Asia Bureau Chiefveteran Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefVeteran Hong Kong director Herman Yau has assembled a top-notch cast for “War Customised,” a high-octane action thriller that is one of the highest-profile commercial productions to emerge from the territory in the past couple of years.The cast is headed by Jacky Cheung (“Private Eye Blues,” “Bullet in the Head”) and Nicholas Tse (“Raging Fire,” “Gen-X Cops”), along with Karena Lam (“Inner Senses,” “July Rhapsody”) and Francis Ng (“Infernal Affairs 2,” “Bullets over Summer”). The supporting cast includes Liu Yase (“Limbo”), Michelle Wai (“Caught in Time,” “Triad”), Angus Yeung (“Raging Fire”), Melvin Wong (“Above the Law”), Ben Yuen (“Tracey,” “Anita”), Amanda Strang (“Final Romance”), and Brahim Chab (“Monkey Man,” “Vanguard,” “Ganopath”) as the villain of the piece.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefVeteran film distributor Sreyashii Sengupta has been appointed Southeast Asia CEO for Continental Entertainment, a new Singapore-based film marketing and distribution firm.The firm was registered in January and is controlled by Shibasish Sarkar, former group CEO of Reliance Entertainment and chairman of NASDAQ-listed SPAC company International Media Acquisition Corp (IMAQ).Continental recently handled its first theatrical release, the Singapore distribution of

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefVeteran actor Youn Yuh-jung, who earlier this year won the Oscar for best supporting actress in “Minari,” Thursday received South Korea’s highest cultural sector medal. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism gave Youn the Geumgwan Order of Cultural Merit during the 2021 Korea Popular Culture and Arts Awards ceremony held at the National Theater of Korea.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefVeteran media executive, Jyoti Deshpande has been appointed CEO of Viacom 18, the joint venture between TV18 and U.S. conglomerate Viacom.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefVeteran animation executive Steven Wendland has been appointed as president of Discreet Arts USA, the newly-launched offshoot of Indian animation firm Discreet Arts. The new unit is based in Burbank, California.He is expected to expand the company’s work-for-hire business while also developing a slate of original productions.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefVeteran producer and executive Jessica Kam-Engle has been appointed by The Walt Disney Company to head content and development in the Asia Pacific region. The hire is one of several management changes across the company’s media and entertainment distribution segment, which includes the direct-to-consumer, studio distribution, media networks, and content distribution businesses.Until last year Kam-Engle was head of original production at HBO Asia.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefVeteran executive Brett Hogg has been promoted and made head of Sony Pictures film and television operations across Asia. He will remain at his current base in Singapore.He has been senior VP of international distribution for Sony Pictures Releasing International in the Asia region, supervising the Sony Pictures Releasing operations across Southeast Asia, China and India for theatrical distribution.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefVeteran producer Lucas Foster (“Ford v Ferrari,” “Mr. and Mrs.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefVeteran South African filmmaker Anant Singh has penned an open letter comparing the problems of racism within his own country with the killings of George Floyd and Rayshard Brooks at the hands of police in the U.S.The letter, which he calls “All Lives Matter, Especially Black Lives,” is published on the 44th anniversary of the Soweto uprising, in which 69 people were killed by South African police.