‘Chopin’ Asian American Drama Film Wraps Production on High Note (EXCLUSIVE)

Chrissy Teigen was by John Legend‘s side on Saturday night (July 22) as he arrived at a pop-up event for his new skincare brand Loved01 in Westfield Century City Mall in Los Angeles.

Bruno Fernandes believes Manchester United youngster Kobbie Mainoo has a bright future ahead of him at Old Trafford.

Alessandra Ambrosio is soaking up the sun during a vacation to Ibiza, Spain.

Will.i.am is spilling so much tea on Britney Spears in an interview with Variety.

The Armed have shared a brand new song and video – watch ‘Everything’s Glitter’ below.The track is the second preview of the band’s forthcoming album ‘Perfect Saviors’. Set for release on August 25 via Sargent House, the album features Julien Baker and more, while Iggy Pop appears as God in the video for first single ‘Sport Of Form’.Of ‘Everything’s Glitter, vocalist and co-producer Tony Wolski said: “This track uses Bowie’s famed first US appearance in 1971 for a 3-week press tour as a framing device to consider the razor’s edge between icon and clown.“It’s funny how any genius must ultimately be willing to look like a complete fool.

The 1975 have announced the cancellation of shows in Jakarta, Indonesia and Taipei, Taiwan after having their headlining set at Malaysia’s Good Vibes Festival cut short and being banned from the country earlier this week.Indonesia’s We The Fest announced today (July 23) that The 1975, who were set to headline the third day of the festival tonight, have cancelled their remaining shows in Asia “due to current circumstances”.“The band never take the decision to cancel a show lightly and had been eagerly looking forward to playing for fans in Jakarta and Taipei but unfortunately, due to current circumstances, it is impossible to proceed with the scheduled shows,” the band said, per a statement shared by We The Fest.A post shared by WE THE FEST (@we.the.fest)We The Fest has also announced that ASAP Ferg has been added to the festival’s line-up today, though it is currently unclear if he will be taking over as a headlining act.Live Nation Taiwan shared a similar statement, adding that refund information will be shared on Monday (July 24).pic.twitter.com/Rrd6c2vW73— Live Nation Taiwan (@LiveNationTW) July 23, 2023The 1975’s cancellation of their Indonesia and Taiwan shows comes after frontman Matty Healy criticised Malaysia’s government while performing at the country’s Good Vibes Festival on Friday night (July 21). Healy also kissed bassist Ross MacDonald onstage, before announcing just seven songs into their set that they had been banned from Malaysia and had to leave.“I made a mistake.

Oppenheimer and Barbie have moviegoers back in theaters but those attending a showing at AMC Burbank 16 in California were evacuated from the establishment following a fire.

Kim Kardashian is so much richer after the good news about her shapewear brand Skims.

Selena Gomez opened up about what was on her gift list as she celebrates her 31st birthday.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Screen Producers Australia, an Australian guild, moved quickly on Friday to explain that wholly local film and TV productions, even if they involve Screen Actors Guild members, can continue to roll despite the SAG-AFTRA strike notice and order, which has been in place since midnight Pacific time. The English-speaking country has an oversize production and post-production sector, with much of it set up to service inbound foreign productions, sometimes known as “runaway productions.” Strike orders “will apply to some scripted TV and feature films produced in Australia. SPA anticipates that a limited number of scripted ‘offshore’ (i.e. non-Australian) productions will be affected by the strike, with cast and crew stood down while the strike continues,” the SPA notice says.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Specialty distributor, Trinity CineAsia is releasing China’s summer blockbuster “Lost in the Stars” in the U.K and Ireland on some 30 screens from Friday. “I was fortunate to watch the film when it opened in China and once I saw it I just knew we had to have it,” said Cedric Behrel “‘Lost In The Stars’ is a very clever, uncanny thrill of a ride that harks back to classic Hitchcock and any noteworthy thriller since – the master himself had in fact once optioned the rights to the same story. We organized the fastest turnaround premiere known to man and we’ve been delighted by the reactions to the early previews. It epitomizes the best of what new Chinese cinema can bring to audiences.”

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Major Japanese studio Toho Co. has announced “Godzilla Minus One” as the title of the latest instalment in its “Godzilla” film franchise. The film will premiere in Japanese theaters on Nov. 4. A U.S. release is set a few weeks later, on Dec. 1. The company revealed an understated poster and a short but punchy teaser trailer. It suggests that an already-devastated postwar Japan faces a new threat in the form of Godzilla, an enormous, mutated kaiju. Directed by sci-fi and fantasy specialist Yamazaki Takashi, the picture is the first Japanese-produced “Godzilla” movie since 2016’s “Shin Godzilla.” The previous picture topped the Japanese box office, earning JPY25 billion ($181 million at current exchange rates).

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Sakamoto Ryuichi, the Japanese film composer and music supervisor who died in March, has been posthumously named as the recipient of the Jecheon Film Music Award at the 19th Jecheon International Music & Film Festival (Aug. 10-15). Sakamoto won Academy Awards and Golden Globes for his score for “The Last Emperor” and has other credits including “The Sheltering Sky,” “Railroad Man,” “The Revenant,” “Call Me By Your Name” and “The Fortress.”Abrai Joji from Commons the music label established jointly with Sakamoto, and Yutaka Toyama from Promax, which had produced Sakamoto’s concerts since 1986, will visit the festival. Additionally, a tribute concert will be held on Aug. 12 at the Jecheon Stadium.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” has been allowed a commercial release in the Philippines, following a review by the country’s film censors. However, the scene that shows a controversial map may have to be blurred. The film was last week banned in Vietnam over its inclusion of a scene with a map alleged to show the ‘nine dash line’ by which China lays claim to nearly all of the South China Sea as its own territory. Vietnam says that China’s claims violate its sovereignty and that films and TV shows must not show the illegal map. On Monday, Vietnam banned Chinese series “Flight to You” for showing the map in multiple episodes.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Korean star Park Eun-bin is confirmed to lead Netflix’s upcoming series “Castaway Diva,” set to premiere in late 2023. Park previously starred in “Extraordinary Attorney Woo,” the hit series that featured in Netflix’s non-English global top ten chart for 21 weeks and reached the top ten titles in 57 countries. In the new series, Park brings to life the character of Seo Mok-ha, an aspiring singer turned castaway who, after being stranded on a deserted island for 15 years, commences her journey to become a diva. Joining her are renowned actors Kim Hyo-jin, Chae Jong-hyeop, Cha Hak-yeon, and Kim Joo-hun. Kim Hyo-jin portrays a once-popular singer who is the idol of Seo and who seeks a new lease of life after encountering her fan from the island.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief ITN Distribution has picked up distribution rights in North and Latin America for the live action fantasy epic, “Fight For Freedom” from Incredible Film. The completed film, which is also available as a 5×30 mins. mini-series, is a live action fantasy epic about Friesland’s greatest hero known as Grutte Pier. Fabled Frisian freedom fighter, Peer Gerlofs Donia, is a gentle giant who turns into a blood-thirsty, revenge-driven killer when his family is brutally murdered. His quest for revenge forges him into a beacon for his people as he becomes their leader in a fight for independence. The film is directed by Steven de Jong.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Melbourne International Film Festival has unveiled the full lineup for its 2023 edition, with “Shayda,” by Australian-Iranian director Noora Niasari, set as the opening title. The festival will run as a live event August 3-20, at venues around the city and its suburbs, and online Aug 18 – 27. The hybrid format was developed during the COVID pandemic and MIFF found it useful as a tool to reach further away audiences and wider demographics than a strictly in-theater edition. The ‘Bright Horizons’ competition section open to films by first- or second-time feature directors contains an 11-title mix of new and recently-debuted works.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Smash hit Japanese animation feature “The First Slam Dunk” is set to be the first film theatrically released by newly-launched Australian distribution and New Zealand licensing firm Sugoi Co. The company is headed by Tim Anderson, founder and former CEO of Madman Entertainment, the Australian indie with a strong leaning for Japanese content, and Sylvester “Sly” Ip. The pair made an announcement on Twitter and conducted a soft launch at the recent Anime Expo in Los Angeles. “The First Slam Dunk. Coming soon to cinemas across Australia. Follow us for full release and ticket info,” said Sugoi Co on Twitter.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Global streaming platform Netflix has removed the Chinese-produced drama series “Flight to You” from its service in Vietnam. The Vietnamese government banned the series on similar grounds to its objection to the upcoming Warner Bros. film “Barbie.” “As a result of the Vietnamese regulator banning elements of the series, we have removed ‘Flight to You’ from Netflix in Vietnam. It remains available on our service in other markets,” a Netflix spokesperson told Variety in an emailed statement. Both “Barbie” and “Flight to You” are understood to have included scenes that show a map of the South China Sea that depicts the “nine dash line” that represents China’s territorial claim to almost all of the area. Vietnam says that use of the map violates its sovereignty and that it will not tolerate the “nine dash line” in film and TV.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Disney+ has set an Aug. 9 upload date for Korean series “Moving” from webtoon pioneer Kang Full. The previously announced title forms part of a 20-component slate of films and series from East Asia that will release on the Disney-backed streaming platform in the second half of 2023 and through 2024.Also from Korea is “The Worst of Evil,” a detective series in which a rural policemen is brought to the big city to bring down a DJ dealing in a potent new drug. It stars Ji Changwook, “Squid Game” actor Wi Hajun and Lim Semi. Highlights from Japan include “Tokyo Revengers: Tenjiku Arc,” the latest instalments of a popular anime franchise, and the previously announced “Dragons of Wonderhatch,” a hybrid story set in both the “real world” and an anime land where dragons and humans coexist. The multi-dimensional story stars Nakajima Sena, Okudaira Daiken and Mackenyu.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Pixar animation film “Elemental” expanded further at the South Korean box office in its fourth weekend of release, giving the film its third weekend triumph in four weeks of release. “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” took third place from preview screening ahead of its official release on Wednesday. “Elemental” earned $6.11 million between Friday and Sunday, according to data from Kobis, the box office tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic). That represented a 14% increase on its previous weekend performance and was the best of its four weekends so far. It also increased its market share to 49%, also its strongest market position, despite only adding a handful of additional screens.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Local titles dominated at the mainland Chinese cinema box office over the latest weekend. “Never Say Never” overtook the previous sensation “Lost in the Stars” to lead another strong summer session. “Never Say Never” (aka “Octagonal”) released officially on Thursday, ahead of China’s more normal Friday system. It earned $55.3 million (RMB384 million) between Friday and Sunday, according to verified data from consultancy Artisan Gateway. To that can be added some $9.6 million from Thursday and over $60 million previews and the film finished Sunday with a cumulative of $121 million. Co-written and directed by actor Wang Baoqiang (“Lost in Thailand,” “Detective Chinatown”), the film tells a tale of a man who tries to teach orphans about martial arts. But he is publicly shamed after his efforts are misinterpreted.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Toho International, an offshoot of the storied Japanese film and TV giant Toho, is to launch twin e-commerce sites serving the growing legion of North American fans of Japanese pop culture. One platform is specific to the Godzilla brand. The other, iiZO, will cater to a wider range of anime fans who will be served with original Japanese merchandize. The moves are being headed by Kristin Parcell GM at Toho International, and her U.S.-based team who joined the firm from Crunchyroll at the end of last year. They foresee the twin initiatives as a business with $100 million of revenue within a few years. Their in-house operation comprises anime and “Godzilla” brand experts, and also includes specialist in merchandizing, buying and fashion. The sites go live at unspecified dates this summer.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The great Choi Min-sik was on hand to take early headlines at the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BiFan). Described somewhat blandly as “a highly reliable performer” by the Korean Film Council (KOFIC), Choi is not only the star of Korea’s top grossing film of all time “The Admiral: Roaring Currents,” he continues to be available for work of all different levels. He appears in no less than ten titles that played at the festival this week. The festival also does reliable — in its own way – as it plays up to its “stay strange” mantra, cooperates with other festivals of a similar fantasy leaning and sidesteps the political infighting that currently bedevil Korea’s best-known festivals.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Kino Lorber has picked up North American rights to Pham Thien An’s debut feature “Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell.” The Vietnamese drama appeared in Cannes’ Director’s Fortnight section and was winner of the Camera d’Or. The company plans a theatrical release as well as a digital and home video releases on all major platforms after the film makes multiple stops on the international film festival circuit. “The sudden death of his sister-in-law brings unexpected responsibilities to Thien (Le Phong Vu), who is reluctantly tasked with bringing his five-year-old nephew Dao to their countryside hometown. On the road, Thien is drawn into a search for his long missing older brother, haunted and spurred forward by a series of sublime dreams that reignite suppressed memories, forbidden desires, and specters of his own youth. What began as a journey home becomes a pilgrimage marked by visual splendor and mystical overtones, a quest for understanding and certainty in a Vietnam that seems unable to provide any clear answers. As Thien battles with his own existential question of what is worth living for, Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell interrogates the persistence and complexity of faith, not only in the spiritual but in the delicate beauty of earthly existence,” said Kino Lorber by way of a long synopsis.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Manta, one of the leading platforms for subscription-based digital comics, has unveiled plans to launch more than ten original cartoon series through the third quarter of 2023. The company, which is owned by Korea’s RIDI Corporation, launched in 2020 and has become the number one comics app on Google Play in certain territories including the U.S., Mexico and Spain.Webtoons are a made for mobile genre of comics, that have become yet another Asian entertainment category that is having fast-growing international success. Many webtoons offer vertical scrolling, opportunities for new creators and content that is immediately available in multiple languages.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Coco Lee, a Hong Kong-born singer and songwriter, has died at age 48. She had a career of some 30 years, which included providing the voice of the heroine Mulan in the Mandarin-language version of Disney’s “Mulan.” Lee’s sisters, Carol and Nancy Lee, said in a statement on Facebook and Instagram that Coco had attempted suicide at home on Sunday. She was in a coma since that point and died on Wednesday at Hong Kong’s Queen Mary Hospital. “With great sadness, we are here [to] break the most devastating news: Coco had been suffering from depression for a few years, but her condition deteriorated drastically over the last few months,” the sisters said. “Although Coco sought professional help and did her best to fight depression, sadly that demon inside of her took the better of her.”

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Authorities in The Philippines are weighing a decision on whether to follow the lead taken by Vietnam and ban Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” movie. Vietnam on Monday announced that it will bar the film’s commercial release due to the movie’s depiction of a map that depicts the “nine dash line,” a disputed representation of China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea. The Philippines, like Vietnam, Brunei and Malaysia, have competing claims in the South China Sea and strongly refute China’s claim to nearly the entire maritime region. “If the invalidated 9-dash line was indeed depicted in the movie ‘Barbie,’ then it is incumbent upon the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) to ban the same as it denigrates Philippine sovereignty,” said Philippines Senator Francis Tolentino, vice chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee, according to local media reports.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Korean production and distribution company SLL is riding high on the current box office success of “The Roundup: No Way Out,” the only local film this year to sell more than 10 million tickets. In the larger TV production division, it is breathing a sigh of relief with the successes of “Doctor Cha” and “The Good Bad Mother,” shows which have achieved huge local ratings and placed in Netflix’s Global non-English Top 10 charts. For the company, which rebranded last year from JTBC Studio, and which acquired U.S. producer wiip, the renewed popularity of its shows represents something of a rebound after “the underperformance of JTBC dramas in 2022.”

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Bucheon film festival’s Network of Asian Fantastic Films project market wrapped up three days of meetings and pitching sessions on Monday with a prize ceremony that disbursed cash, post-production support and invitations to related genre film events. “The Passport,” a Tamil- and English-language Malaysian project about an Indian rockstar who is forced to confront cultural expectations and her interactions with an imaginary friend, won the headline Bucheon Award for director Ananth Subramanian and producer Bel Choo Mun. It was both a popular choice among other NAFF participants and the unanimous decision of the jury. The numerical winner was “Please Bear With Me,” which saw director Gabriela Serrano and producer Gale Osorio from the Philippines collect three prizes. The project is a sci-fi and social issues mash-up about a call center operative who gets paid in dream-time and uses it to relive her glory days as a pop star. A clearly-surprised Serrano used her second visit to the stage to explain the film’s origins as a deep frustration with seeing Filipina women stuck at the bottom of society and yet apologizing for their ambitions.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Authorities in Vietnam have banned commercial screenings of Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie.” The Warner Bros. film starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, one of the most anticipated movies of the summer, was set to have been released in the country on July 21. The film contains a scene that depicts a map with the “nine dash line,” a representation of China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea, which Vietnam says violates its sovereignty. Vi Kien Thanh, director general of the Vietnam Cinema Department under the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism, said on Monday that the ban was decided by the National Film Evaluation Council.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Korean tech firm CJ 4DPLEX has struck a deal with Thailand’s Major Cineplex to add two ScreenX locations in Cambodia and Thailand. One will be located at the AEON Mall Mean Chey, have almost 500 seats and have a 75-foot-wide central screen, making it the largest ScreenX auditorium in Southeast Asia. The other will be at Bangkok’s ICONSiam Mall location, debuting on July 27. ScreenX is a multi-projection system with an immersive 270-degree field of view. That creates a virtual reality-like setting with cinema quality resolution. Major’s first ScreenX launched in 2022 at its Siam Paragon location in central Bangkok.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Production is now under way on “The Elephant Odyssey,” a major wildlife documentary film that will release in Imax theaters next year. The film, directed by Alice Gu, chronicles the highly unusual trek by a herd of elephants in China that began in early 2020. As the group diverted from their usual habitat and marched over 1,000 km (600 miles) across remote Yunnan Province they attracted global attention, including live-streamed drone footage. They raided grain stores, indulged in impromptu village feasts and messy mud fights, and even gave birth while on the road. Reasons for the herd’s 18-month trek are unclear, with wildlife experts variously pointing to climate change and the failure of conservation efforts.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Chinese mystery drama “Lost in the Stars” expanded in its second week on release and gave China its third biggest box office weekend of the year. The film earned $117 million, according to data from consultancy Artisan Gateway. That was significantly up from its opening weekend of $70.7 million (RMB502 million) a week earlier and enough to make it the second biggest film on the planet, behind “Indiana Jones,” according to Comscore. After two weekends on release, it has accumulated $320 million. “Lost in the Stars” is a Chinese adaptation of a 1990 Russian movie “A Trap for the Lonely Man,” which itself was adapted from a Robert Thomas stage play. It sees a woman disappear while on an overseas trip with her husband. Just as mysteriously, she reappears at the moment that the search for her is running out of steam. But the man refuses to accept that she is the same woman and believes that she is an imposter.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Pixar animation film “Elemental” expanded at the South Korean box office in its third weekend of release and easily bested new release title “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.” “Elemental” earned $5.27 million between Friday and Sunday, according to data from Kobis, the box office tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic). That represented a 38% increase on its previous weekend performance and was the best of its three weekends so far. It also increased its market share to 39%, also its strongest market position, despite only adding a handful of additional screens. After 19 days on release, “Elemental” has amassed $16.9 million from 2.25 million spectators.