Bob Odenkirk Suffers A Midlife Crisis In ‘Lucky Hank’ Trailer

The hook of IFC’s “Paint” seems to be “What if Bob Ross was challenged for public broadcasting painting supremacy by a younger and, yes, more inclusive artist?” Think “All About Eve” or “Showgirls,” in this case offering a set-in-their-ways veteran on-television painter and art instructor being usurped by a younger, more exciting upstart. Owen Wilson isn’t literally playing late painter Bob Ross, who died at the age of 52 in 1995. However, at least some of the comedy offered up in the latest trailer for “Paint” is contingent upon audiences being somewhat aware of the beloved, soft-spoken artist.

A new snooker hall, designed to appeal to recent arrivals from Hong Kong, could open opposite the Apollo music venue in Ardwick.

K.J. Yossman Johnny Depp is selling a collection of silk-screen prints he has painted of public figures including Heath Ledger and Bob Marley through a London gallery for thousands of dollars. Titled “Friends & Heroes II,” the entire four-piece collection, which comes signed by Depp, is available for £17,500 ($21,000) from Castle Fine Art and includes portraits of Ledger and Marley together with River Phoenix and Hunter S. Thompson. The portraits were also made available individually for $5,400 each when they first went on sale two weeks ago but all 780 prints have now sold out.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Cyber Heist,” a crime thriller directed by Hong Kong’s Wong Hing-fan (“I’m Livin’ It”) and scripted by Soi Cheang (aka Cheang Pou Soi), took the top spot at the mainland Chinese box office over the weekend. It earned a very modest $6.2 million, according to data from consultancy Artisan Gateway. But that was enough to win on the quietest weekend since January’s Lunar New Year holiday season. “Cyber Heist” stars Aaron Kwok as a cyber security engineer who develops a state-of-the-art firewall that is capable of fending off online attacks against the global financial system. But he does not realize that in doing so he has stepped into a minefield that is even more dangerous. The picture also stars Lam Ka-tun and Simon Yam.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Already the highest grossing local film in its home market, courtroom drama, “A Guilty Conscience” has broken into Hong Kong’s all-time top ten box office ranking with a cumulative of HK$107 million ($13.7 million). Data from Hong Kong Box Office Ltd. shows the film achieving the feat after just 41 days in cinemas and coming within HK$1 million ($150,000) of overtaking “Top Gun: Maverick.” The data firm noted that the last time a Hong Kong film got this far was with fantasy-action-comedy “Kung Fu Hustle” in 2004. Since then, it has been overtaken by a fleet of Hollywood titles. Hong Hong’s current top ten is headed by “Avengers: Endgame” and includes six Marvel movies, the two “Avatar” titles and “Titanic.”

After three years of taking place entirely online, Hong Kong International Film & TV Market (Filmart), the largest content market in Asia before the pandemic, is finally returning as a fully-fledged in-person event (March 13-16, 2023). 

At previous in-person editions of Filmart, Hong Kong’s major film companies, including Edko Films, Emperor Motion Pictures (EMP), One Cool Group, Universe Films and Media Asia, always anchored the trade show floor with huge, elaborate booths promoting the latest Hong Kong films, animation and TV series. 

Illusioneers) who worked on the project. It finally opened in 1969 and was almost instantly viewed as a classic.

Krapopolis could spawn Fox’s next iconic animated figure to sit alongside Homer Simpson, Bob Belcher and Peter Griffin, according to the network’s President of Scripted Programming Michael Thorn.

Former education secretary Sir Gavin Williamson accused teaching unions of 'hating work' and described them as 'a bunch of absolute arses' during the coronavirus pandemic.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Martial arts veteran Sammo Hung is to be presented with a lifetime achievement honor at the upcoming Asian Film Awards. The ceremony is back as an in-person event after a two-year absence and shifts back to Hong Kong after previously being held in Hong Kong, Macau and Busan. Hung is expected to accept the award on Sunday March 12 at the Hong Kong Palace Museum. “I’m so happy and surprised that I can still win awards these days, especially an award that affirms my entire performing career,” said Hung in a forwarded statement. He has a career as actor, action choreographer, director and producer that stretches some 60 years.

Julia MacCary editor “Better Call Saul” actor Bob Odenkirk, “Pitch Perfect” star Anna Kendrick and acclaimed comedians Chelsea Handler and Eric André are among the lineup South by Southwest (SXSW) announced for its upcoming comedy festival. The comedy festival will include improv, stand-up showcases, live podcast recordings and conversations. In addition to Odenkirk, Kenrick, André and Handler, the comedy lineup features Abbi Jacobson, Adrienne Iapalucci, Andre Hyland, Anthony Atamanuik, Anthony DeVito, Aristotle Athari, Beth Stelling, Brian Moses, Caitlin Peluffo, Caleb Hearon, Christina Catherine Martinez, Doug Benson, Eddie Pepitone, Emma Willmann, Felipe Esparza, Godfrey, Greg Proops, Ismael Loutfi, Jackie Fabulous, Jake Johnson, James Adomian, Jessica McKenna, Joe DeRosa, John Gemberling, Josh Johnson, Joyelle Johnson, Katherine Blanford, Leonard Maltin, Matt Besser, Mike Lawrence, Natalie Palamides, Nick Thune, Patton Oswalt, Pete Lee, Phoebe Robinson, Rachel Sennott, Reggie Watts, Sabrina Jalees, Sam Jay, Sam Tallent, Sandy Honig, Steve Agee, Steph Tolev, Stuart Goldsmith, Tim Robinson, Todd Barry, Tone Bell and Yamaneika Saunders.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Hong Kong courtroom drama film “A Guilty Conscience” edged aside Chinese and Hollywood tentpole films to top the mainland China box office in its opening weekend. According to data from consultancy service Artisan Gateway, the film earned $8.5 million (RMB58.4 million) in its opening three days between Friday and Sunday. “The Wandering Earth 2,” which has been in cinemas for over a month, earned $7.4 million to elevate its cumulative total to $568 million. “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” which opened on top a week earlier, collected $7.0 million, giving it a 10-day cumulative of $31.4 million.

Bob Odenkirk is reflecting on his close friendship with his former  cast members as they gather together for one last awards show season.Odenkirk walked the red carpet at this year's SAG Awards in Los Angeles, and he spoke with ET's Denny Directo about his bond with his incredible co-stars.«I love 'em so much. [They] are my friends for life, this cast of ,» Odenkirk shared.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Berlin Film Festival is once again finding house room for Hong Kong’s most commercially successful enfant terrible, Soi Cheang, aka Cheang Pou Soi, who previously brought film noir “Limbo” to the Berlinale. This time he attends with “Mad Fate,” a film about destiny that may be Cheang’s most bloodthirsty, but which the director says is intended to be inspirational. It plays in the Berlinale Special section. Born in Macau, Cheang developed his career at the feet of Ringo Lam, Andrew Lau, Joe Ma, Wilson Yip and Johnnie To, the great stylists of the crime and action film genre across the Pearl River estuary in Hong Kong. To, who is on the Berlin jury this year, is also a producer on “Mad Fate” through his Makerville label.

Jessica Kiang The unusual design of the White Pagoda, a 13th-century Buddhist temple in the Xicheng district of Beijing, makes it hard to see its shadow. This has given rise to the local legend that its shade can actually be found some two thousand miles away in Tibet, the temple’s spiritual home. The landmark is a constant presence in Chinese director Zhang Lu’s tender, brimming “The Shadowless Tower,” which fixes its setting in the very heart of the Chinese capital, a city rarely portrayed as fondly as it is here. But the pagoda can also be seen as an evocatively imperfect metaphor for a lifestage: that tipping point in the middle of one’s time when, with the past and future weighing equally on either side, you can feel disoriented and suddenly directionless, as when the sun is directly overhead and you cast no shadow. 

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Uncork’d Entertainment has acquired the North American rights for suspense sci-fi thriller “I’ll Be Watching” from Iuvit Media Sales at the European Film Market in Berlin. The film has also been picked up by Falcon Films in the Middle East and North Africa, while Dolphin Medien has taken German-speaking territory rights. The film is directed by Erik Bernard (“Free Dead or Alive”), and stars “The 100” stars Eliza Taylor and Bob Morley, along with Bryan Batt (“12 Years a Slave”), David Keith (“An Officer and a Gentleman”), Hannah Fierman (“VHS”), and Seth Michaels (“Red Notice”).

Tatiana Siegel On Nov. 20, Disney shocked Hollywood when it announced that Bob Iger would return as CEO after less than a year away. Two days later, Disney’s “Avatar: The Way of Water” landed a coveted China release. Then, the sci-fi film received a rare release extension in China that allowed it to run through Feb. 14, enabling it to gross more than $240 million in the country.  Though Disney insiders say China’s embrace of “Avatar” was unrelated to Iger’s return, its success and a string of good fortune for the company has raised eyebrows at rival studios. That’s because after seeing its Marvel releases denied entry to China for nearly four years, Disney recently announced that “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” and “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” were being waved into the country. (“Avengers: Endgame” in 2019 was the last Disney Marvel movie to secure a release in the Middle Kingdom, earning $632 million there.) And if things seem cozier between Disney and China, there’s no missing that a recent “Simpsons” episode that took a shot at the country’s human rights record never appeared on Disney+ in Hong Kong. The episode’s infraction involved a bit where a virtual tour guide tells Marge: “Behold the wonders of China. Bitcoin mines, forced labor camps where children make smartphones.” That joke was enough for the episode to receive the boot. The “Simpsons” move represents a stark difference from Disney’s recent approach elsewhere in Asia, where it chose to forego the release of titles including “Thor” and “Lightyear” rather than cave to pressure from censors over those films’ LGBTQ characters.

Bob Odenkirk is going through a midlife crisis in the AMC series, .Adapted from the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, by Richard Russo, the and alum plays Hank Devereaux Jr., head of the English department at the underfunded Railton College, whose life begins to fall apart. Hank's unhappiness is rooted in unresolved issues with his father, a mediocre and entitled student body and the fact that his department is more divided than ever. 's Mireille Enos co-stars as Lily Devereaux, Hank's wife and vice principal of a local high school, who starts to question the path she's on and the choices she's made amid his downward spiral.The newly released trailer reveals the extent of Hank's discontentment as he publicly declares to a class of students that they're swimming in mediocrity and because they're enrolled in a lackluster college like Railton, they «show very little promise.» When his sudden outburst gets out, Hank begins to worry about the impact his unfiltered words could mean for his future at the college and in his personal life.Things get more and more out of control, as Hank attempts to stay afloat while every aspect of his life goes up in flames.

Hong Kong regulators have ordered local free-to-air TV and radio broadcasters to carry 30 minutes of national education and identity and National Security Law programming each week.