Ayumi Hamasaki is back with a new theme song!
15.06.2024 - 15:17 / variety.com
Marta Balaga Japanese creator Naoko Yamada, whose latest film “The Colors Within” screened in the main competition at this year’s Annecy Animation Festival, continues to challenge herself. “Animation provides me with hope, yearning and challenges. It allows me to expand my imagination infinitely and, at the same time, it challenges me to see how much imagination I actually have,” she told Variety via an interpreter following the premiere of her latest.
“I want to see what I can do without limiting myself to any particular subjects.” It introduces a young Totsuko, a closeted synesthete who can actually see others as colors. She becomes fascinated with honor student Kimi – and her dazzling shade, who has dropped out of school but pretends to attend for her grandmother’s sake. Kimi also has a hidden talent – she loves to play the electric guitar and dabbles in songwriting.
Later, when the two start to become friends, they form a band with Rui, a quiet boy who loves music but whose mother expects him to become a doctor. “I chose music because it’s a tool that can connect emotions without using words,” said Yamada, who previously made the shorts “Garden of Remembrance” and “The Heike Story.” A Kyoto Animation alumni, she’s also behind “Liz and the Blue Bird.” “I think this is a story about the process of shaping something and the joy of creating,” she added. Written by Reiko Yoshida, “The Colors Within” was produced by Science SARU and Story Inc.
As previously reported by Variety, Gkids and European animation distributor Anime Ltd. have acquired global rights for the film. While a big chunk of the feature, now debuting exclusive images, is set in a Catholic school, with Totsuko often turning to God and one of the nuns to ask
.Ayumi Hamasaki is back with a new theme song!
Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Malaysia International Film Festival (Miffest), which runs July 21-28, will open with horror film “Indera” by local director Woo Ming Jin and starring Shaheizy Sam and Azira Shafinaz. The festival will conclude with the double feature of “Love Lies” by Ho Miu Ki and “Peg O’ My Heart” by Nick Cheung.
Donald Sutherland following his death on Thursday. The “M*A*S*H” actor died at age 88 in Miami after a “long illness.”Fonda and Sutherland worked together in the 1971 hit “Klute,” and dated around the same time they filmed the crime drama.They played Bree Daniels and John Klute, respectively, seeing Sutherland as a detective and Fonda as a call girl who helps him in a missing persons case.
Jane Fonda is speaking out about the passing of Donald Sutherland, her co-star from the Alan J. Pakula crime drama Klute.
Alison Herman TV Critic Season 21 of “Top Chef” was the venerated food competition’s first without longtime host Padma Lakshmi. Nevertheless, the show adapted without her, and will culminate on June 19 with a finale set aboard a cruise ship in the Caribbean. Out of 16 chefs who competed in Wisconsin, judges Tom Colicchio, Gail Simmons and Kristen Kish — a former winner who stepped into Lakshmi’s role — have narrowed the field to just three contenders: Dan Jacobs, Savannah Miller and Danny Garcia.
EXCLUSIVE: Concourse Media is launching sales on One Of One, a feature documentary filmed over five years about an elusive family of Japanese car restorers.
Welcome to Global Breakouts, Deadline’s fortnightly strand in which we shine a spotlight on the TV shows and films killing it in their local territories. The industry is as globalized as it’s ever been, but breakout hits are appearing in pockets of the world all the time and it can be hard to keep track. So we’re going to do the hard work for you.
Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent “Flow,” a director-driven animated feature which world premiered at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard and just swept three awards at Annecy Film Festival, has been embraced by a raft of major distributors in key territories, including the U.K., Japan, South Korea, Germany, Spain and Italy. The movie is represented internationally by Charades.
Crunchyroll Senior Vice President of Global Commerce Mitchel Berger was in ebullient mood as he gave a talk on the growing global reach of anime at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival this week.
Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor FX’s “Shogun” had planned to shoot in Japan; due to the pandemic, the production shifted to Vancouver. Production designer Helen Jarvis had never been to Japan, nor had she read James Clavell’s original novel that the series is based on. Nonetheless, she was determined to bring authenticity to the locations when building the world of feudal Japan in the 1600s.
Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Oscar-winning costume designer Colleen Atwood had to make between 200 and 300 leather bomber jackets for AppleTV+’s World War II series “Masters of the Air.” Despite having more than 80 credits to her name, Atwood had never done a WWII drama and was delighted to finally be tackling the era. She dove deep into researching the period, collecting photos of the young men on the military bases so she could create individual styles for the actors and their characters. She even got samples of the original uniforms.
Warner Bros Pictures has acquired Pedro Almodóvar’s English-language feature debut, The Room Next Door, for release in a host of key international markets including the filmmaker’s home turf of Spain.
Tom Hiddleston and Anna Sawai are addressing their recent roles in an emotional conversation.
Japanese animator and director Kenji Kamiyama made his Annecy debut in the company of Andy Serkis on Tuesday with a 20-minute preview of upcoming anime feature The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim.
EXCLUSIVE: In his final project before concluding his headline-snatching, decades-long tenure as creative director at Valentino, Pier Paolo Piccioli dipped back into film production to produce the costumes for Things And Other Things, the latest feature from Italian filmmaker Riccardo Vannuccini.
Jamie Lang Japanese director Kenji Iwaisawa‘s debut feature “On-Gaku: Our Sound” was a hit at the 2020 Annecy Animation Festival, where it played in the festival’s Contrechamp competition and won best original music. This year, the filmmaker returns to Annecy to present his next film, “Hyakuemu.”, in a dedicated Annecy Work in Progress session. Based on the original manga “Chi: Chikyū no Undō ni Tsuite” by Uoto, the film tells the story of Togashi, a child born to run.
Anna Marie de la Fuente Eurozoom, a leading French distributor for Japanese animation, has forged a strategic partnership with major French animation producer Special Touch Studios, led by founder and CEO Sebastien Onomo. “We both share the same passion for animation and want to tell bold stories with a particular attention to professional diversity,” said Eurozoom’s CEO-Founder Amel Lacombe, who added that they were jointly working on a six-animation feature lineup. Leading the pack is “Melvile,” directed by Romain Renard and Fursy Teyssier.
Tokyo Vice has been cancelled by HBO after two seasons, with some fans questioning whether they should now cancel their Max subscription.The news was confirmed during a Fox Studios panel this week, with the streaming service paying tribute to the show’s creator J.T. Rogers and director Alan Poul.“From Tokyo Vice’s richly written material to the gorgeously composed shots to the lived-in performances, the care and creativity of this enormously talented cast and crew shines in every frame of the show,” said a Max spokesperson (via Deadline).
Robert Plant and Alison Krauss have shared a new version of Led Zeppelin‘s classic track ‘When The Levee Breaks’.The live cut of the song, which you can listen to below, is their first single since their second collaborative album ‘Raise The Roof’ was released in 2021.This version, which the pair have been performing on their recent North American tour, features guitarist JD McPherson, drummer Jay Bellerose, bassist Dennis Crouch, string player Stuart Duncan and multi-instrumentalist Viktor Krauss.During the tour, the pair have also performed Zeppelin classics ‘The Battle Of Evermore’ and ‘Rock And Roll’, as well as a medley that includes ‘Gallows Pole’.Their tour will continue until September 1 where it wraps up in Vail, Colorado. You can purchase any remaining tickets here.The duo last toured together in 2022, which itself was their first complete tour in 12 years.Meanwhile, it was recently revealed that Led Zeppelin’s long awaited documentary Becoming Led Zeppelin is finally set for a cinema release.The authorised film, which was first announced in 2019, has been acquired for release by Sony Classics Pictures in a number of countries including North America, Latin America, Southeast Asia (except for Japan) and the Middle East.
Jamie Lang France’s Annecy Animation Festival opened on Sunday, and among the event’s first activities was a screening of titles from the Commission Films in Competition Lineup. During the projection, the French music video for Chien Méchant’s “Étoile filante,” produced using generative artificial intelligence software, earned the extraordinary distinction of being booed by the Annecy audience.