Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo launches ‘Wordle’ spin-off ‘Weezle’

If you enjoyed the 2021 DC team film The Suicide Squad, then there is good news – one of your favourite characters has just had their spin-off series hit streaming platforms in the UK.

EXCLUSIVE: Amazon Studios is negotiating a feature deal on the Shipli Somaya Gowda novel Secret Daughter, with an impressive package that has Chinese helmer Anthony Chen (llo llo, Wet Season) attached to direct Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Sienna Miller in the lead roles. Shruti Ganguly will adapt the novel.

After moving to reduced capacity earlier this month amid a surge in Covid cases, China’s Shanghai Disney Resort has opted to temporarily shutter beginning today.

Warner Bros/DC’s The Batman released in China today, getting off to an RMB 23.3M ($3.7M) start, including previews. The inauspicious bow was expected given that about 35% of the market’s cinemas have been temporarily shuttered amid a new Covid spike. The good news is that the film has a strong 9 score on platforms Tao Piao Piao and Maoyan. The latter is currently predicting an RMB 194.3M ($30.5M) final tally for the Caped Crusader’s full run.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentTop Italian commercial broadcaster Mediaset, which is being rebranded as MediaForEurope (MFE), is launching a bid to gain full ownership of its Spanish unit Mediaset Espana in move touted as a first step in its stated plan to gain scale in Europe.The company, which is controlled by the family of former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, after a board meeting late on Tuesday revealed that it has given the go-ahead for a public offer in cash and shares to buy the 44.31% stake it does not already own in Mediaset Espana, which is Spain’s leading private free-TV player. MFE is valuing the Mediaset Espana stake at roughly €780 million euros ($854.6 million).“The offer represents an important step forward in the creation of a pan-European media and entertainment group,” MFE said in a statement.

Vijay Subramaniam, the former Amazon India and Disney India executive, has launched an independent venture that will develop, produce and finance content for the Indian market.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefThe shares of China’s largest entertainment and tech companies plunged for a second day on Tuesday as Russia’s war in Ukraine, regulatory warnings and China’s slowing economy all combined to signal tougher times ahead.Alibaba shares crashed 11.7% to reach an all-time low of HK$71.2 in Hong Kong, where they have a secondary listing. Tencent shares plunged by 10.2% to HK$298, their lowest in several years. Both companies have in the past held the title of China’s largest enterprise and are major components of the Hang Seng Index of leading equities.The Hang Seng Index fell by more than 1,000 points and by nearly 6% on Tuesday to close at 18,415.

Reuters) based on comments by Vi Kien Thanh, head of the Department of Cinema, a government body in charge of licensing and censoring foreign films.Reps for Sony did not respond to a request for comment.Vietnam previously banned the 2019 animated film “Abominable” and asked Netflix to make changes to a series last year called “Pine Gap” for the same reason. “Uncharted” is scheduled to open in China on Monday.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefSome cinemas in central Shanghai were closed from Friday in reaction to a surge in coronavirus cases in the city and other parts of China. The Shanghai Disneyland theme park announced partial restrictions that take effect from Saturday. On Saturday, Chinese authorities announced that a total of 1,649 new cases in the country had been discovered on Friday.

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentTelefonica’s Movistar Plus, Spain’s biggest pay-TV/SVOD operator, has launched an in-house overseas sales division, Movistar Plus Internacional, headed up by former Sony and Buendía Estudios exec Maria Valenzuela. Lorena Molloy, an ex-exec at The Mediapro Studio, has joined Movistar Plus Internacional beginning in March as its head of communication and marketing. Valenzuela, who began working with the platform last summer, heading international strategy and business development, reports directly to Domingo Corral, Movistar Plus’ director of original production.Movistar Plus Internacional is making further appointments, raising staff to around 10 employees, Valenzuela said. It will attend all major markets, beginning with Series Mania and MipTV/Canneseries, focusing at least in the short term on sales to Europe, Eastern Europe, U.S.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief‘The Battle at Lake Changjin II’ headed the mainland Chinese box office for the fifth successive weekend as cinemas await significant new content. “Changjin II” earned $7.5 million over the latest weekend, according to data from consultancy Artisan Gateway. The increment expanded the film’s aggregate to $626 million since release on Feb.

Weezer‘s Rivers Cuomo has teamed up with Australian country singer Morgan Evans for a remix of the latter’s ‘Country Outta My Girl’ – listen to it below.The country-pop tune, the original of which was released back in September, hears Evans count the ways that his Southern transplant girlfriend has maintained her country roots.“She’s a map dot with a welcome sign/ She’s a truck stop cherry Coke with ice/ Still reppin’ that Bobcat pride/ Still callin’ from an 865/ She’s a ragtop on a hand-me-down Jeep/ She’s a flat rock skippin’ ‘cross a creek/ She’s waffles with the chicken fried/ Hungover from a neon Friday night,” Evans sings on the first verse.After Evans promises that “you can’t take the country outta my girl”, Cuomo counters with boasts about his city girl: “She’s a dumb fling with the tofu fried/ She’s an X-Box, on a Friday night/ She doesn’t give a damn about sports/ Not gettin’ in your four by four/ From LAX to BNA, every day/ Yeah, she’s singing.”You can check out the track below:Cuomo recently revealed that he’s built a streaming platform to host thousands of Weezer demos.The tracks were originally released in 2020 as part of Cuomo’s “web programming class”.Available to buy in era-bundles, the demos range from Cuomo’s musical ventures pre-Weezer all the way through to 2017’s ‘Pacific Daydream’. Now, he’s built an app to play those demos and called it Weezify.

The U.S. is not the only country with growing income inequality. The same is true of China, a phenomenon explored in the Oscar-nominated feature documentary Ascension, from MTV Documentary Films.

Have you been playing Wordle? Of course you have. There’s not one person who doesn’t play Wordle every single day.

Nick Clement Miami Dade College’s Miami Film Festival will present its 39th annual edition from March 4-13, featuring a mix of in-theater and virtual presentations. With more than 120 films from 35 countries on display, ranging from features to documentaries to shorts, the event will be filled with premieres and special screenings and events.“Last year we did the hybrid event, with reduced capacity and no parties and limited guests.

Wall Street Journal reporter Erich Schwartzel’s book, Red Carpet: Hollywood, China and the Global Battle for Cultural Supremacy, warns in its prologue: “China’s pressure on Hollywood and its own entertainment industry have the potential to challenge the American film industry as the chief narrator of the twenty-first century.”

Editor’s Note: Wall Street Journal reporter Erich Schwartzel’s new book Red Carpet: Hollywood, China and the Global Battle for Cultural Supremacy includes a chapter on Fan Bingbing, one of China’s biggest global stars who disappeared from public view in 2018 shortly after she was cast to star in the female action spy movie The 355. In the excerpt below from the Penguin Press book, Schwartzel takes readers from Cannes through Fan’s house arrest — where she was “watched constantly, even while taking showers” — to her eventual reappearance (albeit via greenscreen and with a body double for The 355) as she had become what Schwartzel calls “the most famous chicken used by Chinese authorities to scare the monkeys of its entertainment industry.”

Bill Maher zeroed in on China during the latest edition of “Real Time”, targeting the winter Olympics in Beijing during the “New Rules” segment.

Bill Maher couldn’t hide his contempt for the country hosting the Winter Olympics on his Friday Real Time.