Park Chan-wook’s Cannes Competition Film ‘Decision to Leave’ Grabbed by Mubi

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefEpic Pictures Releasing has licensed North American rights to Korean action film “Hot Blooded,” from leading Seoul-based film sales agency Finecut. The deal is one of several struck by the agency ahead of Cannes, where it is also launching sales on Critics’ Week title “Next Sohee.”Starring Bae Doona and Kim Si-eun, “Next Sohee” is directed by Jung July, whose acclaimed “A Girl at My Door” played in Un Certain regard in 2014.

India is the country of honor at the Cannes Film Market and consequently a massive contingent from the country is descending upon the Croisette. Variety understands that some 400 attendees are winging their way from India, and that French embassies across the country were working at capacity to issue visas.That stands in contrast with the attendance from other parts of Asia, further East.

South Korean director Park Chan-wook is set to premiere his new film, “Decision to Leave,” at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival. A detective murder mystery with a romantic twist, the film is widely regarded as one of the most anticipated premieres of the festival.

Kang Soo-youn, who won South Korea’s first acting award from a Big Three film festival when she took home Best Actress honors at the Venice Film Festival, died Saturday, two days after suffering a cardiac arrest. She was 55 and her family said she died of a cerebral hemorrhage at 3 PM at a hospital in southern Seoul.

Exclusive: The 2022 Cannes Film Festival is right around the corner (things kick off on May 17), and that means the Olympics of filmmaking with the best filmmakers worldwide competing for the coveted Palme d’Or. One of those filmmakers will be Iranian-Danish film director and screenwriter Ali Abbasi, whose new film “Holy Spider” will play in the official competition section during the festival.

Exclusive: The 2022 Cannes Film Festival is right around the corner (things kick off on May 17), and that means the Olympics of filmmaking with the best filmmakers worldwide competing for the coveted Palme d’Or. One of those filmmakers will be Iranian-Danish film director and screenwriter Ali Abbasi, whose new film “Holy Spider” will play in the official competition section during the festival.

BTS have announced details of their new single, titled ‘Yet To Come (The Most Beautiful Moment)’.The track will be released on June 10, the same day as the group’s upcoming anthology album, ‘PROOF’.The Korean superstars’ label BigHit Music confirmed the single earlier today (May 6), unveiling its title and artwork.The agency also shared a promotion schedule for ‘PROOF’, which reveals two teasers for the ‘Yet To Come’ music video will arrive on June 8 and 9 (both at 12am EST/5am BST). The full music video will then arrive on June 10 at the same time as the album.#BTS #방탄소년단 'Proof' Lead Single Cover<Yet To Come>#BTS_Proof #YetToCome pic.twitter.com/ANy7nbNfdI— BIGHIT MUSIC (@BIGHIT_MUSIC) May 6, 2022‘Yet To Come’’s title calls back to BTS’ ‘The Most Beautiful Moment In Life’ series, which was released between 2015 and 2016.

EXCLUSIVE: Ben Younger (Snowfall) has been tapped to direct and executive produce ABC drama pilot The Company You Keep, starring Milo Ventigmilia and Catherine Haena Kim, from 20th Television.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefAcclaimed Canadian nature documentary “Geographies of Solitude” was Wednesday named the best film in the international competition section at South Korea’s Jeonju International Film Festival. The parallel Korean competition was won by “Jeong-Sun,” directed by Jeong Ji-hye.The two previous editions of Jeonju were disrupted by COVID. But this year the festival, with 217 films from 52 countries, was held predominantly as an in-person event.

Sophia Bromberg is one of the rising stars we’re excited about here at Just Jared, and we want our readers to get an exclusive chance to get to know her better.

William Fichtner is set as a lead opposite Milo Ventimiglia and Catherine Haena Kim in ABC drama pilot The Company You Keep, from 20th Television.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief“Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore” topped the box office in South Korea over the May Day weekend, beating a handful of minor local titles which released in hope of catching a rising market.The latest Friday-Sunday period appeared to represent a turning point – a $4.86 million nationwide aggregate was the biggest weekend haul since January – but a slow and uncertain one. Theatrical box office in Korea has been severely depressed all year due to government-imposed COVID restrictions, audience caution and a paucity of new release local titles.

Wilson Chapman editorAsian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month arrives on Sunday, and Ella Jay Basco is celebrating with “Bubble Tea,” the latest single from her upcoming album.Best known for her role as Cassandra Cain in the 2020 superhero film “Birds of Prey,” Basco got her start as a child actor in show’s like “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Veep.” But after “Birds of Prey,” she began exploring music, releasing an EP “Middle School” when she was just 13. Half-Korean and half-Filipino, Basco often draws upon her heritage and culture when constructing her songs.

If you’re tuning in from CinemaCon news, you’re hearing studios say theatrical distribution is the “cornerstone” of their business, an about face to all the conventional wisdom in the last few years that says streaming is the industry’s future. Such are the whims of saying whatever’s convenient at the moment, but in a sure sign that streaming is still as important as ever, MUBI, the global arthouse streamer, has announced a huge acquisition today in Park Chan-Wook’s much-anticipated thriller “Decision To Leave,” which is making its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival next month.

EXCLUSIVE: Park Chan-wook’s anticipated Cannes Competition title Decision To Leave has sold to arthouse streamer, theatrical distributor and producer Mubi in what we understand to be the company’s biggest film deal to date.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefPeter Luo’s Stars Collective has optioned the rights to acclaimed Chinese novelist and screenwriter Tong Hua’s best-selling sci-fi fantasy novel series “The Memory Lost in Space” and will adapt the story into both an English language television series and feature film.A story told over four book installments, the first of which debuted in 2017, “The Memory Lost in Space” is set in the distant future, with humans forced into an exodus to the edge of the galaxy after the depletion and destruction of Earth’s energy and habitat. Humans resort to genetic modification to stay strong but this creates new diseases and conflict between pure-breeds and those modified.

Selome Hailu Catherine Haena Kim has been cast as Emma in ‘The Company You Keep,’ an ABC drama pilot starring Milo Ventimiglia.Emma is described as the self-deprecating black sheep of an Asian American political dynasty who has never been afraid to carve her own path despite the objections of her impressive family. When she meets Charlie (Ventimiglia) by chance in a bar, sparks fly and the two wind up falling in love.

Catherine Haena Kim (FBI) has been cast as the female lead opposite This Is Us star Milo Ventimiglia in The Company You Keep, ABC’s drama pilot, which will be shot off-cycle to accomodate Ventimiglia’s commitment to the departing NBC family drama series.