‘Chopin’ Asian American Drama Film Wraps Production on High Note (EXCLUSIVE)

EXCLUSIVE: Bella Thorne (Divinity) and Jack Kilmer (Palo Alto) have been set to topline The Tower, one of 102 projects to have been granted a SAG-AFTRA Interim Agreement following the launch of the actors strike. Also set for the fantastical drama, from filmmaker Adam Sigal (Nandor Fodor and The Talking Mongoose), are Cam Gigandet (Violent Night) and Chris Mullinax (Chariot).

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Sound of Freedom, the indie action-drama film that has already earned over $125 million at the North American box office, will begin to move into international distribution from next month.Angel Studios, the crowd-funded, Utah-based production and distribution firm behind the picture, says it has set releases in territories including the U.K., Australia and Latin America. The company explained that it has arranged direct-to-theater distribution deals in Latin America, the U.K, and Ireland. In other territories it will take the more conventional route of partnering with distributors.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Tom and Jerry,” one of the most iconic animation franchises in history, is to get a localized new version made with Southeast Asian audiences in mind. The cat and mouse duo will take their chases to the streets, buildings and cityscapes of Singapore in a 7 x 3-minute series of shorts, produced locally in Asia, and in association with Warner Bros. Animation.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Korean TV series and films are increasing still further their hold on streaming audiences across East Asia. They accounted for half of viewing time in the first half of the year, according to new third-party research. Korean-made premium VOD content captured 50% of SVOD viewership and 42% of freemium viewership between January and June 2023, with a record 58 million VOD users tuning in nine East Asian territories (Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam), according to Singapore-based research and consultancy firm Media Partners Asia. The analysis is based on the measured media consumption activity of 40,000 Asia Pacific consumers, conducted by AMPD, the analysis firm’s sister company.

On the heels of the completion of the LightReel Film Festival and Black Reel Awards, the Foundation for the Augmentation of African Americans in Film (FAAAF) has announced its new board of directors.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Exports of K-pop albums increased by 17% year on year to reach an all-time record of $133 million in the first six months of the year. The U.S. is now the second biggest overseas market for Korean music worth $25 million, having overtaken China, but still trailing Japan ($48 million), according to data from the Korea Customs Service. The next largest were Germany, Taiwan, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, Canada, the U.K. and France.The record was achieved despite the absence of BTS as a group (though BTS members Jimin, and Suga put out solo efforts) and saw Stray Kids, Tomorrow X Together, Seventeen, Ateez and Twice all make an international impact.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Netflix is to release its Japanese live action film “Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead,” on Aug. 3. The horror comedy film is based on the hit manga (comic book series) by Aso Haro and Takata Kotaro that debuted in the Shogakukan magazine Monthly Sunday Gene-X in October 2018. It has also spawned an animated series that plays on Hulu in North American and other territories. The underlying comic is a wackily original melding of the salaryman gag manga – a popular genre in Japan seldom exported abroad – with the sort of zombie holocaust story that has become a Hollywood staple.

Searchlight Pictures’ Sundance-winning original comedy Theater Camp will take in an estimated $281,172 or $46.9k per theater at six locations opening weekend — the best limited opening for the distributor since Jojo Rabbit in the fall of 2019 ($349k in five locations). That’s after the A CinemaScore film on Sunday pulled ahead of Searchlight’s The Banshees Of Inisherin four-theater debut last year.

aired, the show is back for season 14 with an all-new cast ready to show off sides of the city the OG franchise stars never even visited. «I think this franchise is so beloved,» new star Jessel Taank remarks to ET, sitting down beside co-stars Erin Lichy and Brynn Whitfield. «Thirteen years of fans investing in these women, it's a long time and so, I get sort of that initial, like, 'Oh my gosh! Shock, horror! A completely new cast?!' But, look: I'm 100 percent certain that they're gonna fall in love with us.»«It’s so current, it’s so, sort of, of the moment,» the fashion publicist, who is the first Indian 'Wife in the franchise, continues.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Wanda Investment, a subsidiary of the privately-owned Chinese property giant Dalian Wanda, has sold an 8.3% stake in Wanda Film Holding for RMB2.2 billion ($306 million). Wanda Film, which is listed on the Shenzhen stock exchange, operates China’s largest circuit of multiplexes and retains a stake in Hollywood producer Legendary Entertainment (“Dune”). The buyer is Lu Lili, the wife of Shen Jun, the controller of East Money Information, a financial data platform, Wanda Film said in a regulatory filing this week. The share sale appears to be a move to raise finance for Dalian Wanda and Wang Jianlin, the politically-connected former army officer who built one of China’s largest property empires and from 2012 mounted a seven-year campaign to own a large chunk of Hollywood.

EXCLUSIVE: The indie feature In The Summers has wrapped production in New Mexico and Deadline has your first look at stars René “Residente” Pérez Joglar, in his acting debut, Sasha Calle (The Flash), Lio Mehiel (Mutt) and Leslie Grace (In The Heights) below.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief

EXCLUSIVE: Production on the Showdown Productions thriller In Flight has wrapped. Upon completion of post-production, the project will be shopped to distribution partners.

EXCLUSIVE: Jon Gosier’s Southbox Entertainment has secured a $25 million partnership with sister company FilmHedge and is raising another $55 million from private investors — for $80 million in fresh funds to greenlight film and TV projects.

EXCLUSIVE: Cole Brown, DreamCrew Entertainment, Jermaine Dupri, and Jami Gertz announced that production has wrapped on the forthcoming documentary series Magic City: An American Fantasy – a three-part series uncovering the story behind the famed Atlanta strip club, Magic City, and its decades-long influence on hip-hop. Drake joins the production through his DreamCrew Entertainment, with Executive Producers Adel “Future” Nur and Peter Nelson. Dupri joins with music executive Michael Mauldin as Executive Producer, and production company Scheme Engine.

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McKinley Franklin editor LOC Agency, a brand and talent management service founded by Jessica Hoy and Teddy Duvall, has launched to offer strategic advisory and creative services for films, personalities and more. LOC Agency works with a range of feature films, brands and high-profile talent to deliver brand management, public relations, special events and sponsorship sales and brand activation services. Their clients have included companies such as Robert Schwartzman’s Utopia Distribution, which remains a client following the film company’s growth in the independent film industry, for their films including “Shiva Baby” and “Holy Spider.” LOC has also supported film campaigns for titles such as “Down With the King,” starring Freddie Gibbs, “Venus as a Boy,” starring Olivia Culpo, MUBI’s Paris premiere of the Dash Snow documentary “Moments Like This Never Last” in partnership with Dover Street Market and the KT Tunstall-produced short film “Gutterpunk.”

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Toho International, an offshoot of the storied Japanese film and TV giant Toho, is to launch twin e-commerce sites serving the growing legion of North American fans of Japanese pop culture. One platform is specific to the Godzilla brand. The other, iiZO, will cater to a wider range of anime fans who will be served with original Japanese merchandize. The moves are being headed by Kristin Parcell GM at Toho International, and her U.S.-based team who joined the firm from Crunchyroll at the end of last year. They foresee the twin initiatives as a business with $100 million of revenue within a few years. Their in-house operation comprises anime and “Godzilla” brand experts, and also includes specialist in merchandizing, buying and fashion. The sites go live at unspecified dates this summer.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Kino Lorber has picked up North American rights to Pham Thien An’s debut feature “Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell.” The Vietnamese drama appeared in Cannes’ Director’s Fortnight section and was winner of the Camera d’Or. The company plans a theatrical release as well as a digital and home video releases on all major platforms after the film makes multiple stops on the international film festival circuit. “The sudden death of his sister-in-law brings unexpected responsibilities to Thien (Le Phong Vu), who is reluctantly tasked with bringing his five-year-old nephew Dao to their countryside hometown. On the road, Thien is drawn into a search for his long missing older brother, haunted and spurred forward by a series of sublime dreams that reignite suppressed memories, forbidden desires, and specters of his own youth. What began as a journey home becomes a pilgrimage marked by visual splendor and mystical overtones, a quest for understanding and certainty in a Vietnam that seems unable to provide any clear answers. As Thien battles with his own existential question of what is worth living for, Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell interrogates the persistence and complexity of faith, not only in the spiritual but in the delicate beauty of earthly existence,” said Kino Lorber by way of a long synopsis.

Katie Cassidy signed up for her first Hallmark movie opposite Stephen Huszar, she didn't plan for it to turn into a real-life fairy-tale romance.In , the first of two «Christmas in July» movies this year, Cassidy plays an architect, Ava Jensen, who takes a job of a lifetime to work at the Royal Ice Hotel and unexpectedly crosses paths with Prince Henry (Huszar), quickly finding herself being swept off her feet in a whirlwind romance. As fate would have it, Cassidy and Huszar's onscreen chemistry turned into something more off-screen as well.Cassidy confirmed in June that she and Huszar were officially dating, posting a sunny couple selfie on Instagram with the caption, «Welp, cats out of the bag…»A post shared by KATIE CASSIDY (@katiecassidy)But as Cassidy shared, things didn't turn romantic with Huszar until the second week of filming earlier this year after the pair went out for a meal. «I think we went for lunch or something, and I noticed his crystals.