Philippines Showbiz Latest News and Updates

SM Cinema, the largest exhibitor in the Philippines, and IMAX have pacted for a significant expansion to their longstanding partnership with 10 IMAX with Laser systems in the market. The deal more than doubles IMAX’s footprint in the market and will bring the IMAX experience to three new locations, as well as seven IMAX with Laser upgrades to existing systems across the SM Cinema network. 

Laura Sirikul Filipino American streamer Rachell “Valkyrae” Hofstetter never expected her career to take off as it did. She started streaming video games on Twitch in 2015 to battle loneliness and possibly make a few friends. Due to her bubbly personality, she amassed millions of followers on multiple platforms, which led to sponsorships and brand endorsements.

Charlie Puth is grateful for all the love and attention right now!

Emily in Paris fans have complained as Netflix confirmed its fourth season will air in two parts.

Emily In Paris season four has been revealed, as Lily Collins shares an update on the show.The rom-com drama series, starring Collins as an American marketing executive who movies to Paris, debuted in 2020.Now, the fourth season is scheduled for a staggered summer release, with Netflix splitting it into two five-episode parts. Part one will premiere on the platform on August 15, with part two following on September 12.Season four will see the return of Collins in the titular role, as well as many of the main cast, including Ashley Park and Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu.Season four will pick up after the events of Camille and Gabriel’s misbegotten wedding, and will revisit Emily’s romantic dilemmas, as she works with Gabriel for a Michelin star, while Mindy prepares for the Eurovision song contest (according to press).The show’s writer and creator Darren Star has spoken on the upcoming series, teasing even more details of its plot, and this season’s varying locations: “Emily finds herself with a busy travel schedule in Season 4 of Emily in Paris.

Season four of Emily In Paris will land later this year, Netflix has revealed.

Selome Hailu Netflix has split the upcoming fourth season of “Emily in Paris” into two parts, premiering on Aug. 15 and Sept. 12.

Brillante Mendoza‘s film “Pula” has set a world premiere on Netflix. The narrative unfolds in the devoutly Catholic town of Pula and examines themes of faith, fanaticism, and vigilante justice. In the film, the tranquil life of Senior Master Sergeant Danilo Faraon (Coco Martin) and his family get upended by a tragic event that shakes the foundations of their close-knit community.

Gold House, Variety unveils its first list of Eight Asian Pacific Islanders: Up Next in Entertainment. The list celebrates Asian Pacific Islanders across the diaspora of entertainment and highlights rising global talent. The group are changemakers from TV and the executive side.

Sheynnis Palacios, the reigning Miss Universe 2023, is causing a stir across Asia. Her most recent adventure? The captivating and culturally diverse Thailand.

SHINee singer Onew has announced his upcoming solo 2024 ‘Guess!’ tour, featuring concerts in Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines and more.SHINee’s Onew and his label Griffin Entertainment announced the K-pop singer’s solo 2024 ‘Guess!’ tour on April 29. The tour will feature 11 concerts across seven countries in Asia from May to July this year.The idol will kick off his tour with a two-date concert in Seoul, South Korean on May 17 and 18.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Vietnamese French director and screenwriter Tran Anh Hung has been named as president of the jury for the upcoming Shanghai International Film Festival. The festival, which runs June 14 to 23, said that his works “blend the expressions of Eastern and Western cultures, with sensitivity, delicacy, and a romantic style.” His films include: 1992’s “Scent of the Green Papaya”; 1995’s “Cyclo,” starring Tony Leung Chiu-wai; 2009 English-language thriller “I Come With the Rain,” starring Josh Hartnett; and “The Taste of Things,” which earned him the best director prize at Cannes last year. The jury president role marks a return and a promotion for the director. He was previously on the Shanghai festival’s jury in 2011, when he also screened his “Norwegian Wood.” SM Cinema, the largest exhibitor in the Philippines, is to open giant screen Imax cinemas in three new venues.

K-pop touring cycle is in full swing. Stars including SEVENTEEN, aespa and NCT Dream are touring the world with new tunes in tow – and hitting Asia very soon.While some of those artists are staging their own headline shows, others are on the line-ups of music festivals with both multi-genre and Hallyu-only line-ups.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Prolific Philippines-based Epicmedia Productions has come on board “The Passport,” a Malaysian coming of age story about a Tamil family and their punk rock daughter. Production is by Malaysia’s Sixtymac Pictures. Currently at financing stage, the project will mark the directing debut of Ananth Subramaniam, whose short films have played at BiFan and Fantasia, and whose works explore his Tamil-ancestral identity and family within the context of a multi-layered genre.

ZEROBASEONE have announced the dates for their upcoming 2024 ‘The First Tour’ tour, featuring concerts in Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia and more.Today (April 29), ZEROBASEONE revealed the dates for their forthcoming 2024 ‘The First Tour’ tour, which will feature 14 concerts in seven different countries from September to December this year.The K-pop boyband will kick off their tour with a three-date show at the KSPO Dome in Seoul, South Korea from September 20 to 22. In the same month, the group will also hold a concert at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.In the following month, ZEROBASEONE will bring their 2024 ‘The First Tour’ tour to other cities and countries across Southeast Asia.

Some of the leading restaurant groups when it comes to casual dining have been honoured at a glitzy awards ceremony recognising the best in the industry.

For more than 40 years the CIS Tower stood in glorious isolation as Manchester’s tallest building. But in the last five years alone 10 skyscrapers have been built that dwarf the Co-op’s modernist masterpiece.

Alex Ritman Multi award-winning Filipina actress Ruby Ruiz has landed her first major screen role following her appearance in Amazon’s “Expats.” She will lead “First Light,” the feature directorial debut of James. J.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief David Anthony Chan’s epic fantasy novel “The Kindred Chronicles” is set to be adapted into an animated series and will be the first project flowing from a partnership between HIP Studios and hybrid publisher 8 Letters. The deal between the two companies was announced at the recent Philippine Book Festival. It aims to adapt 8Letters content into television content, movies, animations, mangas and games. A subsidiary of Singapore’s Silver Media, HIP Studios is a Singapore, Sydney and Cebu, Philippines-based IP development and management company.

All You Need Is Love: The Beatles in Their Own Words” (St. Martin’s Press), an illuminating page turner from former band aide Peter Brown and best-selling author Steven Gaines.The extensive oral history is made up of candid interviews with Gaines, captured in 1980-1981; a scheduled sit-down with Lennon never happened before his Dec.

The Gospel Of The Beast, directed by the Philippines’ Sheron Dayoc, picked up the Golden Star Award for Best Southeast Asian Film at the first edition of the Ho Chi Minh City International Film Festival (HIFF) in Vietnam. 

Eleanor Coppola, who won an Emmy for the Apocalypse Now documentary Hearts of Darkness, directed Paris Can Wait and Love Is Love Is Love and was married to Francis Ford Coppola for 61 years, diedFriday at her home in Rutherford, CA. She was 87.

J. Kim Murphy Eleanor Coppola, an American filmmaker who won an Emmy for chronicling her husband Francis Ford Coppola‘s taxing 238-day production of “Apocalypse Now” in her documentary “Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse,” died Friday at her home in Rutherford, Calif. She was 87.

Un Certain Regard title “Việt and Nam” by Vietnamese auteur Trương Minh Quý. Shot on 16mm stock, the film is a drama about two young miners who must complete a mission before fate pulls them apart. “In the depths of the underground coal mines, where danger awaits and darkness prevails, Nam and Việt, both young miners, cherish fleeting moments, knowing that one of them will soon leave for a new life across the sea.

Producers in Southeast Asia are facing a very different, much quieter landscape to the one in front of them just 12 months ago, as U.S. players rein in their spending to appease shareholders, and neighboring countries such as Korea, Japan and India draw attention.

EXCLUSIVE: Leonor Will Never Die producer Monster Jimenez will next work on Mario Cornejo’s My Neighbor the Gangster, a film loosely based on Cornejo’s childhood.

THE BOYZ have announced their upcoming 2024 ‘Zeneration II’ world tour, featuring concerts in Asia, the US, Europe and more.Today (April 8), THE BOYZ announced the first batch of dates for their upcoming 2024 ‘Zeneration II’ world tour. The trek will follow their 2023 ‘Zeneration’ world tour, which had featured 24 dates in Asia.‘Zeneration II’ will kick-off in July with a three-date show in South, South Korea, before the boyband head to the US for a solo tour the first time since 2022.

EXCLUSIVE: Lionsgate Play has landed another carriage deal in the Philippines.

EXCLUSIVE: Upcoming Filipino crime drama series Sellblock has wrapped principal photography and is headed for MIPTV. You can see four first-look images above.

The CEO of ABS-CBN has lifted the lid on how the media conglom’s first collaboration with former network rival GMA typifies a new era of business for the Filipino company.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief YG Entertainment, the firm behind K-pop sensation Blackpink, has appointed Yang Min-seok as its new, sole CEO. The younger brother of company founder Yang Hyun-sun, he was previously joint CEO with Hwang Bo-kyun. The announcement was made shortly after YG’s annual shareholder meeting that closed the books on a year in which revenues climbed 65% to $430 million. The firm, which recently denied that it had paid $30 million to retain its position with Blackpink (but saw the girl group’s individual members sign personal representation contracts with other agencies) is busily launching BabyMonster, another all-female act that is seen in some circles as a successor to Blackpink. BabyMonster, which was formed late last year through reality TV show “Last Evaluation 2023,” is a seven part group with members from Korea, Thailand and Japan.

B.I has announced the Asia dates for the concerts on his upcoming 2024 ‘Hype Up’ tour.Over the weekend on March 30, B.I revealed the first batch of dates for his upcoming 2024 ‘Hype Up’ tour, which will kick off this May with concerts across six Asian cities.B.I will embark on his newly announced tour on May 24 with a show in Hong Kong. Thereafter, the singer will perform concerts in Bangkok, Singapore, Manila and Jakarta in June, followed by a Macau show in July.According to the poster for the 2024 ‘Hype Up’ tour, more cities and dates will be announced soon.

Oh, Mary!, Escola’s hit play which marketing materials tout “finally examines the forgotten life and dreams of Mrs. Lincoln through the lens of an idiot.Although they may not be immediately recognizable, Escola appeared on the TV shows Difficult People, At Home with Amy Sedaris, and Search Party.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Directors Factory Philippines,” an omnibus film project initiated by the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, has completed production in the historic city of Dapitan. Operating since 2013, when it kicked off in Taiwan, the Directors’ Factory works with a new partner country each year to mentor eight budding filmmakers who are preparing ambitious first or second feature projects that they will make in pairs. The Philippines was selected in November. The four resulting co-written and co-directed short films will be screened as part of the Directors’ Fortnight (aka Quinzaine des Cineastes) in May. Dapitan, a city in The Philippines’ Zamboanga Peninsula, known for its many shrines and as the place of exile of Philippines’ national hero, Jose Rizal.

EXO singer D.O. – real name Doh Kyung-soo – has announced his upcoming 2024 ‘Bloom’ fan concert tour of Asia.Today (March 25), EXO’s D.O.

EXCLUSIVE: Filipino actress and singer Lovi Poe (Seasons) is joining Adam Beach (Windtalkers) in the untitled Paul Fullerton project produced and directed by Garry A. Brown (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.).