GKIDS Acquires Hit Anime Basketball Film ‘The First Slam Dunk’

Tampopo will be doing a brand new South-East Asian inspired brunch for the first time, starting next week. And it will be trialling it for half price until the end of June.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Paris-based company Indie Sales has closed further sales on “Richard the Stork 2,” and expects to sell the last remaining territories during the Cannes Film Market. The film, also known as “Richard the Stork and the Mystery of the Great Jewel,” is a follow up to “Richard the Stork” (released in North America as “A Stork’s Journey”), which was widely distributed in 155 countries and grossed more than $20 million worldwide. Indie Sales, which sold Oscar nominee “My Life as a Zucchini” to more than 80 territories, is increasingly focusing on acquiring big budget animation.

Sony Pictures Classics announced today they have acquired all rights in the United States, Canada, Latin America, Scandinavia, India, Middle East, Turkey, Southeast Asia (excluding Taiwan and South Korea) and airlines within those territories to Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal’s upcoming Bossa Nova-themed animated film, “They Shot the Piano Player.” Sony Classics plans to release the film at the end of the year to qualify for year-end awards consideration.A true international production, the film is produced by Cristina Huete of Trueba PC (“Chico & Rita”) in Spain, along with Serge Lalou for Les Films d’Ici (“Josep”) in France, Janneke van de Kerkhof for Submarine Sublime (“Buñuel in the Labyrinth of Turtles”) in the Netherlands, and Humberto Santana in Portugal. It is executive produced by Nano Arrieta of Atlantika and Fabien Westerhoff of Film Constellation.From Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal, who previously directed the Oscar-nominated “Chico & Rita,” “They Shot the Piano Player” is narrated by Jeff Goldblum.

Sony Pictures Classics has picked up rights to the animated feature They Shot the Piano Player for the U.S., Canada, Latin America, Scandinavia, India, the Middle East, Turkey, Southeast Asia (excluding Taiwan and South Korea) and airlines within the aforementioned territories. The film from Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal, two of the directors behind the Oscar-nominated animated feature Chico and Rita, is set up for a fall awards push from SPC.

Six months after the landmark debut of its ad-supported subscription tier, Netflix said the plan has hit 5 million monthly active users globally.

Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda’s latest gem, “Monster,” begins on an enormous inferno. The facade of a hostess club is engulfed in flames of mysterious origin, attracting everyone from curious neighbors to squealing children chasing down roaring fire engines to witness the chaos.

While Southeast Asian films have premiered at the Cannes Film Festival many times before, and even won the Palme d’Or, there’s an energy around the region this year that we haven’t felt on the Croisette at previous editions. 

Sony Pictures has made several changes and additions to its film release slate, including pushing back the release of the family film “Harold and the Purple Crayon” to 2024 and Blumhouse’s “They Listen” to 2024. “Harold and the Purple Crayon,” an adaptation of the famed children’s book starring Zachary Levi and Lil Rel Howery, has been moved from a slated June 30 release to August 2, 2024. “They Listen,” a horror film starring Katherine Waterston and John Cho, has been moved from August 2023 to August 30, 2024.

Taipei-based Screenworks Asia is launching international sales on award-winning director Hsin-Ying Sung’s female-centric psychological thriller Lost In Perfection ahead of the Cannes market. 

Mubi has acquired 11 films by Lars von Trier for North America, including the director’s Dogme 95 entry The Idiots. It will release a new uncut 4K restoration of the film June 16 theatrically timed to its 25th anniversary, followed by an exclusive streaming release.

BTS have released a brand-new song called ‘The Planet’, for the soundtrack of the upcoming South Korean animated series Bastions.‘The Planet’ is performed by all seven members of BTS, and are their first release as a full group since June 2022’s ‘Yet To Come’, from their compilation album ‘Proof’. That record also featured four other new songs from the group.BTS’ new song will be used as the theme song for Bastions.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The selection of two restored films by Ozu Yasujiro for the Cannes Classics section will kick-off a six-month long celebration of the iconic Japanese auteur around the world. Cannes revealed last week that it will showcase Ozu’s 1947 “Record of a Tenement Gentleman” and his 1950 picture “The Muneteka Sisters.” The screenings mark the 120th anniversary of Ozu’s birth and the 60th anniversary of his death. Ozu died in 1963 on the day of his 60th birthday, just a few months after the release of his last film “The Taste of Sake.” Major studio, Shochiku, where Ozu spent the majority of career and made his iconic movies, is planning a series of curated retrospectives, festival screenings, and special events around the world that pay homage to his enduring legacy as one of the most influential directors in cinema. These will last until the end of 2023.

Salt Lake City’s Kilby Block Party.Taking place May 12-14 at the Utah State Fairgrounds, some of the hippest bands from the ’90s, ’00s, ’10s and today are dropping into SLC for three days of music, art, food and more.But for now, let’s talk music.Just a few of the mega headliners on the bill include The Strokes, Pavement, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Pixies and Run The Jewels.That’s not all though.Dominic Fike, Japanese Breakfast, Deerhoof, Goth Babe and Lucius are also set to perform at the three-day extravaganza.Plus, recently reunited rockers The Walkmen and rising star Ethel Cain will grace the fairground stages as well.Still not sold?Well, what if we told you affordable last-minute tickets are still available?Yes, at the time of publication, we found three-day passes going for as low as $200 before fees on Vivid Seats.While that may sound a tad bit pricey, make sure to take into consideration that single-day passes all start at $147 before fees.Thus, if you attend just two days of the music fest, you make out like a bandit.Don’t forget how many incredible bucket list acts you’ll get to see too.Take our word for it — the Kilby Block Party is truly a can’t miss event. Festivals just don’t curate lineups this good.Need more information?Keep reading — we’ve got all the pertinent details below.A complete calendar including all multi-day and single-day pass options can be found right here.(Note: The New York Post confirmed all above prices at the publication time.

Naman Ramachandran In keeping with tradition, the 2023 edition of Cannes Classics promises to be a feast for cineastes with tributes to global masters and restored versions of all-time classics. Cannes Classics’ Memories of Jean-Luc Godard strand pays homage to the master who died in 2022 by screening a restored version of “Contempt” (1963); “Godard by Godard,” a self-portrait of the auteur; and the world premiere of “Phony Wars,” a trailer for a film that will never get made, described by the festival as a venture where the filmmaker “transformed his synopses into aesthetic programs.” Liv Ullman will be present at the strand with “Liv Ullmann – A Road Less Travelled,” a documentary directed by Dheeraj Akolkar.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief After reaching a fresh peak of 4.6 million net new customer additions in the final quarter of 2022, boosted by the FIFA World Cup soccer competition, premium subscription video growth in Southeast Asia slowed sharply in the first three months of 2023. Research from consultancy and advisory firm Media Partners Asia and its consumer use unit AMPD, showed only 300,000 net new subscriptions between January and March in the five principal markets of Southeast Asia – Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines. The study focused on premium VOD streaming and SVoD, while excluding YouTube, TikTok and other social video platforms.

Gkids has snapped up North American rights to Toei Animation’s film The First Slam Dunk, an adaptation of the hugely popular Takehiko Inoue manga, which Inoue wrote and directed for the screen. The film which has already proven a smash hit in other territories, grossing over $212M globally, will hit theaters in the U.S. and Canada in both its original Japanese language and an all-new English-language dub later this summer.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Anime legends, producer Masao Maruyama and director Gisaburō Sugii, as well as U.S. animation producer and distributor Gkids, have joined global multimedia company N Lite and N Lite Japan to produce “Mfinda,” a first Afro-anime film which will be the subject of an in-depth first look at June’s Annecy Int’l Animation Film Festival.  Selected amongst the pitches this year at Annecy’s MIFA market in the feature film category, the N Lite original was created by Congolese-American artist Patience Lekien and Christiano Terry, founder-CEO of N Lite. “Mfinda” follows a 12-year-old Congolese girl who is taken to the mfinda, a primordial forest teeming with spirits, gods and ancestors. There she meets up with another young girl from a different time and together they set out to find the magical Nkisi, vessels that hold ancestral spirits as well as empowering materials or medicines, that will help her find her way home.

EXCLUSIVE: “I’ve always boiled it down to there’s something very simplistic to Mason,” Perry Mason star Matthew Rhys admits about the iconic and haunted lawyer he portrays on the HBO prequel series. “It’s not necessarily his sense of justice but sense of right and wrong,” the Emmy winner adds. “What is right and wrong, and how he goes about righting that, righting that wrong, is, at times, very questionable. But fundamentally, his sense of pure form justice is so strong that everything else becomes very difficult, and the playing of that was just magic.”

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The highly-anticipated Japanese animated feature film “The First Slam Dunk” dominated the mainland China cinema box office in its opening weekend. It broke multiple records as it did so. The film scored $38.5 million (RMB266 million) over the Friday to Sunday weekend, according to data from consultancy Artisan Gateway. However, it opened on Thursday, a day earlier than is the norm in China, and has accumulated $55.2 million over the opening four-day frame. The film is based on IP that is well-known to a generation of comic book fans and TV audiences in China (early middle-aged men were reported to have been particularly interested) and has already proved a hit in other parts of Asia. (Comscore estimates that the film has grossed $211 million worldwide.)

Apple TV+ already has an expanding library of great original programming, like “Ted Lasso,” “Severance,” “Servant,” and “Schmigadoon!.” But the streamer also has a handful of original international series like “Pachinko” and “Acapulco” that fly under the radar. READ MORE: The 70 Most Anticipated TV Shows & Mini-Series Of 2023 Add another show like that to the Apple TV+ ranks: “Drops Of God,” a French-Japanese drama set in the world of gastronomy and fine wines.