Xilam Retools ‘Lucy Lost’ as Feature, Adapting ‘War Horse’ Author Michael Morpurgo, Shares First Look (EXCLUSIVE)

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Just a few weeks after the death of its creator Akira Toriyama, the world’s first theme park dedicated to the “Dragon Ball” universe of comics, movies, and games is set to be built in Saudi Arabia. The “Dragon Ball” park, centred around the world of Son Goku – the young boy with supernatural martial arts powers on a journey to collect seven magical orbs that elicit a wish-granting dragon – will be built in Qiddiya, the entertainment and tourism project outside the Saudi capital of Riyadh, the Qiddiya Investment Company and Toei Animation announced on Friday.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Warner Bros. Discovery is to significantly expand its investment and production of Japanese anime through its existing local studio in Japan. “We have a Japanese anime studio, which has been producing five or ten anime series per year, over the last few years,” said James Gibbons, WBD president of Asia-Pacific. “We’ve approved expansion to take that to more than ten series per year.” The studio has been operational since 2011 and delivered over 80 titles in that span, a mix of high-quality anime, live action series and movies.

XG have announced their 2024 ‘The First Howl’ world tour, featuring concerts in Asia, North America, Europe and more.On March 18, XG announced that they would be embarking on their first-ever world tour, title ‘The First Howl’, which will include shows and concerts in Asia, North America, Europe and more.The girl group will kick-off their trek with a two-date show at the Osaka-Jo Hall in Osaka, Japan on May 18. In the same month, they will also play concerts in the Japanese city of Yokohama.While the dates for the rest of XG’s 2024 ‘The First Howl’ world tour in Asia have yet to be announced, they have teased concerts in cities such as Bangkok, Singapore, Taipei, Seoul and more.The girl group have also revealed upcoming legs in North America and Europe, set to take place in October and November this year.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor GKIDS has announced the acquisition of North American rights to Mamoru Hosoda’s entire film catalog. Hosoda’s films include “The Girl Who Leapt Through Time,” “Wolf Children,” “Mirai” and “Belle.” GKIDS’ President David Jesteadt said, “One of GKIDS’ earliest distribution projects was the theatrical release of ‘Summer Wars,’ when Mamoru Hosoda had already cemented his position as one of the most exciting animation directors.

Amazon has struck first-of-its-kind deals with Japan’s Nippon TV and BBC for podcasts.

HCG AwardPresented by CAA ChinaTwo cash awards of $20,000 value each. CAA China may board the winning projects later by entering into script development agreements. “Call of Lobster” (Taiwan) Dir.

EXCLUSIVE: Here’s your first look at actor Ravi Patel (Wonder Woman 1984, Animal Patrol) suited up in Kiss Of The Con Queen, the true crime thriller inspired by the life of accused fraudster Hargobind Tahilramani dubbed the “con queen of Hollywood” after allegedly impersonating movie executives in an elaborate and high profile fraud scheme. 

Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito came together last night to present the award for Best Visual Effects at the 96th Academy Awards.The prestigious ceremony took place yesterday (March 10) in Hollywood, Los Angeles, and was hosted by comedian Jimmy Kimmel. The winner in this category was the epic Japanese movie, Godzilla Minus One, with visual effects supervised by Takashi Yamazaki.The two actors, who have worked together on the movie Twins, explained how they were both villains of Batman in separate films based on the DC superhero.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter Muhammad Ali will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2024, Variety has learned exclusively. Ali will be inducted during the Hall of Fame ceremony taking place on April 5 at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He will be inducted by his widow, Lonnie Ali.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Lily Franky, the Japanese acting sensation who starred in “Shoplifters” and “Like Father Like Son,” heads the cast of “Diamonds in the Sand,” a multinational co-production that appears at the Hong Kong — Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF) as a work in progress. Developed and directed by Janus Victoria, the film started as an exploration of the Japanese phenomenon of kodokushi, or lonely death, where elderly people who live alone are discovered dead only months after their passing due to the isolated lives that they lead.

Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Evil Does Not Exist was awarded the Best Film award at the Asian Film Awards this evening in Hong Kong. Scroll down for the full list of winners. 

Naman Ramachandran Indian sales outfit Indywood Distribution Network has sold Rupesh Paul’s “Kamasutra – The Revenge” wide ahead of Hong Kong’s film rights market FilMart. Starring Sherlyn Chopra, Milind Gunaji and Gajendra Chauhan, and produced by San2Creations, the film follows two princesses – one who is robbed of her dreams when forced to accept a middle-aged king as her husband, and another thirsty for revenge. Indywood has sold the film to Twin (Japan, all rights); A2 Filmes (Latin America TV/VOD); Filmbridge (Mongolia, all rights); Pioneer Film (Philippines, all rights) and RFT Films (U.K./Ireland, theatrical).

This year’s Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF, March 28-April 8) will open with the Asian premiere of All Shall Be Well, directed by Hong Kong filmmaker Ray Yeung, which recently won the Teddy Award at Berlin film festival.

Jordan Moreau The world of “Pokémon” is evolving with “Pokémon Horizons: The Series,” a show with two brand new protagonists after Ash Ketchum finally caught ’em all and became the very best, like no one ever was. After 26 years with Ash as the face of its anime series, “Pokémon” introduced Liko and Roy in “Horizons,” which began airing in Japan last year and is now available on Netflix in the U.S.

Morgan Matthews‘ upcoming road movie 500 Miles, starring Academy Award nominee Bill Nighy and buzzy teen actor Roman Griffin Davis, has sold to multiple territories for Beta Cinema, following its launch at the Berlinale’s European Film Market (EFM) last month.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor The 8th annual Crunchyroll Anime Awards just concluded in Tokyo — with “Jujutsu Kaisen” Season 2 wining a total of 11 honors, including the top prize of anime of the year. Crunchyroll revealed the winners during a live ceremony Saturday, March 2, featuring celebrity presenters and musical performances.

Jujutsu Kaisen won Anime of the Year at the eighth annual Crunchyroll Anime Awards, which were handed out Saturday in Tokyo.

Suede‘s Brett Anderson has released a cover of the Echo & the Bunnymen’s classic ‘The Killing Moon’ as part of a new project.Anderson has worked with Paraorchestra and their founder and artistic director Charles Hazlewood on ‘The Death Songbook’, a collaborative 12-track album featuring original compositions and “re-imagining iconic songs exploring love, loss and transcendence” by artists including Depeche Mode, Suede and Japan. The album includes guest features by Nadine Shah, Gwenno, Seb Rochford of Sons of Kemet and Adrian Utley of Portishead.Paraorchestra is the world’s only ensemble consisting of both professional disabled and non-disabled musicians playing an unconventional mix of traditional orchestral, acoustic, and electronic instruments and using assistive technology.‘The Death Songbook’ will be released on April 19 via BMG.Check out Anderson’s cover of ‘The Killing Moon’ below:Our mate @BrettAndersonHQ of @suedeHQ has just released a stunning version of ‘The Killing Moon’, the lead track from the new full-length album, ‘Death Songbook’ by Paraorchestra with Brett Anderson and Charles Hazlewood (featuring Nadine Shah and Gwenno) is available now! pic.twitter.com/cZnzmiYTv1— Echo & the Bunnymen (@Bunnymen) February 29, 2024“The Death Songbook was an idea Charles came up with during the bleak days of lockdown.

Crunchyroll Anime Awards are set to take place this weekend (March 2) in Tokyo, but how can viewers around the world watch the ceremony? Read on to find out.This year’s awards show is the eighth annual edition of the event, and is being held at the Grand Prince Hotel New Takanawa in the Japanese capital, and will be hosted by J-pop singer Sally Amaki and TV personality Jon Kabira.Presenters at the ceremony will include Megan Thee Stallion, as well as Canadian actress Iman Vellani (Ms. Marvel, The Marvels) and J-pop star LiSA.In total, awards will be handed out in 32 categories, which will for the first time include Best Cinematography and Best Art Direction.Anime fans around the world will be able to live stream the awards show via Crunchyroll’s own official YouTube and Twitch channels.The show is set to start at 6pm local time on March 2.

Naman Ramachandran The Asian Film Awards Academy has revealed several events around the annual Asian Film Awards in Hong Kong. Veteran filmmakers, jury president of this year’s awards, Japan’s Kurosawa Kiyoshi and Hong Kong’s Fruit Chan, will share their filmmaking experiences and artistic concepts in a joint masterclass. Thai star Metawin Opas-Iamkajorn (“2gether” series and film) known as Win, will be honored with the AFA Rising Star Award and the event will host the world premiere of his new film “Under Parallel Skies.” There will also be six themed panel discussions featuring actors Wan Fang (Taiwan), Rachel Leung and Yoyo Tse (both Hong Kong), Tergel Bold-Erdene (Mongolia), Awat Ratanapintha (Thailand) and Shirata Mihaya (Japan).