This week’s 20 Questions On Deadline guest is Rachel Bloom.
23.08.2022 - 11:17 / variety.com
Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefKakao Piccoma, a Japanese online animation firm, has reportedly pushed back its plans for a share listing on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, previously indicated for December this year. The company hopes that the delay will help it hold on to a $6 billion valuation.The company is jointly owned by Kakao, the Korean tech and messaging giant, and Kakao Entertainment, with shareholding respectively 73% and 18%. Piccoma raised finance last year though a private share sale that brought in Anchor Capital, valued it at JPY847 billion ($6.17 billion at current exchange rates).
News of the delay was reported by the Bloomberg agency and multiple Asian financial sources. “Piccoma plans to go public, but details of the IPO, including the timing, continue to be under review, a company representative said without elaborating,” Bloomberg said. The expected delay reflects weakening investor sentiment towards the tech sector, which has seen Asian giants Alibaba and Tencent humbled and Coupang, Korea’s leading e-commerce firm and a significant VOD player, lose nearly two thirds of its value since a New York IPO last year.
Financial reports suggest that Piccoma can afford to delay its stock listing because it has been profitable since 2020. But fresh capital would help it in its ongoing battle with messaging app Line for leadership of Japan’s online manga market.Webtoons, comic strips designed for consumption on smart phones, are believed to have originated in South Korea in 2003. But they found Japan to be a fertile market, thanks to the country’s long tradition of manga (comics) and anime (animated series and films).
This week’s 20 Questions On Deadline guest is Rachel Bloom.
George Clooney and Julia Roberts are joking around about their upcoming movie, Ticket To Paradise.
Julia Roberts and George Clooney gave fans a look into their filming process. The duo revealed a scene in "Ticket to Paradise" involving a single kiss took "like, six months" to film in a recent interview with the New York Times. "Yeah.
The tragedy at the center of “Love Life,” the new film from Japanese director Kōji Fukada which premieres in Competition at this year’s Venice Film Festival, does not come to disrupt a perfectly happy family. Cracks are visible in the facade of the life shared by Taeko (Fumino Kimura) and Jiro (Kento Nagayama) even before the fatal accident that claims the life of Keita (Tetta Shimada), her young son from a previous marriage.
Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent MK2 Films has scored key territory deals on Japanese director Koji Fukada’s “Love Life,” which makes its world premiere in competition at the Venice Film Festival. Set in contemporary Japan, “Love Life” is a character-driven film revolving around Taeko and her husband, Jiro, who are living a peaceful existence with her young son, Keita. When a tragic accident brings the boy’s long-lost father, Park, back into her life, Taeko throws herself into helping this deaf and homeless man to cope with the pain and guilt. Popular Japanese actress Fumino Kimura (“The Fable: The Killer Who Doesn’t Kill”) headlines the film. MK2 Films has now sold the movie to Teodora (Italy), Imagine (Benelux), Leopardo (Portugal), Demiurg (Ex Yugoslavia), New Cinema (Israel), Swallow Wings (Taiwan), Edko (Hong Kong), Impact Films (India) and Encore Inflight (Airlines).
Wilson Chapman editor Some of the most acclaimed films in animation history are finally available to rent online. GKIDS, the animation specialist distributer, has released the catalog of acclaimed Japanese animation house Studio Ghibli starting Tuesday. 22 films from the studio — including Oscar winner “Spirited Away” and nominees such as “Howl’s Moving Castle” and “When Marnie Was There” — will be made available to rent on all major digital platforms, including Apple TV, Amazon VOD, Vudu, Google Play and Microsoft. The films will be be priced at $4.99 per title, and all will be available in HD, with most being offered in the original Japanese language as well as English dubs.
statement from off-Broadway’s MCC Theater, which he founded. “The MCC Theater community mourns the loss of our much loved and uniquely inspiring partner, colleague, and dear friend, Bob LuPone, who lived fearlessly and with great curiosity, good humor, a boundless passion for connection, and a whole lot of heart,” the statement continued.
Robert Downey Jr. celebrated true love in his life Saturday while celebrating his 17-year wedding anniversary with wife Susan. The 57-year-old "Avengers: Endgame" actor shared a snap across his social media platforms from their Jewish wedding ceremony in New York. The couple met while working on the 2003 film "Gothika" where Robert starred alongside Halle Berry, and Susan was a budding producer.
Robert Downey Jr and his wife Susan are celebrating their 17th wedding anniversary this weekend, and to mark the occasion, the Hollywood actor decided to share a never-before-seen photo from their big day.MORE: Ben Affleck reveals real reason he and Jennifer Lopez called off 2004 weddingTaking to Instagram, the Iron Man star posted a photo taken shortly after they exchanged vows back in 2005. It shows Robert, then 39, dressed in a black suit and a purple spotted scarf cosied up to his 30-year-old bride, who is wearing a stunning plunge neck wedding gown and veil.WATCH: Robert Downey Jr speaks to HELLO!"Today marks 17 years of unadulterated marital bliss," the caption read. "Susan, you are my bedrock, touchstone and lucky stars to boot."MORE: Robert Downey Jr opens the doors to his fun family home – take a lookMORE: Celebrity engagements of 2022: Simon Cowell, Michelle Dockery and moreThe couple exchanged vows in a Jewish ceremony in the Long Island town of Amagansett, New York, surrounded by a star-studded selection of friends and loved ones, which included Keanu Reeves, Sting and Ellen Barkin.A post shared by Robert Downey Jr.
Rambunctious and rough-textured in ways reminiscent of the independent filmmaking boom that had fully erupted out of New York City by the mid-late 2000s, “Funny Pages” is the debut directorial feature by Owen Kline, previously best known for co-starring in one such film from that era. In Noah Baumbach’s painfully semi-autobiographical “The Squid and the Whale,” about a middle-class New York family torn asunder by divorce, Kline played the 12-year-old brother of Jesse Eisenberg’s neurotic teen; his character’s compulsive habit of masturbating in public added to the film’s already-laudable cringe factor.
Pat Saperstein Deputy Editor UTA is stirring up more action in the culinary field, signing top content creators Alexis Nikole Nelson, Matt Broussard (A Cook Named Matt), Owen Han, Danny Mondello (Meals By Cug) and H Woo. UTA will help guide the social media personalities as they grow their digital presence and expand into books, film, television, endorsements, branding, podcasting and other new business ventures. Nelson is known on TikTok as Black Forager. She has become well-known for her videos about foraging and cooking with edible plants, such as seaweed and acorns. She’s amassed more than five million fans across TikTok, Instagram and Twitter for her foraging tips, recipe videos and culinary history lessons. She recently won the 2022 James Beard Award for best social media.
A revival of the Stephen Sondheim musical Sweeney Todd starring Josh Groban and Annaleigh Ashford could land on Broadway this Spring, with the team behind Hamilton – producer Jeffrey Seller and director Thomas Kail – attached, according to a published report.
J. Kim Murphy Joanne Koch, the executive director emeritus at Film at Lincoln Center who served as the organization’s leader for over 32 years, died on Aug. 16 in New York City.
Joanne Koch, the executive director of the Film Society of Lincoln Center, has died. She was 92. Koch was an influential figure in the culture of cinema in New York and ran Film at Lincoln Center, as it is known now, for 32 years.
Continuing its hypersonic run, Paramount/Skydance’s Top Gun: Maverick has, in its 13th weekend of release, crossed the $1.4B mark worldwide, lifting the cume to a touch over $1.403B through today.
Adrienne Bailon Houghton is wearing her heart on her hand. The 38-year-old former co-host of showed off a new tattoo on Thursday, the same week that she and husband Israel Houghton announced the arrival of their newborn son via surrogate. The fresh ink is of her baby boy's name, Ever, written in delicate script along the side of her hand. «So in love with my new @everjames tattoo,» Adrienne wrote on her Instagram story, tagging New York-based tattoo artist Michelle Santana. The couple took to Instagram on Tuesday and shared a black-and-white photo of Adrienne and Israel gazing at the baby boy they've named Ever James.
Jenna Ortega in the starring role was a great decision, many people began questioning Luis Guzmán’s casting as Gomez Addams.However, if you are an OG fan, you probably noticed that by far, among all the actors that had portrayed Gomez, Guzmán is the only one that closely resembles the actual cartoon.The Addams Family is a fictional family created by American cartoonist Charles Addams and initially published in The New Yorker in 1938. Charles’ comic was created as a satirical inversion of the ideal 20th-century American family.After publishing the macabre comic strip for 50 years, for the first time in 1964, people could see Gomez, Morticia Wednesday, Pugsley, Uncle Fester, Grandmama, Lurch, and Thing in a human form.