Mainland China Set to Make Major Impact at FilMart 2022

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefThe shares of China’s largest entertainment and tech companies plunged for a second day on Tuesday as Russia’s war in Ukraine, regulatory warnings and China’s slowing economy all combined to signal tougher times ahead.Alibaba shares crashed 11.7% to reach an all-time low of HK$71.2 in Hong Kong, where they have a secondary listing. Tencent shares plunged by 10.2% to HK$298, their lowest in several years. Both companies have in the past held the title of China’s largest enterprise and are major components of the Hang Seng Index of leading equities.The Hang Seng Index fell by more than 1,000 points and by nearly 6% on Tuesday to close at 18,415.

Reuters) based on comments by Vi Kien Thanh, head of the Department of Cinema, a government body in charge of licensing and censoring foreign films.Reps for Sony did not respond to a request for comment.Vietnam previously banned the 2019 animated film “Abominable” and asked Netflix to make changes to a series last year called “Pine Gap” for the same reason. “Uncharted” is scheduled to open in China on Monday.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefOrganizers of Hong Kong FilMart, normally Asia’s biggest film and TV rights market, are putting on a brave face despite their prestige event being forced into an online-only format for the third time in a row.The city’s borders are closed to travelers from several key countries and its onerous quarantine on-arrival conditions show no sign of being lifted during the current fifth wave of COVID-19 infections.But, while many Asian industry executives have been unable to attend an in-person festival or market for some two years now, and are keenly awaiting the first opportunity, these days they are also vastly more experienced at dealing with virtual markets, video conferencing and online screenings. The number of companies participating as exhibitors at FilMart 2022 is set to reach 750, compared with 680 last year.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefSome cinemas in central Shanghai were closed from Friday in reaction to a surge in coronavirus cases in the city and other parts of China. The Shanghai Disneyland theme park announced partial restrictions that take effect from Saturday. On Saturday, Chinese authorities announced that a total of 1,649 new cases in the country had been discovered on Friday.

Jon Burlingame editor“Turning Red,” Pixar’s latest animated adventure, posed some pretty big musical challenges: it’s about a 13-year-old girl, obsessed with a boy band, whose Chinese ancestry literally looms large as she turns into a giant panda when her emotions spin out of control.It demanded a trio of world-class talents: Grammy winners Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell for the songs and Oscar, Emmy and Grammy winner Ludwig Göransson to compose the score.That such high-profile talents were available and eager to contribute to “Turning Red” says a lot about the music-friendly reputation of Pixar, which has won five music Oscars (including last year’s “Soul”) and 11 more nominations for either song or score since the original “Toy Story” in 1995. Tom MacDougall, president of Walt Disney Music, conferred with director Domee Shi — whose personal coming-of-age, mother-daughter conflict story inspired “Turning Red” — and reached out to all of them in 2019, before production on the film began.MacDougall had been a fan since Eilish’s early hit “Ocean Eyes” and was impressed, he says, “by the breadth of the territory that their songwriting and performing covered” ever since.

Roland Emmerich’s big-budget sci-fi disaster pic Moonfall has been set for a March 25 release in China (check out the new poster below). The movie, which released via Lionsgate domestically on February 4, is heavily backed by China’s Huayi, so this is an important piece of its recoupment prospects. The China date falls one week after the PRC start of Warner Bros/DC’s The Batman.

Sony Pictures Animation’s Hotel Transylvania: Transformania has been granted an April 3 theatrical release date in China. Sony last summer licensed the fourth installment in the successful franchise to Amazon worldwide, but retained China rights.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief‘The Battle at Lake Changjin II’ headed the mainland Chinese box office for the fifth successive weekend as cinemas await significant new content. “Changjin II” earned $7.5 million over the latest weekend, according to data from consultancy Artisan Gateway. The increment expanded the film’s aggregate to $626 million since release on Feb.

f(x)’s Amber Liu has officially released the music video for ‘Easier’, her collaboration with GOT7’s Jackson Wang.In the newly released visual, Liu is portrayed as a cheerful puppet walking around a colourful room. The visual later cuts to Liu and Wang performing their joint verses on a surface that resembles the moon.

HYBE and YG Entertainment are set to launch a BLACKPINK-themed Korean language learning packet later this year.Earlier today (March 2), HYBE Edu and YG Entertainment announced that they will be launching a BLACKPINK-themed Korean language learning material titled ‘BLACKPINK In Your Korean’, per Kpop Herald.According to Kpop Herald and KBIZoom, ‘BLACKPINK In Your Korean’ hopes to familiarise fans with the Korean language through words and phrases that the K-pop quartet frequently use.The packet will include textbooks, stickers, quizzes and animated videos that will teach learners correct pronunciation. Notably, the videos will be available in Korean, English, Chinese, Japanese and Indonesian..@HYBE_EDU is launching "@BLACKPINK IN YOUR KOREAN," a Korean language education material using the act's IP.

Wall Street Journal reporter Erich Schwartzel’s book, Red Carpet: Hollywood, China and the Global Battle for Cultural Supremacy, warns in its prologue: “China’s pressure on Hollywood and its own entertainment industry have the potential to challenge the American film industry as the chief narrator of the twenty-first century.”

Editor’s Note: Wall Street Journal reporter Erich Schwartzel’s new book Red Carpet: Hollywood, China and the Global Battle for Cultural Supremacy includes a chapter on Fan Bingbing, one of China’s biggest global stars who disappeared from public view in 2018 shortly after she was cast to star in the female action spy movie The 355. In the excerpt below from the Penguin Press book, Schwartzel takes readers from Cannes through Fan’s house arrest — where she was “watched constantly, even while taking showers” — to her eventual reappearance (albeit via greenscreen and with a body double for The 355) as she had become what Schwartzel calls “the most famous chicken used by Chinese authorities to scare the monkeys of its entertainment industry.”

Slash has revealed that there is more new music from Guns N’ Roses on the way soon – and some fresh tracks could arrive before they begin their next stint of shows.The band released two new singles last year in ‘Absurd’ and ‘Hard Skool’, with both tracks stemming from the sessions for the infamous ‘Chinese Democracy’ album.The guitarist has explained that those tracks weren’t the only pieces of new material the band had been planning to release. “There is new material coming — everybody’s always asking,” Slash told Consequence of Sound.

John Carpenter has earned the respect of film fans and filmmakers around the world for basically revolutionizing genre filmmaking on multiple occasions with films like “Halloween,” “The Thing,” “Big Trouble In Little China,” and “Escape From New York.” But as the years have gone on and he hasn’t really been behind the camera in more than a decade, the filmmaker is known now as a man who loves to speak his mind, collect paychecks, and talk about sequels. Speaking to THR, John Carpenter continues to showcase his DGAF energy in a big way.

Bill Maher zeroed in on China during the latest edition of “Real Time”, targeting the winter Olympics in Beijing during the “New Rules” segment.

Bill Maher couldn’t hide his contempt for the country hosting the Winter Olympics on his Friday Real Time.