FX Orders Havana Rose Liu Crime Pilot From Murai and Wong Kar Wai

FX has ordered a Bangkok-set crime drama pilot starring Havana Rose Liu from Emmy-winning director Hiro Murai and Hong Kong auteur Wong Kar Wai, Deadline reported exclusively Oct. 9. The A.V. Club confirmed the same order the same day, citing Deadline’s report and underscoring Wong’s first American television credit.

Developed from an original story by Wong, the untitled pilot follows a petty criminal who inherits a share in a mysterious corporation and is pulled into extreme wealth — and constant danger — from a ruthless elite that sees her as a threat, Deadline and The A.V. Club reported. Murai will direct from a script by Charles Yu (Interior Chinatown) and Julia Cho (Turning Red, Elio). The project comes from FX Productions and Searchlight Television, Deadline said.

Yu, Cho and Murai executive produce alongside Carver Karaszewski, Claudia Shin, Kate Dean, Paul Schwartzman and Wong, according to Deadline. Filming is scheduled in Bangkok later this month — before 2026 is out, The A.V. Club noted — with no series pickup or premiere date announced.

Liu broke out in Emma Seligman’s Bottoms opposite Rachel Sennott and Ayo Edebiri and has recent or upcoming credits with Nicolas Winding Refn (Her Private Hell), Daniel Roher (Tuner), John Carney (Power Ballad), Jesse Eisenberg’s The Debut (Dec. 11 release after Telluride), Jenny Suen’s Peaches and an Arkasha Stevenson bachelor-party horror for A24, Deadline reported. The A.V. Club also flagged her turn in Michael Showalter’s Oh. What. Fun.

Murai recently became the first Asian director to win the Comedy Directing Emmy for Apple’s Widow’s Bay, which also scored a record 14 Emmys for a comedy in one year, Deadline said. A longtime FX fixture from Atlanta and an executive producer on The Bear, he is currently directing and exec producing FX’s The Marriage Plot miniseries from Will Arbery, based on Jeffrey Eugenides’ novel. Wong’s credits include Chungking Express, In the Mood for Love, The Grandmaster and the Chinese series Blossoms Shanghai; The A.V. Club noted that last project as his recent major streaming work and stressed he had not previously worked in American TV.

The order keeps Murai inside the FX orbit even after his Emmy breakthrough at Apple. Deadline noted his long relationship with the network and the overlapping Marriage Plot work; The A.V. Club added that his reputation was built directing Atlanta and that he later served as an executive producer on The Bear. Pairing that FX fluency with Wong’s story credit and a Bangkok production window gives the pilot a clear international footprint before any series decision.

Searchlight Television’s involvement also ties the crime drama to a film-branded TV shop under the Disney umbrella, Deadline reported. Yu’s path from the novel Interior Chinatown into TV writing and Cho’s animation credits on Turning Red and Elio round out a writers’ room that Deadline and The A.V. Club both presented as central to the pilot’s creative identity. No cast beyond Liu was announced in either report.

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Verification: FX pilot order, Liu casting, Wong original story, Murai directing, Yu/Cho script, Bangkok shoot, Searchlight/FX Productions credit and producer list come from Deadline (Matt Grobar, Oct. 9, 2026). Confirmation of the order, Wong’s first American TV framing, premise summary and Murai’s FX/Atlanta/The Bear context are from The A.V. Club (William Hughes, Oct. 9, 2026).