Jennifer Grey Says ‘Dirty Dancing’ Sequel Will Be ‘Tricky’ Without Patrick Swayze

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Wang Xiaoshuai, director of “So Long, My Son” and “Red Amnesia,” will be the most senior mainland Chinese director to present a new film at a major Western festival this year. That may be a reflection of the growing political and economic separation between China and the West over the past couple of years — with COVID an additional irritant. But tough times can also breed innovation. Wang’s latest, “The Hotel,” a chamber piece about a small group of Chinese tourists trapped in a hotel in Thailand during the early days of the pandemic, was inspired by events that Wang personally endured in 2020. It was made in almost improvised fashion, with a hastily written screenplay and shot with available crew.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief For Asian media operators, the death of Queen Elizabeth II occurred in the middle of the night — Buckingham Palace made its announcement at 6.30 p.m. BST on Thursday — which meant some needed to play catch-up. That was achieved quicker by online and TV outlets than print media. In Australia, a Commonwealth country which has also lost its monarch, public radio and TV broadcaster Australian Broadcasting Corporation newsreaders dressed in black. Programming has switched to reflect the Queen’s life and seven decades of reign. News Corp., which operates major print news brands in Australia, said it will publish souvenir issues on Saturday. These will include the Herald Sun, Daily Telegraph, The Courier-Mail and The Advertiser.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Netflix announces production of upcoming Japanese series “House of Ninjas,” set for release in 2024. Ninjas are the legendary Japanese heroes of the shadows, known for their ambush attacks and ferocious fighting style. But they remain figures of mythology or, at least, the past. Set in modern-day Japan, “House of Ninjas,” tells the story of the Tawara family, the last ninja clan. It had abandoned its roots after an incident in the past, but now the family must take on the greatest crisis in Japanese history, one that threatens to shake the nation to its core.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief

They looked wonderful out there! Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort reunited for a spot-on rendition of the famous finale scene from Dirty Dancing.

Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort have shared the screen many times, from playing siblings in the action packed "Divergent" movies and costarring in the 2014 romantic drama "The Fault in Our Stars." The actors have teamed up again, but this time, to take on one of the most iconic dance scenes in movie history.  Woodley and Elgort reunited this week and they both took to Instagram to share some moments from their get together. Part of their time spent together was trying to reenact the Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey lift from the 1987 film, "Dirty Dancing."  Elgort shared a photo of the two's reenactment of the big lift on his Instagram with the caption "Clean dancing w Shai." The picture shows Elgort holding Woodley over his head, while her arms are outstretched, just like in the classic film.  Friends and former costars Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort recreated the classic "Dirty Dancing" lift and shared the results to Instagram.  (Valerie Macon/Getty Images) Woodley shared some behind the scenes videos to her Instagram story of the two practicing their dance moves.

Fans are getting their first real look at Harry Styles in his biggest acting role yet.

Amazon Studios premiered its first extended look at Harry Styles’ gay romantic drama “My Policeman” Wednesday. Co-starring “The Crown” breakout Emma Corrin, Gina McKee, Linus Roache, David Dawson and Rupert Everett as the film’s central trio at varying ages, “My Policeman” comes from director Michael Grandage and screenwriter Ron Nyswaner and is based on Bethan Roberts’ 2012 novel of the same name. Per Amazon’s logline, “My Policeman” is a “beautifully crafted story of forbidden love and changing social conventions” that “follows three young people — policeman Tom (Harry Styles), teacher Marion (Emma Corrin), and museum curator Patrick (David Dawson) — as they embark on an emotional journey in 1950s Britain.

The full length trailer for Harry Styles‘ brand new movie My Policeman just debuted online moments ago, and now, the video is already trending worldwide across Twitter!

Jennifer Lawrence has reached the upper echelon of A-list actor royalty over the past few years. In a relatively short time, she’s starred in a massive franchise (“Hunger Games”), worked with some of the best filmmakers around, and earned no less than four Oscar nominations (and one win).

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Tony Leung Chiu-wai, the Hong Kong star of “In The Mood For Love” and Marvel’s “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” has been named Asian Filmmaker of the Year by the Busan International Film Festival. Leung will collect his award at the festival’s opening ceremony on Oct. 5. 2022. The festival will open with a screening of “Scent of a Wind” by Iranian director Hagi Mohaghegh. Busan organizers said that the festival will play a total of 243 films (features and shorts) from 71 countries and territories. These include 89 world premieres and 13 international premieres.

Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka are still lucky in love after eight years of marriage. The pair celebrated their anniversary on Tuesday, with 49-year-old actor penning a sweet tribute to his husband.«Eight years ago, our knot got tied,» he captioned a sweet photo of the two smiling as the sun sets behind them.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Art-house title “Return to Dust” was a surprise weekend winner, topping the mainland China box office in its ninth weekend of release. The astonishing feat occurred on an otherwise depressed weekend in which China’s cinema box office dipped to a three-month low. This reflected the summer season winding to an end and anti-COVID measures once again forcing major Chinese cities into retreat. Data from consultancy Artisan Gateway showed “Return” grossing $5.3 million (RMB36.2 million) between Friday and Sunday. Those three days accounted for nearly half of the $12.7 million (RMB87.4 million) cumulative total it has earned since release on July 8, 2022.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief South Korea’s cinema box office slipped to its lowest level since mid-May as local film “6/45” took the top spot with just $3.06 million over the weekend in its second week of release. Comedy “6/45” was released a week earlier and scored $2.74 million in its opening weekend, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (KOFIC). The latest weekend, then, represents an 11% improvement for the title. It increased its share of the market to 45% during the latest weekend and advanced its cumulative total to $8.36 million. Depressed by a lack of significant new releases, the nationwide box office over the Friday to Sunday period, however, dropped to $6.75 million. This was the lowest scoring weekend since the first half of May.

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is reportedly in the works at Paramount Pictures.According to a new report from Deadline, the spin-off will be helmed by Cobra Kai creators Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg and Josh Heald, with Bill Posley set to write the script.Titled Sam and Victor’s Day Off, the new movie will “follow the same-day adventure of the titular valets who took the Ferrari on a joy ride in the Matthew Broderick-starrer.”Others included in the new project are Paul Young (producer), Devon Young (executive producer) and Stephen Cedars, Benji Kleiman and Scott Yacyshyn (associate producers).During the first COVID lockdown in 2020, the cast of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off reunited as part of Josh Gad’s web series ‘Reunited Apart’.The Frozen actor spent his lockdown bringing the casts of famous movies back together for a series of lockdown webcam specials, including The Goonies, The Lord of the Rings and Ghostbusters.For the final one in the series, Gad united Matthew Broderick, Alan Ruck, Mia Sara and Jennifer Grey from the John Hughes cult classic.Also joining in on the reunion were Lyman Ward and Cindy Pickett, who portrayed Bueller’s parents, as well as economics teacher star Ben Stein, as the cast talked about their memories from the film.

It has been 35 years since the iconic film "Dirty Dancing" first premiered on the big screen and became an instant hit. Not even the film’s stars or studio executives predicted the film's massive success.