Global Screen has sold the distribution rights for North America for “Crescendo#makemusicnotwar” to Menemsha Films. The film, loosely inspired by the story of the formation of Daniel Barenboim’s West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, toplines “Toni Erdmann” star Peter Simonischek. Global Screen also closed deals on the film for Spain (Adso Films International Management), Italy (Satine), Korea (Tcast)
October 6, 2019 11:00PM PT South East Asian filmmakers, Mouly Surya, Yeo Siew Hua and Anucha Boonyawatana have received commissions to direct short movies for the Singapore International Film Festival. Although other film festivals in Asia including Tokyo and Jeonju have previously ventured into production, it is a first for the SGIFF. It gave the
October 6, 2019 8:31PM PT Opening on Wednesday (Oct. 2), “Joker” landed on top of the South Korean box office. The Warner Bros. Korea release earned $16.2 million from 2.2 million admissions over opening five days, including $9.57 million earned over the weekend proper. Showing on 1,418 screens nationwide, the Joaquin Phoenix-starring psychological thriller accounted
SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not yet watched the series premiere of “Batwoman.” It only took one episode for the CW’s latest DC adaptation, “Batwoman,” to reveal the hidden identity behind its big bad — not only to the audience but to the titular heroine herself. The menacing Alice (Rachel Skarsten) came
In a speech celebrating the opening of his brand new 330 acre studio in Atlanta, Ga., Tyler Perry challenged his guests to dream bigger, like he had, while turning the former Army base into his personal production play land. But even the biggest dreamers — and the biggest names in entertainment — couldn’t be prepared
Entertaining Power, a film sales agent from Hong Kong, is launching “Spiders and “I’m Living It” at the Asian Film Market, part of the Busan International Film Festival. “Spiders” is a topical and contemporary action adventure which follows a group of sailors, who come to believe that they are being stalked by a mutant creature
The BBC is overhauling its iPlayer, with a new-look version of the streaming service to be rolled out next year. The revamped iPlayer will offer BBC programming and channels and will span live streaming, catch-up, box-sets, and podcasting. Content will also be made available on the iPlayer for a 12-month window instead of the current
It’s a new dawn for Tanya Tucker, who, while most of the world wasn’t looking, went from being a teen country superstar who sounded 13-going-on-60 to, you know, actually being 60. Tucker is now getting the kind of career reappraisal she’s been due ever since she grew into that voice, which now, as then, rings
October 6, 2019 3:30PM PT In today’s New York Comic-Con TV news roundup, “Roswell, New Mexico” adds two to its cast and there’s a first glimpse at “Riverdale” without Luke Perry. CASTING Jason Behr and Gaius Charles have joined the cast of the second season of “Roswell, New Mexico.” Behr played the role of Max Evans in the 1999
Rip Taylor, one of Television’s most flamboyant personalities known as “The Crying Comedian” and “The King of Camp and Confetti,” died Sunday in Beverly Hills, publicist Harlan Boll confirmed. He was 84. Taylor, whose high-energy personality and confetti-throwing antics quickly made him a mainstay on television, made appearances on everything from sitcoms to talk shows,
Organized by the Busan International Film Festival and its Asian Film Market, the inaugural edition of the Asia Contents Awards took place in Busan Sunday (Oct. 6) evening. It was a brash red carpet affair, which tried achingly hard to please. The new award show was conceived as a part of the Asian Film Market’s
Eight films chosen from Busan’s ‘A Window on Asian Cinema’ strand will vie for the festival’s annual Kim Ji-seok award this year. The award was instituted in 2017 in memory of late Busan international Film Festival programmer Kim Ji-seok, who nurtured a generation of emerging Asian talent during his tenure. From Hong Kong, Ray Yeung,
Indonesian production house KawanKawan Media is in Busan with two projects. “The Science of Fictions,” directed by Yosep Anggi Noen, premiered at Locarno where it won a special mention. It is playing at the Busan International Film Festival as part of the ‘A Window On Asian Cinema’ strand. The film is essentially a history of
Jordan’s Royal Film Commission has raised the upper limit of the cash rebate on eligible productions filming in the Kingdom to 25%, from the current 20%. The agency made the announcement on Sunday at the Busan International Film Festival’s Asian Film Market on Sunday. The rebate scheme now ranges from 10-25% on all qualified expenses
Lee Seong-gang, one of Korea’s most experienced and successful animation directors, says he was forced into experimentation with his fourth feature “Princess Aya,” which plays this week at the Busan International Film Festival, in the Cinema Today-Panorama section. “There were some investments we could secure only if we make it as a ScreenX movie. It
The sparkling female stars of Alankrita Shrivastava’s “Dolly Kitty and Those Twinkling Stars,” produced by Ekta Kapoor’s Balaji Telefilms, have plenty going on in their careers. Bhumi Pednekar has had a very brief career so far, but she has made each role count. She made her debut in 2015’s “Dum Laga Ke Haisha” as an
October 6, 2019 1:50PM PT India’s Artbeat Studios has formally launched at the Busan International Film Festival’s Asian Film Market with Don Palathara’s Malayalam-language feature film “1956, Central Travancore.” Artbeat is the sole Indian exhibitor at the market. The studio is the brainchild of screenwriter Abhilash S. Kumar, whose credits include acclaimed filmmaker Aashiq Abu’s
After a year in business, Korean indie sales company K-Movie Entertainment is looking to expand. Headed by Sylvie and Sophie Kim, the company launched in August last year, in time to make Busan 2018, its first sales market. Since then it has enjoyed sales success with Lee Won-tae’s action thriller “The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil,”
“Deliver me from evil,” murmurs fisherman José (Arley De Jesús Carvallido Lobo) into clasped hands before he puts on his hat, steps into his canoe and sets off down the Magdalena River, delivering himself directly into evil. The placid waterway that is the thematic and geographical spine of writer-director Nicolás Rincón Gille’s unfeasibly gripping, slow-scorching
When Ginger Baker died Sunday at the age of 80 after years of ill health, the rock era lost its first real superstar drummer. Mind you, Baker would’ve absolutely hated having his name tied to anything rock — in death and he did in life — despite having made his notoriety, initially, with the genre’s
October 6, 2019 9:03AM PT While Taylor Swift went full-on pop for her performances on ‘GMA’ and at Amazon’s Prime Day concert earlier this year, she took a different approach for her fifth appearance “Saturday Night Live.” For her opening song, the already sparse title track of her latest album, “Lover,” the singer performed entirely
Joaquin Phoenix showed plenty of worldwide drawing power as “Joker” dominated international moviegoing with $140.5 million from 22,552 screens in 73 markets for Warner Bros. Along with the North American results, the worldwide opening weekend totaled an impressive $234 million, outperforming expectations. Directed by Todd Phillips, “Joker” has been the subject of scrutiny in weeks leading
Joaquin Phoenix showed plenty of worldwide drawing power as “Joker” dominated international moviegoing with $140.5 million from 22,552 screens in 73 markets for Warner Bros. Along with the North American results, the worldwide opening weekend totaled an impressive $234 million, outperforming expectations. Directed by Todd Phillips, “Joker” has been the subject of scrutiny in weeks leading
Warner Bros.’ “Joker” laughed its way to a new record at the domestic box office. Despite mounting controversy and security concerns, the R-rated comic-book movie scored $93.5 million at 4,374 sites over the weekend and now stands as the biggest October launch of all time. Those ticket sales easily crushed the benchmark previously set last
Drummer Ginger Baker, who became rock’s first superstar percussionist as a member of the wildly popular ‘60s British power trio Cream, died Sunday in England. He was 80. His Facebook and Twitter pages posted the news, saying “We are very sad to say that Ginger has passed away peacefully in hospital this morning.” We are
Fox Corporation and Dish ended a programming blackout Sunday that had kept thousands of the satellite-provider’s subscribers from watching “Thursday Night Football” and other Fox network favorites for the past week or so. “We are pleased to announce that we have reached an agreement with Dish and Sling, and they are immediately restoring their subscribers’
Director Vincenzo Natali and his “In the Tall Grass” leading man Patrick Wilson celebrated the global release of their Netflix Original feature at Spain’s Sitges Intl. Fantastic Film Festival on Friday. That morning, Natali, who doesn’t speak Spanish, opened the Sitges Pitchbox, a pitching competition for European first-time filmmakers in the horror genre, with a
“Old Boy” director Park Chan-wook says he is getting ready to make comedy horror film “The Ax.” The film would be a remake of the 2005 film by Greek-French director Costa Gavras, which was itself a adaptation of a Donald Westlake novel. The story involves a chemist who is make redundant due to outsourcing, and
The second episode of “Saturday Night Live” opened with another impeachment related sketch, this time taking place in the office of Vice President Mike Pence. Pence (played by Beck Bennett) gathered Rudy Giuliani (Kate McKinnon) and Attorney General William Barr (Aidy Bryant) for a crisis meeting to decide how they’re going to deal with the
October 5, 2019 8:36PM PT Bong Joon-ho’s Cannes Palme d’Or-winning “Parasite” was the winner of the 28th Buil Film Awards, held alongside Busan International Film Festival on Friday. The dark comedy won six awards, including best film. Other awards “Parasite” received included best supporting actor and actress, for Park Myung-hoon and Lee Jung-eun, respectively, best