Bryson Chun Joins Live-Action Musical Feature THE FIRST & LAST as Screenwriter

Screenwriter Bryson Chun (Moana 2) will write the screenplay for the live-action musical feature film, The First & Last from Meráki, the independent production company led by Tony Award-nominated producer Tara Sickmeier. Deadline was the first to report the news.

Inspired by true events, the story is set against the backdrop of the organized coup d’état led by Sanford B. Dole to overthrow the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi. The historical musical drama follows Queen Liliʻuokalani as she fights to protect her homeland, haunted by ill-fated premonitions spoken to her from her late brother's spirit, King Kalākaua.

Chun, a 2021 CAPE Fellow, recipient of honors on the Black List’s 2024 CAPE List, inaugural Indigenous List, and 2016 Sundance Native Shorts Lab Fellow, is a Native Hawaiian writer and filmmaker who most recently wrote on Disney Animation’s Moana 2.

"Writing a film about Queen Liliʻuokalani is an opportunity to help reclaim her story, not as a relic of the past, but as a living reminder of Hawaiian sovereignty and resilience. Her struggles and her strength are just as relevant to us today as they were to her people in her time," said Chun.

Sickmeier (Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812, Above The Shadows) commented on attaching Chun and the creative team, saying, “The story of Queen Liliʻuokalani is one of courage, righteousness, music, and spirit. It’s time her truth is told by those who know it best, the Native Hawaiians. Meráki’s mission is to create from a place of authenticity, and we’re honored to collaborate with Bryson and our entire creative team to reclaim a chapter in history and present it through its rightful lens.”

Jennifer Akana Sturla, a Native Hawaiian filmmaker, will be producing alongside Sickmeier. Akana Sturla is a Sundance Native Program Fellow, has an MFA in Film Production from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, and teaches Story at Chapman University. He is the filmmaker of the highly anticipated feature documentary on Israel “IZ” Kamakawiwo‘ole, known for his iconic certified quadruple-platinum medley, “Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World.”

Composers Kenneth Makuakāne (Honeymoon in Las Vegas, Parent Trap in Paradise), recipient of 30 Nā Hōkū Hanohano Awards, 9 Big Island Music Awards, and credited on more than 300 albums, will collaborate with two-time Grammy Award-winning slack key and jazz guitarist Jeff Peterson (The Descendants), a 14-time Nā Hōkū Hanohano Award winner, to write the film’s score and music.

Sickmeier is CEO of Meráki, an independent production company that creates, acquires, and produces content with an emphasis on storytelling that focuses on females, diversity, or the unheard.