Lotte Cultureworks To Produce Korean Adaptation Of Yes TV’s Israeli Series ‘On The Spectrum’

Paramount+ is expanding its global Korean originals slate with two new series, A Bloody Lucky Day and Queen Woo, which the streamer will launch exclusively on its global platform. In South Korea, the series will be available on TVing, the streaming service launched by Korean powerhouse CJ ENM.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Streaming services Paramount+ and Tving have greenlighted two new jointly-developed Korean TV series. They are the product of an ongoing relationship between parent companies Paramount Global and Korea’s CJ ENM. They are action thriller “A Bloody Lucky Day” and period drama “Queen Woo.” Korean TV content has been a growth vector for international and regional streaming platforms in Asia. Competition for new originals is fierce and expensive, but Korean drama and increasingly, unscripted shows, continues to attract critical and commercial kudos. Paramount+ said that new Korean drama series “Yonder” has been the most-watched international show in the U.S. in its first week of availability (since Aprile 11). Its upcoming Korean series “Bargain” earned the best screenplay award at Canneseries on Wednesday and will upload in summer this year.

MipTV and Mipcom, Cannes two TV trade fairs, announcing final figures of 5,560 participants, including 5,510 on-site delegates.  That said, attendance was sizeably down on pre-pandemic levels – 9,500 attendees in 2019 – with major European drama sales companies literally counting the cost of attendance and exhibition space versus Mip-driven sales. In a fast-evolving TV landscape, the future and identity of MipTV still remains uncertain. 10 takeaways from this year’s edition:

Moonbin, a member of the South Korean boy band Astro, died by suicide today at his residence in the Gangnam district of Seoul. He was 25.

Netflix Orders Season 2 Of ‘Rana Naidu’

Ed Meza @edmezavar Studiocanal has sold two new thrillers from Benelux to international buyers at MipTV in Cannes. The eight-part crime thriller “1985,” produced by Eyeworks for Belgian public broadcasters VRT and RTBF, follows three friends as they move to Brussels and get caught up in the horrifying events of Belgium’s most notorious unsolved crime spree that shocked a generation and left a scar on the entire country. The series went to SBS Australia; Filmin for Portugal and Spain; Canal+ for France, Czech Republic and Slovakia; TG4 in Ireland; and Free TV in Israel.

Ed Meza @edmezavar CJ ENM Sells Remake Rights to hit Korean Drama ‘Train’ to Firebrand Studios The U.K.’s Firebird Studios has acquired remake rights for hit Korean drama “Train” from entertainment giant CJ ENM. “Train” follows a detective investigating his love’s death who discovers a parallel universe, where his late partner is very much alive. Moving back and forth between the two worlds, he tracks down the truth behind her death in one, while protecting her in the other. “With two unforgettable central characters, ‘Train’ is a love story, a detective show, a journey across the multiverse,” said Firebird Pictures CEO Elizabeth Kilgariff. It’s “a story that defies expectations at every turn and one that we can’t wait to re-tell in a British setting.”

EXCLUSIVE: Canada’s Crave has swooped for the U.S., UK and Australian versions of The Traitors while the smash Dutch format is set to made in six more territories, bringing the overall total to 20.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent CANNES  — Burgeoning Israeli film-TV studio Sipur and cable channel HOT, behind the original versions of “In Treatment” and “Euphoria,” are introducing at MipTV “Everybody Loves…,” a new global dating reality format. The news comes just days after France’s Mediawan Rights has pounced on international distribution of another Sipur format, “Hungry for Love,” and partners Sipur and MGM’s winning five Israeli Emmy Awards for chilling doc series “The Devil’s Confession: The Lost Eichmann Tapes.”Tel Aviv-based Sipur has also moved into post on “Bad Boy,” a scripted series from Ron Leshem, creator of the original Israeli “Euphoria” and an exec producer on its U.S version.  

After waiting 13 years for the long-discussed Season 3 revival of the Starz comedy Party Down, will fans have to wait just as long for another installment? 

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Is it time for South Korea’s TV drama series to move over and make way for Korean unscripted entertainment — namely game shows and reality shows? While 2003 drama series “Jewel in the Palace,” or the more recent “Crash Landing on You,” “Memories of the Alhambra,” “Mr. Queen,” “Love (ft. Marriage and Divorce)” and “Descendants of the Sun” have for years successfully tugged at emotional heartstrings across Asia, the unscripted category has equally long been a staple of Korean domestic TV. Korean variety shows have been a catch-all with multi-generational appeal. Talent contests have worked well in the home market, but often were too quirky — too much dialogue, or distracting titles flashing across the screen — which meant that they were best exported as formats rather than finished shows.

Here’s the elevator pitch: follow wildly successful actors and podcasters Will Arnett, Jason Bateman, and Sean Hayes on a celebrity-filled North American tour.

EXCLUSIVE: Korean studio Lotte Cultureworks’ drama Pale Moon, which has been selected for Canneseries, will be broadcast in Korea from April 7 on KT’s Genie TV, followed by a debut on pay-TV network ENA and streaming service Tving on April 10. 

The new musical & Juliet is one of the biggest hits of the 2022-23 Broadway season and we’re catching up with some of the stars!

EXCLUSIVE: Cameron Britton is the latest name we can reveal to be attached to director Na Hong-Jin’s Korean thriller Hope.

Reese Witherspoon has officially filed for divorce from husband Jim Toth after 12 years of marriage.The actress and the agent announced their split in a joint statement shared to social media on March 24, two days before their wedding anniversary. «It is with a great deal of care and consideration that we have made the difficult decision to divorce,» the statement read in part. «We have enjoyed so many wonderful years together and are moving forward with deep love, kindness, and mutual respect for everything we have created together. Our biggest priority is our son and our entire family as we navigate this next chapter.»Additionally, a source tells ET, «Reese and Jim’s decision to get a divorce was really just an amicable and thoughtful choice on both parts.

Real life married couple Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander have booked their second film together!

EXCLUSIVE: Oscar winner Alicia Vikander (The Danish Girl) and Oscar nominee Michael Fassbender (12 Years A Slave) have been set for roles in feature Hope, the first project from acclaimed Korean director Na Hong-Jin since 2016 hit The Wailing.

The Night Agent snuck its way to the top of Netflix’s English-language TV charts for the week of March 20.

World premieres for some of the global streamers’ biggest upcoming launches will take place at next month’s Canneseries.