Art Heist Documentary ‘The Thief Collector’ Acquired for North America by FilmRise (EXCLUSIVE)

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor SZA will bring her dazzling ‘S.O.S.’ tour to Europe and then back to North America this summer and fall, the singer announced on Wednesday. The show, in support of her recent blockbuster album of the same name, will feature 10 dates across Europe — with highly touted British singer Raye in support — before returning to North America for another 23 shows. Produced by Live Nation, the European leg of the tour kicks off June 1 in Amsterdam at Ziggo Dome, making stops in Paris, Berlin, London, and more before wrapping up in Dublin at 3Arena on June 21. The S.O.S. Tour will then circle back to North America, kicking off on September 20 in Miami at Kaseya Center, and making stops in Brooklyn, Houston, Los Angeles and more before wrapping up in Phoenix at Footprint Center on October 29. See full routing below.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Arthouse genre distribution company Yellow Veil Pictures has acquired North American rights “Rebel,” a music-filled thriller by the Belgian directing duo Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah. The pair broke into Hollywood with “Bad Boys for Life” starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence and are set to direct the sequel for Sony Pictures. “Rebel” was produced by Caviar, the banner behind the Oscar-winning film “Sound of Metal” as well as “War Pony.” It world premiered at Cannes last year in the Midnight section and be theatrically released later this year. “Rebel” follows Kamal, a young man seeking meaning for his life, who leaves Belgium to help war victims in Syria. Once there, he is forced to join ISIS and discovers the propaganda, manipulation, and atrocity the militia is responsible for. Back home, Kamal’s brother Nassim is slowly indoctrinated by radical recruiters and persuaded to join Kamal in Syria, while their mother fights to keep what’s left of her family together.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Hulu is adding three new titles to its growing lineup of original docs: “Freaknik: The Wildest Party Never Told,” “Queenmaker: The Making of An It Girl,” and “The Jewel Thief.” “Freaknik: The Wildest Party Never Told” “recounts the rise and fall of a small Atlanta HBCU picnic that exploded into an influential street party and spotlighted ATL as a major cultural stage,” per Hulu’s description. “Can the magic of Freaknik be brought back 40 years later? Executive producers include showrunner Geraldine L. Porras and director P Frank Williams, as well as Jermaine Dupri, Luther Campbell, Peter Bittenbender and Melissa Cooper for Mass Appeal, Eric Tomosunas for Swirl Films, Terry Ross and Alex Avant. Nikki Byles and Jay Allen are producers.

The new musical & Juliet is one of the biggest hits of the 2022-23 Broadway season and we’re catching up with some of the stars!

Brooke Shields is sharing her pride in daughters Rowan Henchy, 19, and Grier Henchy, 16, for their appearance at the end of the new documentary about her life, “Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields.

Peter Caranicas Deputy Editor Filmmakers Robert Rippberger and Devin Keaton have teamed with industrial contractor Nathan Edwards to break ground for Ascent Studios in North Carolina. The facility will be located on 200 acres in Spring Hope, a short drive from Raleigh, and will include five production stages totaling 170,000 square feet, making it the largest film studio in the state upon completion in late 2023. Productions that utilize Ascent Studios will receive a 25% tax rebate on qualifying expenses and purchases funded by the North Carolina Film and Entertainment Grant. In addition to offering interior space and new technology for every kind of production, Ascent will sit on a landscape that provides picturesque exteriors of fields, forests and lakes.

Selome Hailu Good Trip Studios has entered production on a sequel to the 2020 documentary “Have a Good Trip: Adventures in Psychedelics.” A distribution deal has yet to be finalized, though the first film — directed by Donick Cary and hosted by Adam Scott and Nick Offerman — streamed on Netflix. Like the first film, “Have a Good Trip 2: Adventures in Psychedelics” explores the current state of psychedelic drugs in society as well as their scientific potential to treat mental health issues including PTSD, depression and addiction. Comedians and celebrities are featured in re-tellings and re-enactments of true experiences with psychedelics, while leading experts share facts and harm reduction methods.

Sophia Scorziello editor The Award-winning PBS documentary series “Independent Lens” has released its spring slate of documentary films, which will begin debuting on April 24. This season’s films will highlight a myriad of marginalized communities and current affairs by documenting both personal and important stories from around the world.   First to debut is documentary film “Free Chol Soo Lee” from filmmakers Julie Ha and Eugene Yi. The Sundance favorite uses archival material to travel back to 1970’s San Francisco and tell the story of Chol Soo Lee, a Korean immigrant who was wrongfully convicted of murder, and the Asian American activist movement that sought to free him.  

Back to the Future: The Musical will launch a North American tour in the summer of 2024, producers announced today.

Rebecca Souw One of the leading actors of his generation, Korea’s Choi Min-sik is tackling his first TV role in some 25 years, with Disney+ crime drama series “Big Bet.” Choi says the gamble was a challenge, but ultimately worth the risk. While he has notched up iconic cinema roles in “Oldboy” “Shiri,” “I Saw the Devil,” Luc Besson’s “Lucy” and all-time Korean box office record holder “Roaring Currents,” Choi’s last significant TV role was in dark comedy “The Moon of Seoul” (aka “Seoul ui Dal”) in the 20th century’s pre-streaming era. Choi says that the changes in the TV industry are palpable and mostly for the better.

EXCLUSIVE: Viva Kids has nabbed North American rights to the animated family film Rally Road Racers (formerly Silk Road Rally), featuring the voices of Jimmy O. Yang (Patriots Day), J.K. Simmons (Whiplash), Chloe Bennet (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) and more, slating it for a nationwide theatrical release on 1,500 or more screens on May 12.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Writer and director He Shuming has signed with Sugar23, the multimedia and management company founded by Oscar-winning producer, manager and entrepreneur Michael Sugar. The signing comes following He’s breakout debut feature “Ajoomma,” about a widow obsessed with Korean soap operas who travels abroad for the first time to Seoul, finding more than she had bargained for in the process. That movie collected several nominations and prizes on the film festival circuit. It premiered at the 2022 Busan International Film Festival in the New Currents section; was nominated at the Palm Springs International Film Festival for the FIPRESCI Prize for Best International Film; received four nominations at the Golden Horse Awards in Taipei, including Best New Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Leading Actress and Best Supporting Actor; and won the Film AIUla Audience Award for Best Film at the Red Sea International Film Festival.

Naman Ramachandran A feature documentary on champion athlete Carl Lewis will be the first film under the Noah Media Group‘s recently revealed multi-million dollar content fund. The documentary will be executive produced by Uninterrupted, the Emmy-winning athlete empowerment brand founded by LeBron James and Maverick Carter. In a record-breaking career spanning 18 years, Lewis won nine Olympic gold medals in track and field and was voted Sportsman of the Century by the International Olympic Committee. Currently in production, the film will explore the man behind the medals, with exclusive access to his family, closest friends and an unseen, vast archive. It will show the transformational impact Lewis’s career had – both in his sport and in wider society – and is set against a contemporary narrative as Lewis, now a coach and politically engaged, confronts issues around his country’s future.

According to MC Entertainment, Tickets for the Puerto Rico stop of E’LAST’s North America tour will start this Wednesday (March 22) with tickets going for US$35 to US$169.Meanwhile, more details regarding the rest of the shows on the ‘Thrill’ tour are set to be released later today.

Thania Garcia Twice will be Pandora’s newest guest DJs for the streaming platform’s Artist Takeover series. Starting today, the nine-member girl group will be the new faces of the newly minted K-pop station for “The Takeover: Twice” — the first-ever feature on the streaming platform with content in both English and Korean, Variety can exclusively share. The Takeover will allow users access to exclusive content and guided listening experiences, where members Nayeon, Jeongyeon, Momo, Sana, Jihyo, Mina, Dahyun, Chaeyoung and Tzuyu, discuss each song on “Ready to Be.” In addition, the singers will customize fans’ listening experiences with commentary on their recent successes, upcoming world tour and more, while their songs and others play in between.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Yellow Veil Pictures has acquired worldwide rights to the erotic thriller documentary “We Kill For Love” ahead of its world premiere at the Overlook Film Festival. The company is planning a domestic release later this year and will represent the film for international sales with a launch at the upcoming Marche Du Film in Cannes. Written, produced, and directed by Anthony Penta, “We Kill for Love” depicts the long-gone world of direct-to-video erotic thriller, an American film genre that once dominated late night cable television and the shelves of neighborhood video stores.

Jeff Benjamin The past year has seen the K-pop industry expanding into everything from ETFs to Broadway, and today, March 15, marks its leap into the comic and graphic novel world: Top group NCT 127 has teamed up with Z2 Comics alongside Universal Music Group and its Korean label SM Entertainment for “NCT 127: Limitless,” an original graphic novel from the act to mark the first officially licensed K-pop print comic. With its title taken from the group’s 2017 single of the same, “Limitless” is both a hardcover and deluxe hardcover manhwa (a general term from South Korea for comic books and graphic novels with a distinct, detailed artistic style) to share a multiverse-hopping, reality-blurring tale of NCT 127 rehearsing for a sold-out stadium show in New York City.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Hot Docs, North America’s largest documentary festival, has unveiled the projects it has selected for the 24th edition of the Hot Docs Forum, the financing event aimed at securing co-productions and funds for feature length documentaries. The Forum returns in-person to Toronto’s Hart House on May 2 and 3 as part of festival, which runs April 27 to May 7. Nineteen projects representing 16 countries and featuring 23 filmmakers, 12 of whom are women and 11 of whom are black, indigenous and people of color, will pitch to international decision makers and members of the documentary community. An additional Wild Card pitch will be selected live at the Forum.

In the age of social media-centered video content creation, who was the first to do it? Many millennial or Gen Z-ers may say it all started when Jawed Karim uploaded “Me at the zoo” on Youtube in 2005, but the father of video art is actually Korean artist Nam June Paik, who predicted a future in which “everybody will have his own TV channel.”  READ MORE: ‘Nam June Paik: Moon Is The Oldest TV’ Review [Sundance] Paik was born in Seoul, Korea, but found himself in Germany as an adult to pursue his interest in avant-garde music, composition, and performance.

HYBE founder Bang Si-hyuk has opened up about its battle against Kakao to acquire shares of K-pop agency SM Entertainment.Today (March 15), Bang delivered a keynote speech at the Gwanhun Forum, hosted by the Gwanhun Club, an association of senior journalists in Korea. Held at the Korean Press Center in Seoul, South Korea, the forum provided attendees the opportunity to gain insight into Bang and HYBE’s vision of the K-pop industry.During a Q&A session at the event, Bang opened up about HYBE’s recent attempt to acquire SM Entertainment, and its battle against South Korean internet giant Kakao over the K-pop agency.