Epic Pictures Acquires North America On Korean Actioner ‘A Man Of Reason’

EXCLUSIVE: Sky, Warner Music Entertainment and Screen Scotland are collaborating on a feature doc profiling the unique legacy of Scottish funk sensation Average White Band, with Warner taking North American distribution.

K.J. Yossman Happy Accidents has set up a second North American office. The international film and TV studio has also appointed Courtney Colman as its chief financial officer.

Post Malone has announced a slew of North American dates for his upcoming ‘F-1 Trillion’ tour – see the full list of dates below.The rapper-singer took to social media last night to announce the new tour, which has been billed as “a collection of country songs”. This shouldn’t come as a surprise, given the musician’s transition from rap and pop to country music over the last few years. This has most recently culminated in Post Malone announcing a new country album, ‘F-1 Trillion’, due for release on August 16.

The Jesus and Mary Chain will be heading out on a North American tour with the Psychedelic Furs later this year.The tour kicks off in Philadelphia on September 29 and will see the band take in numerous cities across the continent in October and November.They will then wrap up at the YouTube Theater in Inglewood, California on November 11. Also opening for them alongside the Psychedelic Furs will be Frankie Rose.Check out the tour dates below and buy your tickets here.SEPTEMBER29 – Philadelphia, PA, Franklin Music HallOCTOBER1 – New Haven, CT – College Street Music Hall2 – Boston, MA – Orpheum Theater4 – New York, NY – The Beacon Theatre5 – Brooklyn, NY – The Brooklyn Paramount6 – Washington, D.C. – The Anthem8 – Rochester, NY – Kodak Center Music Hall9 – Toronto, Ontario – Queen Elizabeth Theater11 – Detroit, MI – Masonic Cathedral Theater12 – Indianapolis, IN – Murat Theatre13 – Chicago, IL – The Salt Shed16 – Milwaukee, WI – Riverside Theater17 – St. Paul, MN – The Palace19 – Des Moines, IA – Val-Air Ballroom20 – St. Louis, MO – Stifel Theatre22 – La Vista, NE – The Astro23 – Kansas City, MO – Uptown Theater24 – Salina, KS – Stiefel Theatre26 – Denver, CO – Fillmore Auditorium29 – Seattle, WA – Paramount Theatre30 – Portland, OR – Crystal BallroomNOVEMBER1 – Redding, CA – Redding Civic Auditorium2 – San Francisco, CA – The Masonic3 – Reno, NV – Grand Sierra Resort Grand Theatre6 – Riverside, CA – Fox Performing Arts Center8 – San Diego, CA – The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park9 – Inglewood, CA – YouTube TheaterIn other news, The Jesus and Mary Chain and Robert Fripp are among the artists who have launched a lawsuit against the PRS over songwriter royalties.The case is centred around how the organisation handles royalties

Anderson .Paak has announced a 2024 North American tour which will see him perform his second album ‘Malibu’ in its entirety.The 14-date run will kick off at the Hayden Homes Amphitheater in Oregon on September 18. From there, the artist will make stops in Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Wantagh.

Blink-182 have kicked off their 2024 North American tour last night (June 20) and debuted a new song along with their classic deep cuts.The band – comprised of the original line-up Tom Delonge, Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker – took over the Kia Center in Orlando Flordia last night to kick off their 2024 ‘One More Time’ tour.Comprised of 26 tracks, the night’s setlist included deep cuts such as ‘Obvious’ and ‘M+M’s’ which were played with Delonge for the first time since 2013. They also performed ‘When Your Heart Stops Beating’ and ‘There Is’ which are tracks from their side-projects +44 and Box Car Racer respectively.

Sabrina Carpenter has announced her 2024 North American “The Short N’ Sweet Tour” which is set to kick off later this year.The ‘Nonsense’ singer is set to begin her arena tour at the Nationwide Arena in Colombus, Ohio on September 23. From there, she will make stops in major cities such as Toronto, New York City, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, Orlando, Austin, Dallas, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco and more.Carpenter’s tour will wrap up at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on November 15.

Thania Garcia singer/songwriter Sabrina Carpenter announces her upcoming North American headlining Arena tour. The “Short n’ Sweet” tour, which kicks off September 23rd in Columbus, Ohio and includes headlining dates at New York’s Madison Square Garden and the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. Amaarae, Griff and Declan McKenna will be supporting Sabrina on this tour.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Extremely Unique Dynamic,” a comedy drama film that plays at the Frameline Festival in San Francisco, is set for release later this year in North America. North American rights to the picture were acquired by distributor Strand Releasing, which says it plans a late fall theatrical release. The U.S.-produced film chronicles “two best friends who test the limits of their relationship while making a triple-meta movie.” It had its debut in March at the Sonoma International Film Festival and followed that with appearance at Inside Out and CAAMFest.

EXCLUSIVE: Quiver Distribution has acquired North American rights for filmmaker and actress Nicki Micheaux’s coming-of-age love story, Summer of Violence. The film stars Kasey Inez, Jahking Guillory, Madhulika Krishnan, Pedro Correa, and Damon Gupton, and will next appear at the Black Girls Rock! Film Festival June 21-23 in Atlanta, GA.

Ben Croll French animation outfit Blue Spirit (the studio behind Netflix sensation “Blue Eye Samurai”) will introduced an in-house digital creation and development label under the moniker Blue Spirit Creative. Offering full-service creative and graphic development for features, series, ads and games, the creative label will be run by the Paris-based team behind Digital Banana, which Blue Spirit acquired last year. “We can now offer a one-stop-shop,” says Blue Spirit CEO Olivier Lelardoux.

Sophie Ellis-Bextor is bringing her dancing shoes stateside at last!

EXCLUSIVE: Ketchup Entertainment has acquired North American rights to Ozi, Voice of the Forest, an animated feature produced by Appian Way Productions, Mike Medavoy and GCI Film, which features a voice cast led by Amandla Stenberg.

Wave to Earth have announced the North American leg of their upcoming 2024 ‘0.03’ world tour, with concerts in the US and Canada.Wave to Earth announced their 2024 ‘0.03’ world tour today (June 11), starting with the concerts and dates for the North American leg. It’ll take place from September to November this year, with 25 shows across both the US and Canada.The band will kick off their tour on September 16 at the Vogue Theatre in the Canadian city of Vancouver.

The Black Keys’ Patrick Carney has said that the band “got fucked” after their North American tour was cancelled and they split from their management.The Akron, Ohio band announced their ‘International Players Tour’ back in April, which was to include 31 dates across the US and Canada from September to November this year.However, it was reported late last month that the entire run of gigs had been abruptly scrapped, with no explanation provided. Shortly afterwards, following speculation that the move was done in light of low ticket sales, the members opened up about the cancellation, saying it was axed and re-planned in favour of smaller theatre venues as featured on their recent European dates.And now, the band’s drummer Carney has spoken out on social media for the first time.

The Black Keys have reportedly parted ways from their management team following the recent cancellation of their entire North American arena tour.The band announced the ‘International Players Tour’ tour back in April, which included 31 dates across the US and Canada set for later this year. The shows were announced in support of their 12th album ‘Ohio Players’, which arrived on April 5.The duo – comprising Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney – were expected to kick off in Tulsa on September 17, with Seattle band The Head And The Heart set to support them at select shows.

Alex Ritman “Small Things Like These,” the Irish drama starring newly-minted Oscar winner Cillian Murphy that opened the Berlinale earlier this year, finally has a domestic home, Variety has learned, with Lionsgate picking up the film for the U.S., the U.K. and Ireland. The studio will partner with Roadside Attractions for its North American theatrical release.

EXCLUSIVE: Abramorama has acquired North American theatrical distribution rights to the award-winning documentary Join or Die, a film about community in America, the loneliness epidemic and Robert Putnam’s famed “Bowling Alone” research on civic decline and renewal. Directed by sister-brother team Rebecca Davis (Netflix’s Explained) and Pete Davis (author of Dedicated: The Case for Commitment in an Age of Infinite Browsing).

Gkids has acquired theatrical, videogram and digital transactional rights to the new anime series Dan Da Dan. The acquisition serves as Gkids’ first engagement with a first-run series, following North American distribution of various famed retrospective series work. No release date is set.

EXCLUSIVE: BritBox International has named Diana Pessin as its Chief Marketing Officer, while striking U.S. and Canada deals for UK drama The Inheritance.