A little Ken Jeong goes a long way. Sure, he can be funny when he pops up for a few moments in an episode of Community or does his thing for a couple scenes in The Hangover movies, but his brash, extremely-in-your-face style has the power to go from funny to ridiculously annoying in a flash. For the most part filmmakers have tended to understand this and have kept Jeong's roles small. That's about to change.
Ken Jeong will play one of the lead roles in the Lionsgate comedy The Chung Factor, according to The Wrap. The plot centers around a nice guy with a pattern of broken relationships. When he meets the right girl, he becomes so afraid of screwing it up that he decides to contact a relationship coach, played by Jeong. What the protagonist doesn't know is that the coach is actually his girlfriend's ex who is trying to "sabotage the relationship and win her back." The script, which was written by newcomer Andy Selsor and originally called The Ex-Factor, was featured on the 2005 Black List, the list of the best unproduced screenplays in any given year. Jeong's manager, Brett Carducci, is also producing the project.
What I'm really hoping for - and probably won't get - is that this movie will tone down Jeong's style a bit and make him a bit more realistic and less crazy...at least for the first 3/4 of the movie. Once the protagonist learns about Jeong's plans you can feel free to let him go as nutter butters as you want.
