John Woo-Trained Director Alexi Tan to Launch ‘Monk Wars’ Comic Book (EXCLUSIVE)

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Fast X” predictably won a second weekend on top of the mainland China box office, driving its total past the $100 million mark. But the disappointing start for Disney’s live-action “The Little Mermaid” was the bigger talking point. “Fast X” earned $17.6 million in China according to data from consultancy Artisan Gateway. That was a 66% drop compared with its opening weekend, but still gave the film a $110 million cumulative after 12 days and has caused estimates to be further revised upwards. Ticketing agency Maoyan is now forecasting that the film will finish with RMB880 million ($126 million), having previously predicted RMB728 million ($104 million), and then RMB840 million.

Emiliano De Pablos U.S. distribution company Dark Star Pictures, Mexico’s Mantícora Distribution and Spain’s La Dalia Films announced at Cannes a strategic deal to launch genre label Antídoto Horror Factory.  The venture, unveiled at the Marché du Film’s new genre-focused Fantastic Pavilion, will develop, produce, distribute and sell a minimum of four genre feature films in the next four years, starting pre-production in 2023. Dark Star will take North American rights; Mantícora, Latin American territory, and La Dalia, Spanish rights. “For the rest of the world, the partners will mutually agree to the most suitable sales representation,” said Antídoto Horror Factory partners in a statement.

James Gunn has revealed his favourite comic book movies of all time.The Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 director was appointed co-CEO of DC Studios alongside veteran executive Peter Safran in October last year and he is responsible for a host of forthcoming movie adaptations featuring comic book heroes his Superman: Legacy movie.Speaking to GQ magazine he listed his top five film adaptations of comic books.Coming in at five was 2016’s Deadpool.

Alison Herman TV Critic A popular reading of superhero mania holds that it’s our era’s substitute for shared mythology; instead of Zeus shooting lightning bolts from Mount Olympus, we have Cyclops shooting beams from his eyeballs. So it’s fitting that the coming-of-age tale “American Born Chinese” streams on Disney+, the service that’s a one-stop shop for all things Marvel; Destin Daniel Cretton of “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,” the first Marvel film to star an Asian American hero, even directs the pilot. But “American Born Chinese” flips the script: rather than use superheroes for modern-day mythmaking, it infuses centuries-old myths into genres (action, bildungsroman) now dominated by superheroes.

director Rachel Fleit originally began work on her University of Alabama sorority documentary because she wanted to study what it meant to be a young woman today. By the time she was done, her answer was punctuated with something far more sinister than what she could have predicted. Fleit and her team faced an onslaught of rumors about their filming practices, she told ET, which culminated in alleged threats that necessitated a security detail and led to one participant cutting off contact from the documentary. «It felt really scary, honestly,» Fleit said.

“It felt like this bloody world needed some love stories now,” Fallen Leaves director Aki Kaurismäki said of his Palme d’Or contender this afternoon.

Christopher Vourlias U.S. writer and political advocate Dane Waters and “Superpower” co-director Aaron Kaufman announced the launch of a new global nonprofit group, Humanity for Freedom, Monday in Cannes. The organization is dedicated to the fight against authoritarian governments through educational and advocacy work. The group’s global kick-off event, 72 Hours for Freedom, will feature screenings around the world of “Superpower,” the documentary about Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, co-directed by Kaufman and Sean Penn. The event will take place in over a dozen countries on six continents, starting in London on June 6 and wrapping in Washington, D.C., June 8, including stops in Rome; Tbilisi, Georgia; Sofia, Bulgaria; Abuja, Nigeria; Tokyo; Sydney; and Buenos Aires.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Fast & Furious 10” (aka “Fast X”) dominated the mainland China box office with a strong opening weekend and a revved up opening five days. Data from consultancy firm Artisan Gateway shows Fast X scored $51.1 million between Friday and Sunday, to comfortably top the Chinese box office, with a 58% market share. Unusually, the film opened on a Wednesday. Over five days, it accumulated $77.4 million.Imax reported that the film pulled in $8.4 million from China, accounting for 11 of the China market opening, from fewer than 1% of the screens in the market. The figures reflect the five-day score, not the conventional weekend.

In an early scene of French director Stéphan Castang’s Cannes Critics’ Week entry Vincent Must Die, a colleague of the film’s titular protagonist whacks him around the head with his laptop. A little later, another workmate stabs him in the arm. “He’s just an average guy who wakes up one morning to discover that everyone wants to kill him,” Castang explains. The debut feature follows in the wake of Julia Ducournau’s Raw and Just Philippot’s The Swarm as French genre titles to be championed by the first and second film-focused Critics’ Week.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Mixed martial arts thriller “Glass Dragon” has been picked up for international sales by MPI Media. The company is launching the title at the Cannes Market. The film, now in post-production, is produced by Asia-facing Los Angeles company Eleven Arts and RE:Anime, a firm that adapts beloved anime series into captivating live-action films. “Glass Dragon” stars Miki Mizuno (“Bayside Shakedown”), a martial artist and single mother who has to accelerate her life plans when things go badly wrong for her and her daughter. The picture also stars the veteran martial arts film star Mark Dacascos (“Cradle 2 the Grave,” “Hawaii Five-0,” “John Wick 3,” “Iron Chef America”). Other acting credits got to Maryjun Takahashi (“Rurouni Kenshin”) and Kiki Sukezane (“Westworld,” “Lost in Space”). 

Michelle Yeoh is celebrating the power of embracing one’s roots.

A journalist who is accusing Johnny Depp‘s Jeanne du Barry director Maiwenn of spitting on him is speaking out about the encounter.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Mk2 Films is set to reunite with Joachim Trier following “The Worst Person in the World,” the Norwegian helmer’s Cannes prize-winning and Oscar-nominated romantic comedy which was also a worldwide box-office hit. The Paris-based company will handle international sales and co-produce alongside Juliette Schrameck at Agat Films, who was also a co-producer on “The Worst Person in the World,” alongside Nathanaël Karmitz and Elisha Karmitz for MK Production. Mk2 films, Schrameck and the Karmitz brothers join producers Maria Ekerhovd at Mer Film and Andrea Berentsen Ottmar at Eye Eye Pictures.  Trier is writing his untitled sixth feature with his long-term collaborator Eskil Vogt, with whom he shared an Oscar nomination for best screenplay. “It is an ambitious yet playful family drama. An intimate, moving, and often funny film about family, memory, and how we need to rewrite the stories we tell about ourselves in order to survive,” said the pair.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Italian director Gabriele Mainetti, known internationally for genre-bending titles “They Call Me Jeeg” and “Freaks vs. the Reich,” is shooting a kung fu movie set in Rome’s multi-ethnic Piazza Vittorio quarter. Cameras have just started rolling in Rome on Mainetti’s yet-to-be titled third feature that will see him riff on martial arts movie tropes, following his fresh takes on a 1970 Japanese cartoon series in “Jeeg,” and then on the Nazi hunter film genre in “Freaks.”   Vision Distribution will be launching sales on the film at the Cannes Marché du Film.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Distribution Workshop has picked up international sales duties on “A Legend,” the Jackie Chan -starring film.As previously reported, the film is now in production. “A Legend” is now pitched as a $50 million sequel to the 2005 action romance “The Myth” that involved both Chan and director Stanley Tong. In previous communication, producer Bona Film Group said that the film was inspired by the earlier film. The new picture will be the tenth time that Chan and Tong have worked together, following other titles that include “Police Story 3,” “Supercop” and “Vanguard.”

John Cena is fully embracing his better half. The actor stepped out with wife Shay Shariatzadeh on Friday for the premiere at the Colosseum in Rome, Italy, where he joked with ET that she was off «doing responsible things that keep me in line» while he hit the red carpet to chat with reporters. «Yes, yes, she's the brains behind this operation,» he quipped to ET's Nischelle Turner. The couple posed for photographers during the premiere, with Shariatzadeh stunning in a red mini dress with cape-style sleeves. For his part, Cena complemented the look with a maroon suit and plaid jacket. «We have a great movie for you guys and we know we have a great movie, but we just want to make sure you're in a good mood going into the great movie,» he said of the over-the-top premiere experience.

Dolly Parton — including Trisha Yearwood and her husband, Garth Brooks!ET's Rachel Smith spoke to Yearwood, fresh off her performance with Carly Pearce, who shared her reaction to Parton suggesting a threesome between her, Yearwood and Brooks while co-hosting the 2023 ACM Awards with the country crooner Thursday night.«Everybody loves Dolly. Actually, people think this is Dolce and Gabbana but it's Dolly and Garth,» Yearwood, who shared that Dolly is both her and Brooks' «hall pass,» joked.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Bruce Berman, a senior executive who was previously chairman and CEO of Los Angeles-based Village Roadshow Pictures, has come out of retirement to board the recently-founded film studio Through the Lens Entertainment. The company, founded by producer Aditya Chand, is headquartered in Singapore with operations in the U.S. and Japan. It aims to combine the opportunities of the East and the power and experience of the studio systems in the West, “to offer a new studio ecosystem out of Asia, that is built for the digital age.” Two film projects are already underway and a third with “Slumdog Millionaire” star Frieda Pinto is in development.

Slow Horses star Jack Lowden is leading a John Maclean-helmed survival thriller that will be taken to Cannes Market by HanWay Films.

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.