City Beijing Showbiz Latest News and Updates

“I don’t want to owe people money,” are the words defeatedly uttered by Lynn (Yao Honggui), the protagonist of “Stonewalling,” the forthcoming film from the Beijing-based husband-and-wife team, Huang Ji and Ryuji Otsuka. The film, focusing on Lynn’s life for a year, finds her at a crossroads: in the midst of her college education and has been training for a career as a flight attendant, everything is overtaken by doubt and disarray when Lynn discovers that she’s pregnant.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Sakra, a big-budget martial arts fantasy directed and starring Donnie Yen, is heading for a North American theatrical and digital release. Rights to the film were acquired by WellGo USA which is a major stateside purveyor of Chinese and other Asian titles. The company has set dates in April for a theatrical outing, shortly followed by a release to digital platforms, according to an emailed conversation with its president and CEO Doris Pfardrescher. Other details of its release and marketing campaign have yet to be finalized. The film, a mainland China-Hong co-venture, was released in theaters in several territories in Southeast Asia in late January in time for the Lunar New Year holiday peak season. In China, it did not join the New Year scramble for screens and instead was released straight to streaming.

At its third annual developer conference on Wednesday, NBCUniversal introduced a range of new products and capabilities aimed at enhancing the media company’s appeal to advertisers. Among them: a new “content quality index” partnership with MarketCast; an expansion of in-scene advertising capabilities; and the certification of 29 new measurement partners.

Subscribers to the Disney+ streaming service in Hong Kong won’t see yet another episode of The Simpsons, the latest one for referring to forced labor in China.

The furor over a Chinese spy balloon that flew over U.S. airspace has further chilled D.C.-Beijing tensions, but the entertainment industry already has been swept up in the heightened atmosphere of American hawkishness.

Taipei-based international sales company Distribution Workshop will be selling Lunar New Year hit Hidden Blade, starring Tony Leung Chiu-wai, and Wong Ching-po’s highly-anticipated new film, The Pig, The Snake And The Pigeon, at the upcoming European Film Market (EFM) in Berlin. 

The controversial Chinese balloon that traversed the United States has been shot down.

A performer at Universal Studios Hollywood at the Waterworld: A Live Sea War Spectacular was hospitalized after an accident during one of the shows at the theme park on Monday, January 23.

EXCLUSIVE: Argentinian filmmaker Santiago Mitre (Argentina, 1985) has signed with CAA for representation.

Chinese director, screenwriter and producer He Ping, best known internationally for his hybrid ‘Chinese Westerns’, has died aged 65. Local press reported that he died of illness in Beijing on January 10. 

EXCLUSIVE: Trinity CineAsia has acquired UK and Ireland rights to Chinese sci-fi epic The Wandering Earth 2, which is scheduled for release on January 27, with previews running from January 22, day-and-date with its mainland China release.  

Terrifying images from China appear to show families burning the bodies of loved ones as Covid infections overwhelm hospitals in the country.

, , and to not only create flawless pores and a red carpet-worthy glow, but also completely transform the face. It turns out, the best way to get that coveted lifted look is just a good slap in the face. Of course, a “slap” from McLeod is not your run-of-the-mill slap. During a pre-Covid trip to China, McLeod was introduced to a Madam Shin, a former geisha den mother living on the outskirts of Beijing and a master in the art of facial sculpting.

Canadian singer Kris Wu was sentenced by a Beijing court today to 13 years in jail after being convicted on rape and other related charges.

Taiwanese filmmaker Chan Ching-lin’s Coo-Coo 043 was awarded best narrative feature at the Golden Horse Awards in Taiwan on Saturday night, while Hong Kong crime drama Limbo, directed by Soi Cheang, won the biggest number of awards with four prizes. 

Shanghai’s Disney Resort was not exactly The Happiest Place On Earth on Monday. The park abruptly shut down to comply with China’s controversial zero-Covid policy, leaving all visitors trapped inside for hours until they could show a negative test for the virus.

The Chinese economy is already struggling because of the nation’s “Zero-Covid” policy, which continues to enforce absolute shutdowns because of small Covid-19 outbreaks.

By Photography by Chloe Kim—the 22-year-old **snowboarding phenom—**needs little introduction. She’s been the in snowboarding circles for more than six years, the first athlete in the sport’s history to take home all four major snowboarding titles—gold in the Olympics, the Youth Olympics, the FIS Snowboarding World Championships, and the X Games. She is the Simone Biles of snow, a genre-redefining athlete with air awareness that leaves judges’ mouths agog every time she drops into the halfpipe.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter Fifth Season, formerly known as Endeavor Content, has elevated three executives to president across its TV divisions. Prentiss Fraser has been promoted to president of TV distribution, while Joe Hipps has been named president of TV development and production. Todd Sharp will now be president of production and current. “Joe, Prentiss and Todd lead the TV Studio with such care and passion for stories and storytelling,” said said Graham Taylor and Chris Rice, co-CEOs of Fifth Season. “It’s a blast to build Fifth Season with friends that are incredible human beings as well as the best execs in their field.”

EXCLUSIVE: Ken Jeong (Crazy Rich Asians) and Lochlyn Munro (Riverdale) have signed on to star alongside Zhang Jingchu, Michelle Krusiec and more in Impossible Dream Entertainment’s comedy Tiger Mom, which has entered production in Vancouver.

Christian Douglas is currently playing the lead role of Charlie Price in the off-Broadway production of Kinky Boots and we caught up with him to learn some fun facts that fans might not already know!

EXCLUSIVE: Seoul- and Los Angeles-based Bound Entertainment (Apple’s Dr Brain) is teaming with author Ann Liang to develop her genre-bending YA debut novel, If You Could See the Sun as a series.  

EXCLUSIVE: Former Legendary Entertainment executive Vasco Xu is joining forces with Hong Kong business exec Brian Cheng and Chinese venture capitalist Sun Ge to launch a Los Angeles and Beijing-based international production venture, Conqueror Entertainment. Cheng and Sun will both serve as Co-Founders, with Xu as Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer, overseeing corporate affairs, creative development, production, marketing, distribution and franchise management. Cheng is a member of one of Hong Kong’s biggest business families, while Sun is the founder Chinese VC company Grains Valley. Xu said the company will develop and produce feature films and series, both in English and Chinese, for the international and domestic Chinese market.

Katie Reul editor The annual Reykjavík International Film Festival (RIFF) came to a close Saturday evening, concluding an 11-day event by screening the year’s top honorees at Háskólabíó alongside the award-winning Austrian drama “Vera.” Victors in the New Visions category, which exclusively features debut and sophomore films from filmmakers, are among the works which earned an on-screen reprisal. Winners include Golden Puffin recipient “Rodeo,” continuing the film’s early success in the awards circuit at festivals like Cannes and Champs-Élysées. “I spent five years writing what became ‘Rodeo,'” director Lola Quivoron previously told Varietyin regard to her feature debut. “I wanted to create a true fiction tale and weave in elements of genre, gangsterism and a bit of western. The idea was to make a film that had an aesthetic and a cinematic dimension.”

Jim Sciutto, CNN’s chief national security correspondent and co-anchor of its morning Newsroom newscast, has been absent from the show for the past two days in what is said to be a personal leave.

China still has much to gain from its current relationship with Russia even as the invasion of Ukraine drags on, turning Russia into an international pariah and threatening to rub off on China’s reputation as well.  "China has, in effect, doubled down on its support for the Putin war effort, and we saw this, for instance, last month when China's third rank leader went to Moscow, spoke to the State Duma, and in very clear terms, expressed Beijing's support for Russia," Gordon Change, author of "The Coming Collapse of China," told Fox News Digital.  "Then, [we] see Jinping himself when he was in Uzbekistan for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit, actually confirmed that endorsement," Chang added. "The only conclusion that we can come to is that Beijing is not backing away from Russia."  The China and Russia dynamic has remained a troubling one for the United States since even before the invasion of Ukraine started in March 2022.

WOODZ will be parting ways with longtime label Yuehua Entertainment following the expiration of his contract.The Beijing-based entertainment company published a statement today (October 5) through WOODZ’s official fancafe page announcing the singer’s – who is also known as Cho Seung-youn – departure from its ranks once his exclusive contract concludes on October 19.“We have closely watched WOODZ’s passion for music from the day he debuted in a group to the present where he is partaking in activities as a solo artist,” wrote Yuehua Entertainment in its brief statement, as translated by Soompi. “It was a meaningful time to be together with WOODZ as he grew into an all-rounder through constant challenges and effort.”Yuehua then concluded its statement by expressing gratitude towards the musician for “embarking on this long journey with us”.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief EST Studios, the film company established this year by 88Rising co-founder Jaeson Ma and former Vice Media executive Eric Tu, has struck a partnership arrangement with China’s Hugoeast Media. The partnership is looking at an initial slate of eight projects, with EST Studios representing sales at the major film markets including the upcoming Asian Contents and Film Market and Asian Project Market at the Busan International Film Festival. EST will be the exclusive representative for Hugoeast’s titles in North America. In other territories (outside of China) it will handle them on a non-exclusive basis.

Paralympic swimmer Ellie Simmonds is part of an exciting lineup on this year’s series of Strictly Come Dancing. Off the dance floor, Ellie is an incredibly talented swimmer and won two gold medals for Team GB at the Beijing 2008 Paralympics - when she was just 13 years old. Last year during the Tokyo Olympics, Ellie announced her retirement from the world of swimming which gave her much time to spend in her lovely home.

A big step in the Big Apple! Nina Dobrev and Shaun White “just got a place together” in New York City, a source tells Us Weekly exclusively.

Addie Morfoot Contributor “POV Shorts” will kick off its fifth season Nov. 7, with 11 documentaries highlighting topics including art as activism, freedom of expression, Americans with disabilities, intergenerational stories, and connectedness on the way.Packaged into six 30-minute episodes, “POV Shorts” will be available on PBS and will stream on POV.org and the PBS Video app.

Former Strictly Come Dancing professional James Jordan was corrected after he took to Twitter to give his verdict on Ellie Simmonds' debut routine on the 2022 series. James heaped praise after former British Paralympian swimmer Ellie and her pro partner, Nikita Kuzmin, performed their first routine together on Saturday night.

Wildly popular social media app TikTok is said to have a draft agreement in place with the U.S. government that would allow it to continue operating in the country while retaining Chinese ownership.

Strictly Come Dancing star Ellie Simmonds isn’t immune from being self-conscious about her body while wearing the revealing costumes. During her Paralympic training, the five-time gold champion would swim nine times a week for 18 hours and has opened up about her weight gain since quitting the sport after Tokyo in 2020.

Strictly star Ellie Simmonds has admitted it took some convincing for her to take part in the show after having ‘genuine fears’ over the inevitable height difference. The 4ft Paralympic swimmer said her anxieties were eased when she was partnered with 24-year-old Ukrainian dance pro Nikita Kuzmin and now feels confident they can make it work. Speaking exclusively to OK!, Ellie said: “I met with the Strictly team and made sure that I was going to be comfortable because of the height difference.

Ellie Simmonds is posing on set in a pink dress and purple feather boa with the confidence of a supermodel. An icon of disabled sport, the retired Paralympic swimmer is Strictly Come Dancing’s newest recruit and is relishing her new platform – and her glow up. “I’m so excited,” she says.