ACTRESS Michelle Yeoh, who will co-produce the film adaptation of Billion Dollar Whale, has received the green light from author Tom Wright.

“I have no problem signing over the movie rights to Michelle Yeoh,” he said at the Cooler Lumpur Festival in Kuala Lumpur today.

It was reported that Yeoh will team up with Ivanhoe Pictures, which produced box-office smash Crazy Rich Asians, to produce the movie, based on the book detailing the massive 1Malaysia Development Bhd scandal.

On the Perak-born actress’ political leanings – Yeoh had backed former prime minister Najib Razak and the previous Barisan Nasional government – Wright said: “If she had done something illegal, then yes, we should be worried, but there is no reason not to trust her.

“Many people supported BN in 2013, including the current prime minister, Dr Mahathir Mohamad.”

Responding to criticism that Billion Dollar Whale was written in a way aimed at milking the 1MDB scandal for profit, Wright said he set out to pen a story worth telling.

He added that Yeoh is doing the film for similar reasons.

“Nobody reads paper trails, like the Panama Papers, so we had to make a narrative of the story, and the same can be said about the movie.

“I did not write the book to save Malaysia. Rather, it was newsworthy and true, so we had to show it to the public.

“This was the only motivation to go through hundreds of sources, and three years’ worth of hard work.”

Wall Street Journal reporters Wright and Bradley Hope wrote Billion Dollar Whale, which was released in Malaysia last month to overwhelming response.

On September 28, Ivanhoe announced that it has acquired the film rights to the book, and will co-produce it with Yeoh. – October 7, 2018.