Some 18 books, manga and webtoons hailing from outside Korea have been added to the Busan International Film Festival’s Busan Story Market. They join 29 previously announced pieces of IP from Korea and 30 Asian film projects selected for the Asian Project Market. The overseas IP selections include ten from Taiwan spanning the drama and […]

“Mojo,” a rom-com film whose cast of oddball characters includes a cow who has gone viral, has been set as the first feature to emerge from Sympatico, a U.K.-Malaysia coproduction venture that launched last year. The film is to be directed by Min Lim, who also heads operations at Sympatico. She already has significant writing, […]

Daisy Ridley, star of the “Star Wars” sequel trilogy, is a different kind of vigilante in Zak Hilditch’s upcoming horror-survival-thriller “We Bury the Dead.” The film, which will have its world premiere shortly and hold a special preview event at Australia’s Adelaide Film Festival in November, unveiled a first look at Ridley in the role […]

When was the last time a Chinese-developed video game created a global stir as boisterous as the launch of “Black Myth: Wukong”? The noise is mostly plaudits for the quality of the game’s action, design and playability, which has been amplified by Chinese state media. But that has been dampened somewhat by clumsy censorship and […]

Sony Music Entertainment Korea has signed a global distribution deal with Attrakt Entertainment, a fast-rising K-pop management company. They aim to expand the global reach of Fifty Fifty, a girl group that recently had to be rebuilt after most of its members quit. SMEK said that it will: “spearhead the worldwide distribution of Fifty Fifty’s […]

China-based video streaming company iQiyi recorded a 5% decrease in revenue in the second quarter and an 80% plunge in net profits. The firm said Thursday that revenues in the April to June period came in at RMB7.45 billion ($1.04 billion at current rates of exchange), down year-on-year and also 6% lower than the first […]

“A Pale View of Hills,” the debut novel of Nobel Prize-winning author Kazuo Ishiguro, is being adapted as a feature film. The picture is now in production and being directed by Japan’s Ishikawa Kei. The film is presented by U-Next, Japan’s leading local streaming company. Production is by Bunbuku in association with Number 9 Films, […]

PIRATE PODCAST Lucy Liu and Singer Studios are expanding their “Pirate Queen” media universe into graphic novels and a podcast. The franchise is built around a retelling of the stories about real life character Cheng Shih, who was a powerful female pirate in the South China Sea at the beginning of the 18th century. The […]

The “police station” built in a few days from an old retail unit in Surawong, central Bangkok, is so realistic from the outside that several pedestrians stop and stare, perhaps wondering if this is the place they should come to report some petty crime in the adjacent Patpong red light district. Inside, the building’s temporary […]

Japanese director Tanigaki Kenji has completed production in Bangkok, Thailand, on his upcoming film “The Furious,” intended as an elite-level Asian martial arts actioner. Written by Mak Tin Shu, the film follows a simple tradesman (portrayed by mainland Chinese star Xie Miao) who fights his way through a complex web of criminals and evil agents […]

“Alien: Romulus” claimed a second weekend victory at the South Korean theatrical box office in another quiet session that may signal the end of the summer season. The horror-action franchise film collected $2.70 million between Friday and Sunday, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic). After 12 […]

“Alien: Romulus” has become Hollywood’s second biggest film of the year at the mainland China box office, following a strong second weekend hold. The film picked up RMB140 million ($19.7 million) between Friday and Sunday in China, according to data from consultancy firm Artisan Gateway. That compares favorably with its $26.2 million opening weekend and […]

Oddball Canadian comedy, “Universal Language” was named the winner of the Bright Horizons Award on Saturday at the Melbourne International Film Festival. Other top prizes went to went to Latvian director Gints Zibalodis’ animated ecological fantasy, “Flow” and to Jaydon Martin, creator of docu-fiction hybrid “Flathead.” “It has been such a thrill to see the […]

Michael Brooks has been appointed GM for Australia and New Zealand at Warner Bros. Discovery. In addition to his existing role as MD, Warner Bros. International Television Production Australia, Brooks will assume the expanded role immediately, reporting to James Gibbons and Ronald Goes, president, WBITVP. Brooks has been with the company since 2016, and prior […]

KNOCK-OUT CAST FOR ‘KNOCK-OFF’ Kim Soohyun, star of “My Love from The Star,” “It’s Okay to Not Be Okay” and “Queen of Tears,” will team up with Cho Boah (“Tale of the Nine Tailed,” “Military Prosecutor Doberman”), in Korean crime series “Knock-Off,” which Disney has set for a 2025 release. The show dives into the […]

The latest feature films by established Asian directors including Brillante Mendoza, Tom Lin and Rima Das have been selected for the Jiseok competition section of the Busan International Film Festival. The festival also unveiled the lineup for its New Currents competition, which is reserved for less experienced filmmakers and has acted as an important platform […]

Korean thriller film “A Girl With Closed Eyes,” which will have a market launch at the Toronto International Film Festival, before world premiering in October’s Busan festival, has secured a world sales representative in Finecut. The company is also representing “By the Stream,” the latest project by Korean auteur Hong Sangsoo, which premiered in Locarno […]

“MA – Cry of Silence,” a topical drama film from Myanmar, which will debut in the Busan festival’s New Currents main competition, has been picked up by Franco-Japanese sales firm Alpha Violet. With Myanmar’s civil war now in its third year, the film tracks Mi-Thet, a young Burmese woman employed in a garment factory in […]

PARAMOUNT TO GET KICK FROM MEN’S AND WOMEN’S SOCCER Paramount Australia and Football Australia have struck a multi-year and multi-platform agreement to broadcast an extended package of soccer games played by the men’s national team (Socceroos) and the women’s national team (Matildas). The deal, which spans terrestrial broadcaster Network 10 and streamer Paramount+ in Australia, […]