Gainax, Japanese Anime Firm Behind ‘Neon Genesis Evangelion,’ Files for Bankruptcy

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Malaysia International Film Festival (Miffest), which runs July 21-28, will open with horror film “Indera” by local director Woo Ming Jin and starring Shaheizy Sam and Azira Shafinaz. The festival will conclude with the double feature of “Love Lies” by Ho Miu Ki and “Peg O’ My Heart” by Nick Cheung.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Steve W. Chung, a former executive at Fox and Korea’s CJ ENM, has been appointed as the inaugural COO of Azuki, an anime community platform and digital art collection.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent “Flow,” a director-driven animated feature which world premiered at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard and just swept three awards at Annecy Film Festival, has been embraced by a raft of major distributors in key territories, including the U.K., Japan, South Korea, Germany, Spain and Italy. The movie is represented internationally by Charades.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Kitano Takeshi, one of the biggest names in contemporary Japanese cinema, is directing an untitled movie for Amazon MGM Studios. Other details of the movie, such as cast and synopsis were also scant. Amazon said only that it, “will produce globally acclaimed Japanese director Takeshi Kitano’s feature film.

The Munich International Film Festival will screen 152 films from 53 countries during its 41st edition, which runs from June 28 to July 6. 

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Japanese animation film “Haikyuu!! The Dumpster Battle” took a clear lead at the mainland China weekend box office – despite only being available for two of three days. Data from consultancy firm Artisan Gateway showed the film scoring $9.8 million (RMB69.4 million) in China, more than double that of second placed film “Be My Friend.” The win came despite “Haikyu!!” only being released on Saturday and measuring up against other tiles available throughout the whole of the Friday-Sunday period. “Haikyu!!” is the third Japanese film so far this year to lead the mainland Chinese box office, following “The Boy and the Heron” and “Doraemon the Movie: Nobita’s Earth Symphony.” It was produced by Production IG, Toho Animation and Sony Music Entertainment Japan and released by Crunchyroll in multiple territories.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Parallax China, one of China’s leading independent film sales companies, has picked up rights to a pair of titles that debut this week at the Shanghai International Film Festival. It is handling world sales on “Qian Tang River,” directed by Wan Bo, and “Another Day of Hope,” by Liu Taifeng. Both are directorial debuts and both appear in the non-competitive Refreshing Chinese Cinema section.

Despite tying the knot just last year, it looks like things are well and truly over for musician Billy Ray Cyrus and his wife, Firerose as the 62 year old has asked for a temporary restraining order.The country singer has sought to stop Firerose, whose real name is Johanna Rose Hodges, from using his credit cards after she allegedly racked up $96,986 (£77K) in unauthorised charges over a few weeks. Now, just weeks after filing for divorce, Billy Ray has filed for an emergency motion at a Tennessee court on Thursday, 13 June, seeking a temporary restraining order.This is reportedly in a bid to prevent his estranged wife from any "unauthorised" use of his personal and business credit cards and accounts.

Grey’s Anatomy star Sara Ramírez is ready for the next chapter of their life as a single person. The actor has officially filed for divorce from their husband, Ryan DeBolt, after announcing their separation three years ago.Ramírez and DeBolt announced their separation publicly in 2021 after saying “I do” in 2012. TMZ broke the news this week that Ramírez filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Berlin-based sales agency Films Boutique has closed further deals for Ray Yeung’s “All Shall Be Well,”following the North American deal with Strand Releasing and the first international sales previously announced by Variety.The film has been acquired by Nour Films in France, One From the Heart in Greece, Mezipatra in Czech Republic and Slovakia, HBO Europe in Eastern Europe, Beta Film in Bulgaria and Falcon in Indonesia, in addition to the already announced deals with Vedette in the Benelux, Karma in Spain, Trigon in Switzerland and Lev in Israel.Films Boutique is in negotiations with potential buyers in the U.K., Latin America, Germany and Japan.Additionally, New Voice Film Productions Ltd. secured distribution deals with Golden Scene for Hong Kong and Macau and Flash Forward Entertainment in Taiwan.“All Shall Be Well” is written and directed by Yeung and was produced by Yeung’s frequent collaborator Michael J.

Good afternoon Insiders. We’ve been all over Europe this week, so here’s Max Goldbart, back in the London-shaped saddle, to walk you through the major stories of the past seven days. Scroll on. And sign up here.

Crunchyroll Senior Vice President of Global Commerce Mitchel Berger was in ebullient mood as he gave a talk on the growing global reach of anime at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival this week.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Warner Bros. Pictures has acquired Pedro Almodóvar’s English-language film debut “The Room Next Door” for key international territories, including the U.K., Spain, Italy, Germany and Latin America. Starring Julianne Moore, Tilda Swinton and John Turturro, “The Room Next Door” will also be released by Warner Bros.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief U.S-produced film and TV content has maintained leadership in terms of reach among Subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) users in nine major markets in Asia-Pacific. And it remains important for acquiring and maintaining subscriptions, a new report finds. New research from consultancy firm Media Partners Asia is based on passively-collected data from 40,000 digital users amassed by its AMPD sister company.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Reminiscent of the outsized Chinese box office success once enjoyed by a certain genre of Hollywood movie – think “Expendables 3,” Pacific Rim” and “Transformers: Age of Extinction” – some Japanese anime films are now earning more in China than they are in their native Japan. Last year, “Suzume” (pictured above) earned $117 million in China, coming in ahead of the film’s $104 million total in Japan.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief A ten-episode original series “Suicide Squad Isekai,” produced by Warner Bros. Japan’s Anime Production and WIT Studio, will premiere on HBO GO later this month. The show is an anime (Japanese-style animation) adaptation spawned by the DC Comics universe.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Eurozoom, a leading French distributor for Japanese animation, has forged a strategic partnership with major French animation producer Special Touch Studios, led by founder and CEO Sebastien Onomo. “We both share the same passion for animation and want to tell bold stories with a particular attention to professional diversity,” said Eurozoom’s CEO-Founder Amel Lacombe, who added that they were jointly working on a six-animation feature lineup. Leading the pack is “Melvile,” directed by Romain Renard and Fursy Teyssier.

Molten, a cloud technology firm backed by a number of Hollywood and tech luminaries, has set a deal to provide rights management services to The CW.

EXCLUSIVE: Bryan Brown and Greta Scacchi are back for more adventures in the Australian outback after Darby and Joan was renewed for a second season by Acorn TV.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Netflix will next month upload its first Japanese same-sex dating reality TV series, “The Boyfriend.” The show takes nine men to a beach house in order to find love. For a month, they live together and take turns working shifts at a coffee truck, forging deep friendships and learning about themselves along the way. The show will also be hosted by an eclectic mix of personalities including Megumi, Horan Chiaki, Thelma Aoyama, drag queen Durian Lollobrigida and Yoshimi Tokui.