Chinese Online Movies Repackaged as PopC Linear Channel – Global Bulletin

Rudie Obias editor If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission. The boxing world has four title bouts in Nevada on Saturday, May 4 with the headliner match between Mexican boxers Saúl “Canelo” Álvarez (60-2-2) vs. Jaime Munguía (43-0) for the undisputed super middleweight title.

Rudie Obias editor If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission. The UFC goes to the “Marvelous City” in Brazil for UFC 301: Pantoja vs. Erceg.

Afternoon Insiders, Max Goldbart here in a week where we have barely stopped. Plenty news and analysis below. Sign up here.

Naman Ramachandran Some of the Sony Music Group‘s top European artists are backing a voter participation campaign. Sony has launched what it describes as a “non-partisan campaign,” titled Your Voice, Your Power, Your Vote, to encourage voting in the June European Union elections, with a focus on young people and underrepresented groups.

Man City star Jack Grealish is known to love a Chinese takeaway. So much so, he reckons he orders the same thing to eat after every game.

EXCLUSIVE: UTA has signed Shanghai and Los Angeles-based production, distribution and investment company Fundamental Films for representation.

Ellise Shafer The Royal Television Society has revealed the dates and initial speakers for its annual RTS London Convention. This year’s event will take place on Sept. 17 at Kings Place in London and is chaired by Anna Mallett, Netflix‘s vice president of production for EMEA and the U.K.

BBC Radio 2 star Sara Cox has shared her shock at the prices of food when she took her husband to a posh restaurant for his birthday. Sara, from Bolton, said she made her family eat "only starters" after clocking the price of main meals at the "spendy" Chinese restaurant in the capital.

Jamie Lang International Emmy-winning French animation producer-distributor Dandelooo has closed a deal with Korea’s Dream Factory Studio for the latter’s new CG preschool series “PongPong Dino.” Targeted at 2-4-year-olds, “PongPong Dino” is a new IP produced by Dream Factory and directed by animator Tacken Chae. In the show, the audience is invited to a world where playing with your food is an important part of each meal.

Naman Ramachandran Freely, the new free streaming service backed by Britain’s public service broadcasters (PSBs) that delivers live TV over broadband, has launched. The initiative is from Everyone TV, the organization which runs free TV in the U.K. and is jointly owned by the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Paramount Global’s Channel 5.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Vietnamese French director and screenwriter Tran Anh Hung has been named as president of the jury for the upcoming Shanghai International Film Festival. The festival, which runs June 14 to 23, said that his works “blend the expressions of Eastern and Western cultures, with sensitivity, delicacy, and a romantic style.” His films include: 1992’s “Scent of the Green Papaya”; 1995’s “Cyclo,” starring Tony Leung Chiu-wai; 2009 English-language thriller “I Come With the Rain,” starring Josh Hartnett; and “The Taste of Things,” which earned him the best director prize at Cannes last year. The jury president role marks a return and a promotion for the director. He was previously on the Shanghai festival’s jury in 2011, when he also screened his “Norwegian Wood.” SM Cinema, the largest exhibitor in the Philippines, is to open giant screen Imax cinemas in three new venues.

Kenneth Huang was known for his particular taste in wine. Whether in his favorite corner of Cut, the Michelin-starred steakhouse at the Beverly Wilshire, or in the Peninsula Shanghai, Huang would summon a bottle of Opus One to the table. He would tell guests that he had a private reserve of the Napa Valley vineyard’s 2011 vintage, which retails for up to $2,000 a case. Someone who regularly dined with the financier says she drank so much Opus One that she got sick of the bourgeois Bordeaux. 

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Women of My Billion (WOMB),” a documentary produced by Priyanka Chopra Jonas, will play on Prime Video from May 3. Directed by Ajitesh Sharma, “WOMB” follows the journey of Srishti Bakshi, as she embarked on a walking pilgrimage from Kanyakumari to Kashmir, India, spanning 3,800 kms (2,360 miles) over 240 days, with a mission to find and share stories about women, their struggles, dreams, rights, and their wins, against all odds. “Women have borne the brunt of gender bias for far too long, enduring a silent struggle against entrenched social injustices that seek to suppress their voices.

Range Media Partners has secured a minority investment from a group including Liberty Global and TPG founding partner David Bonderman’s family office Wildcat Capital Management.

Editors note: Filmmaker and producer Davis Guggenheim directed 2006’s An Inconvenient Truth featuring Al Gore. The film won the Oscar and helped put Jeff Skoll‘s social-impact-driven production company then known as Participant Media on the map, and also sounded an alarm about climate change that has become more pronounced since the film was released. In addition to documentaries, Participant was also responsible for Oscar Best Picture winners Spotlight and Green Book, and Steven Soderbergh’s Contagion, another timely topic. Guggenheim is a co-founder of Concordia Studio and most recently directed and produced Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie, which  won four Emmys including for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special.  He is the only person to direct and produce three distinct films ranking in the top 100 highest-grossing documentaries of all time (An Inconvenient Truth, It Might Get Loud, and Waiting for Superman). Here he penned a guest column for Deadline after learning Participant was shuttering. 

Guy Lodge Film Critic Macho sports-movie tropes meet with bright chick-flick framing to curious effect in “YOLO,” either an ostensible boxing drama that doesn’t pick up the gloves until the third act, or a misfit romcom that takes a late and unusual turn toward transformational self-help territory. Chinese audiences have been delighted by either formulation, as Jia Ling‘s second feature as director-star — following 2021’s popular time-travel comedy “Hi, Mom” — has racked up the year’s second-highest global gross so far, mostly on the strength of its domestic receipts.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd., the disappointed bride in the failed engagement between Zee and Sony India, has formally ended its quest for a merger. On Tuesday, it withdrew its application before the industry regulator National Company Law Tribunal and said that it will focus instead on internal growth.

Chris Hemsworth revealed that he tried unseccessfully to land a starring role in a new Kevin Costner movie.

The 55th edition of the Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight, the parallel section of the main Cannes Film Festival, has announced its 2024 line-up. Running from May 15 to 23, the Fortnight, or the Quinzaine Des Cinéastes, in French, will debut 21 feature films and ten short films.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Stormy,” a documentary about former porn star Stormy Daniels, has been picked up by Blue Ant Studios for international distribution. The launch was announced on Monday, the same day that former U.S. president Donald Trump begins a criminal trial in New York for allegedly covering up hush money payments to Daniels. “Stormy,” offered as two one-hour episodes or a two-hour feature, is produced by Emmy-nominated producers Erin Lee Carr (“I Love You,” “Now Die: The Commonwealth v.