‘Asia’s Next Top Model’ Outfit Refinery Media Launches Fund for Virtual Productions

When it comes to gift giving, celebrities tend to go above and beyond! We’re talking about no expense spared to get the best possible present.

Bosses of Altrincham’s town centre shopping hub the Stamford Quarter are predicting a vibrant 2024 after reporting a five percent uplift in visitor numbers. Landlord and property company Bruntwood says it's had a successful 2023 following an influx of new stores joining national brands and independent boutiques.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Really, a company that creates augmented reality content for theatrical release movies has hired veteran media executive Peter Gaida as its chief commercial officer in Asia Pacific. The appointment is part of a wider expansion into Asia by the AR company. Founded by media entrepreneur James Andrew Felts in 2017, Really creates “highly functional, large-scale AR content” that it delivers weekly.

It's the Boxing Day sale many of us eagerly anticipate every single year, and now we have some information on the Next shopping event this year.

Daniel D'Addario Chief TV Critic As part of Variety’s 100 Greatest Shows of All Time issue, we asked writers on our staff to name their favorite cult shows — series that may lack the clout, the following, or the prestige to quite notch an entry on our list, but ones for which our writers have a special fondness. Here are seven shows that are, to us, the greatest. Alias So the central mythology, about the mystical inventor Milo Rambaldi, came to little as the show went on. No big deal.

Deadline’s Read the Screenplay series spotlighting the year’s most talked-about scripts continues with Christopher Nolan’s epic biographical thriller Oppenheimer. Based on American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, Nolan wrote the script about the titular complicated and brilliant physicist tasked with leading the Manhattan Project, the secret effort to create the atom bomb, and the moral and political struggles that followed.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has confirmed when the General Election will be held.

Christopher Vourlias Siberian-born entrepreneur Arsen Tomsky is not your typical tech mogul. The CEO of the California-based technology company inDrive got his start far from Silicon Valley, when he designed a ride-hailing app in his native Yakutsk to compete with the cartels that controlled the local taxi industry.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Thailand’s broadcast and streaming group Mono Next and Korea’s Studio Genie have struck a deal to collaborate on content creation and distribution. Production of a Thai remake of a Korean series is on the cards, but has not been finalized. The memorandum was announced on stage at the Asia Television Forum in Singapore on Wednesday, with streaming unit Mono Streaming signing on behalf of the Thai group.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Korean-produced series “The Glory” won the best drama series award on Thursday at the Asian Academy Creative Awards Gala Final. Thai-produced TV movie “Hunger” was named best feature film. The awards are organized by the Asian Academy of Creative Arts (AACA) a.k.a Asian Academy Creative Awards (AAA) and are held alongside the Asia Television Forum and Market (ATF) in Singapore. The AACA “was established to honor creative excellence and serve as a peer judged pinnacle of achievement in content creation, performance and media production.” By the conclusion of the gala ceremony, Singapore, Japan and India had each claimed seven prize wins.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief China’s Linmon Media celebrated its tenth anniversary this week by unveiling 16 new shows for its 2024 production and release slate. The roster included seven Chinese period drama series, five contemporary shows and two more being made in Thailand. “We are not just a producer, we are a studio,” Zhou Yuan, co-founder and EVP of Linmon, told Variety on the sidelines of the company’s predominantly English-language presentation at the Asia Television Forum & Market in Singapore.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Hollywood’s role in Asian TV has changed in the streaming era and age of hyper-local content. A top-down sales and distribution position has eased into one of co-production, co-financing and acquisition. A high-powered array of western executives offered experienced views and discussed their current positions at a panel session Thursday within the Asia Television Forum & Market in Singapore. “We want to be an additive partner on shows that cannot be created locally, said Georgina Gonzalez, director of scripted series and global series at Universal Int’l Studios, NBCU.

Banijay Asia Unveils Leadership Team Following Endemol Acquisition

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Something Special, the Seoul-based international format agency founded by format specialists Jin Woo Hwang (president and executive producer) and Kim In Soon (EVP & head of content) announce that ITV Studios has optioned the hit Korean celebrity format “Battle in the Box” for France, Australia, New Zealand, and Israel. The deal was unveiled on Wednewday, the first full day of the Asia Television Forum and Market (ATF) in Singapore. “Battle in the Box,” created by Korea’s NMedia and represented globally by Something Special, has previously seen deals announced with Fremantle for Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, the Netherlands, Belgium and Portugal.

Naman Ramachandran Canadian conglomerate, Blue Ant Media has scored sales of some 550 hours of programming to Asia Pacific broadcasters, it was revealed at Singapore’s Asia TV Forum & Market (ATF). Content was sourced from across Blue Ant’s portfolio companies.

Naman Ramachandran Singapore‘s Mediacorp has begun introducing virtual sets into its scripted content, starting with two Chinese drama series, it was revealed during the ongoing Asia TV Forum & Market (ATF). “Strangers in the Dark” is about an outcast in school, who uses her vivid imagination to help solve various mysteries.

Naman Ramachandran Shows featuring Stephen Fry are popular in Asia as sales from Abacus Media Rights and Passion Distribution demonstrate. Abacus has sold more than 70 hours of scripted and unscripted programming broadcasters across Asia, it was revealed at Singapore’s Asia TV Forum and Market.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Singapore is launching a new fund to support international coproduction of TV series. It will also expand government investment into virtual production (VP). The two moves were announced on Wednesday by senior minister of state for communications and information Tan Kiat How at the opening ceremony of the Asia Television Forum and Market (ATF).

The Department of Works and Pensions (DWP) has issued a statement on whether or not new cost of living payments will be announced from next spring.

Chinese streaming giant iQiyi has hailed the integration of artificial intelligence into its development and pitching processes.