APA Promotes Brady Torgeson, Alex Chaykin to Partner (EXCLUSIVE)

David and Victoria Beckham recently traveled with their son Cruz, 18, and Harper Seven,11, to Japan for a family trip. On Sunday, the famous soccer player shared a gallery of photos showing their adventures, like delicious meals, riding public transportation, and admiring Japanese temples.

“Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” PremiereRegency Village Theatre, WestwoodThe Spider-verse opened a portal into Westwood for the world premiere of “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” the long-awaited sequel to the 2018 smash hit film “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” and the stars celebrated. The actors who were delighted to have returned to the next ultra-cool vision of Spidey from the minds of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller were Shameik Moore, Jake Johnson, Issa Rae, Jason Schwartzman, Daniel Kaluuya and recent Oscar nominee Brian Tyree Henry.Hailee Steinfeld, who reprises her role as Spider Gwen in the animated movie, slayed the red carpet at the Regency Village Theatre by wearing a complete ensemble from Bally’s spring 2023 collection.

A Banquet for Hungry Ghosts.” The 10-episode series is based on Chinese-American author Ying Chang Compestine’s bestselling 2016 YA book. Episode 1 of the anthology, titled “Egg Fried Rice,” is currently in production as a pilot order from Singapore’s national media network Mediacorp, and is due an early 2024 release. The project was one of the winning pitches at Mediacorp’s Content Development Pitch 2022 competition, which was part of Creatives Assembly, the company’s annual call for content ideas.

Ben Croll Specialty distributor Gkids has picked up North American rights to directors Yoko Kuno and Nobuhiro Yamashita’s upcoming animated feature “Ghost Cat Anzu,” while Paris-based Charades has boarded the project for international sales.  Spearheaded by Miyu Productions and Shin-Ei Animation, and adapted from a manga by Takashi Imashiro, the family title tracks the tempestuous friendship shared between 11-year Karin, a strong-minded girl sent to live with her monk granddad in the Japanese countryside, and Anzu, the even-more unpredictable phantom feline who acts as her guardian. The project will screen as a work-in-progress presentation at this year’s Annecy Animation Festival, and is slated for release in 2024.

Naman Ramachandran Toronto-based content development and production company Cream Productions has promoted three key executives. Taking on the role of general manager is Patrick Cameron, who previously served as the company’s senior VP of production. Cameron brings over 20 years of experience in the filmmaking industry, with close to a decade at Cream Productions. Projects he has worked on include “All or Nothing: Toronto Maple Leafs,” “Stuff The British Stole,” “Beautiful Scars,” “History of the Sitcom” and “Age of Samurai: Battle for Japan.” In his new capacity, Cameron will primarily focus on corporate strategy, personnel management and system operations.

A major Japanese court ruled that the current ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional.On Tuesday, a Japanese district court ruled that the government’s current policy of prohibiting same-sex marriages violates the country’s constitution. Supporters of LGBTQ rights say this is a step in the right direction toward marriage equality in the country.According to Kyodo News, Judge Osamu Nishimura, of the Nagoya District Court ruled that the current system of marriage in Japan is unconstitutional because it excludes same-sex couples, thereby leaving them with no legal protections when it comes to issues like health care decision-making, child-rearing, and inheritance rights, among other rights and privileges that come with matrimony.This is the second court ruling finding that the government’s ban on gay marriage is unconstitutional, following a similar challenge from the city of Sapporo.However, district courts in Tokyo and Osaka sided against petitioners in two other challenges to the existing marriage law.

EXCLUSIVE: Sofia Vergara’s Latin World Entertainment has upped Tatiana Castro to VP of Content & Partnerships, Deadline has learned.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Netflix is to launch a new Japanese reality show “Is She the Wolf?” which was developed with broadcaster Abema and adapted from the original show “Who Is the Wolf” which previously ran for 13 seasons. The show follows five men and five women on a quest for love through dates and a group project. However, some female participants are “lying wolves” who cannot fall in love. They must navigate the entire season without being discovered or accepting any declarations of love. It includes a diverse group of participants aged 22 to 32, including actors, artists, models, and athletes. “Is She the Wolf?” streams exclusively on Netflix in Japan beginning June 11, with new episodes streaming each Sunday. Outside Japan, all episodes will be released on Netflix in September 2023.

Netflix is headed to Japan for its next spin on the dating reality genre.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter The “Cruel Intentions” TV series at Amazon has set its main cast, Variety has learned exclusively from sources. The series regulars in the show are: Sarah Catherine Hook (“First Kill,” “Impeachment: American Crime Story”) as Caroline, Zac Burgess (“Totally Completely Fine”) as Lucien, Khobe Clarke (“Yellowjackets,” “Firefly Lane”) as Scott, Brooke Lena Johnson (“You,” “South of Hell”) as Beatrice, Sara Silva (“The Boys,” “American Horror Stories”) as CeCe, Sean Patrick Thomas (the original “Cruel Intentions” film, “Till”) asProfessor Chadwick, John Harlan Kim (“The Last Thing He Told Me,” “9-1-1”) as Blaise, and Myra Molloy (“He’s All That,” “The Bold Type”) as Annie.

Paris Jackson and her band were one of the musical acts featured at Bottlerock Napa Valley Festival. Jackson looked like a rock star as she took the stage, flaunting her grunge style and fashion. Paris Jackson bakes a cake for her brother’s birthdayWatch Paris Jackson and Billie Eilish in new TV showParis Jackson debuts a short-haired style with a twistJackson wore a cream colored sleeveless t-shirt that she matched with plaid pants.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Aniplex, a Sony business unit best known as a major producer and distributor of anime films and series including the hit “Demon Slayer,” is to acquire Japanese IP development and talent management firm Origamix Partners. The firm will be expanded into live-action production. The deal was announced Wednesday and will become effective from June 1. The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed other than Aniplex obtaining “a full share” of the company. Sony said that Origamix, which has previously been behind the “Kingdom” film franchise and the “Alice in Borderland” series, now in its second season at Netflix,” will be renamed Myragion Studio.

Talk about legs — or, more appropriately, wings: Paramount/Skydance’s Top Gun: Maverick is still playing in Japanese cinemas a full year on from its debut. Continuing on from a stratospheric and super-leggy run, the sequel, on its 365th day of release, became Tom Cruise’s biggest film ever in the market. In doing so, it overtook 2003’s The Last Samurai with JPY 13.71B ($101.5M) — and Maverick is still flying on local screens. It had become Paramount’s No. 1 movie of all time in Japan in August and also marks the same milestone for Skydance.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent David Thion, the French producer of Justine Triet’s Palme d’Or winning “Anatomy of a Fall,” is reteaming with Guillaume Senez for “Une part manquante,” a Tokyo-set drama which Be For Films is representing in international markets. “Une part manquante” will also reunite Senez with popular French actor Romain Duris, who starred in his 2018 film “Our Struggles” and earned a Cesar nomination for it. Brussels-based Be For Films had sold “Our Struggles” in most major territories and presented at a flurry of international festivals. Duris will play Jay, who hasn’t seen his daughter for nine years since getting separated from his Japanese wife. As a foreigner residing in Japan, Jay was denied custody of his daughter. Hoping to find her somewhere in the city, he abandons his career as a renown chef and becomes a taxi driver. After all these years searching in vain, Jay is about to give up and move back to France when Lily hops in his cab. But she doesn’t recognize him.

Mark Schilling Japan Correspondent After opening on April 28 in Japan, “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” has hit the JPY10 billion ($71 million) milestone in just 31 days – the quickest ever by a non-Japanese animation in the Japanese market.In the latest three-day period from May 28 to 28, the film earned JPY632 million ($4.5 million), bringing its cumulative box office to JPY10.1 billion ($71.7 million), according to figures supplied by distributor Toho-Towa. Based on an iconic Japanese game series, “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” currently ranks third all-time at the worldwide box office for animated films, behind “Frozen” and Frozen II.” Toho-Towa has not issued a final earnings forecast for the film. And the title still has a way to go to catch Japan’s all-time box office leader, the locally-produced “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train.” That earned JPY40.4 billion ($288 million) in 2020.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief China’s NetEase Games has established PinCool, a Tokyo-based game studio focused on developing titles for game consoles. That is a significant diversification, considering that PC and mobile are the major formats for games play in China. And the company says the company it will also be involved in planning and producing a range of additional forms of entertainment. The new company is headed by representative director and president Ichimura Ryutaro, a 20-year veteran of the games industry and long-time producer of the “Dragon Quest” games franchise. Beyond serving as lead producer for games such as “Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King” and “Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies,” Ichimura also led other areas of the Dragon Quest IP franchise including live events and exhibitions.

The dignity of labor is explored with gentle humor and a very melancholy sense of joie de vivre in Wim Wenders’ second 2023 Cannes entry after his 3D documentary Anselm. Shot entirely in Japan, with very little English spoken, Perfect Days is an unusual film from a westerner since it does nothing to “other” a country that is often romanticized as a series of specific cultural signifiers (as in the well-meaning Lost in Translation, for example). It’s a compliment to say that Jim Jarmusch could have made it.

Guy Lodge Film Critic Before you ask, yes, Lou Reed’s rock standard “Perfect Day” does indeed make an appearance in Wim Wenders’ “Perfect Days”: on the protagonist’s stereo as suitably ideal sunlight pours into his small, neat Tokyo apartment, before swarming the soundtrack as we head out into the city on a calm weekend afternoon. If that sounds a little obvious, basic even, said protagonist Hirayama — a mellow, soft-spoken toilet cleaner beautifully played by Kōji Yakusho — would probably agree with a shrug. He’s into simple pleasures, not deep cuts. His solitary life is built around the things that make him happy and the work that keeps him solvent. He’s not inclined to wonder what other people make of it. Wenders’ film, in turn, is sincere and unassuming, and owns its sentimentality with good humor.

In the early ’90s, Japan’s Takeshi “Beat” Kitano was on a roll, with a superb string of nuanced crime movies that stood in stark contrast to the good-vs.-evil bullet operas that were coming out of Hong Kong at the time. Kitano’s darkly funny cynicism (who else could have made Violent Cop?) made him stand out by miles, but it soon became his weakness, as became evident in the lean period after the success of Zatoichi in 2013. The experimental, semi-autobiographical trilogy that followed — Takeshis’, Glory to the Filmmaker and Achilles and the Tortoise — seemed to offer little more than self-sabotage, the work of a frustrated artist trying to take a blowtorch to his populist image without much thought for the future.

Japanese Breakfast has announced an open casting call for the role of herself in the film adaptation of her memoir, Crying In H Mart.The singer – real name Michelle Zauner – has written the screenplay for the adaptation of her 2021 memoir, which was an expansion of an essay published in The New Yorker.In a Twitter post on Monday (May 22), Zauner outlined that she’s looking for an 18-25 year-old Korean-American to play her in the film.Those looking to apply will need to “send a creative video introduction that includes where you’re located” to the provided email address.