KC Global Media Stocks up on Asian, U.S. Content for Former Sony Channels AXN, Animax, ONE

MLD Entertainment, the company behind K-pop girl group MOMOLAND, is gearing up to launch a brand-new group soon.Today (April 26), CEO Lee Hyung-jin spoke to South Korean news outlet Star News in new interview, where he revealed that the agency is preparing to debut a new girl group sometime in June. The upcoming act, named LAPILLUS, will include members who speak Spanish, English, Tagalog, Chinese and Japanese.Two members of the forthcoming group have since been revealed, and they are Japanese trainee Nonaka Shana, who recently appeared on Mnet’s reality TV competition show Girls Planet 999, along with Chantal Videla (known as Chanty), a Filipino-Argentinian model and actress.The duo have been active on MLD Entertainment’s YouTube ‘NADOL’ series, where they had introduced themselves as foreign trainees hoping to becoming K-pop idols in Korea.

With Little Mix performing their final Confetti Tour dates ahead of the band's indefinite hiatus next month, there's a sense of concern among pop fans as to who'll fill the UK's girl group quota. For decades, we've had a steady source of female representation atop the charts; from Girls Aloud and Sugababes dominating the noughties to The Saturdays' stint as purveyors of pop in the 2010s.

John De Mol’s ‘Million Dollar Island’ Set For Australian Remake On Seven

Camera are rolling on an ITV drama that tells the true story of Britain’s biggest ever police manhunt.

EXCLUSIVE: Singapore-based Indian financier Vistas Media Capital has launched a North American division to be run by film industry vet Ben Waisbren.

PBS Boards Adrian Dunbar Detective Drama ‘Ridley’ For North American Distribution

Matt Donnelly Senior Film WriterBen Affleck can’t stop reuniting with his famous partners.The Oscar winner and co-screenwriter of “Good Will Hunting” is re-teaming with his Boston bestie Matt Damon on a new feature film from Amazon Studios, Sykdance Sports and Madalay Pictures. It will center on the sports marketing executive who relentlessly pursued basketball legend Michael Jordan in the mid-’80s. Affleck will direct, star and co-write.

A drone is to be flown above Salford Quays to pinpoint the best place to install a nesting tray for peregrine falcons. It is hoped the move will help a pair who have tried to breed since 2017 have a family.

EXCLUSIVE: Pan star Levi Miller has rounded out the cast of Sony Pictures’ Marvel movie Kraven the Hunter, starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson in the title role. He joins a cast that includes Ariana DeBose, Russell Crowe, Alessandro Nivola, Christopher Abbott and Fred Hechinger. It is unknown at this time who Miller will be playing.

Action junkie director Michael Bay is back to making spectacle films with the theatrical release of his heist thriller “Ambulance.” Bay started out working with Will Smith by launching the “Bad Boys” franchise, and the director recently revealed in an interview that he didn’t originally have backing from the studio. While speaking with Entertainment Weekly, the filmmaker recalled that Sony Pictures didn’t believe in the original “Bad Boys” movie released in 1995 due to the buddy cop film featuring black leads, sitcom stars Smith and Martin Lawrence.

Film Independent today announced the names of the 30 filmmakers, from 11 nations, selected to participate in its 2022 Global Media Makers LA Residency, taking place in person this month.

Happy Friday readers. Tom Grater here looking back on the week’s top international headlines.

Plans to create a £26m food and drink venue at Media City have been scaled back, it has been revealed. Peel L&P’s revised proposals would now see the firm invest £5m to build a waterside venue at the Quayside shopping centre's southern walkway.

The Great British Bake Off presenter Matt Lucas has hit back at claims that he was shown ‘favouritism’ when he made his baking debut in the tent. In the most recent episode of the Celebrity Bake Off, Matt donned his apron and stepped in to compete against the likes of Example and Annie Mac when another famous face dropped out of the show at the last minute.The 48 year old was seen attempting to make glass window biscuits, and judge Paul Hollywood soon stepped in to give him a helping hand.

EXCLUSIVE: Spotting new IP whose series adaptation would produce the next big TV hit has become vital for the business as the competition for eyeballs in the expanding TV universe continues to intensify. With that in mind, Sony Pictures Television has signed a first-look deal with Matt DeVoe, co-founder and CCO of CovrPrice, a comic book collectibles platform, for him to identify new trends in IP for series development.

EXCLUSIVE: Two-time Emmy nominee and SAG Award winner Matt Walsh has boarded the Apple Original limited series Manhunt about the Lincoln assassination and aftermath.

Matthew Baskharoon is joining United Talent Agency as an agent in the unscripted TV department. Based in the Los Angeles office, Baskharoon will work alongside UTA Partner Darnell Strom and the culture & leadership division.