Blackpink Contract Renewal Talks With YG Entertainment Continue, but May Be Approaching a Conclusion

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They're the favourites to lift the Glitterball trophy and Ellie Leach and Vtio Coppola's 'winning combination' has been spotted. The Strictly Come Dancing pair will be back in the ballroom on Saturday night (December 9) as the competition reaches the semi-final stage.

Lee Pace is celebrating his show getting renewed with a new shirtless video!

Andy Cohen is getting Julia Roberts to spill all the tea!

EXCLUSIVE: While the industry is starting to wind down ahead of the holiday break, a juicy package could liven things up before the new year. Deadline is hearing that Olivia Wilde is attached to direct Naughty, a Christmas comedy that has LuckyChap on as producers.

EXCLUSIVE: Following a competitive auction, Legendary Television has snapped up rights to the hugely popular ‘romantasy’ novel Assistant to the Villain for development as a series.

UPDATED, 8:15 AM: Amid all the turmoil in the MCU of late, Disney now has one less battle to fight.

Following their work together on David O. Russell’s 2013 Best Picture-nominated crime comedy American Hustle, Bradley Cooper and Christian Bale are in talks to reteam on Best of Enemies, a new film based on the book Best of Enemies: The Last Great Spy Story of the Cold War by Eric Dezenhall and Gus Russo.

Ok, you’ve hopefully read our 100 Most Anticipated Films of 2024 list, and perhaps you may have been disappointed at the lack of potentially so many blockbusters, horrors, and mainstream spectacles. Don’t worry; we like some of that stuff, can enjoy it, and can be thrilled by it, too.

EXCLUSIVE: A true-crime series exploring a possible serial killer in the Portland area is in the works.

New Regency‘s Jeff Nichols movie The Bikeriders, which we were told Focus Features took over from Disney, has set a release date of June 21, 2024.

EXCLUSIVE: Former Mosaic manager Cullen Conly has joined Anonymous Content’s literary department as a manager and producer, based out of the company’s New York office. 

The independent police watchdog is investigating the circumstances leading up to the death of a 'beautiful' and 'caring' young woman in Trafford, they confirmed. Xena Georgiou, 20, was driving a BMW which collided with a row of parked cars in Sale, Trafford, following a 'short' police pursuit last Sunday night.

An Italian grandmother, who has lived in the UK for more than 40 years, says she has been ordered to leave the UK after an email from the Home Office went straight to her junk inbox.

Dimitar Berbatov says Rasmus Hojlund will break his Premier League duck by playing smarter rather than harder, although acknowledged that this ploy may rub off the wrong way on some Manchester United fans.

A teenage girl accused of Brianna Ghey's murder admitted having 'dark fantasies', but denied she wanted to turn 'fantasy into reality'. Girl X gave evidence in her defence for the first time, at the end of the second week of the trial at Manchester Crown Court.

A teen who was 'really into PE, sports, and athletics' has spoken of her 'agony' after a debilitating condition saw her spine grow 48 DEGREES off-centre.

Gemma Atkinson is known for keeping it real on social media and her latest update was no different as she appeared to be counting down the days until her fiancee Gorka Marquez returned home.

Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan and lead star Cole Hauser reportedly got into a fight the second time they met.Sheridan recently filed a lawsuit against the actors’ coffee company over “trademark infringement”, but according to reports, this isn’t the first time the pair have had their differences.In a recently resurfaced Men’s Journal interview from April 2022, Hauser opened up about the alledged fight with Sheridan.Before sharing the revelation with the outlet, Hauser said that he’d been involved in his fair share of bar fights.“Does a bear shit in the woods?” he said, laughing. “I’ve probably been in one on every continent.”The actor then explained: “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with fighting.

Lana Del Rey has been announced as the headliner for a special one-off show at next year’s Rock En Seine.The one-off show will take place on Wednesday, August 21, the day before the Rock En Seine 2024 festival is set to take place. The special concert will mark Del Rey’s only performance in France for the entirety of summer 2024.

Johnny Depp and Nick Cave are among those who have paid tribute to the late Shane MacGowan during his funeral in Ireland.The Irish singer-songwriter and former Pogues frontman died from pneumonia in hospital, aged 65, on November 30. It came after he had been diagnosed with encephalitis and had been in ill health.Now, to celebrate the life and memory of the musician, fans lined the streets of Dublin for his funeral today (December 8), and famous faces from the entertainment world have arrived at the service.Nick Cave performs 'A Rainy Night in Soho' at the funeral of Shane MacGowan in Nenagh, Co Tipperary, this afternoon.

Pine Hearts nears launch, NME sat down with Scottish developer Hyper Luminal Games to discuss the game’s accessibility support, themes of loss, and “Souls-like level design”.An isometric adventure game set in Pine Hearts Caravan Park, Pine Hearts follows protagonist Tyke as they fill out their hillwalking journal, solve puzzles, and reminisce on their childhood memories of the area.Speaking to NME, creative director Rob Madden shared that Pine Hearts was made following the loss of his father, who passed away from cancer in 2019.“I wanted to make a game about that experience, but it was important that the game told this story in a positive and hopeful way, and didn’t dwell too long on the actual component of loss,” shared Madden. “I think we’ve managed to strike a nice balance between those things in the game.”Besides Madden’s own experiences, Pine Hearts also draws on the likes of The Legend Of Zelda and FromSoftware‘s Dark Souls series for inspiration – the former for its puzzles, the latter for their interconnected areas and levels.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief China’s nationwide annual box office passed the symbolic $7 billion and RMB 50 billion marks in recent days, confirming a decent, but still incomplete recovery of the theatrical cinema industry. According to consultancy Artisan Gateway, the running box office total to Nov. 26 was $7.15 billion.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival drifted to a conclusion in midweek, with project awards presented on Wednesday, followed by Thursday’s festival closing events. These involved a screening of portmanteau film “Tales of Taipei” followed by a sit-down dinner-cum-ceremony with a breezy pair of speeches and no prizes. The film fortnight then sprang to life again on Saturday evening when the 60th edition of the Golden Horse Film Awards represented a new climax.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Cannes’ Directors Fortnight section has joined forces with The Philippines for the latest edition of its Directors Factory professional training program. Operating since 2013, when it kicked off in Taiwan, the Directors’ Factory works with a new partner country each year to mentor eight budding filmmakers who are preparing ambitious first or second feature projects that they will make in pairs. The four resulting co-written and co-directed short films will be screened as part of the Directors’ Fortnight (aka Quinzaine des Cineastes) in May. Four pairs were selected in Manila in October: Eve Baswel (Philippines) and Gogularaajan Rajendran (Malaysia); Maria Estela Paiso (Philippines) and Ashok Vish (India); Arvin Belarmino (Philippines) and Lomorpich Rithy (aka YoKi) (Cambodia); Don Josephus Raphael Eblahan (Philippines) and Tan Siyou (Singapore). They have now begun writing their screenplays and are expected to shoot their films March in Dapitan, a city in The Philippines’ Zamboanga Peninsula, known for its many shrines and as the place of exile of Philippines’ national hero, Jose Rizal. These days it is a hub for domestic and international tourism. Post-production of the four titles will then be hosted in Quezon City, which seeks to become the new film capital of the Philippines and where many of the country’s post-production houses are already based. The program is operated and co-produced by Epicmedia Productions of The Philippines and Dominique Welinski, founder and curator of DW (France).

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief iQiyi, the NASDAQ-listed Chinese streaming firm, confirmed its recent swing from loss to profitability with a July-September quarter that saw revenue and profits growth even as subscription numbers dipped fractionally. Net income attributable to iQIYI was RMB476 million ($65.2 million), compared to a net loss of RMB396 million in the same period in 2022, the company said in a filing on Tuesday. Using the company’s preferred non-GAAP statement of its accounts, net income was RMB622 million ($85.3 million), compared to non-GAAP net profits of RMB187 million in the same period last year. Total revenues in the period were RMB8.0 billion ($1.1 billion), a 7% year over year increase. Within that figure, subscription revenue was RMB5.0 billion ($687 million), up 19% year over year.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Leading Japanese indie film company Gaga Corporation has seen a controlling share stake sold to Genda Inc., a fast-moving entertainment conglomerate with its roots in arcade gaming. Genda is buying the 78% share holding owned by Gaga chairman Tom Yoda’s T.Y. Limited company.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Local crime drama film “Last Suspect” returned to the top spot at the mainland China box office over the latest weekend, as “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” opened quietly in third place. Narrowly beaten last week by “The Marvels,” “Last Suspect” climbed one place while “The Marvels” fell out of the top five in China. In its third weekend of release, “Last Suspect” recorded $10.1 million (RMB76 million), according to data from consultancy Artisan Gateway.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Alibaba, China’s e-commerce and entertainment giant, revealed a 9% revenue improvement and a return to profits in the three months to the end of September, the second quarter of its financial year. The group, which is in the process of breaking itself up into six separate businesses, had revenue of RMB225 billion ($30.8 billion). Net income of RMB26.7 billion ($3.66 billion) compared with a net loss of RMB22.5 billion in the same period last year.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Concrete Utopia,” South Korea’s Oscar contender, was Wednesday named best film at the country’s annual Grand Bell Awards. It also won prizes for best actor, best supporting actress, art direction, sound mixing and visual effects.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Modest increases in its Chinese and international games sectors helped Chinese tech giant Tencent achieve respectable results for the three months from July to September, the third quarter of its financial year. Group revenues weighed in at RMB154 billion ($21.5 billion), an increase of 10% year on year and 4% quarter on quarter. Some analysts interpreted that as below their forecasts, but others saw it as beating China’s currently sluggish economy. Profit for the period was RMB36.8 billion ($5.14 billion), which was down 5% year on year, but a 38% improvement on the group’s second quarter. Moreover, Tencent claims that a non-IFRS treatment of its accounts better reflects core earnings.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Specialty distributor Ariztical Entertainment has acquired the North American rights to New Zealand-set wholesome gay love story ‘Mysterious Ways.’ Ariztical plans a multi-platform digital release in 2024. Written and directed by New Zealand’s Paul Oremland, the film follows a media storm that threatens the marriage between a Vicar, portrayed by Richard Short (“The Tragedy of Macbeth”) and his Samoan boyfriend, portrayed by Nick Afoa (“The Lion King”), after they announce their intentions to have a traditional wedding in the church.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Growing streaming subscriptions lifted the bottom line at Tencent Music Entertainment, in the third quarter of its financial year, despite a top line decrease in revenues. Net profits hit $173 million (RMB1.26 billion), representing a 16% year-over-year increase. Tencent Music, which is a major stakeholder in both Spotify and Universal Music Group, reported figures on Tuesday, for the three months from July to end September 2023.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Modhaus, a K-pop platform embracing blockchain for fan engagement, has successfully raised over $8 million in a Series A funding round. The investment was led by Sfermion, a U.S. venture capital firm with expertise in metaverse and Web3 technologies.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Australian and New Zealand indie distributor Umbrella Entertainment will launch Brollie, a free of charge, ad-supported streaming service later this month. It will lean on Umbrella’s library of classic content and claims to be the first free streaming platform specializing in Australian film and TV content.Brollie will launch on Nov. 23 with over 300 titles including: “Babadook” (dir.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “The Marvels” narrowly missed the top spot at the mainland China box office on its opening weekend. And its debut was far short of its blockbuster predecessor. Data from consultancy firm Artisan Gateway shows “The Marvels” earning RMB82.7 million or $11.5 million between Friday and Sunday in Chinese cinemas. Of that some $2 million or 17%, was earned in Imax theaters. The film’s debut weekend haul was a fraction below the RMB84.2 million ($11.7 million) earned by Chinese film “Last Suspect” in its second weekend of release.