Universal Music to Buy RS Group Catalog in Thailand, Establish Partnership in Fast-Growing Market

Victoria Justice proves victorious this summer thanks to her Moscato Fizz cocktail.

While most productions shut down due to the ongoing WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, some still attempt to forge ahead. Deadline reports that Noah Hawley‘s “Alien” prequel series for FX commenced shooting in Thailand earlier this week, albeit without any SAG-affiliated actors on set.

Netflix has announced a second feature film with Indonesian action director Timo Tjahjanto, The Shadow Strays, starring a large ensemble cast of popular young actors. 

Korean content accounted for 50% of SVOD viewership and 42% of freemium viewership across Asia in the first half of 2023, according to a report released by Media Partners Asia (MPA). 

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Korean TV series and films are increasing still further their hold on streaming audiences across East Asia. They accounted for half of viewing time in the first half of the year, according to new third-party research. Korean-made premium VOD content captured 50% of SVOD viewership and 42% of freemium viewership between January and June 2023, with a record 58 million VOD users tuning in nine East Asian territories (Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam), according to Singapore-based research and consultancy firm Media Partners Asia. The analysis is based on the measured media consumption activity of 40,000 Asia Pacific consumers, conducted by AMPD, the analysis firm’s sister company.

Anyone going on holiday this summer has been warned that vaping in certain destinations could land you with a hefty fine or even a jail sentence.

It may be the middle of summer but the weather we’ve been experiencing lately feels unseasonably wet and windy. While it’s miserable in the UK you may be dreaming of holidays in more exotic locations.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Movie stars Zhou Xun and Jelly Lin head the cast of “Imperfect Victim,” a new mainland Chinese drama series that focuses on workplace sexual harassment and leads to a rape trial. Zhou (“Cloud Atlas,” “The Silent War,” “Painted Skin”) plays a lawyer who steps in to represent the character played by Lin (“The Mermaid”), who alleges assault by her boss at work. He is portrayed by TV veteran Liu Yijun (“Nirvana in Fire,” “The Pretender”). The case becomes complicated and Zhou’s character is forced to question her own ethics. The show is highly topical, given the slowly building #MeToo movement in China. This is being fuelled by numerous instances of sexual discrimination, sexual assault and outright violence towards women, many instances of which have gone viral on Chinese social media before being deleted by censors.

Spoiler Alert: This story contains spoilers about the end of HBO’s White Lotus season 2

Stacey Solomon delighted staff at a cafe near Glasgow when she made a surprise stop for a bite to eat.

BamBam, also a member of boyband GOT7, has announced the first wave of dates for his upcoming solo world tour ‘Area 52’.Today (July 12), BamBam shared that he would soon be holding his first-ever world tour, revealing its first few stops. the singer’s upcoming ‘Area 52’ world tour is set to kick off in Seoul this September, before heading to Manila, Macau, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok over the next two months.According to the accompanying tour poster, more dates in other regions will be added to the ‘Area 52’ tour, which is set to continue into 2024. More details, such as ticket availability and prices, have yet to be announced.

Instagram post after being crowned by her predecessor, Ona Moody, at the AFAS Theater in Leusden. “Yes I’m trans and I want to share my story but I’m also Rikkie and that’s what matters to me.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief

Rolling Loud have spoken to NME about how it became the world’s largest hip-hop festival ahead of the second-ever edition taking place in Portugal this weekend.Established in Florida eight years ago, the festival was created by hip-hop event promoters Matt Zinger and Tariq Chief. In 2010, Zingler and Cherif started to organise monthly parties in Miami headlined by some of today’s most successful rappers – such as Rick Ross, Travis $cott and Kendrick Lamar.Rolling Loud was first held in a Florida warehouse and had six headliners; Schoolboy Q, Curren$y, A$AP Ferg, Action Bronson, Juicy J, and $cott.

Jackass star Steve-O has discussed his former co-star Bam Margera, saying he “would love to hear something encouraging” on Margera’s health.In 2021 Margera entered a one-year drug and alcohol rehabilitation program. He previously told Steve-O that his descent into alcoholism was in part due to his obsession with HIM frontman Ville Valo.Earlier this year the stunt performer said that he was “basically pronounced dead” after developing seizures and contracting a blood infection, and was arrested for domestic violence in March after a woman claimed that he kicked her.Speaking to NME for a new interview, Steve-O was asked about his co-star and discussed his hopes that Margera can get the help he needs, and his own journey to sobriety.“I would love to hear something encouraging, that he’s decided to stop blaming all of his problems on other people,” he said of Margera, adding: “I owe everything to my sobriety, and I really made an effort to encourage Bam to choose sobriety.“It’s a shame that you can’t make people want to get better.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Korean tech firm CJ 4DPLEX has struck a deal with Thailand’s Major Cineplex to add two ScreenX locations in Cambodia and Thailand. One will be located at the AEON Mall Mean Chey, have almost 500 seats and have a 75-foot-wide central screen, making it the largest ScreenX auditorium in Southeast Asia. The other will be at Bangkok’s ICONSiam Mall location, debuting on July 27. ScreenX is a multi-projection system with an immersive 270-degree field of view. That creates a virtual reality-like setting with cinema quality resolution. Major’s first ScreenX launched in 2022 at its Siam Paragon location in central Bangkok.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Chinese mystery drama “Lost in the Stars” expanded in its second week on release and gave China its third biggest box office weekend of the year. The film earned $117 million, according to data from consultancy Artisan Gateway. That was significantly up from its opening weekend of $70.7 million (RMB502 million) a week earlier and enough to make it the second biggest film on the planet, behind “Indiana Jones,” according to Comscore. After two weekends on release, it has accumulated $320 million. “Lost in the Stars” is a Chinese adaptation of a 1990 Russian movie “A Trap for the Lonely Man,” which itself was adapted from a Robert Thomas stage play. It sees a woman disappear while on an overseas trip with her husband. Just as mysteriously, she reappears at the moment that the search for her is running out of steam. But the man refuses to accept that she is the same woman and believes that she is an imposter.

The White Lotus is currently on pause due to the Hollywood writers’ strike, it has been revealed.The third season of The White Lotus is believed to be set in Thailand, after creator Mike White was reportedly scouting locations there. The first two seasons were set in Hawaii and Sicily respectively, with predominantly all-new ensemble casts in each.In a new appearance on The News Agents podcast, star Tom Hollander, who played British expat Quentin in the show’s second season, has confirmed that the new series will be set in Asia, and that “like everything else, it’s on pause”.He said: “They can’t actually shoot it, and they can’t write it, I think they know what the story is.”Hollander added that the show’s creator, Mike White, is also pausing production on the show because he doesn’t want to be thrown out of the Writers’ Guild.“You wouldn’t want to [be thrown out of the union], you’d be a scab,” the star said.Elsewhere, Jennifer Coolidge has said she hopes Tanya’s husband dies in a “meat-grinding machine” in the show’s third season.In the finale of the show’s second season, Tanya (Coolidge) goes on a shooting spree aboard a yacht against a group hired by her husband Greg (Jon Gries) to kill her.

Refresh for latest…: Disney/Lucasfilm’s Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is off to a disappointing start with a $130M global opening. Of that, $70M is from 52 international box office markets as the the fifth installment in the beloved 42-year-old franchise came in below projections.

2020’s social media blackout that was supposed to be in support of the BLM movement.Disney’s chief diversity officer and senior vice president Latondra Newton, a six-year veteran, was the first of the four to go. On June 20, the company said that Newton was leaving to pursue “other endeavors.” Predictably, her exit was celebrated by a faction of people who blamed her for “The Little Mermaid’s “woke” casting of Black actress and singer Halle Bailey.