Amazon’s Erika North Talks Southeast Asia Expansion, Competition In Korea & How Streaming Is Transforming Japan’s Risk-Averse Content Biz

Manori Ravindran International Editor The David Tennant-starring “Litvinenko” has sold into AMC+ and Sundance Now in the U.S., along with a host of other buyers in 80 international markets. The drama has pre-sold ahead of its debut on ITV’s forthcoming U.K. streaming service ITVX, which launches this fall, and NENT Group’s Viaplay streaming service in the Nordics, Netherlands, Poland and Baltics. Written by George Kay (“Lupin”) and produced by Patrick Spence, ITV Studios and Tiger Aspect Productions, the drama tells the story of Alexander Litvinenko, the former Russian Federal Security Services and KGB officer, whose death from polonium poisoning in November 2006 triggered one of the most complex and dangerous investigations in the history of the Metropolitan Police.

Frank Doelger is helming a surveillance drama set that counts broadcasters ZDF, MBC and France Télévisions and streamer Hulu Japan as partners.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief While the Busan International Film Festival was busily hailing a return to normality the slump at South Korea’s commercial box office deepened dramatically over the most recent weekend. Cinemagoing nationwide was worth only $4.20 million between Friday and Sunday, the lowest weekend total since April and a time before Korean cinemas shed their COVID restrictions. The weekend’s top film “Life Is Beautiful” managed the lowest first place score of any film this year, with a weekend haul of just $777,000, according to data from Kobiz, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (KOFIC).

A new chapter in her life. Following her split from Shep Rose, Taylor Ann Green opened up about where the exes stand now — and addressed why she expected them to get back together.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief SM Entertainment, one of the leading agency groups in Korean entertainment, said Friday that it will terminate a contract with Lee Soo-man, a year early, at the end of 2022. “SM Entertainment [..] will sever ties with its chief producer Lee Soo-man at the end of this year,” Yonhap news agency reported on Friday. Lee was one of the key figures in the early discovery of Korean pop talent in the mid-1990s, developing the agency system that has hatched numerous idol groups, and has remained one of the biggest executive names in the K-pop business. The four leading agencies are brand names in their own right, organize concerts for their stables of performers, and maintain a far more visible presence than music management firms in most other countries.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Japanese director Kawase Naomi will lead the international competition jury of the 44th Cairo International Film Festival (Nov. 13-22). Kawase won the Caméra d’Or for best debut feature film at Cannes for “Moe no Suzaku” (1997) and also won awards there for “Mogari no Mori” (2007) and “Hikari” (2017). In 2000, her film “Hotaru” won the FIPRESCI award at Locarno. Cairo festival president Hussein Fahmy said that Kawase has had a distinguished career and possesses great experience that qualified her to obtain prestigious awards from various international festivals.

Matt Brodlie and Jonathan Kier’s Upgrade Productions has signed up Mediawan and Leonine Studios co-pro exec Caroline Kusser to head up series.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Comedy action film “Confidential Assignment 2: International” claimed its fifth successive weekend victory at the South Korean box office as only U.S. horror film “Smile” was able to break into the top five.The CJ Entertainment-distributed “Confidential Assignment 2” managed $1.64 million over the Friday to Sunday period, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (KOFIC). That represented a 27% share of the market. “Confidential Assignment 2” recorded a 27% weekend on weekend decline. That pushed its cumulative total to $47 million, earned form $6.52 million ticket sales since release on Set. 7, 2022.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Korean indie production house, IMTV is developing and will produce a drama series based on the New York Times best-selling novel, “The Island of Sea Women” by Lisa See.  The story is set largely on the remote Korean island of Jeju, among the community of ‘haenyo,’ women who earn a living by free diving for mollusks, seaweed and other sea life from the depths of the ocean. Representatives of a rare semi matriarchal society, the women work while the menfolk typically stay at home, though property is passed down along male lines. Celebrated activist and Nobel Prize-winner Malala recently boarded a documentary project about the haenyo of Jeju that is set up at the A24 U.S. indie studio.

Arctic Monkeys have added two tour dates to their 2023 US tour. View details for the additional Red Rocks and Los Angeles gigs below.The Sheffield band announced their run of North American dates earlier this week, sharing that they’d be kicking off the tour at The Armory in Minneapolis, Minnesota on August 25 and wrapping it up at Los Angeles’ Kia Forum on September 29.Now, the band has shared an additional date in California on Saturday, September 30. The band also announced a second show at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado on September 19.

From the pizza shop to the Patriots, an NFL hopeful from North Dakota was signed to the practice squad on Wednesday.  Sebastian Gutierrez, a 6-foot-6 offensive lineman, played football at Minot State and was later waived by the Denver Broncos.  While he was working and waiting for his next shot in the NFL, he got a job at Uncle Maddio's Pizza in Minot, North Dakota.  A former employee at Uncle Maddio's Pizza in Minot, North Dakota, was signed to the New England Patriots. (Rich Graessle/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) "I saw him behind the line making pizzas and I just, I thought my manager Denise must have hired someone to head off security, I guess," Losson Leonard, owner of Uncle Maddio's, said via KFYR.  Gutierrez got a job at the pizza shop and worked "two, three days a week," according to Leonard, when the football player was not busy training.  "I think he's a great young man and I wish him the best.

EXCLUSIVE: Vertical Entertainment has secured North American, United Kingdom, and Ireland distribution rights to Broadway Rising, Amy Rice’s documentary chronicling the reopening of Broadway after the 2020 Covid pandemic shutdown.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Hong Kong multi-hyphenate Peter Chan Ho-sun is far too intellectual to call himself an “arms dealer,” as Sony Pictures has in casting itself as an unattached supplier to streaming platforms. But politeness and Bob Dylan references aside, Chan’s new company, Changin’ Pictures, aims to become a major independent purveyor of premium Asian TV content for the streamers. The company is using this week’s Busan International Film Festival as its launchpad and will unveil the first five series of its 20-title pan-Asian slate.  Chan’s thesis is that global audiences are hungry for Asian content but have not been able to access it easily under legacy film and TV distribution systems. With streaming making everything accessible everywhere, and audiences no longer balking at subtitles, quality Asian drama can and will travel.

A host of artists, including Dev Hynes and Oscar-winner Hildur Guðnadóttir, will share their love of Ryuichi Sakamoto on new tribute album To the Moon and Back. The album, out December 2, is launching with a reworking of the Japanese composer's "Thousand Knives" by Thundercat. Check it out below.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Veteran media executive Fotini Paraskakis is launching Empire of Arkadia, an Asia-focused content company. The firm expects to unveil its debut slate in time for MIPCOM later this month. Paraskakis is joined in the venture by Japanese media executive Shigeko (Cindy) Chino and former Discovery APAC and EMEA president, Arthur Bastings. The trio describe Empire of Arkadia’s mission as bringing Asian-inspired stories, in both scripted and non-scripted sectors, to the international stage. They will lead with “forwarding-thinking stories that speak to younger generations.”

Embattled Scots Tory leader Douglas Ross has insisted Holyrood should not be handed any new powers.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Comedy action film “Confidential Assignment 2: International” remained at the top of the South Korean box office for the fourth consecutive weekend. Its enduring success came despite a slew of new releases intended to catch the National Foundation Day holiday weekend traffic. Between Friday and Sunday “Confidential Assignment 2” garnered $2.19 million from 304,000 ticket sales, and a market share of 29%. The weekend earnings lift it to a $43.3 million cumulative since release on Sept. 7, 2022. It is only the fourth film this year to have passed the six million spectators mark and the third Korean film to do so, following “The Roundup” (12.7 million) and “Hansan: Rising Dragon” (7.26 million).

post to his social media app Truth Social on Wednesday, he noted that the war between Russia and Ukraine “would definitely not have happened if I were President.” He went on to offer his personal assistance in establishing a peace deal, writing: “Both sides need and want it. The entire World is at stake.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Gerhard Zeiler, president of International at Warner Bros. Discovery, has moved to reassure the Asia-Pacific region that it is an integral part of the group’s post-merger strategy. “Don’t believe that we don’t know how important Asia is for our company, he said Thursday. Zeiler was speaking at the APOS Convention in Singapore on Thursday. He cited examples of theatrical success for “Batman” and “Fantastic Beasts” in the region and investment in local production in the region. The reassurance may have been necessary following post-merger announcements that proposed changes in North America, Latin America and Europe ahead of Asia – despite recent external data showing Asia-Pacific as one of the world’s fastest growth regions.