Hwang adapted and executive produced the film version of "M. Butterfly" (1993), which was directed by David Cronenberg and starred Jeremy Irons and John Lone. Perhaps it was a tribute to the fantastic spectacle of the original, as well as stories of how the script was softened, that audiences were not as interested in the film version as they were in the play. Hwang continued writing for film, however, with the script of the failed "Golden Gate" (1994), an interracial love story set in 1950s San Francisco.