City Taipei Showbiz Latest News and Updates

Aisling Bea inspired Kodaline’s Mark Prendergast to go solo in new solo outing, Man Alive.Prendergast has now shared the debut single of his new solo project, ‘Be Someone’ that you can listen to below.According to a statement, his friend, actor Aisling Bea, proved to be “a pivotal influence for him to take Man Alive to the wider world.”A statement revealed that “he played her an early version of ‘Be Someone’ when they were in Los Angeles in 2021, and her belief in the project really pushed him to make it happen.” It also noted that she encouraged him to change the first provisional name he had for his solo project, ‘Blood Type’, telling him it was “shit and doesn’t match your music.” Eventually, he went with Man Alive.Speaking about his new single, Prendergast said: “‘Be Someone’ is about a long-distance relationship falling apart, and how when you’re with somebody, they make you feel like a certain type of person, but then when you end the relationship and you’re by yourself, you always become a completely different person.”A statement added that the break-up, followed by lockdown, inspired Prendergast to write, record and produce a catalogue of songs from his home studio.You can listen to the song here:Earlier this year, Kodaline announced a tour of Asia this autumn, where they will travel to Singapore, Philippines, Taipei, Bangkok and more.They will kick off the tour September 5 in Singapore and then play shows in Kuala Lumpur, Taipei, Manila, Bangkok, Hong Kong and Seoul.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The International Olympic Committee said on Thursday that Swiss-based, Chinese-owned Infront Sports & Media would handle broadcast right sales in much of Asia for the next series of Summer and Winter games. The deal covers 22 territories including Afghanistan, Brunei, Cambodia, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Singapore, Tajikistan, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam – but not China, Japan or South Korea, and runs 2026-2032. That means it will cover the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics and the Los Angeles 2028 and Brisbane 2032 Summer games. The 2030 Winter Olympics, which have yet to be allocated a host, and all Youth Olympic Games during this period will also be covered.

Netflix has a new Chief Action Officer. Arnold Schwarzenegger has taken on the job in a promo featuring footage of the streaming network’s upcoming action series and films. See it above.

WayV, the Chinese sub-group of K-pop boyband NCT, have announced the European leg of their Fanmeeting Tour ‘Phantom’.WayV will head to two European cities as part of their wider 2023 Fanmeeting Tour ‘Phantom’. In less than a month, the boyband will perform at London’s Eventim Apollo on June 8, followed by the La Seine Musicale in Paris on June 11.According to WayV’s official Twitter account, only five of the group’s six members will be in attendance at the fanmeeting: namely Kun, Ten, Xiaojun, Hendery and YangYang.

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. 

Taipei-based sales agency Distribution Workshop has picked up international sales rights to $50M action adventure A Legend, starring Jackie Chan and directed by Stanley Tong. 

Super Junior, is set to go on tour this year.Super Junior D&E – comprising Donghae and Hunhyuk – announced their upcoming 2023 ‘DElight Party’ world tour today (May 15) through the duo’s newly opened social media accounts.The pair’s 2023 world tour will kick-off with a two-night concert in Seoul, South Korean on June 24 and 25. Following which, Super Junior D&E will head on the Asia leg of the tour over the next three months, including shows in Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and more.In their official announcement, Super Junior D&E also said that more dates will be revealed in the future.

Ben Croll Paris’ NewImages Festival and parent organization Forum des Images have recently launched NewImages Hub, a support network offering XR professionals a set of complementary creative and mentoring programs throughout the year. Divided into three poles, the new lab will help immersive projects across development, production, and distribution, offering residencies and networking assistance at each phase. Administered by Forum des Images – a non-profit cultural organization subsidized by the City of Paris – and supported by France’s CNC, NewImages Hub will oversee international writing residencies both in Paris and abroad, while developing additional workshops with partners in Taiwan, Chile and South Africa. The new lab will also administer existing programs in Rome, Ecuador and Taipei, while making industry analysis available to all.

K-pop boyband TREASURE was recently caught in the middle of a stage equipment malfunction, leaving him with minor burns.Yesterday (April 2), the 10-member boyband performed at the IMPACT Exhibition and Convention Center in Bangkok, Thailand as part of the ongoing Asia leg of their ‘Hello’ tour.As seen in photos and videos taken by fans at the concert, member Yoon Jae-hyuk had been walking over stage equipment with a fire-emitting mechanism when it malfunctioned and unexpectedly released a burst of flames.The idol quickly moved away from the equipment and made sure that his clothes were not on fire, before heading backstage to receive medical attention.Is Jaehyuk ok? He step on fire OMG@treasuremembers pic.twitter.com/KXWbZnUhKm— bLub (@chubbyhubbybaby) April 2, 2023According to news outlets and fans at the show, Yoon returned onstage after a brief break with a bandage on his hand, where he sustained minor burns. After the concert, the singer held a livestream where he told fans not to “worry too much”.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Writer and director He Shuming has signed with Sugar23, the multimedia and management company founded by Oscar-winning producer, manager and entrepreneur Michael Sugar. The signing comes following He’s breakout debut feature “Ajoomma,” about a widow obsessed with Korean soap operas who travels abroad for the first time to Seoul, finding more than she had bargained for in the process. That movie collected several nominations and prizes on the film festival circuit. It premiered at the 2022 Busan International Film Festival in the New Currents section; was nominated at the Palm Springs International Film Festival for the FIPRESCI Prize for Best International Film; received four nominations at the Golden Horse Awards in Taipei, including Best New Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Leading Actress and Best Supporting Actor; and won the Film AIUla Audience Award for Best Film at the Red Sea International Film Festival.

K-pop girl group IVE will be releasing a new single ‘Kitsch’, ahead of their first studio album.Today (March 21), the Starship Entertainment act unveiled a teaser clip announcing their upcoming pre-release single ‘Kitsch’. Due out on March 27 at 6pm KST, the song will be part of IVE’s first studio album ‘I’ve IVE’ arriving on April 10.Titled ‘It’s our time, Kitsch’, the teaser clip features individual close-up shots of IVE as a snippet of the energetic new track plays, with the members chanting “kitsch” over a thumping beat.In addition to ‘Kitsch’, IVE’s upcoming studio album will also include new tracks ‘Blue Blood’ and ‘Not Your Girl’, which the group previously performed at their first concert ‘The Prom Queens’ in Seoul last month.Following the release of ‘I’ve IVE’, the six-member group will be embarking on their first Asia tour ‘The Prom Queens’ in June.

Naman Ramachandran Taiwan-France film “Salli” marks the feature debut of Taipei-based filmmaker Lien Chien-Hung after several acclaimed shorts and a TV movie. “Salli,” which won the grand prize at the Chinese-language film project matching and co-production platform Golden Horse Film Project Promotion in 2019, is a work-in-progress selection at the Hong Kong — Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF). The Mandarin-, Taiwanese-, English- and French-language film follows a lonely middle-aged chicken farmer Hui-Chun, who doesn’t speak English and develops a romantic relationship through an app with a French man who calls himself Martin. In the online world, Hui-Chun is Salli. Despite everyone calling it a romance scam, she wants to prove that love indeed exists.

Naman Ramachandran Amazon’s Prime Video streaming service has acquired Makbul Mubarak’s award-winning debut feature, “Autobiography,” for the Southeast Asian region. The film, which is being sold by Alpha Violet, follows young Rakib (Kevin Ardilova), whose father is in prison and whose brother works abroad. He works as the housekeeper in a mansion in a rural Indonesian town belonging to retired general Purna (Arswendy Bening Swara). Purna returns to the town to start his mayoral election campaign and Rakib, whose clan has worked for the general’s family for centuries, serves as his assistant. An act of vandalism during the campaign triggers an escalating chain of violence.

AURORA‌ performed her first concert in Taiwan on February 21, and was joined on stage by Mandopop artist Qing-Feng.Performing at Zepp New Taipei in Taiwan, AURORA took to the stage telling over 2,000 fans: “Taipei, I am finally here! I’m so happy to come because Qing-Feng is here!”For her encore, AURORA brought Qing-Feng to the stage to perform their duet ‘Storm’, which was released in 2022.Before they started the song, Qing-Feng explained to AURORA that the English lyric “come again” in the chorus sounds like “bucket of chicken”, to which she responded with an imitation of a chicken clucking.Watch the duet below.The two labelmates connected in 2021 and after a year of making music at a distance and collaborating online, the pair developed a strong friendship, eventually meeting up face-to-face in Norway to complete the song’s final recording.In January, AURORA teased upcoming new material in an Instagram Story, saying she was working on “so many babies” in the studio.In her Instagram Story posted on January 5, AURORA wrote, “I’m in the studio making so many babies. Delicious babies.” The enigmatic singer wished fans a happy new year, concluding, “Sending you all so much love, from behind the button on my belly to the corner of your eye.

Download Festival has added over 40 new names to its line-up today (February 16) and has announced its 2023 day splits.New names for the festival this year include the Halestorm, Alter Bridge, Neck Deep, Bob Vylan, Carcass, Five Finger Death Punch, Jinjer, Coheed and Cambria, Electric Callboy and Hot Milk and The Amity Affliction.Download had previously announced the 2023 event would be headlined by Slipknot, Bring Me The Horizon and Metallica playing two completely different sets on two different nights. The likes of Ghost, Evanescence, The Distillers, Placebo and Architects were also confirmed to be appearing at Donington Park alongside 50 other acts.In celebration of the rock and metal festival’s 20th year, event organisers have extended it to four days (June 8-11) with four headline slots.You can buy tickets for the event here and see the full list of new artist announcements and day splits below.Newly announced for DownloadA.A.

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. 

Lou Yi-an’s Goddamned Asura begins with chilling smartphone footage of an expressionless young man opening fire on a busy night market. In a surprising move, it immediately rewinds to the events leading up to the shooting, introducing a core group of characters whose lives will be changed by it. Even more unexpected, though, is the film’s third act, which essentially posits a Sliding Doors-style “What if?” hypothesis.

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. 

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Taiwan-based development and production operation Organic Media is teaming up with Los Angeles-based sales agency and content aggregator Shoreline Entertainment in a strategic pact that sees Shoreline take responsibility for much of Organic’s sales function. The pairing will make its debut at this week’s MIPCOM TV rights market in Cannes. It will follow that with an appearance at the American Film Market in Santa Monica in early November. Organic was co-founded in 2019 by veteran sales and production executive Steve Chicorel and Kelly Mi Li (“Bling Empire”) and now has operations in Taipei, Los Angeles, London, Riga and Brisbane. The operation, now headed by Chicorel and Shari Hamrick, is currently in post-production on two movies and the second season of “Cypher,” a series for Roku.

Naman Ramachandran After 22 weeks in cinemas across Ireland and the U.K., writer-director Colm Bairéad’s “An Cailín Ciúin” (“The Quiet Girl”) has crossed €1 million ($971,000) at the box office. The film is Ireland’s entry in the Oscars’ international feature category. Based on Irish author Claire Keegan’s story “Foster,” the coming-of-age film, set in rural Ireland in 1981, follows Cáit (Catherine Clinch) as she is sent from her overcrowded, dysfunctional household to live with distant relatives for the summer. It has been an unstoppable force on the festival and awards circuit, winning top prizes at the Berlin, Dublin and Taipei film festivals and sweeping the Irish Film and Television Awards. Produced by Cleona Ní Chrualaoi for Inscéal, the film is distributed by Break Out Pictures and Curzon.

Naman Ramachandran Vietnamese Writer-director Le Bao and Singapore and Toronto-based producer Lai Weijie, who collaborated successfully on “Taste” (2021), are reuniting for Busan Asian Project Market title “The Sea is Calm Tonight.” “Taste,” Le’s feature debut, had considerable festival play and won awards at Berlin, Singapore, Taipei and the Asia Pacific Screen Awards. In “The Sea is Calm Tonight,” Vietnamese boat people of 40 years past have a miraculous meeting with Rohingya refugees of the present in their parallel sea journeys to find peace. “When my mother was pregnant with me, my parents lived on a barge amidst a large river. Whenever a strong gust of wind blew or boats crossed the river, the water surface would accumulate into waves, like sea waves. When I was younger, my parents told me that they wished my name was Lê Biển, which means the sea. The thought of this other life with a different identity lingers in my mind,” Le told Variety.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Japan’s biggest film group Toho announced that it has taken a controlling stake in TIA (previously Toho Interactive Animation), a production company behind the “100 Nichikan Ikita Wani,” film and anime series “iii icecrin,” “iii icecrin2” “Ninja Collection” and “That Is the Bottleneck.” Originally known as I&A, the company was established in 2017 by ILCA and Anima. The name changed to TIA after Toho bought a nearly 35% from the two founders in 2020. Toho has now bought out Anima’s stake, giving it a 67.4% majority holding and cause to rename the company again, this time to Toho Animation Studio. Deal terms were not disclosed.

Taipei Houston – the band comprising Myles and Layne Ulrich, sons of Metallica drummer Lars – have announced their debut album.The Ulrich brothers announced the formation of their band in the summer of 2021, and played their first gig together in Long Beach, California last September.On November 4, they will release debut album ‘Once Bit Never Bored’ via C3 Records. Today (September 14), it is being previewed by new single ‘The Middle’.The track follows the band’s debut single ‘As The Sun Sets’, which was shared earlier this year.Of their new band, the brothers said in a statement: “To us, Taipei Houston is about going against the grain in every aspect.

Marta Balaga With its seventh edition coming to an end, Venice’s Book Adaptation Rights Market (BARM) is already eyeing the future. The three-day event – taking place during the Italian fest – is now recognized as the third most important annual rendezvous by the publishers, states Pascal Diot, head of industry sidebar Venice Production Bridge. “It’s starting to be ‘the’ event for the publishers to attend,” agrees VPB’s Chiara Marin. “Before, I would go to all these book fairs and when I would mention Venice Film Festival, people would go: ‘What are you doing here?,’ ” she laughs.

Naman Ramachandran Bhutanese filmmaker Dechen Roder’s new film, “I, The Song,” which is selected at the Venice Production Bridge’s gap financing market, will commence principal photography in December. Roder’s debut feature “Honeygiver Among the Dogs” premiered at Busan in 2016, and went on to have a successful festival run including at Berlin, Locarno, Hong Kong, Taipei and Fribourg, where it won three major awards. “I, The Song” was born when two friends of Roder experienced the horror of being in non-consensual pornographic videos and photos in Bhutan, where in both cases it was recorded and shared without their knowledge or consent.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Kore-eda Hirokazu will be the star turn at Emerging Japanese Films, a Los Angeles showcase organized by Japan’s Visual Industry Promotion Organization. The event, running Sept. 27 – Oct. 1, 2022, at the Harmony Gold Preview House, consists of four newly-released, dramatic and awards-worthy Japanese feature films and a retrospective night that honors Kore-eda, whose “Shoplifters” won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2018. Kore-eda will take part in a live video conversation after the screening of his “Like Father, Like Son,” a child-swap drama film that Steven Spielberg and Dreamworks previously optioned for remake.

Vivienne Chow Taiwan at Venice 2022 — Venice Immersive Competition “All That Remains” – Director: Craig Quintero Among the latest explorers in the VR realm is Riverbed Theatre, a “total theater” company that was formed in Taipei in 1998 and combines visual and performing arts. “All That Remains” is directed by the company’s artistic director Craig Quintero. The film challenges audiences’ perceptions of truth by questioning the possibilities beyond the everyday patterns that are constructed from known facts and familiarity. The idea is to nudge viewers out of their comfort zone. It positions itself as a meditation on the malleability of facts and the increasingly fluid boundary between truth and fiction as humans are facing unprecedented alienation from each other. The film was financially backed by a grant from the Taiwan Creative Content Agency (TAICCA). 

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Coo-Coo 043,” a family drama set in the world of racing pigeons, has been set as the opening film of the 2022 Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival. The closing film is comedy “Marry My Dead Body.”  “Coo-Coo 043” is the second film directed by Chan Ching-lin (“The Island That All Flow By”) and stars Golden Bell Awards winners Yu An-shun and Yang Li-yin, along with Golden Harvest Awards best new performer Hu Jhih-ciang and emerging new talent Rimong Ihwar. Chan was previously nominated for Golden Horse Awards best short film for “A Breath From the Bottom,” and as best new director with his feature debut “The Island That All Flow By.” As a work in progress, “Coo-Coo 043” previously participated in the 2021 Golden Horse Film Project Promotion.

Taiwan has selected Lou Yi-An’s Goddamned Asura as the nation’s pick for the 2023 International Feature Film Academy Award.

Switzerland has selected Michael Koch’s Swiss-German language feature A Piece Of Sky as its candidate for the best international film category of the 2023 Oscars.

Quiet by name, but quite some fame. Colm Bairéad’s Irish-language coming-of-age film “An Cailín Ciúin” (“The Quiet Girl”) bowed at the Berlinale earlier this year and has been an unstoppable force on the festival and awards circuit. It won top prizes at the Berlin, Dublin and Taipei film festivals and swept the Irish Film and Television Awards. The film opened theatrically across Ireland and the U.K. mid-May and such is the power of its storytelling that it has cinema dates booked through early September, and will represent Ireland in the Oscars’ international feature category. Nell Roddy, co-founder of Ireland’s Break Out Films, which distributed the film in the country, and Jake Garriock, head of distribution strategy and group publicity at U.K. distributor Curzon, share the film’s journey with Variety. When director Colm Bairéad and producer Cleona Ní Chrualaoi first screened “An Cailín Ciúin” (“The Quiet Girl”) to myself and my business partner Robert McCann Finn in the middle of the pandemic in 2021, we were completely floored by its searing beauty, emotional depth and heartfelt honesty.We founded Break Out Pictures to acquire titles that often need a bespoke theatrical release and, from the outset, we really believed audiences would embrace it just as much as we did.

Actress Rebecca Rittenhouse and Kelly Lamor Wilson attend the opening of HermèsFIT in Los Angeles on Wednesday (July 20) held at the Hollywood Athletic Club, where they enjoyed a performance by Neil Frances.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefThe Asian Cinema Fund, a bursary scheme for film and documentary projects operated alongside the Busan International Film Festival, has announced six Korean recipients and seven hailing from elsewhere in Asia. The fund was put on hiatus during the two years of COVID, which also reduced the festival in size and turned the Asian Contents & Film Market into a virtual event. Three winners – “In the Land of Brothers,” by Raha Amirfazali, “Life I Stole,” by Putri Purnama Sugua and “Smart City,” by Rohin Raveendran – each receive KRW10 million ($7,50) for script development and are invited to participate in the ACFM’s Asian Project Market.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefWildBrain CPLG, a leading entertainment, sport and brand-licensing agency, has been appointed by Peanuts Worldwide as the exclusive licensing agent for the Peanuts brand in parts of Asia-Pacific.   The companies already have a licensing relationship in Europe, the Middle East and Africa and, more recently, India.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefFilm and immersive video projects from Taiwan and France will be put in the spotlight at the Venice Gap-Financing Market, a project support event that is part of the Venice Production Bridge and the Venice International Film Festival.The three-day market will present a huge 63 projects from around the world in the final stages of development and funding, setting up one-to-one meetings and giving them the opportunity to close their international financing.The selected projects include: 33 feature-length fiction film and documentary projects, 16 immersive projects; 11 Biennale College Cinema – Virtual Reality projects; and 3 Biennale College Cinema projects.The market will operate as an in-person event Sept. 2-4, 2022, while the festival runs Aug.

Vivienne Chow A Taiwanese filmmaker has made his short film inspired by Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests available online for free after it failed to get approval from the city’s censorship authorities.Wu Zi-en, director of “Islander,” has uploaded the full 25-minute film noir to online platform Vimeo last week, after it became the third film in a month to have been censored by Hong Kong authorities.The city last year changed censorship regulations to effectively ban any film that is politically sensitive or poses a threat to national security.“Islander” follows a man and his grandson’s journey to visit the son, who has been placed behind bars as a political prisoner in Taipei. The film was selected as part of the Fresh Wave International Short Film Festival in Hong Kong, but its public screening was canceled because the film did not receive the approval in time. Fresh Wave organizers did not respond to Variety‘s request for comment.