‘Pigsy’ Animation Squeaks for Futuristic Adaptation of Chinese Classic ‘Journey to the West’

5 Seconds of Summer guitarist announced that his 33-year-old wife, Crystal Leigh, is pregnant with their first child. «I'm filled with excitement and also with nerves,» the 27-year-old musician tells. «I've been a dog dad for a long time, so I think I'm ready for a small human to take care of and communicate with conversationally after eight years of one-sided dog convos!»Leigh adds, «I'm over the moon!!! Completely overflowing with joy, I have never been this happy in my entire life.

of a 7th Heaven episode on TikTok in March 2023, with a thumbnail tempting viewers: “This episode of 7th Heaven was BONKERS.” In the episode, Mary () steals a diner glass to comply with a basketball team tradition, but eldest boy Matt (Barry Watson) takes the blame and goes to court after his “pastor dad” forces him to apologize and the manager presses charges. To borrow Anderson's phrasing, the plot is indeed bonkers. This content can also be viewed on the site it from.In the months since that first recap, Anderson has continued to find absurd moments from the family drama, created by Brenda Hampton for The WB in 1996, and there are plenty—despite what the tame premise may have you believe.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent “Forest,” an Italian eco-themed animation film about deforestation, has scored some strong pre-sales for Rome-based True Colours at the Cannes Marché du film. The still-in-production 3-D animation feature – the protagonist of which is a young mushroom named Fey – has been picked up for roughly 20 territories by Top Film Distribution which will distribute “Forest” in Ukraine, CIS, the Baltics, and Eastern European countries including former Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Poland, Czech and Slovak Republics, Romania, and Hungary.  Helmed by Luca Della Grotta and Francesco Dafano, the film is produced by Italy’s AI One, the same team that previously spawned 2020 similarly themed animation feature “Trash” that sold in more than 30 countries. 

Mexico as its 2023 guest county of honor brings over 100 artists and executives to the world’s biggest animation event. Here are 10 Talents to Track emerging directors and artists among an exploding animation scene. Variety could easily have chosen another 20 more.      Celebrated as the executive producer and creator of Crunchyroll’s first original series “Onyx Equinox,” the tale of a young Meso-American slave who becomes the last hope of saving humanity from invading gods of the underworld. On TV “I never saw Meso-American Indigenous Mexico without Spanish influence, and I wanted to connect with my roots,” says Alexander. The series is anime influenced, not just in its aesthetics – the painterly fields of Meso-America and the frenzied gory combat –  but also in its being serialization, pacing and broad audience target, including adults, she argues. A freelancer for Cartoon Network, Hasbro and Nickelodeon, but “Onyx Equinox” is her major achievement. JH

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Big-budget period action film “The Sand Murmurs” is set to start production in China’s remote region of Xinjiang later this month. The film is the tale of a soldier and an enemy nobleman brought together after a once-in-a-century sandstorm. After braving a near-death experience together, the pair find common purpose despite their differences. They also need to work together to find their way out across 800km of desert. The picture is directed by Wu Youyin as an adaptation of his novel of the same title. Wu previously wrote and directed “Till The End of the World,” which released in 2018.

Clarkson’s Farm producer Expectation is adapting author Pope Lonergan’s memoir about a decade spent caring for the elderly for TV.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Lionel Messi and Sony Music Entertainment will team with the Canary Islands’ Atlantis Animation to bring an animated series on the Argentine soccer megastar several steps closer to reality. The deal sees Atlantis producing as a service company a CG animated series trailer inspired by Messi himself. Sony Music’s Premium Content Division, which is producing in partnership with Leo Messi Management, is overseeing the development and distribution of the series.  Based out of Tenerife, Atlantis Animation is now in full production  of the trailer. Targeting all audiences, the series “will immerse viewers in the epic adventures of a young Messi overcoming titanic challenges as he navigates the vibrant world of video games,” a written statement said.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief After a few pandemic-addled years, the global box office is finally ready to feel the warmth of the studios’ tentpole releases. Though the swing-back to pre-pandemic release schedules is happening at different speeds in each market, the quartet of “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,” “Fast X,” “The Little Mermaid” and “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” — not to mention “The Super Mario Bros Movie” before them — have announced the arrival of Hollywood’s version of summer across much of the planet. France saw admissions climb by 33% in the first five months of 2023, compared with the equivalent period last year, according to data from the CNC (National Film Board). Compared with an average figure for 2017 to 2019, the performance of the 2023 box office is (only) 12% behind. France’s recovery has been powered by a string of successful local films including “Asterix and Obelix: The Middle Kingdom,” “Alibi.com 2,” “The Three Musketeers: D’Artagnan,” “The Crime Is Mine” and Cannes opener “Jeanne du Barry.”

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” grabbed top place at the mainland China box office over the weekend with an opening $17.2 million (RMB122 million) score. Giant screen company, Imax reports that $2.7 million, or more than 16% of the film’s China total, came from its Middle Kingdom venues. Chinese online ticketing agency Maoyan forecasts that “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” will earn a total of RMB241 million or $34 million at current exchange rates. “Fast X,” which had driven off with the spoils for the past two weekends, was overtaken on its third lap and achieved $7.7 million in second place, according to data from consultancy firm Artisan Gateway. After 17 days in Chinese cinemas, “Fast X” has accumulated $124 million, making it the highest-grossing imported titled released this year in China ahead of Japanese animation “Suzume.”

Amazon has set the main cast for Cruel Intentions, its series adaptation of the 1999 cult film, sources tell Deadline. Sarah Catherine Hook (First Kill), Zac Burgess (Totally Completely Fine) and Myra Molloy (He’s All That) are set as leads, along with fellow series regulars Khobe Clarke (Yellowjackets), Brooke Lena Johnson (You), Sara Silva (The Boys), Sean Patrick Thomas (Cruel Intentions film) and John Harlan Kim (The Last Thing He Told Me).

Naman Ramachandran The U.K.’s Stigma Films has snapped up TV rights for Jeffrey Boakye’s “I Heard What You Said,” an Amazon Best Non-Fiction Book of the Year 2022. Told via a series of encounters based on the challenging and outrageous things people have said to him or about him, Boakye, a Black, male English teacher who has had to teach problematic texts, recounts how it feels to be on the margins of the British education system. The deal was brokered by the Sarah Such Literary Agency. Stigma’s film credits include “Daddy’s Head,” “T.I.M.,” “The Score,” upcoming Romola Garai project “Monstrous Beauty” and Netflix original “Choose or Die,” starring Asa Butterfield. The acquisition of “I Heard What You Said” follows on from Stigma branching out from feature films to television in the last year. Their first project is Steven Knight/Kudos series, “This Town” for BBC and the company is in active development with Ringside Studios on Iain Banks novel “The Business.”

Harrison Ford has recalled how he told stuntmen to “leave me the fuck alone” while shooting Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny.The upcoming film marks the fifth and final instalment of the long-running action franchise — which kicked off in 1981 with Indiana Jones And The Raiders Of The Lost Ark.Now, over four decades after he first appeared in the lead role, Ford will celebrate his 81st birthday shortly after the latest film hits theatres. However, when speaking in a new interview, the acclaimed actor shared that he was determined not to conceal his age in the project.One moment that highlighted this best, he said, was a scene in Dial Of Destiny in which Jones is riding a horse through the streets of New York City during the 1969 ticker-tape parade that followed the moon landing.While filming this, Ford explained to Esquire, he felt the hands of multiple stuntmen helping him get off the horse, which irritated him as he wanted the scene to show him dismounting how he normally would.“I thought, ‘What the fuck?’ Like I was being attacked by gropers.

William Earl Monty Python star John Cleese has expressed disdain for modern sensibilities and “PC culture” on several occasions in recent years. The comedian found a new battleground for those convictions by claiming that his plans to mount a stage adaptation of the 1979 comedy “Life of Brian” have been “misreported” by the Daily Mail (in a now amended article), particularly in regards to the potential decision to revive a controversial scene involving a transgender character. Cleese shared his thoughts in a series of unthreaded posts on Twitter last Thursday. “A few days ago I spoke to an audience outside London. I told them I was adapting the ‘Life of Brian’ so that we could do it as a stage show (NOT a musical). I said that we’d had a table-reading of the latest draft in NYC a year ago,” Cleese wrote. “All the actors — several of them Tony winners — had advised me strongly to cut the Loretta scene. I have, of course, no intention of doing so.”

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Fast X” predictably won a second weekend on top of the mainland China box office, driving its total past the $100 million mark. But the disappointing start for Disney’s live-action “The Little Mermaid” was the bigger talking point. “Fast X” earned $17.6 million in China according to data from consultancy Artisan Gateway. That was a 66% drop compared with its opening weekend, but still gave the film a $110 million cumulative after 12 days and has caused estimates to be further revised upwards. Ticketing agency Maoyan is now forecasting that the film will finish with RMB880 million ($126 million), having previously predicted RMB728 million ($104 million), and then RMB840 million.

Sam Smith is being slammed after abruptly exiting a concert stage and leaving fans "in the dark" for 20 minutes without any kind of announcement. Only adding to the anger was that fans felt Sam was particularly insensitive about the blackout, given that that particular show took place at the Manchester Arena, which was the site of a bombing during an Ariana Grande concert six years earlier.

, the royal decided to move to California, in part, because in stepping back from royal duties, he could not count on police protection while in the UK. In the US, however, he can pay for security…and that security can be armed.Today, a London court decided that if he chooses to visit the land of his birth, Harry can't have police protection, even if he were to pay for it out of pocket.

Manchester City are on the verge of completing the greatest season in the club's history, and maybe even the greatest season in English football history.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief All Rights Entertainment, the Paris-, Hong Kong- and Los Angeles based international sales company, is launching sales at the Cannes Market (Marché du Film) for “The Proud Princess.” The picture is an animation film based on the fairy tale book “Punished Pride,” written by Bozena Nemcova. Directed by Borivoj Zeman and starring Alena Vranova and Vladimir Raz, a 1952 live-action adaptation of the book is one of the most-watched Czech films of all time. The new adaptation is directed by Radek Beran (“The Little Man”) and David Lisy (“Spy Cat”). Production is by Luminar Film with Animation is handled by PFX, the Prague-based studio behind “Diplodokus,” “The Websters” and “Marnie’s World,” and is to be completed in the third quarter of 2024. Czech theatrical distribution is set to be handled by CinemArt.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic “More stars than there are in heaven!” crowed Peter Zaremba, lead singer of the Fleshtones, taking a cue from MGM’s famous slogan of the 1930s and ’40s as he boisterously extolled the cast of performers taking part in Friday night’s tribute to the garage-rock of the middle and 1960s. The salute took the form of a semi-reconstruction of the 1972 compilation album “Nuggets,” put together by the Wild Honey Foundation as one of its annual autism benefits at the Alex Theatre in Glendale, with the original compiler of “Nuggets,” Lenny Kaye, on board as emcee, resident historian, cheerleader and intermittent singer-guitarist.

Beyonce and Jay-Z have set a record for the most expensive home purchased in the state of California!