Abigail Hing Wen has a new book coming in September, and Lea Salonga will star in a short-film prequel to the novel.
Wen, known for her Loveboat series of young adult novels, will make her middle-grade debut with The Vale, scheduled for publication this fall by Third State Books, her publicist announced in a news release. The book will follow Bran Joseph Lee, a 13-year-old boy who creates an AI-generated virtual-reality environment where he spends his days. After he enters it into a competition, things begin to go wrong. The book will be illustrated by Yuna Cheong and Brando Wu.
Wen will also write and direct a short film, The Vale–Origins, a mixture of live action and animation, which will serve as a prequel to the novel. The film will star Salonga, the singer and actor who won a Tony Award for her performance in Miss Saigon, and is also known for her roles in Broadway productions of Les Misérables and Here Lies Love.
Wen’s novel Loveboat, Taipei was adapted into the 2023 film Love in Taipei, directed by Arvin Chen and starring Ross Butler, Ashley Liao, and Nico Hiraga.
“It has been a dream to work closely with these trailblazing creative powerhouses on a project that brings us into the hopes and dreams of a diverse Silicon Valley family, and explores themes of family and healing through creativity, as well as the ethics around cutting edge technology,” Wen told Deadline about the upcoming short film.
Wen’s novel is slated for publication on Sept. 16; there’s no release date set for the film.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
