Indian entrepreneur Prasanna Ajarekar has launched Anashwar Media and Entertainment, marking the company’s debut with director Nikhil Mahajan’s “Taxi Driver” at the ongoing Film Bazaar project market. The film follows a taxi driver and a thief whose lives intersect during one fateful night, revealing an unexpected connection from their past. Production is set to commence […]

The team behind Amazon’s cult hit sci-fi epic “The Expanse” has set a new series at Amazon MGM Studios. The project, a TV adaptation of book series “The Captive’s War,” is part of a development deal between Amazon and “The Expanse” creator’s newly launched multi-platform media company, Expanding Universe. Founded by “The Expanse” showrunner Naren […]

Female director Tribeny Rai once took on hard labor in her native Sikkim, India, in order to prove that women are not weak. But she found that even those drastic efforts did not solve the problems of patriarchy and long-standing traditions that favor male decision-making, male children and even how women view their own roles […]

Indian technology startup Vireza is developing a new mobile application that aims to revolutionize the theatrical movie-watching experience by allowing audiences to interact with films in real-time, founder Arjun Nittoor revealed at Film Bazaar. The technology, developed entirely in-house at the company’s Bengaluru R&D facility, enables moviegoers to participate in key story decisions throughout the […]

India’s National Film Development Corporation’s (NFDC) Film Bazaar market has expanded into series development and attracted robust registrations ahead of its 2024 edition, running alongside the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa. The market has selected several series projects in its co-production market, following the introduction of an OTT [streaming] award at IFFI […]

It is close to a decade since “Baahubali – The Beginning” shifted the paradigm for how a South Indian film should have been made and might normally have performed – the Telugu and Tamil-language fantasy actioner achieved nationwide distribution, broke records for international performance, supercharged the stardom of its leads and, naturally, sparked a sequel […]

Ana Tiwary’s Sydney-based production company indiVisual films – international is bringing “Home Before Night,” a cross-cultural drama with sci-fi elements, to India’s Film Bazaar’s co-production Market. “It is such a hauntingly beautiful story that mixes drama with elements of science fiction and authentically represents the experiences of migrants in Australia,” says Tiwary (“Terra Incognita”). Written […]

Former Netflix producer Dimpy Agrawal’s production banner Gubbara Entertainment has unveiled a slate of six projects at India’s Film Bazaar, including a project starring Anasuya Sengupta, who made history as the first Indian actor to win best performance at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard for “The Shameless.” Sengupta will headline short “Ma,” penned by Columbia University […]

Jour2Fête has acquired French distribution rights to Max Keegan’s “The Shepherd and the Bear” out of IDFA and is planning to release the film theatrically in 2025. “The Shepherd and the Bear” will have its world premiere as the closing night film of the 2024 Camden International Film Festival in Maine. The documentary feature had […]

“Dry Sky,” produced by Ibrahim Omar, won the Forum Award for Best Pitch Wednesday at IDFA documentary festival in Amsterdam. “Do You Love Me,” produced by Lana Y. Daher, took home the Forum Award for Best Rough Cut, and “Looking for the Mermaid” by Yara Costa won the Producers Connection Award. The DocLab Forum Award […]

Spotify and DC are bringing back the tortured soul of Batman/Bruce Wayne, voiced by actor Colman Domingo, in a second season of “Batman Unburied.” “Batman Unburied: Fallen City” is set to premiere Nov. 26 exclusively on Spotify — promising to take listeners deeper into the Dark Knight’s history. The audio streamer released the first 10-episode […]

Tucker Carlson, who went solo after losing his job at Fox News, had the No. 1 new show on Apple Podcasts this year in the U.S., according to the tech giant. On Apple Podcasts, the conservative media personality released more than 150 episodes of “The Tucker Carlson Show” with guests including Vladimir Putin, JD Vance, […]

Spooky season has come and gone, but those Halloween revelers who took in a haunted house during the season might just have boosted their immune systems by doing so, according to a new paper published in the journal Brain, Behavior, and Immunity.

As previously reported, fear is typically viewed as a negative emotion, an adverse reaction to keep us on our toes with regard to potential dangers in our environment. But human beings also tend to seek out scary movies, horror novels, or haunted houses—and not just during the Halloween season. This tendency has been dubbed "recreational fear" in the academic literature: a "mixed emotional experience of fear and enjoyment."

Co-author Mathias Clasen of Aarhus University, author of Why Horror Seduces, specializes in studying recreational fear and and co-directs the Recreational Fear Lab with cognitive scientist Marc Andersen. For instance, Clasen and his colleagues have examined the dominant personality traits of horror fans. (They tend to score high on openness to experience, also called intellect imagination.) In 2019 we reported on his investigation of two different fear-regulation strategies employed by subjects participating in a Danish haunted house: "adrenaline junkies," who lean into the fear, and "white-knucklers," who try to tamp down their fear.

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Amazon Music is bolting on a new benefit for unlimited-plan subscribers: They can now access the 1 million-plus catalog of audiobooks in the U.S. from Amazon-owned Audible. The catch? You can listen to just one book per month at a time. Starting Tuesday, Amazon Music Unlimited customers in the U.S., U.K. and Canada can listen […]

Fox has announced its midseason premiere dates, which includes the series finale of “9-1-1: Lone Star.” It was reported in September that “Lone Star” would be ending with its fifth season at Fox. Now, that season is scheduled to resume on Jan. 20 at 8 p.m. ET followed by “Rescue: Hi Surf.” “Lone Star’s” series […]

Apple TV+ has given a series order to a series adaptation of “Cape Fear,” with Javier Bardem set for one of the lead roles. Per the official logline, “A storm is coming for happily married attorneys Amanda and Steve Bowden when Max Cady (Bardem), a notorious killer from their past, gets out of prison.” The […]

UTA has signed director/producer Jesús Colmenar for representation in all areas. Colmenar is best known as the producing director on one of Netflix’s most viewed shows, “La Casa de Papel (Money Heist)”, directing the pilot as well as over 20 episodes of the Spanish-language hit. The show centers on a group of misfit con artists […]

“Carlos Vives, you’ve taken your culture and your flag with you — beyond borders and above any complexities,” Alejandro Sanz told a sea of hundreds with a teary-eyed Vives sitting in the front row. The 25th artist to be chosen as Person of the Year by the Latin Recording Academy, Vives was honored Wednesday (Nov. […]

Dinosaurs and Vietnam War jungle action are both on the agenda in the first footage from “Primitive War” released by producers Sparke Films. The survival thriller stars “Entourage” star Jeremy Piven, Tricia Helfer (“Battlestar Galactica,” “Lucifer”), Ryan Kwanten (“True Blood,” “Red Hill”) and Nick Wechsler (“Revenge,” “The Boys”). Written and directed by Luke Sparke (“Occupation Rainfall,” “Bring Him To […]