we can predict the journey,
What do you see as the biggest challenge on the production side these days?
Because there’s only a couple profitable streamers — and the rest will get there — looking at the market overall post-strike, everyone’s making less, maybe aside from Netflix. The budgets are shrinking, fees are shrinking. But I look at the upside of it, which is, they’re still making things. We as a company just have to figure out what makes sense for us, what we want to get behind project-wise and what makes sense for the buyer. Right now, the buyers and streamers need shows and films that are going to be highly watched. That’s the next five to seven years, and we’ve seen these cycles before.
I’ll also say on the flip side to that is no one knows how to predict hits. Did anyone know that “Squid Game” was going to be the biggest show of all time? Did anyone think “Shōgun” was going to be a massive hit in 2024? Maybe John Landgraf and his great team, but maybe not. We have no idea what may be a hit. We may have metrics and data to support what could be a hit, but you can’t predict the future. To me, that’s very freeing. It’s OK if nobody knows. Let’s just support the things we’re most passionate about and we think might get viewership.
I don’t think our industry should take our eye off the ball. When an artist comes in with something they’re genuinely passionate about, we have to listen to the artist. I love talking with artists because when I hear what they’re passionate about, that’s what’s going to work in two to three years. They’re ahead of culture. Also, listening to what the streamers and studios need, that’s important.
The other thing that I’m really focused on, that I’ve actually been focused on for the last 20 years is [international content]. I used to take trips to Korea 20 years ago. I used to watch Korean dramas in my teens on VHS from the local Korean video stores, and I took a lot of trips because my family lives there. One of the shows my clients Sebastian Lee and David Kim brought me when I was an agent was a Korean show called “The Good Doctor.” That was a Korean show we packaged, and it turned into “The Good Doctor” at ABC. I’m constantly looking at projects from Korea and outside of America.
What’s the best piece of career advice you’ve received?
[Ari Emanuel] would always say to the agents, “The clients are paying for your advice. Give them good advice. If you don’t have advice, you’re not doing your job.” In the entertainment industry, Steve Golin stood out with his unwavering commitment to putting artists first. This principle, which I witnessed firsthand, left an indelible mark on my career and continues to guide my approach to this day.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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