Cathay Pacific offers Australian residents discounted flights to Hong Kong

K.J. Yossman Australian indie WFTN Entertainment – the company behind hit blue-light shows including “Bondi Vet” and “Paramedics” – is hoping to lure unscripted creatives Down Under in a new hiring drive, Variety can reveal. WFTN says it has already identified 20 roles it needs to fill – including editors, producers, showrunners, post producers, field producers and production managers – and is prepared to spend up to seven figures to snap up a host of U.K. creatives. That sum will go towards flights, accommodation and work permits as well as salaries. The indie says that due to growing demand – it reports an uptick in commissions – plus the post-COVID production boom Australia is currently experiencing means it is becoming increasingly hard to fill those roles domestically – which is why Steve Oemcke, WTFN Group’s co-founder and CCO, is now casting his eyes across to the U.K.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Australian actors Deborah Mailman and Rachel Griffiths have begun production on the final six-episode season of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s award-winning female-led political drama series “Total Control.” With screenplays by Stuart Page, Julia Moriarty, Pip Karmel and Meyne Wyatt, season three picks up almost two years after the explosive events of the second season. Outsider turned kingmaker, Alex Irving (Mailman), is completely at home in the nation’s capital. While Rachel Anderson (Griffiths), now an occasional ally, is threatening to upend the entire system by establishing her own political party. However, as Alex attempts to carve out a nation changing legacy, a controversy engineered by her enemies threatens to destroy her career and public reputation. In the final season, Alex must make a choice: either she can stay true to her principles and accept defeat, or she can get her hands dirty and fight back.

Ricky Gervais has said he “can’t wait to see” how Australia intends to modernise The Office. On Tuesday (30 May), it was announced that Australian comedian Felicity Ward will lead the country’s forthcoming re-envisioning of the popular British sitcom. While Prime Video’s The Office: Australia is the 13th version of the workplace mockumentary series, it will be the first-ever female-led version.

The Office is getting an Australian adaptation, led by Australian comedian Felicity Ward, it has been revealed.Per Variety, the Australian adaptation is set to begin production in Sydney, Australia this June. The show – which will consist of eight episodes – will be released as an Amazon Original and will be available for streaming on Prime Video sometime in 2024 worldwide, apart from the US.Felicity Ward, who will lead the cast, will portray Hannah Howard, the managing director of Australian packaging company Flinley Craddick.

“He moved up from Sydney in 2021 and we have not stopped laughing,” Denise, 74, tells New Idea from her Gold Coast home. 

Ike and Tina Turner, is a cultural staple down under, but its origins are a bit of a mystery.The queen of rock and roll, who tragically died this week at 83 of natural causes, penned the track about her southern hometown of Nutbush, Tennessee.Upon Turner’s passing, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the 12-time Grammy winner created a “soundtrack to our lives.”Jon Stratton, an adjunct professor at the University of South Australia’s School of Creative Industries, traces the dance’s beginnings to the New South Wales education department.Educators realized dance is an effective way to teach children about the arts and get some exercise, he said.“In NSW there seemed to be some kind of committee trying to work out what kinds of dances primary school kids in particular should do as part of physical education,” he told the Aussie outlet SBS News.“What seems to have happened is that somebody devised the Nutbush along the lines of the Madison (another, slightly more complex line dance),” he continued.Its popularity quickly snowballed, captivating classrooms across the country through the ’80s and ’90s. “In terms of teaching kids, it’s innocuous,” Stratton explained, adding that the beat is “really easy” to dance to.

A flight attendant has discussed why she doesn't like serving Diet Coke to passengers on planes.

Manori Ravindran Executive Editor of International Rebel Wilson is directing her first feature film with musical comedy “The Deb,” a big-screen adaptation of an Australian musical set in the outback. The film is produced by Amanda Ghost, Len Blavatnik, and Gregor Cameron via their company Unigram, which recently produced Apple TV+ movie “Tetris,” and sister outfit AI Film (“I, Tonya”). The project was launched around the Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday, at a private event aboard billionaire investor Blavatnik’s yacht, where cast members from the Aussie musical performed a number of songs on the vessel’s upper deck. Blavatnik, sporting a baseball cap with branding for the movie, introduced the singers, making it clear to the intimate gathering aboard his three-floor yacht that he was an enthusiastic backer of the project and, indeed, Wilson.

Confused? We don’t blame you! It’s not the simplest explanation… Essentially, if you’re a Netflix subscriber, anyone who you’ve given your password to but doesn’t live with you won’t be able to use your account.

the BBC reported Tuesday. He was 93.The Australian entertainer was found guilty in 2014 of assaulting four girls between 1968 and 1986 and served three and a half years before being released in 2017.

RZA recently joined Russell Crowe on stage with his band The Gentlemen Barbers on May 19 at his show in Sydney, Australia.The Wu-Tang rapper made his surprise appearance at Crowe’s show at The Bridge Hotel in Sydney. They sang a rendition of Crowe’s song ‘Let Your Light Shine’ which was released back in May.

Halle Bailey and Melissa McCarthy are joined by director Rob Marshall as they walk the red carpet for the the Australian premiere of The Little Mermaid on Monday (May 22) in Sydney, Australia.

Seoul-based sales agent Finecut has sold Hong Sangsoo’s In Our Day to France’s Capricci, Spain’s L’Atalante Cinema and Ama Films for Greece. 

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “In Our Day,” the film by South Korean auteur Hong Sang-soo which closes the Directors’ Fortnight section of the Cannes film festival, has seen distributors in multiple territories move early to strike rights deals. French rights were picked up by Capricci), Spanish rights by L’Atalante Cinema and Greek rights by Ama Films. The film has its official premiere on May 25. Seoul-based Finecut has long been the sales agent for Hong’s plentiful output. In addition to the deals on “In Our Day,” Finecut signed agreements with L’Atalante, with France’s Ariona Films and Taiwan’s Cola Films for “In Water,” Hong’s first film of 2023 which premiered in the Encounters section in Berlin in February. The film was previously sold to Cinema Guild for North America.

Rolf Harris was once considered a national treasure, however had a well-documented fall from grace after he was arrested for the abuse of young girls. The Australian-born entertainer had worked in the entertainment industry for decades, as a musician, singer-songwriter, composer, comedian, actor, painter and television personality.

Taipei-based sales agency Distribution Workshop has picked up international sales rights to $50M action adventure A Legend, starring Jackie Chan and directed by Stanley Tong. 

Bradley Walsh was back on our screens for Monday night's instalment of The Chase, where Gary from Hull, Sarah from Clitheroe, Ailsa from Fife and George from London battled it out for some cash against the chaser.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Hong Kong Disneyland theme park managed a 22% increase in visitor numbers in its most recent financial year allowing it to modestly reduce its annual losses. The park, which is jointly owned by the Hong Kong government and Walt Disney, with the government holding a narrow majority, reports a financial year to the end of September – and does so more than seven months in arrears. It has been loss-making for the past eight financial years and has made profits in only three years since its opening in 2005. The 2021-2022 financial year was again complicated by the city’s strict anti-COVID restrictions. It was fully closed for three and a half months (longer than the previous financial year) and operated under other social distancing and pandemic measures. Additionally, inbound tourism was heavily curtailed, especially from mainland China. That meant that during the reporting period, the park and hotels were largely visited by locals only.

Selling Sunset's Chrishell Stause and Australian singer and rapper G Flip have got married. Chrishell, 41, shared a sweet video compilation to Instagram that is set to 28 year old G Flip's new song, Be Your Man, which sees the couple at various points throughout their relationship.

But alas, despite its popularity, Jenny Craig could be shutting up shop for good, a leaked email sent to the US arm of the business revealing mass staff redundancies.