Sony Pictures Networks India Scores South Asia Rights for 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games, as IPL Bid Looms

Vivienne Chow Action thriller “Limbo” and “Anita,” a biopic about the late Canto-pop queen Anita Mui lead the nomination race for this year’s Hong Kong Film Awards, which is holding its 40th edition after being postponed from last year.“Limbo,” a Cantonese noir that follows a cop duo’s hunt for a serial killer, received 14 nominations including best film, best director for Soi Cheang, best screenplay, best actor for Lam Ka-tung and best actress for Cya Liu. The film had earlier won the critics heart at the annual Hong Kong Film Critics’ Society Awards, which named “Limbo” as best film and Liu best actress for her role as a young addict.“Anita” received 12 nominations, including best film and best director for Longman Leung.

Vivienne Chow Police in Hong Kong on Tuesday arrested Tommy Yuen, a popular singer and pro-democracy campaigner. Local media and rights groups reported that Hong Kong authorities have also blocked access in the city to a pro-democracy website operated from the U.K.Yuen, a former member of the Canto-pop boy band E-kids, was arrested by national security police over the suspicion of sedition and money laundering.

The New York Times is being taken to the woodshed on social media for using the term “overrepresented” in an article on Asians in figure skating.

EXCLUSIVE: In a competitive situation involving multiple bidders, Topic Studios has acquired the rights to Tom Lin’s debut novel The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu, winner of the 2022 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, for TV series development. Topic Studios will produce alongside Theresa Kang-Lowe via her Blue Marble Pictures.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefBlackOps Studios Asia from the Philippines, Story Arch Pictures from the U.S. and Agog Film from Hong Kong have joined forces to develop, produce and finance a slate of genre movies that target the streaming marketplace.The 16-title slate comprises nine films and seven series in the action, horror and sci-fi genres, with 11 flowing from BlackOps, two from Story Arch and three from Agog.

Naman Ramachandran Zhang Lu’s “Yanagawa” (China), Hong Sung-eun’s “Aloners” (South Korea) and Fujimoto Akio’s “Along the Sea” (Japan/Vietnam) were among the top award winners at France’s Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinemas. “Yanagawa,” which opened the 2021 Pingyao Film Festival, won the Golden Cyclo, the festival’s top honor awarded by the international jury.

EXCLUSIVE: Freeform has picked up to pilot AZNBBGRL, an hourlong drama from Natalie Chaidez (The Flight Attendant), Dinh Thai (Wu-Tang: An American Saga), producer Melvin Mar (Fresh Off the Boat) and 20th Television.

Meghan McCain has slammed the 2022 Winter Olympics, branding them the "Genocide Games" over China's human rights abuses.MORE: Hoda Kotb and Savannah Guthrie share disappointment over 2022 Winter Olympics newsThe 37-year-old took to social media to share an image designed by Chinese artist badiucao, which was created in protest of the host country. It showed an ice hockey player wearing the Chinese flag with blood on their stick and mask as they knocked over a Tibetan monk.WATCH: Meghan McCain announces departure from The View"I will not watch one minute of the @Beijing2022," she captioned her post, adding the hashtag, "#GenocideGames."On Twitter, she expanded on her opinion, writing: "There is no reason to watch a Winter Olympics that is holding up and spreading propaganda for a regime that is committing actual genocide and ethnic cleansing - on top of poisoning the world and killing 6 million people.

Daniel D'Addario Chief TV CriticOn the first day of the Olympic Games, the “Today” show had an unenviable task.The flagship NBC morning show is a key engine for goosing excitement over the Olympics, and its Friday-morning broadcast recapping the just-concluded opening ceremony in Beijing was intended, in part, to boost the Games. But the show’s flagship talent, Hoda Kotb and Savannah Guthrie, were stuck stateside in light of COVID-19, and the happy chatter about athletes’ prospects in the days ahead was balanced with an unusual volume of conversation about geopolitics.

Manori Ravindran International Editor88Rising co-founder Jaeson Ma and Anonymous Content executive producer Eric Tu are joining forces to launch EST Studios, an independent finance, production and sales outfit geared towards the Asian marketplace.Launching just ahead of the European Film Market — which officially kicks off Feb. 10 — the company specializes in premium film and episodic content.Ma (pictured, left) will serve as the company chairman and co-CEO, with Tu (right) serving as co-founder and co-CEO.

Naman Ramachandran Go language-specific, go cheap and go hyper-local to reap success appears to be the motto of a range of streamers operating across South Asia.With countries including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and Afghanistan, South Asia is a vast region populated by 1.9 billion people speaking a welter of languages. It is no secret that people in the region prefer consuming content in their own tongues.

Dan Hicks had a short drive from his home to NBC Sports headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut, the past two years to call the French Open and some World Cup skiing events. He didn't imagine he would be doing it for an Olympics, though.With China's strict policy about those who test positive for COVID-19, Hicks and most of NBC's announcers for the Beijing Games are stationed stateside. Hicks was in Tokyo to call swimming for last year's Summer Games, when NBC had its announcers on site for the marquee sports.While Hicks would like to be at the ski venue in Yanqing to call the competition, he realizes it isn't feasible.“I was bummed.

Johnny Knoxville and Machine Gun Kelly look dapper at the premiere of Jackass Forever in at TCL Chinese Theatre on Tuesday (February 1) in Hollywood, California.

The Lunar New Year is here and the stars are celebrating it in style.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefWarnerMedia has made three more senior content hires in Asia to bolster its original productions teams in advance of the launch of HBO Max in the region.In the Singapore-based team, Mark Francis has been appointed group lead of production and development (scripted and unscripted) and Wee Shi Ming has been named lead of entertainment content acquisition for North Asia content. They both report into Magdalene Ew, WarnerMedia’s head of content – entertainment for Southeast Asia, Taiwan and Hong Kong.In Mumbai, Saugata Mukherjee joins WarnerMedia as head of content – entertainment, India.

WarnerMedia has bolstered its Asian original production teams in advance of the launch of HBO Max in the region, with three hires made in Singapore and India.

Naman Ramachandran Spanish company Soul Pictures has boarded international sales on Indian filmmaker Prasun Chatterjee’s debut feature “Two Friends” (“Dostojee”).Set in 1992-93, when Hindu-Muslim tensions escalated in India in the aftermath of the demolition of the Babri Masjid and the Bombay bomb blasts and percolated down to a remote village on the India-Bangladesh border, the film follows the friendship of two eight-year-old boys. Palash, the son of a Hindu Brahmin and Safikul, whose father is a Muslim weaver, are best friends, but fate intervenes.The film world premiered at the 2021 BFI London Film Festival, played at the Dhaka International Festival and will play at the Goteborg Film Festival from this Friday.

Vivienne Chow Ten Canto-pop singers and groups, including politically vocal celebrities Denise Ho, Anthony Wong Yiu-ming and his pop duo Tat Ming Pair, have been reportedly banished from Radio Television Hong Kong.The ten act black-list began circulating on the internet on Tuesday. Radio DJs were said to be ordered by senior management to stop playing any new or old songs by these musicians, including pop rock bands RubberBand, C AllStar and Dear Jane, as well as singers Serrini, Kay Tse, Charmaine Fong and Alfred Hui, according to local media reports.RTHK has not denied the existence of the black-list.

Showcase” event.“Showcase,” an annual variety comedy show spotlighting up-and-coming performers, has served as a launching pad for the careers of numerous stars, such as Kate McKinnon (“Saturday Night Live”), Tiffany Haddish (“Girls Trip”), Ego Nwodim (“Saturday Night Live”), Nico Santos (“Superstore”), Drew Tarver (“The Other Two”) and Nicole Byer (“Nailed It!”). Formerly a live theatrical production attended by executives, casting directors and talent agents across the entertainment industry, this year’s Showcase will be a pre-filmed hour of sketch comedy shot on location in Los Angeles.