Darin Darakananda Launches ‘Comedy Island,’ Talks Prime Video’s Thailand Strategy: ‘Trusted Genres, but With a Twist’ (EXCLUSIVE)

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Paramount+ streaming service will launch in Japan in December as a free-of-charge addition to cable and internet provider J:COM’s platform and to pay-TV service Wowow. Paramount+ originals including “Tulsa King,” “Mayor of Kingstown” and “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” will be available at the launch of the service and for the first time in Japan. Japan will be the second country in East Asia where the service becomes available, following a launch in South Korea in June last year.

Gaumont and Egerie Productions have announced they are teaming with Prime Video on heartwarming French-language drama My Mother, God, And Sylvie Vartan (Ma Mère, Dieu, Et Sylvie Vartan), which is the platform’s first French-language feature destined for a theatrical release.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Prime Video and Gaumont (“Intouchables”) are teaming up on an uplifting mother-son drama tackling disability, directed by Ken Scott (“Starbuck”), and starring French actors Leïla Bekhti (“All Your Faces”) and Jonathan Cohen (“Sentinelle”). Scott penned and will be directing the film which is titled “Ma mère, Dieu et Sylvie Vartan” and is based on Roland Perez’s novel by the same name. The project is the first theatrical film that Amazon Prime Video is co-financing as part of the French decree that kicked off in July 2021 and stems from the implementation of the European Commission’s legislation called Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMS).

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief A+E Networks is continuing its investment in Korean entertainment content with “A Good Day to Be a Dog,” a fantasy romantic comedy that will upload from Oct. 11. Within Korea, the show will play on public broadcaster MBC and Lifetime Korea, releasing at the rate of one episode per week, every Wednesday.

With both the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes still ongoing, more and more titles set for release this Fall now have 2024 bows. The latest project pushed back? THR reports that Prime Video‘s “Mr.

With both the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes still ongoing, more and more titles set for release this Fall now have 2024 bows. The latest project pushed back? THR reports that Prime Video‘s “Mr.

Aramide Tinubu One of the extraordinary delusions of patriarchy suggests that if women are “good” or “wholesome,” they will be rewarded. Those prizes can come in different forms but typically encompass an ideal life with a perfect partner and children. Any imperfections and cracks can only exist beyond the frame of what’s being showcased to the public.

Ellise Shafer Prime Video’s upcoming crime thriller “Bambai Meri Jaan” tells an action-packed tale of good vs. evil in post-independence India — but at its core, the show is a story about family. Premiering Sept.

The biggest and pinkest blockbuster of the year will be zooming its plastic convertible onto Prime Video on Sept. 12 for rent or purchase!

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Identity, incomplete understanding and urban poverty are among the many themes touched upon in “Oasis of Now,” which is set to make its debut next month in the prestigious New Currents competition section of the Busan International Film Festival. The story revolves around a mother and a daughter who inhabit the invisible corners of an old apartment block in Kuala Lumpur. They meet in the stairwells, play furtive games and snatch moments of shared happiness, before slinking off to their separate homes.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Kim Jee-woon’s black comedy “Cobweb,” which debuted this year at Cannes, is set for a U.S. theatrical release in early 2024.

As TIFF gears up for its start tomorrow, there are plenty of new titles premiering to anticipate. On the TV series side, none may be more anticipated than Prime Video’s “Expats.” Based on Janice Y.K.

As TIFF gears up for its start tomorrow, there’s plenty of new titles premiering to anticipate. On the TV series side, none may be more anticipated than Prime Video‘s “Expats.” Based on Janice Y.K.

If Prime Videos subscribers thought “The Boys” was raunchy and messed up, wait ’til you see what “Gen V” has in store for audiences.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief An investigation into allegations of sexual harassment by a former director of the Busan International Film Festival has not reached a conclusion, several months after it began, the festival said on Tuesday. The festival has said that it is urging former director Huh Moonyoung to cooperate with an external investigator. The festival held its annual lineup presentation on Tuesday in an online format, announcing the bulk of its film selections, juries, anticipated guests, honorary prize-winners and technical arrangements such as screening venues and ticketing. As part of the presentation, current management again apologized for several months of turmoil, which it admitted had scared off sponsors and caused its operating budget to shrink. The turmoil began in May when the festival appointed Cho Jongkook, a close friend of chairman Lee Yong-kwan, to a power-sharing position with festival director Huh Moonyoung. That move was opposed by certain Korean industry guilds, which threatened to boycott the festival in support of Huh.

Comedian Eddie Murphy and Tracee Ellis Ross star in holiday comedy Candy Cane Lane. In addition to Murphy and Ross, the film also stars Jillian Bell, Ken Marino, Nick Offerman, Robin Thede, Chris Redd, D.C. Young Fly, and Anjelah Johnson-Reyes.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The QCinema International Film Festival in the Philippines has beefed up its industry program by introducing a project market strand, QCinema Project Market (QPM). It acts as a networking and funding platform for Filipino and Southeast Asian projects in advanced development.

Jaden Thompson Prime Video has announced that Christmas movie “Candy Cane Lane,” starring Eddie Murphy and Tracee Ellis Ross, will be released exclusively on the streaming platform on Dec. 1. Directed by Reginald Hudlin, “Candy Cane Lane” follows Murphy as Chris, a man who is determined to win his neighborhood’s annual Christmas home decoration contest.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The main competition section of the Busan International Film Festival is set to showcase two new features from Bangladeshi directors, the feature debut of Japanese documentary maker Mori Tatsuya and ruminations on Hong Kong by mainland Chinese director Choi Ji. The festival on Wednesday unveiled its New Currents competition section, reserved for films by directors making their first or second works of fiction, as well as its Jiseok section, a showcase for somewhat more established Asian auteurs. In addition to the Bangladesh duo, New Currents includes two films from Japan, two from Korea and one each from China, Thailand, Malaysia and India. From Bangladesh, Iqbal H. Chowdhury’s “The Wrestler” sees an old fisherman challenge a wrestling champion to combat, and in “The Stranger” Biplob Sarkar tells a coming-of-age, gender-identity tale. From Japan, Mori recounts the events of the Great Kanto earthquake in “September 1923,” while Yamamoto Akira delves into profound and shocking love in “After the Fever.” New Currents’ Korean contributions come from Lee Jong-su, whose “Heritage” tracks a man who opts out of military service and his supervisor, and Sohn Hyun-lok, whose “That Summer’s Lie” blurs truth and fiction in memories of a past romance. India’s Rajesh S.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief HYBE Corp., the K-Pop powerhouse behind BTS, and the U.S.’s Geffen Records are to bring their global girl group audition efforts to Netflix as a docuseries that will launch next year. The two music companies announced the 2024 series and a companion-piece online show that kicks off on Thursday as their “The Debut: Dream Academy” moves up a gear. Having begun the selection process in November 2021 and screened some 120,000 submissions from young women hopefuls from around the world, they have now narrowed the field to just 20 candidates.