‘Squid Game’ to Receive Film Award as Korea’s BiFan Festival Redefines Genre Boundaries

Blake Shelton is sharing a very personal gift he was delighted to receive.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefNew release titles “Alienoid” and “Minions: The Rise of Gru” dominated business at the South Korean box office over the weekend. “Alienoid,” a sci-fi fantasy about the search for a legendary sword across different eras, opened on Wednesday and consistently, but narrowly, bested its animated rival. “Alienoid” earned $5.19 million between Friday and Sunday for a 32% market share, having played on more than 1,800 screens.

Manori Ravindran International EditorGerman investment and co-production outfit Night Train Media has fully acquired Swedish distributor Eccho Rights, buying Korean media group CJ ENM’s majority stake in the business in the process, Variety can reveal.The Stockholm-headquartered Eccho Rights is best known for a rich catalogue of Turkish content — which travels extremely well internationally — as well as Scandinavian, Western European and Korean programs. CJ ENM bought a majority stake in the company in December 2018 as part of a drive to expand in Europe, but has now fully sold that stake into Night Train Media.The deal for Eccho comes almost exactly a year after Night Train Media, which is backed by private equity company Serafin Group, bought a majority stake in Paul Heaney’s London-based distribution outfit BossaNova.

BTS have officially been announced as the ambassadors for the World Expo 2030 in Busan, Korea by the expo’s Bid Committee.The appointment was announced by BTS’ management HYBE’s headquarters in Seoul on July 19. BTS leader RM also made a statement in a press release to Billboard, saying: “We are honoured to be appointed ambassadors for World Expo 2030 Busan.

Miky Lee, Vice Chairwoman of South Korea’s CJ Group, will receive the International 2022 Directorate Emmy Award.

Manori Ravindran International EditorCJ Group vice chairwoman Miky Lee is this year’s recipient of the International Emmy Directorate Award.The International Academy’s Special Emmy will be presented to Lee at the 50th International Emmy Awards gala on Nov. 21 in New York.“Miky Lee is in a class of her own, a visionary leader who has harnessed her exceptional business acumen and love of her country’s culture by tirelessly spearheading the global phenomenon of the Korean wave for over 25 years,” said Bruce L.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefThe Asian Contents and Film Market, the industry component of the Busan International Film Festival, is to launch an in-person story market at this year’s event.The ACFM has for ten years operated what it called an Entertainment Intellectual Property Market. But where the E-IP Market has been a one-way pitching event, the new Busan Story Market is conceived as something functionally closer to a conventional rights market, with buyers and sellers meeting at sales booths, but trading books, webtoons, web novels, games, and stories.The Busan Story Market is an outgrowth of the E-IP event and will operate in addition to the continuing pitching sessions.

ATEEZ have announced dates for their ‘The Fellowship: Break The Wall’ world tour, which will begin in October and take them to North America, Korea and Japan.On July 18, the eight-member act shared via their social media accounts that they would be embarking on a new world tour later this year. Titled ‘The Fellowship: Break The Wall’, the tour is set to hit nine cities from South Korea, the US, Canada and Japan from October to December.The tour will kick off in Seoul, South Korea with two shows on October 29 and 30, before heading to Anaheim, California the following week.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief“Top Gun Maverick” reclaimed the lead at the South Korea box office as “Thor: Love and Thunder” slowed rapidly and Korean cinemas endured a weekend that slowed the recent recovery trend.“Top Gun Maverick” earned $5.77 million between Friday and Sunday, in its fourth week of release in Korea, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic). That was a drop of only 11% from its previous weekend.In contrast, “Thor Love and Thunder” registered a 66% weekend-on-weekend tumble, falling from $9.88 million previously to $3.34 million.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefThe Goran Stolevski-directed horror-drama “You Won’t Be Alone,” was Thursday named the best film at the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival, Korea’s leading genre film event.The Australia-U.K.-Serbia co-production is set in Macedonia and stars Noomi Rapace in a 19th century tale about a young girl who is transformed into a witch. It premiered at the Sundance festival in January and recently played in Sydney.

Carter. The clip introduces us to the titular Agent Carter (played by Joo Won), who engages in non-stop intense physical combat, chases through the rural countryside and helicopter stunts, as he follows the instructions through the phone from an unknown female voice in order to avoid getting killed by the CIA.Carter, directed by The Villainess and Confession Of Murder‘s Jung Byung-gil, is slated to premiere on Netflix on August 5.The “one-scene, one-cut film” will follow Carter, who awakens two months into a deadly pandemic originating from the DMZ that has devastated both the US and North Korea, with no recollections of his past. He finds a mysterious device in his head, and a lethal bomb in his mouth.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefMixing “Jason Bourne” and “Mission: Impossible” adrenalin rushes with Korean cool, Netflix is teasing high octane footage of “Carter,” its first Korean original movie of the second half of the year.The action plays out two months into a deadly pandemic originating from the demilitarized zone between the two Koreas. The outbreak has already devastated the U.S. and North Korea.

EXCLUSIVE: Five years after working together on the Netflix pic Okja, Steven Yeun is reuniting with Bong Joon Ho on his next feature film at Warner Bros. The untitled film is based on the novel Mickey7 by Edward Ashton and also stars Robert Pattinson, Naomi Ackie, Mark Ruffalo and Toni Collette.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefKakao Entertainment, part of Korean tech group Kakao, confirmed Monday that it is to produce a film version of “Solo Leveling,” a hit webtoon.The picture will be produced on its behalf by Japan’s A-1 Pictures (“Sword Art Online,” “The Seven Deadly Sins,” “Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day, Erased,” and “Your Lie in April”) with Nakashige Shunsuke directing. Music is to be scored by Sawano Hiroyuki (“Attack on Titan”).

Cha Eun-woo has reportedly been offered the lead role in the upcoming Hollywood film, K-Pop: Lost In America. Yesterday (June 30), Deadline first reported that Australia actress Rebel Wilson (Senior Year) and Riverdale actor Charles Melton have been cast in an upcoming film to be titled K-Pop: Lost In America, with filming said to kickstart sometime this fall.South Korean news outlet StarNews later reported today (July 1) that ASTRO member Cha Eun-woo has also been offered a role in the upcoming film. The publication claims that the singer is “in talks to play the lead”, as translated by Soompi, and that Cha has also “cleared part of his schedule for the second half of 2022 in order to prepare for filming”.K-Pop: Lost In America was first announced in August 2021 by South Korean media company CJ ENM.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief“Money Heist: Korea – Joint Economic Area” has become Netflix’s latest Korean-made international hit. The Korean remake of “La Casa de Papel” (aka “Money Heist”) is in first place on the streaming giant’s Global Non-English top ten chart over the last week.The series premiered on Friday (June 24), meaning that it only had three days to claim its spot in chart that covers the period June 20-26.