‘Pluto’ Animated Series Based on Manga Comics by Naoki Urasawa and Takashi Nagasaki Set for Netflix

Netflix will splash the cash in the APAC region this year, boosting content investment by 15% as revenues grow by 12%, according to a report from Media Partners Asia (MPA).

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Global streaming operation Netflix is forecast to spend $1.9 billion on local content in the Asia-Pacific region this year as group revenue from the region accelerates to 12%, according to a new report. The content investment spending figure represents a 15% hike. Netflix will grow revenues this year by 12% year-on-year to exceed $4 billion compared with 9% growth in 2022, says a new report published on Monday by Media Partners Asia.

Tim Gray Senior Vice President This year, all the Oscar-contending directors are nominated for original screenplay: the Daniels (Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert), Todd Field, Martin McDonagh, Ruben Östlund and Steven Spielberg (writing with Tony Kushner). This is the first time it’s happened in AMPAS history.  The only year that came close was 2017, when all five helmers had written or co-written their scripts, though they didn’t all get writing noms. So here’s Film History 101. In Hollywood lore, Preston Sturges is often credited as the first scribe to become a hyphenate, as writer-director of the 1940 “The Great McGinty.” But as with all Hollywood “facts,” there is only an element of truth here.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor AMC Networks’ Sentai Filmworks unit reached an agreement with Japan’s Mainichi Broadcasting System (MBS) that provides exclusive rights for AMC’s anime-focused HIDIVE streaming service to distribute part of MBS’s future programming lineup in all global markets outside of Asia. The pact is Sentai’s biggest-ever deal for anime content, according to the company. The output deal encompasses MBS’s programming slate based on a collection of popular manga and light novel titles. All of the shows will be available exclusively on HIDIVE outside of Asia. Among the shows covered in the Sentai-MBS output is “The Most Heretical Last Boss Queen: From Villainess to Savior” (pictured above). The new show, scheduled to premiere in July 2023, is a 12-episode series based on hit fantasy light novel by Tenichi and published by Ichijinsha. The series is being directed by Norio Nitta and written by Deko Akao with animation by OLM.

Right now, we’re on the verge of seeing if the recently released “Elvis” film will take home any Oscars gold. Then later this year, we’re expecting Sofia Coppola’s “Priscilla” to give us a different perspective on the King of Rock and Roll.

The latest entry in the Pokémon franchise is coming.

Netflix has announced a new Pokémon series is set to launch on the platform, but fans of the franchise have been left hugely divided. In celebration of Pokémon Day on Monday (February 27), the streaming giant confirmed new series Pokémon Concierge is coming soon.

Jordan Moreau Netflix has gotta catch ’em all. The streamer is teaming up with The Pokémon Company to create “Pokémon Concierge,” an upcoming stop-motion animated series. The series will follow “Haru, a concierge at the Pokémon Resort, and her interactions with Pokémon and their owners who visit as guests,” the logline says. A short teaser for “Pokémon Concierge,” announced on Monday, Feb. 27, a.k.a. Pokémon Day 2023, showed a blissful, sandy beach with a Psyduck waddling along the shore. “This is the Pokémon Resort. Pokémon are the guests here. Here is the story of the resort’s concierge,” a narrator says. The official poster for the show revealed Haru, a young, red-headed girl in a floral, Hawaiian-style shirt (covered with grass-type Oddishes), with her Psyduck.

Netflix and The Pokémon Company announced on Monday that the two are teaming up for a new stop-motion animated series called “Pokémon Concierge,” revealing a short teaser for the new show.Expanding the Pokémon world, the story follows Haru, a concierge at the ‘Pokémon Resort,’ and her interactions with Pokémon and their owners who visit as guests. You can see her hanging with Psyduck in the first teaser video above.The ambitious project is a collaboration between Netflix, The Pokémon Company and dwarf studios, which is handling production.“Netflix is looking forward to delighting fans in Japan and around the world with ‘Pokémon Concierge,’ an entirely new visual and storytelling experience featuring ground-breaking stop-motion animation set in the Pokémon world in close collaboration with The Pokémon Company,” Minyoung Kim, Vice President of Netflix Content in Asia, said in a statement.

Netflix has teamed with The Pokémon Company on a stop-motion animated series marking 17 years since the release of the firstPokémon game. Scroll down for a teaser.

There are scores of apps aiming to help us monitor our mental health, but sometimes the best approach is to turn off technology. Getting outdoors in parks, woodland and other natural settings has long been known to improve people’s mood – the Japanese call it shinrin-yoku, or “forest bathing”. But recently researchers have been investigating whether spending time with animals can have similar benefits.

EXCLUSIVE: JoJo Siwa is getting into business with Pure Imagination Studios. They’ve entered into a deal under which Pure Imagination will develop film and television projects based on XOMG Pop!, the all-girl pop group hand picked by JoJo and her mother, entrepreneur and business partner Jessalynn Siwa.

Daft Punk video creator and manga artist Leiji Matsumoto has died, aged 85.Matsumoto, who worked on the videos for 2000 hit ‘One More Time’, ‘Digital Love’ and ‘Aerodynamic’, passed away last week (February 13) due to acute heart failure.He also worked with duo on their film Interstella 5555: The 5story of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem.In a statement, his daughter Makiko Matsumoto wrote: “Manga artist Leiji Matsumoto departed for the sea of stars at a hospital in Tokyo on February 13, 2023 at the age of 85.“The farewell ceremony has already been held with close relatives. I think it was a happy life.”Matsumoto (real name Akira Matsumoto) was also heavily involved in the manga and anime art and film worlds and was best known for his work in creating TV series Space Battleship Yamato and 1979 film Galaxy Express 999.Writer Zack Davisson, who had previously worked with Matsumoto, paid tribute to the late artist.He wrote: “Leiji Matsumo’s work was the foundation of what we know as ‘anime/manga fandom,’ in both the US and Japan.

Leiji Matsumoto, the Japanese manga and anime creator known for science fiction sagas, TV series like Space Pirate Captain Harlock and music videos for Daft Punk, died of acute heart failure on February 13. He was 85.

Mark Schilling Japan Correspondent Leading Japanese manga artist Matsumoto Leiji, whose space operas became known to fans globally in animated incarnations, died on Feb. 13 in Tokyo at age 85. His representatives announced on Monday that the cause of death was heart failure.   Born Matsumoto Akira in 1938 in Kurume, a city on Japan’s southern island of Kyushu, Matsumoto began drawing manga professionally after his arrival in Tokyo at age 18. He made his debut in 1954 with a comic titled “Mitsubachi no Boken” (Adventure of the Honey Bee).  

Japanese broadcaster Nippon TV has finalized a deal with Netflix to produce ten-part unscripted comedy series Ariyoshi Assists. 

“I think we need to find a way to avoid the U.S. brainwash,” said Newen Connect CEO Rodolphe Buet at this morning’s Berlinale Series Adapting to the Market session.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent The latest series from Alex de la Iglesia and “Veneno” creators Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo feature at a first-look Next from Spain Showcase which marks a massive step-up in the country’s presence at the Berlinale Series Market. Running Feb. 20-22, the showcase also unveils “Rapa” Season 2, with its first season proving Movistar+’s biggest 2022 bow, and “This Is Not Sweden,” a pioneering Spanish co-production with Scandinavia and Germany.  The Showcase titles are joined by Isaki Lacuesta’s “The Chauffeur’s Son,” a Co-Pro Series project from “Elite’s” Zeta Studios, and “Selftape,” a Filmin Original from Filmax and a Series Market Screening.

Mark Schilling Japan Correspondent One of Japan’s most commercially successful and highly acclaimed animators, Shinkai Makoto has been called a successor to anime titan Miyazaki Hayao. Known for his mix of photo-realistic visuals and gorgeously realized fantasies, Shinkai surpassed the master when his 2016 smash “Your Name” became the highest-earning Japanese film of all time worldwide, beating Miyazaki’s 2001 “Spirited Away.” (That record was later broken by the 2020 anime sensation “Demon Slayer.”) His latest film, “Suzume,” about a teen girl’s quest to halt an apocalypse triggered by the opening of magical doors all over Japan, is also the first Japanese animated feature to screen in the Berlin competition since “Spirited Away” in 2002. Variety sat down with Shinkai to hear his views on his own work and the state of the anime industry.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Brazilian animated feature “Perlimps,” Alê Abreu’s follow up to Oscar-nominated “Boy and the World,” has been sold in key territories by Best Friend Forever ahead of the European Film Market. “Perlimps” has been picked up for Japan (Child Film and New Deer), China (DDDream), CIS and baltics (Kinologistica), Sweden (Njutafilm) and Portugal (Films4you). BFF is in advanced discussions to close German Speaking territories, Benelux, Spain, Italy and North America. As previously announced, UFO Distribution will release the feature in France. “Perlimps” was just released last week in Brazil by leading independent outfit Vitrine Filmes and Sony Pictures, which holds Latin American rights.