Why Bank Film Financing Remains Muted in Asia

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentMK2 Films has locked major territory deals on Leonor Serraille’s drama “Mother and Son” which world premiered in competition at the Cannes Film Festival and garnered strong reviews. “Mother and Son” charts the lives of a young African woman, Rose, and two of her four children, Jean and Ernest, who come to France from the Ivory Coast in the 1980s with high ideals.

EXCLUSIVE: The Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment and Janet Yang Productions announced the four winners of the inaugural Julia S. Gouw Short Film Challenge, which awards a $15,000 production grant to four AAPI women or non-binary filmmakers.

that Elvis. The problem with Luhrmann, though, is one that at times rubs off on Luhrmann’s “Elvis,” which premiered on Wednesday at the Cannes Film Festival: The Australian director also has a lot of Colonel Tom Parker in him. Parker was a showman, to be sure, a former carny who managed Elvis and steered him on a path where profit always took precedence over artistry.

Zack Sharf Welcome back, Park Chan-wook. The South Korean auteur returned to Cannes six years after “The Handmaiden” with his new detective thriller “Decision to Leave” and earned a five-minute standing ovation.Although the ovation matched the amount of time celebrating “The Handmaiden,” the reception was notably more muted. While the camera the festival uses that normally shows on the creative team’s gracious reaction after the movie, and helps to keep the applause rolling, wasn’t working, the response was quiet even before the technical snafu.“Decision to Leave” centers around a detective who falls in love with a mysterious widow who just happens to be the prime suspect in his latest murder investigation.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefFrench sales agency Elle Driver is giving a Cannes Market launch to “Kid Snow,” a West Australian-produced tale of redemption set in the 1970s world of tent boxing. Production starts on Monday in Australia’s Goldfields-Esperance region, making it the first feature film to kick off production in the state since its border re-opened.Boxing tents toured Australia’s small towns from the early 1900s until the 1970s, and were venues where professional fighters faced off against local challengers.

The final countdown! After five years on The CW, Riverdale is nearing its conclusion with a seventh and final season.

EXCLUSIVE: As Roman Abramovich-backed Tchaikovsky’s Wife unspools this week at the Cannes Film Festival, the French Ministry of Economy and Finance has clarified its position regarding movies backed by sanctioned oligarchs.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefThe question arising at every Cannes Film Festival lineup announcement about why the festival has not selected films from a particular country tends to irk chief selector Thierry Frémaux. But this year, with films from China notable by their absence, Frémaux may be asking himself if he messed up, or whether bigger forces are at play?Last year, Cannes was at pains to conceal its selection of Hong Kong pro-democracy film “Revolution of Our Times” until as late as possible, in order not to alert mainland Chinese authorities or disrupt the other Chinese indies showing in the festival.China experts differ as to how much Cannes’ defiance last year was a factor in this year’s de facto boycott.

Richard E. Grant bags guest role in ‘20,000 Leagues Under the Sea’ retelling

Flume is set to return to his native Australia this coming November in support of his forthcoming third studio album, ‘Palaces’, which arrives this Friday (May 20).The tour, announced today (May 18), is largely slated for arenas and outdoor venues in most capital cities. The shows are also set to feature a rotating list of both local and international support acts – including collaborators Caroline Polachek and Toro Y Moi.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefDirector Robert Connolly and star Eric Bana are reuniting for a detective film based on the novel “Force of Nature,” set in the Australian wilderness.Connolly and Bana were previously teamed on Australian smash hit movie “The Dry,” which like “Force of Nature” was adapted from a novel by Jane Harper. They also worked together on “Blueback,” a family-friendly, ecologically activist celebration of the natural world, adapted from a Tim Winton novella.“Force of Nature” sees five women take part in a corporate hiking retreat, with only four coming out on the other side.

EXCLUSIVE: Omar Sy’s star continues to burn bright on Netflix, as the French star’s thriller The Takedown comfortably held on to top spot in the streamer’s non-English language film chart.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefRyan Gosling is tipped to star in “The Fall Guy,” a feature film adaptation of the iconic 1980s TV series, that will shoot in Sydney, Australia.The original series, which ran 1981-1986, was created by Glen A. Larson and starred Lee Majors as a Hollywood stunt man.

Flume has addressed working with collaborators for his new album ‘Palaces’, including his hero Damon Albarn who made him feel “nervous”, as well as the influence of the late SOPHIE.The Australian DJ and producer, real name Harley Edward Streten, told NME in an In Conversation video interview that Albarn is one of his musical heroes, so he found the experience of working with him on the album’s title track particularly nerve-wracking.“We were both playing the LA festival Life Is Beautiful and linked up afterwards, and went to some weird studio in the middle of nowhere in the desert,” Streten told NME about the Albarn collaboration, recalling that he played him a bunch of music.“I was nervous because I’m a huge fan,” he added, having showed Albarn lots of ideas, “but he didn’t like anything.”In fact, it was only the second to last track on ‘Palaces’ that piqued Albarn’s interest. “He was like ‘Alright, there’s something in this, this is cool’.”“After he came round to one of the songs, I did think ‘Thank fuck for that!” And having Albarn join him on-stage at Coachella to play piano during the debut live performance of their collaboration was a “really special moment”.

Ron Howard’s first animated feature, The Shrinking Of Treehorn, has been acquired by Netflix, Deadline can confirm.

Epik High have announced an Asia Pacific tour that so far spans five stops in Southeast Asia and Australia.This July, the Korean hip-hop group will head to Singapore, Melbourne, Sydney, Bangkok and Jakarta for the Epik High Is Here Tour, they announced today (May 14). A tour poster hints at four more stops that have yet to be revealed.The tour will kick off in Singapore on July 9 then head to Australia for stops in Melbourne (July 11) and Sydney (July 12).

Ioan Gruffudd and Bianca Wallace looked besotted as they attended their first red carpet together. The couple officially confirmed their relationship in October last year following Liar actor Ioan’s split from his wife Alice Evans. Ioan, 48, and Bianca, 29, were attending a charity night for the MS society, a condition which Bianca has been open about suffering from in the past.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentWattpad Webtoon Studios, the user-generated fiction entertainment outfit, and Italy’s Leone Film Group have announced a deal to co-develop a slate of films for the Italian and international marketplace based on original fiction stories from Wattpad.The pact is an expansion of their previously announced deal to make a film based on Blair Holden’s “The Bad Boy’s Girl,” which is among the most popular stories on the storytelling platform.Australian writer Hannah Lehman, whose series “Two Sides,” released under Snapchat’s ‘Snap Originals’ in 2019, started out with a self-made pilot and reached 6.5 million views on Facebook, is set to pen the script.Lehman also wrote and directed Facebook Watch’s first ever digital series, “The Unboxing.” Leone Film Group has now also optioned the full series of novels in “The Bad Boy’s Girl” saga, which has more than 223 million reads on the platform.Aside from the “Bad Boy’s Girl” franchise, the plan is to develop 1-3 films per year through “a wide-ranging partnership on projects for young adult audiences that we select and co-develop and co-produce together,” Leone Film Group CEO Raffaella Leone (pictured) told Variety. “These will be Italian productions for global distribution,” she added.“Leone Film Group understands the power of listening to audiences and nurturing fandoms,” said Aron Levitz, president at Wattpad Webtoon Studios, in a statement.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefStudiocanal will launch rights sales at Cannes on “Kangaroo,” the first Australia-New Zealand production from the local arm of the French film and TV group Canal Plus. The film is inspired by the real-life story of The Kangaroo Sanctuary founder Chris ‘Brolga’ Barns, who has been saving and raising baby kangaroos in Central Australia since 2005.The narrative is shaped as a heart-warming family comedy about a down-on-his-luck pro surfer who becomes stranded in an Outback town after a car accident.