Mister Smith Boards New Zealand Horror Film ‘Grafted’ by Debut Director Sasha Rainbow (EXCLUSIVE)

Brad Pitt is reportedly set to go up against race car driver Lewis Hamilton in the British Grand Prix while filming his new movie.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Rights to ‘Man in Black,” one of two documentary films by China’s Wang Bing to appear in Official Selection at Cannes this year, have been picked up by specialty sales agency Asian Shadows. The 60-minute film, which will debut as a special screening, is a portrait of 86-year-old Wang Xilin, one of China’s most important modern classical composers and is now lives in exile in Germany. It was made in close collaboration with French cinematographer Caroline Champetier, whose credits include Leos Carax’s “Holy Motors,” Amos Gitai’s “Promised Land” and Andre Techine’s “Alice and Martin.” During the 1960s, when China’s Cultural Revolution forced intellectuals into the fields and stripped the middle classes of their wealth, Wang Xilin was the was the target of severe persecution, including beatings, imprisonment and torture. The film examines the body and soul of a man scarred by a life of suffering, who is yet still capable of deep and sincere compassion.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Trinity CineAsia has acquired rights to Chinese tentpole action movie “Born to Fly,” and will release the film in cinemas in the U.K. and Ireland.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles is expanding its efforts to engage the industry side of the business and in June will host its inaugural IFFLA Industry Day. The festival was founded in 2002 and, now in its third decade of operation, has pivoted to a strategy of year-round programming and events. The center piece of the IFFLA Industry Day will be a pitch competition that involves selected emerging and established film and TV writers and directors who pitch their upcoming project to a panel of executives from different sectors of the industry. The executives and a live public audience will provide feedback and heighten the sense of discovery. The winner will receive a $10,000 development grant.

Hugh Jackman's anticipated return as the titular X-Men character in . «I'm thrilled for him to get a chance to play with it again,» he told ET's Ash Crossan during the Celebration 2023 in London, England. The 59-year-old filmmaker directed the final two installments in the trilogy, 2013's and in 2017. At the time, the latter was meant to be Jackman's final turn as the superhero after playing him for nearly 20 years across nine different franchise films. «Whether one way or another, I knew Logan wouldn't be the last time we see a movie,» Mangold said of the Oscar-nominated installment.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Sydney Film Festival will present ‘Jane Campion – Her Way,’ a retrospective of films by the pioneering director. Campion herself will appear in conversation with David Stratton on June 10 at the 2023 edition of the festival, its 70th anniversary presentation (June 7-18). Held in association with ACMI and the National Film and Sound Archive, ‘Jane Campion – Her Way’ will encompass screenings of all nine of Campion’s feature films, as well as a selection of her short films. The selection will go on to tour the ACMI in Melbourne (June 15 – July 2) and at NFSA in Canberra (July 20-30). “For our 70th edition, we wanted to present a retrospective commensurate with the milestone, reflecting the audacious and boundary pushing filmmaking synonymous with our festival and region. Campion is a ground-breaking filmmaker who has made a profound impact on cinema with her daring and unforgettable films,” said Sydney Film Festival director Nashen Moodley.

Celine Dion has recorded five new songs for new film ‘Love Again’, in which she also stars.The film also features Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Sam Heughan. Dion plays herself, helping Heughan’s journalist character Rob track down a woman who sends texts meant for her dead husband to his work phone.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief A growing range of Thai, Japanese and Chinese-language films and TV shows are reaching global audiences – joining the by-now well-established international viewership for South Korean shows.Netflix’s Global Top 10 for the week April 3-10, sees made-for-streaming Korean title “Kill Boksoon” on top of the non-English-language films list, with 27.5 million hours watched in its second week of release. It is immediately followed by Thai film “Hunger,” about a young woman apprentice in an upmarket restaurant working under a tough boss. The film is directed by Sitisiri Mongkolsiri and stars “Bad Genius” breakout Chutimon Chuengcharoensukying.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Huang Ji and Otsuka Ryuji’s “Stonewalling” won the Chinese-language section of the Hong Kong International Film Festival’s Firebird Young Cinema competition. Lila Aviles’s “Totem” won the equivalent Firebird Award for international films. The festival began on March 30 and concluded on Sunday evening with a world premier screening of “Vital Sign” at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre’s Grand Theatre. The screening was accompanied by cast and crew including Louis Koo, director Cheuk Wan-chi, producer Jacqueline Liu and performers Neo Yao, Angela Yuen, Ng Wing-sze, Tony Wu and So Yuet-yin. In total, “Stonewalling” picked up three awards. In addition to the best film prize, it also collected the best actress prize for leads Huang Xiaoxiong and Yao Honggui and the FIPRESCI Award. The tale of an unwanted pregnancy, the film premiered at Venice and Toronto last year. The HKIFF jury said it “[reminds] us of the confusion, difficulty and suffering women face nowadays and the inescapable responsibilities they have to shoulder.  It inspires the audience to reflect on this important issue in modern society.  It is an invaluable film replete with empathy.”

Stonewalling, co-directed by Huang Ji and Otsuka Ryuji, was the big winner at Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF), taking home three prizes including best film in the Young Cinema Competition (Chinese Language) of the Firebird Awards. 

Star Wars film, which he says is about “the discovery of the Force”.This week (April 7) Star Wars confirmed that three new films are in the works for the franchise, the first of which will be directed by Mangold, who has also directed this year’s upcoming Indiana Jones film, Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny.According to LucasFilm president Kathleen Kennedy, who appeared at this year’s Star Wars Celebration in London, the film will explore “the first Jedi to wield the force”.Speaking to Empire, Mangold has opened up more about the film and when it will be set.He said: “It takes place 25,000 years before Episode IV, and it’s about the discovery of the Force.“I told Kathy [Kennedy] I wanted to make a kind of Bible movie, a kind of Ten Commandments of Star Wars – kind of a Cecil B DeMille film about the arrival of the Force, and that’s what I’ve been pecking away at between press events. That’s the idea.”He continued: “It’s a movie that both connects to the worlds we know, but is also far enough away from it that I think there’s a lot of opportunities to tell a story freely, also…and not be so incredibly tied in by the knots and different story strands that are already in place.”A post shared by Empire Magazine (@empiremagazine) The second new Star Wars film will be directed by The Mandalorian co-creator Dave Filoni.

Jack Harlow continues his giant leap into the world of acting.

A while back there had been rumblings that Lucasfilm was looking to work with “Logan” director James Mangold on a possible film focused on Boba Fett, and while that ultimately never happened and he ended up tackling “Indiana Jones” for the studio instead with “Indiana Jones & The Dial of Destiny,” he’s officially joining the “Star Wars” franchise.

Star Wars” movie future just came into sharper focus: Daisy Ridley’s Rey will be the central focus of the first “Star Wars” feature film since 2019’s “The Rise of Skywalker,” Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy announced at Star Wars Celebration in London on Friday. Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy (“Ms. Marvel”) will direct from a script by Steven Knight (“Peaky Blinders”). The film follows the events of “Rise of Skywalker,” and will focus on Rey as she builds a new Jedi Order. The project marks several major milestones for the franchise: Obaid-Chinoy is the first woman and the first person of color to direct a “Star Wars” movie. The Pakistani filmmaker won two Academy Awards for documentary short, in 2011 for “Saving Face” and in 2015 for “A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness,” and she most recently directed two episodes of “Ms. Marvel” for Disney+.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Beijing 2022,” the official documentary about the 2022 Winter Olympic Games, has been set as the opening film of the revived Beijing International Film Festival. It is directed by noted narrative and documentary film maker Lu Chuan (“Kekexili,” “City of Life and Death” and Disney’s “Born in China”) and will have its world premiere at the festival. The festival will run April 22-29 and be based in the Huairou district which has become an out of town hub for the film industry, as well as other venues in the Chinese capital. For the past three editions the BJIFF has been held online due to disruptions caused by China’s strict anti-COVID measures.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Sydney Film Festival, which this year will celebrate its 70th edition, has unveiled its first dozen selections. Seven are feature films, five are documentaries. “The 2023 program will expand on this legacy, promising to ignite stimulating dialogues and present powerful ideas that will broaden audience perspectives,” said festival director Nashen Moodley. He noted that over the previous 69 editions the Sydney festival has showcased more than 10,000 films. Highlights among the documentaries are two Australian titles. “Rachel’s Farm” follows actor-director Rachel Ward as she revitalizes her beef farm using sustainable farming practices. In “The Last Daughter” Wiradjuri woman Brenda Matthews documents her search to uncover the truth about her government-ordered abduction as a child and to find her white foster family. Both Matthews and Ward will attend the festival in person.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Cinedigm has acquired all North American rights to the Japanese sci-fi horror film “New Religion.” “New Religion” is a surrealist body horror film written, directed and produced by first-time feature filmmaker Kondo Keishi. It stars Seto Kaho, Nunami Daiki, Oka Satoshi and Ryuseigun Saionji. After her daughter’s death, divorced Miyabi begins working as a call girl. One day, she meets an unsettling customer who wants to take pictures of her body parts. Soon, she realizes that every time she allows her body to be photographed her daughter’s spirit gets closer. She must decide how far she is willing to go to connect with her daughter once again.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Shanghai International Film Festival has unveiled plans for its return to an in-person event that will mark its 25th edition and its 30th anniversary. The festival was canceled last year, due to the severe restrictions imposed on the city in reaction to a Spring flare-up in the COVID outbreak. The 2023 edition will run June 9-18, 2023, organizers confirmed on Tuesday. They said it would, “open a two-way journey between Chinese films and world films.” The Jinjue (Golden Goblet) Awards competition will this year operate across five categories: main feature film competition, Asian newcomers, documentaries, animation and short films.

Design Agency Territory Studio Hires Former Netflix Executive

EXCLUSIVE: New Zealand has long been known as a prime destination for big budget films such as Avatar and The Lord of the Rings thanks to its enviable locations, skilled crew base and generous 40% tax rebate. But, earlier this year when Avatar: The Way of Water was on its way to breaking multiple box office records as it climbed to its $2.3BN tally, there was another New Zealand-shot project that was making a dent in the global box office chart. Universal, Blumhouse and Atomic Monster’s killer doll hit M3GAN amassed an impressive $176M worldwide from just a $12M budget after its January release.