Director Jon M. Chu Wants His New Memoir “Viewfinder” to Inspire Young Filmmakers: 'Just Keep Going' (Exclusive)

"It's not a destination – your dreams. It's a work in process," the Hollywood director says

Jon M. Chu wrote the book he wishes he had when he was younger. 

The filmmaker documents his bumpy journey to Hollywood in his new memoir Viewfinder, which hits shelves on July 23. The memoir, co-written by Jeremy McCarter, first came to be when the two were working on a behind-the-scenes book for In the Heights.

"We were talking about my immigrated family upbringing, and Silicon Valley and technology, and where we're headed," Chu says. "I was there, on the frontline, for so much technology changes. He thought it was a really unique perspective. And so we just kept talking and it became, like, my therapy session."

"Eventually I was like, there are so many creators out there that need some sort of manual to know what this could look like," he continues. "And it felt like I had something to offer to them, even though I was so subconscious and insecure about it."

In the book, Chu writes about being a first-generation Chinese American in California and witnessing the boom of technological advances from behind the counter at his parents' Los Altos Chinese restaurant Chef Chu’s; creating a short film in college that garnered the attention of Steven Spielberg and directing some of the biggest stars in an array of passion projects after experiencing a rollercoaster of highs and lows in the industry.

It starts with a quote from the 1939 classic film The Wizard of Oz, which sees Glinda telling a frightened Dorothy to "just follow the yellow brick road" until she meets the titular wizard who can grant her a wish.

In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE, Chu says that the quote has personally weighed on him for many years — even before he was tapped to direct the movie adaptation of Wicked — and that's why it landed a key spot in his book.

"It felt like, as I'm growing up, that the yellow brick road becomes more and more false, and that maybe there isn't a wizard at the end of that cutoff, that maybe when we're at the end of the path, we actually have to do it ourselves and that we have to build our own path," he says.

The director also recalls another passage from the famed story, in which Dorothy encourages her new friends, "If we walk far enough, we shall sometime come to some place, I am sure." That sentiment, he says, is the message he wants to rely through his own writing.

"It's not a destination — your dreams. It's a work in process. And I hope people understand that," he explains. "Those people who are chasing their biggest dreams, just keep walking, because it's gonna be hard. It's never gonna be easy. You just keep walking. You just keep going."

From an outside perspective, it may seem like Chu, who's become known for such major studio movies as Now You See Me 2, Crazy Rich Asians, In the Heights and the November adaptation of Wicked, rose suddenly to stardom.

But in fact, his breakthrough in the industry wasn’t cut and dry. He poured his heart into a major project at Sony Pictures that saw him making a remake of Bye Bye Birdie that got scrapped during the development stage. A series of other projects met similar fates until he finally made his feature directorial debut with the 2008 sequel to Step Up — which he had reservations about, at the time.

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While writing the book, Chu faced difficulties in multiple parts of his career. His latest movie was dropped on a streaming platform instead of a theatrical debut due to the COVID-19 pandemic and he initially had to turn down directing Wicked because he was already working on another project.

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But then, the Omicron variant hit and he was unable to move his family to London for the project because his wife was pregnant. "So I had to step off of that project, which gave room for Wicked. Luckily, they hadn't moved on," he explains.

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"So, the whole time we're writing a book, he [McCarter] was hearing me being torn up about not being able to do Wicked for a moment or two, and then questioning whether I should do Wicked after In the Heights and Crazy Rich Asians," Chu says.

"Like, how can we make it relevant and positive as we can. Could I find the most personal connection? Other than, obviously, it's a great musical," he adds. "I am a huge fan of the musical. I've always wanted to make a movie. But I was going through my new sort of pride with my own identity as a filmmaker, and so I just wanted to make sure I wasn't just doing it because it's a big project, but doing it because it had a purpose to it, as well."

"Finding Cynthia and finding Ari were two of the biggest reasons to really go ahead with it because they represented something very different for those characters," he says of the movie's stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo.

The memoir offers insight into Chu’s relationship with the musical and includes tidbits about the first time he saw the work in its pre-Broadway run in San Francisco and his conversations with composer Stephen Schwartz and producer Marc Platt about making the movie.

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Because there's little about Wicked in the book, Chu does ponder whether he's got another book in him. "We'll have to see. You know, every day on Wicked, I wrote down a random lesson I learned. Day one, day two, day three, all the way to 160-something," he says. "And I don't have any necessary intention to make it into a book, but I have a lot of personal photos from that time. I was the only one who was allowed to have a camera there, other than our official photographer. So I have a lot of personal things. You never know ... I know there's a lot more stories to tell.” 

But this book will always be special, and not just because it's his first.

"This is the [book] that I wish I had when I was young," Chu adds, "I hope that it encourages people to keep going, because I think we need hope out there."

Viewfinder is available for purchase now, wherever books are sold.

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