‘Parasite’ Star Song Kang-ho to Make Series Debut With ‘Uncle Sam Shik’

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Florian Zeller, the French filmmaker behind the Oscar-winning “The Father” and “The Son,” is set to make his TV debut with the adaptation of Stefano Massini’s play “The Lehman Trilogy.” Zeller will write, direct and co-produce the series under his newly formed Blue Morning. Lorenzo Mieli at The Apartment Pictures, a Fremantle company, and Domenico Procacci at Fandango are executive producing the series. The pair previously teamed on the acclaimed series “My Brilliant Friend” based on the Elena Ferrante novels. Massini’s epic drama charts the history of one of the global financial institutions that helped spark the 2008 recession. The original production inspired Sam Mendes to stage an English-language version of Massini’s five-hour play. Adapted by Ben Power, the production won five Tony Awards earlier this year, including prizes for Sam Mendes’ direction and for the lead performance of Simon Russell Beale.

EXCLUSIVE: Suzan-Lori Parks, the playwright who won a 2002 Pulitzer Prize for her Topdog/Underdog, will make her on-stage debut this fall in the world premiere Public Theater Off Broadway staging of her Plays For the Plague Year.

“Sons of Anarchy” actor Charlie Hunnam will star in Apple Tv+’s newest series “Shantaram.” The 12-episode series is based on the best-selling novel written by Gregory David Roberts and follows the thrilling epic adventure of one man’s journey to redemption through a country that changes his life. Co-created, written, and executive produced by Steve Lightfoot, “Shantaram” will see Bharat Nalluri in the director’s chair.

EXCLUSIVE: Fresh off starring in Toronto Film Festival drama North Of Normal, Sarah Gadon is set to make her directorial debut on feature Lullabies For Little Criminals, based on Heather O’Neill’s 2007 novel which won the Canada Reads competition.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Make no mistake: CJ ENM is on the move. The South Korean conglomerate that has done as much as any company to build out the nation’s entertainment ecosystem is actively looking to expand its “production capability and competency.” That’s the word from Kang Ho-sung, CEO of the cluster of film, TV and music companies that now share the CJ ENM banner. Kang gave a rare, extensive interview to Variety on Aug. 21 in downtown Los Angeles on the sidelines of CJ ENM’s KCON LA pop culture convention, which brought in close to 100,000 fans from across the U.S.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Prolific Japanese film director Miike Takashi and Indonesian genre specialist Kimo Stamboel will be among the star names in the ‘On Screen’ section of the Busan International Film Festival given over to TV series. Miike has made “Connect,” a Korean-language crime fantasy thriller about a man who is kidnapped and has one of his eyes removed by a gang of organ harvesters and transplanted into the body of a notorious serial killer. The unwilling donor now has terrible visions as he witnesses terrifying attacks on the residents of Seoul. The show was written by Nakamura Masaru and Heo Dam (“Monstrum”). It features Korean talent including Jung Haein (“Snowdrop,” “Start-Up,” “Tune in for Love”) in the lead role and Ko Kyungpyo (“Decision to Leave,” “Seoul Vibe,”) as the serial killer, and Kim Hyejun (“Inspector Koo,” “Kingdom,” “Sinkhole”) as the mysterious Irang.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief A weekend concert by Hong Kong acting and singing superstar Andy Lau Tak-wah attracted a record-breaking 350 million viewers on Douyin, the mainland Chinese sister company of TikTok. The concert ran for two hours and attracted 100 million viewers in the first 30 minutes, with tens of millions more joining by the end. The figures beat Lau’s own previous record on the platform, which he set in July last year at a concert to celebrate his 40 years in the business. The South China Morning Post said the record numbers were swelled by a recent wave of nostalgia for Canto-pop or Cantonese-language contemporary music, though the paper also noted that Lau also performed a couple of Mandarin-language classics.

SPOILER ALERT: This podcast contains details of the first two episodes of Prime Video’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, which debuted Thursday night. For more on the epic series, watch Deadline’s Inside The Ring: The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power after-show that launches Saturday. 

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Two Korean and two Indian movies make the cut in the Busan International Film Festival’s New Currents main competition section. Thet are joined by one each from Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia and Germany. The section has a track record of making significant discoveries among new Asian films and directors.The selected titles are eligible for multiple awards, including the New Currents Award, the FIPRESCI Award, the NETPAC Award, and the KB New Currents Audience Award. The selection comprises: “Ajooma,” directed by Hu Shuming (Singapore-Korea); “Blue Again” from Thailand’s Thapanee Loosuwan; “Hail to Hell,” by Korea’s Lim Oh-jeong; “Memento Mori: Earth,” by Vietnam’s Marcus Vu Manh Cuong; “No End,” directed by Nader Saeivar and flying the flags of Germany, Iran and Turkey; “A Place Called Silence,” by Malaysia’s Sam Quah; “Shivamma,” fromIndia’s Jaishankar Aryar; Japanese director Kubota Nao’s “One Thousand and One Nights”; “A Wild Roomer,” from Korea’s Lee Jeong-hong; and The Winter Within,” directed by Aamir Bashir, and structured as a co-production between India, France and Qatar.

David and Victoria Beckham are celebrating their son, Romeo on his 20th birthday. On Thursday, the proud parents took to Instagram to share sweet birthday wishes for their middle son, including an adorable throwback video.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and Media Nicole Power has joined the ensemble of the upcoming Netflix drama series“Glamorous.” She will appear alongside the previously announced “Sex and the City” icon Kim Cattrall, as well as actor, singer-songwriter and YouTuber Miss Benny. In the show, Power will portray Mykynnleigh, a seemingly guileless corporate consultant who rolls into town to help make a business deal happen. Although she seems wholesome and unsophisticated, those appearances are deceiving as Mykynnleigh possesses a lot of backbone and business acumen. “Glamorous” tells the story of Marco Mejia (Miss Benny), a gender-nonconforming queer young man whose life seems to be stuck in place until he lands a job working for legendary makeup mogul Madolyn Addison (Cattrall). It’s Marco’s first chance to figure out what he wants out of life, who he actually is and what it really means for him to be queer.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief South Korea’s leading entertainment group CJ ENM has appointed Steve W. Chung as its global chief growth officer. He will be based in Los Angeles. Previously, Chung served as chief growth officer at Fox Corporation. Prior to that Chung was the founder and CEO of Frankly, a publicly-traded media tech company based in San Francisco. He was also a venture capitalist in Silicon Valley and an executive producer in China.  Chung currently serves as a board member of the non-profit National Asia Pacific Center on Aging (NAPCA) and received his B.A from Harvard College and an M.B.A. from Stanford University.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Busan International Film Festival will further honor its co-founder and former programmer Kim Jiseok, who died suddenly in 2017, by expanding the existing prize in his name into a fully-fledged competitive section. Previously, the Kim Jiseok Award was given to one of ten films selected from the ‘A Window on Asian Cinema’ sidebar which introduces new films from significant Asian directors, defined as those who have each made more than three films.  “Starting this year, the Kim Jiseok Award nominees have been sorted into a section of their own, namely the ‘Jiseok’ section. Also, Korean films will be included in the ‘Jiseok’ section,” Busan organizers said. “This program section aims to both reinforce the spirit and determination of [Kim], who devoted himself to the growth and support of Asian films, and direct attention to the nominated works.”

David Tennant's eldest son Ty is following in his father's footsteps as he is set to star in the Game of Thrones prequel House Of The Dragon.

Korean actor Song Kang-ho, who starred in Parasite and won best actor at this year’s Cannes film festival for his role in Broker, is set to make his debut in a Korean series with Uncle Sam Shik for Seoul-based production company Slingshot Studio.

Parasite star and this year’s Cannes Best Actor winner Song Kang-ho has been confirmed for his first-ever Korean drama role of his 32-year career.On August 30, production company Slingshot Studio announced that Song has accepted a role in its upcoming K-drama series titled Uncle Sam Shik.The upcoming role will mark the critically acclaimed actor’s first-ever K-drama role of his acting career, which first began in 1990. Song spent the first six years of his career starring in theatre productions before making his film debut in 1996 with The Day a Pig Fell into the Well.According to Asia Gyeongje, the upcoming 10-episode series will follow the “bromance” between a pair of longtime friends, Sam Shik and Kim San, who survived South Korea’s turbulent 1960s period together.Uncle Sam Shik will be directed by Shin Yeon-shik, whom Song recently worked with on upcoming films One Win and Cobweb, which are currently in post-production.Best known for his roles in the films Thirst, Memories of Murder, Snowpiercer and Parasite, the 55-year-old became the first South Korean male actor to win the Best Actor award at the Cannes Film Festival for his recent drama film, Broker.The film, directed by Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda and also starring K-pop idol IU, received a 12-minute standing ovation after its premiere screening at the festival earlier this year.“Winning an award from such a prestigious festival as Cannes is a great and happy moment, an unforgettable turning point of my life,” said Song during a recent interview.However, the actor added: “I have won the award, but that itself cannot become the purpose.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief More than 600 buyers from companies in 30 countries are expected to be in Seoul, South Korea from Wednesday for the in-person return of the Broadcast WorldWide convention, better known as BCWW. Although BCWW bills itself as Asia’s largest broadcasting content market, given the strength of the Korean wave, much of the focus will be on Korean content and the business of working with Korean companies. Registered buyers and potential partners include Amazon Prime, Warner Bros. Discovery, NBCUniversal, PCCW the Hong Kong-based owner of Viu, and China’s iQiyi, all of which have already become purveyors of K-programming. “For the past 22 years, BCWW has served as a foundation for K-content to garner the global attention it is getting today,” said Cho Hyun-rae, president of the government-backed Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA). He added that he expects KOCCA and BCWW to “provide continuous support for K-content.”

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Lee Jung-jae, the star of hit Netflix series “Squid Game,” is to reprise his role as a manic killer in “Ray,” a TV series spun off from 2020 Korean action-horror film “Deliver Us From Evil.” Korean media sources report that Lee will star in and co-produce the series through his own Artist Studio company and Hive Media, producer of “Deliver Us From Evil.” Variety has reached out for further details. In the original movie, Hwang Jung-min played In-Nam, a former black ops agent who travels to Thailand to investigate an abduction. There he is pursued by Lee’s character Ray, a Korean-Japanese ruffian whose brother had been killed by In-Nam. Both heavily tattooed and charming, Ray embarks on a bloody rampage of revenge.