Asian Content Execs Talk Remakes & Collaboration, While China Seeks Recovery Strategies – Filmart

Naman Ramachandran Canadian drama series “Streams Flow From a River” will debut in Canada on Super Channel, available on Apple TV and Prime Video Channels, on April 1. The series is in the Canneseries short format competition and will have its international premiere at the festival on April 18. Produced by Canadian scripted production company Fae Pictures, “Streams Flow From a River” (6 x 14′) is the first Canadian series from an all-Asian writers’ room and 75% East Asian crew led by producer Shant Joshi (“Framing Agnes,” “Porcupine Lake”). Joshi is one of MipTV’s Producers to Watch 2023 and will be attending Mip-Canneseries Connections event.

Kanye West has seemingly backtracked on his spate of anti-Semitic comments made over the last few months by saying he “likes Jewish people again” after watching Jonah Hill in 21 Jump Street. West posted a photo of the 2012 film’s poster to Instagram alongside a caption that read: “Watching Jonah Hill in 21 Jump Street made me like Jewish people again,” he declared.“No one should take anger against one or two individuals and transform that into hatred towards millions of people,” he continued. “No Christian can be labeled antisemite knowing Jesus is Jew.”“Thank you Jonah Hill I love you.”A post shared by Ye (@kanyewest)West’s spate of anti-semitic comments began when he tweeted that he was going to go “death con 3 [sic] On JEWISH PEOPLE” back in October.West was declared ‘Antisemite Of The Year’ by the watchdog group StopAntisemitism in response to his anti-Semitic comments in the last few months.

“Yellowjackets” on Wednesday at the TCL Chinese Theatre.Lynskey, who previously revealed that someone on the set of the Showtime series commented that they expected her to lose weight for a scene in which she strips to her underwear and jumps in the water, said the conversation has gotten “exhausting.”“I’m tired of it. I wish I could just talk about my acting. Or even, I dunno, my husband or what cereal I like,” she told TheWrap on the red carpet.

EXCLUSIVE: The execs behind Prime Video Germany’s big-budget fantasy epic Der Gryphon have opened up about forging what originals boss Philip Pratt has dubbed “the biggest [German fantasy] project since The NeverEnding Story.”

Matthew Chernov Oklahoma is frequently depicted on screen as a peaceful place filled with scenic beauty, waving wheat fields and vast, bucolic plains. But the Paramount+ series “Tulsa King” captures a far grungier side of the Sooner State, and much of the credit for that goes to the show’s production designer, Todd Jeffery. Created by Taylor Sheridan, “Tulsa King” stars Sylvester Stallone as Dwight Manfredi, a Mafia capo who’s banished to Tulsa, Okla., by his New York underworld family after serving a 25-year prison sentence. A fish out of water, the Brooklyn-born gangster wastes no time in organizing a new criminal empire made up of colorful Oklahomans.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Like & Share” from Indonesia’s Gina S. Noer was named the best picture and collected the Grand Prix on Sunday at the Osaka Asian Film Festival. “All of us on the jury were struck by the film’s clear and powerful message, which affirms young women’s sexual curiosity and desire while clearly saying no to sexual violence. The style of the film is also original. The sweet, poppy feeling that fascinates the audience in the first half of the film becomes darker as the story progresses, making us shudder. “Like & Share,” with its strong message and brilliant direction, is a film that needs to be seen now more than ever,” said the jury in a statement.

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic In 1993, “The Joy Luck Club” made Hollywood history, proving to a skeptical — and let’s face it, racist — industry that there was mainstream demand for a culturally sensitive Chinese American ensemble drama. Three decades later, along comes “Joy Ride,” throwing sensitivity to the wind en route to obliterating any remaining barriers. Like “Girls Trip” with an all-Asian-American cast, the Seth Rogen-produced, hard-R road movie follows small-town besties Audrey (Ashley Park) and Lolo (Sherry Cola) to Beijing, where they tackle everything from taboo tattoos to a devil’s threesome with all the gusto you’d hope or expect from “Crazy Rich Asians” co-writer Adele Lim’s directorial debut.

China is opening its doors wider for Marvel.

How could a trip to the motherland go so hilariously, disastrously wrong? The quartet at the heart of Adele Lim’s “Joy Ride” – Ashley Park, Sherry Cola, Stephanie Hsu and Sabrina Wu – have no idea what they’re in for at the top of the trailer, which Lionsgate released Friday ahead of the film’s premiere at SXSW.The trailer begins with the origin story of Audrey (Park) and Lolo’s (Cola) friendship, when they meet at a park as young kids. Lolo punches a white boy in the throat after he calls Audrey a racist slur, sealing the deal on their lifelong friendship.

Although Filmart felt quiet on its first morning, with many attendees glued to their phones watching the Oscars, it soon turned into a reasonably vibrant market, with sales companies locked in back-to-back meetings, new project announcements and a few star appearances to liven up proceedings. 

Cinemark Theatres, announced in January. An Imax representative could not be immediately reached for more details.Imax reported last month that it was once again profitable during the fourth quarter, thanks in large part to mega-hits “Avatar: the Way of Water” and Disney’s “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.” Its success drawing key audiences had helped cement its role in the success of blockbusters.

EXCLUSIVE: Cinema Guild has acquired North American rights for Belgian director Bas Devos’s film Here which won best film in the Berlin Film Festival’s Encounters section last month as well as the Fipresci prize.

Marcus Lim Chinese TV producer Linmon Media struck a decidedly international tone during the presentation of its 2023-24 slate at FilMart, with presenters speaking about their Chinese-language projects in only English and Korean, and handing out sleek project literature in multiple languages. Apart from a slate of romance, medical and crime dramas targeted at domestic audiences, the studio is actively remaking its hit female-led contemporary drama “Nothing but Thirty” in Thailand, Indonesia and Hong Kong, having previously licensed the remake rights to Korean pay TV network JTBC. The drama, which follows the lives of three women as they transition from their 20s into their 30s, is emblematic of the Linmon slate, which is heavy on female-centric contemporary romance dramas.

“Masked Singer” host did not attend the 95th Academy Awards on Sunday night but gave TMZ his feedback on Kimmel’s opening monologue, which included a joke about him and his12 offspring. “Disney spent $2 billion on this movie, and just to break even, all of Nick Cannon’s kids had to see ‘Avatar’ four times,” Kimmel, 55, joked about theOscar-winning“Avatar: The Way of Water.”“It’s hilarious,” Cannon told the outlet while leaving the Avra Beverly Hills restaurant.“I created ‘Wild ‘n Out,'” he added about his longtime improv, comedy TV series.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Despite a barnstorming address celebrating the re-opening of Hong Kong and China by Bona Film Group COO Jiang De Fu, it is clear that the film industry in China is still suffering its own version of long-COVID, with box office tracking at around half of 2018 levels. “The Chinese box office was RMB60.7 billion ($8.89 billion at current rates of exchange) in 2018. And 83 films made over RMB100 million. 16 films that made over RMB1 billion. Post-pandemic, in 2022, China’s box office was RMB29.9 billion. [Just] 41 films made over RMB100 million. [And] 8 films made over RMB1 billion. We are now only at 50% of the level in 2018,” said Jiang aty a presentation on the first day of Hong Kong’s FilMart.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Singapore’s Mocha Chai Laboratories and Emissary Pictures, a company that straddles New Zealand, Australia and Indonesia, have announced a strategic partnership for the development and production of cross-cultural films, series and content in Asia. The venture will have offices in all four countries and will identify, develop and produce content across genres and formats, including films, television series, documentaries and digital content. The agreement was announced in Hong Kong on the first day of the FilMart rights market. The pair say that they have scripted and unscripted projects in development and production. Slate details, however, remain under wraps as do distribution plans.

Naman Ramachandran Asian content heavyweights revealed their thoughts on several subjects at a panel called “The Asian Wave in 2023 and Beyond” on March 13, the opening day of FilMart in Hong Kong. The lively session, moderated by Variety‘s Asia editor Patrick Frater, featured Sebastian Kim, director of international content sales and acquisition at Korea’s CJ ENM, Sanmesh Thakur, executive VP and territory head, Asia Pacific, at India’s Zee Entertainment Enterprises and Ziraviss Vindhanapisuth, VP, international business at Thailand’s BEC World Public Company. The evergreen topic of co-production was discussed in some depth. Kim said: “We’ve been looking for this formula for decades and for now, we find that the best formula of co-production is more like an adaptation of the original — A place to B place production — that’s how we’ve been doing it.”

Michelle Yeoh made history as the first Asian woman to win Best Actress at the Academy Awards. It’s a triumphant and moving moment for the thesp who killed in her role as a time-traveling Chinese-American laundromat owner navigating an IRS audit and complex relationships with her husband and daughter in Everything Everywhere All At Once. It was her first Oscar nomination.

Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car was awarded with best feature at the Asian Film Awards (March 12), along with prizes for best editing and best original music. The multiple award winning Japanese drama premiered at Cannes film festival in 2021 and also won the Oscar for Best International Feature last year.  

EXCLUSIVE: Drift director Anthony Chen is gearing up to direct his first US-set project, Heartbeat: A New York Story, about the rarely-told experiences of the Asian gay community during the AIDS epidemic in 1980s New York.