News

More than 15 Grammy Week events sponsored by the Recording Academy and many other Grammy-related parties were canceled this year due to January’s devastating Los Angeles fires, with the actual Grammy ceremony, which will still take place on Sunday, Feb. 2, pivoting to focus on raising funds for wildfire relief. But Friday’s MusiCares Persons of the Year Gala, honoring 2007 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award recipients the Grateful Dead, went on as planned. And the annual charitable event actually felt more celebratory than ever, providing much-needed release and escape on the final night of a particularly rough month.

“Their fans are legendary, and their values — community, resilience, generosity — all align with the MusiCares mission,” Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. said of the beloved psychedelic jam band Friday. “They remind us that music is a force for good. This year, though, honoring them carries extra special community. L.A. is home to an incredible music community,...

What has rainbow grilled cheese platters, giant dancing bear cutouts, and Woody Harrelson wearing a tie dye tie? The MusiCares’ annual Persons of the Year Charity Gala, where the Grateful Dead are the 2025 honorees (with some “Friend of the Devil” food cake to celebrate.)

“It’s an incredible honor and I’m humbled to stand here tonight,” drummer Mickey Hart told the audience, standing on the Los Angeles Convention Center stage on Friday night. “Because not too long ago, they wouldn’t let us into Disneyland. Our hair was too long.

Phil Lesh, the classically trained musician who co-founded the Grateful Dead and whose unconventional bass playing steered the band into some of its most experimental directions, died Friday at the age of 84.

Lesh’s death was announced on social media, with a short statement reading: “Phil Lesh, bassist and founding member of the Grateful Dead, passed peacefully this morning. He was surrounded by his family and full of love. Phil brought immense joy to everyone around him and leaves behind a legacy of music and love. We request that you...

Park Hoon-jung, director of hit Korean franchise The Witch and Disney+ series The Tyrant, is set to begin shooting revenge thriller Tristes Tropiques this month. Finecut has secured international sales rights and will introduce the project to buyers in Toronto.

The story follows a group of young assassins affiliated with an organisation known as Tristes Tropiques, who are trained by the tropical rainforest’s absolute ruler called ‘Master’. As they grapple with mutual distrust, they vow to exact bloody revenge.

The film is set to begin shooting in Thailand this September and is expected to wrap by December. Cast has...

Grateful Dead fans can celebrate the group’s momentous 1978 spring tour with Friend of the Devils, a massive box set out Sept. 20.

Friend of the Devils: April 1978 features eight shows the band played that month, including Pembroke Pines, Florida on April 4 and Atlanta Georgia’s Fox Theatre on April 10 and 11. The shows were originally recorded by Betty Cantor-Jackson and restored and mastered by engineer Jeffrey Norman. The deluxe edition includes 19 CDs, a book with liner notes by Steve Silverman, and photos by James Anderson, Bob Minkin, and others.

“These eight...

Known primarily as a chronicler of urban crime and corruption with noirs like In the Palm of Your Hand, The Other One, and Night Falls, Mexican director Roberto Gavaldón proved himself equally adept at tackling another popular national genre of the era, the rural melodrama, with 1952’s Soledad’s Shawl. Following a skilled doctor, Alberto Robles (Arturo de Córdova), who yearns to leave the small, remote town he works in and return to Mexico City for an important research job, Gavaldón’s film is a superb exploration of the dichotomies between urban and rural, science and superstition, and body and soul.

While the presence of Catholic morality is pervasive throughout, the film resists such trite tropes like the sinful city man learning the values of religion or coming to love the simple charms and beauty of the countryside. This rural region is seen instead as a place of grinding poverty,...

Japanese pop-metal sensations Babymetal have announced a Fall 2024 US tour, featuring support from metalcore artist Scene Queen on most dates.

The 15-date outing kicks off November 5th in Orlando, Florida, and runs through a December 3rd show in Anaheim, California. Along the way, the tour will make stops in Charlotte, North Carolina; Washington, D.C.; New York City; Madison, Wisconsin; and other markets.

Get Babymetal Tickets Here

An artist pre-sale begins today (June 4th) at noon Et via Ticketmaster using the code Foxgod, while a Live Nation pre-sale follows on Wednesday at 10 a.m. Et using the code Chord. Fans can also look for deals or get tickets to sold-out dates via StubHub, where your purchase is 100% guaranteed through StubHub’s Fan Protect program.

Babymetal are touring in support of their latest album, The Other One, which was released last year. The band also recently unveiled the collaborative single “Ratatata...

The BBC’s Motherland universe is living on with a spin-off following a post-divorce Amanda.

One of Sharon Horgan’s hit show’s most popular characters, Amandaland will follow the protagonist (Lucy Punch) after her divorce, who has had to downsize and up sticks to South Harlesden, or as the Estate Agent calls it, SoHa.

Featuring her mother Felicity, played by British acting icon Joanna Lumley, Amanda has to try and get her head around raising teenagers, dealing with modern motherhood horrors like teenage drinking, fake Instagram accounts and eco anxiety. After a brief spell of freedom, Anne (Philippa Dunne) is sucked back into being Amanda’s minion to help her navigate the social scene with the other parents at the children’s new school.

Motherland, which starred the likes of Anna Maxwell Martin, Diane Morgan and Paul Ready, ended earlier this year after three seasons. A U.S. remake...

Albums from 1974 are turning 50 this year, and that includes the Grateful Dead’s From the Mars Hotel. To celebrate, Rhino is reissuing the record, out June 21.

Originally released on June 27, 1974 — just a few short months after the band debuted their massive Wall of Sound at their live shows — From the Mars Hotel contains now-classics like “U.S. Blues,” “Scarlet Begonias,” and “Ship of Fools.”

Helmed by the Dead’s legendary archivist David Lemieux, the 3-cd From the Mars Hotel (50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition) will feature all eight tracks, as well...

China’s Alibaba Digital Media & Entertainment Group and Hong Kong’s Media Asia Group announced a slate of new projects today at Filmart.

Among the new projects are Born Evil Seed by Time Still Turns The Pages director Nick Cheuk; crime thriller The Other One by Fung Chih Chiang (A Witness Out Of The Blue); and mystery thriller Behind The Scene, directed by David Lee Kwong Yiu and produced by Andrew Lau.

Alibaba Pictures president Li Jie and Media Asia Group CEO Yip Chai Tuck both attended the joint press conference held in Filmart’s Moonlight Theatre, which saw director Soi Cheang,...

Disney+ is adding another series to its fast-growing Korean drama library, picking up the action spy show The Tyrant.

The series tells the thrilling story of the race to find a bioweapon that is stolen during a secret handover between Korean and US intelligence agencies. The logline reads: “After years of toiling away on a secret project designed to drastically enhance human abilities, the Korean government’s plan is exposed by U.S. intelligence agencies. Furious about being kept in the dark, the U.S. demands all samples be handed over and the project be immediately shut down. But when the covert handover is attacked by an unknown party, agents from both sides will have to work together to avoid the dangerous new formula falling into the wrong hands.”

The series stars Jo Yoon-soo (True Beauty, Juvenile Justice) as skilled infiltrator Chae Jagyeong; Cha Seung-won (Our Blues, A Korean Odyssey...

As Reece Shearsmith just announced, it’s the beginning of the end for Inside No. 9. Filming on the horror-comedy anthology’s ninth and final series began in late 2023, which means a wrap on one of the BBC’s most consistently entertaining and inventive shows is imminent.

Oh it's the beginning of the end. #insideno9

— Reece Shearsmith ❄️ (@ReeceShearsmith) January 8, 2024

Series nine is expected to air in spring 2024, and will add a final six episodes to the existing 49 stories in Shearsmith and co-creator Steve Pemberton’s back catalogue. Barring the first look image above, which shows Pemberton in drag at an underground train station (platform no. nine?), we don’t know anything about the stories, settings or characters yet, but we do know who’ll be joining the pair as guest stars… and it’s a deep bench.

One of Britain’s greatest working actors, Eddie Marsan will appear. As will the brilliant Siobhan Finneran,...

It was a night of metal madness as two of the most unique and popular bands in the genre, Baby Metal and Dethklok, joined forces for a co-headlining show at the Mann Music Center in Philadelphia, Pa. The fans were treated to a spectacle of sound, light, and pyrotechnics that showcased the diversity and creativity of metal music.

Baby Metal, the Japanese trio consisting of Suzuka Nakamo (Su-metal), Moa Kikuchi (Moametal) and Momoko Okazaki (Momometal), opened the show with their signature blend of kawaii pop and heavy metal. They performed songs from their latest album, The Other One, as well as some of their classics like Gimme Chocolate!!, Road Of Resistance, and Megitsune. The crowd sang along to the catchy choruses and cheered for the impressive choreography and musicianship of the band and their backing band, the Kami Band. Baby Metal proved that they are not just a novelty act,...

Disney+ has unveiled the cast of Season 2 of “Extraordinary,” the coming-of-age comedy series from creator and writer Emma Moran and Sid Gentle Films (“Killing Eve”).

Season 2 of “Extraordinary” just wrapped production with a raft of new cast members, including Julian Barratt (“The Mighty Boosh”) as George, Jen’s power coach; Rosa Robson (“Inside No. 9”), who plays Nora, someone from Jizzlord’s past; Kwaku Mills (“The Other One”), as Clark, Carrie’s new work colleague; and Derek Jacobi (“Murder on the Orient Express”), who will voice a cameo role.

They join Máiréad Tyers (“Belfast”) who stars as Jen, alongside Sofia Oxenham (Carrie), Bilal Hasna (Kash) and Luke Rollason (Jizzlord). Additional cast members include Siobhán McSweeney and Robbie Gee, who are both back for the second season. Season 2 is looking to make its debut in early 2024.

In “Extraordinary,” everyone over the age of 18 got their superpower a decade ago — expect for Jen,...

Babymetal have unveiled their first song since being “reborn” with new member Momometal earlier this year. The new track “Metali!!” features guitar playing from Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello.

“Metali!!” comes in addition to Babymetal’s latest album, The Other One, which arrived in March of this year. As described on Babymetal’s website, the new song “incorporates both traditional J-rap and Tom Morello’s legendary, phenomenal guitar playing.”

The accompanying music video features the three members of Babymetal — Su-metal, Moametal, and Momometal — dancing and performing the song, with Morello appearing at the 2:15 mark to rock his minute-long guitar part that ends the tune.

“I am a big fan of Babymetal, a band that is both power rocking and constantly surprising with dizzying musical twists and turns,” said Morello in a press release. “I’ve been trying to work with them for some time and when they...

Stars: Kang Tae-Ju, Kim Seon-Ho, Justin John Harvey, Go Ara, Kang-woo Kim | Written and Directed by Park Hoon-jung

The Childe is the latest film from Korean writer/director Park Hoon-jung which means it comes with some pretty big expectations. Hoon-jung started his career as the writer of I Saw the Devil before going on to write and direct an impressive list of films including The New World, The Witch: Part 1 – The Subversion, and The Witch: Part 2 – The Other One.

The Childe sees him stepping away from the telekinetic madness of The Witch and its sequel and returning to somewhat more realistic subject matter involving Marco (Kang Tae-Ju). Marco is a boxer, fighting in various illegal matches in Manilla and using the money to care for his seriously ill mother. His situation is complicated by the fact he’s what is disparagingly referred to as a Kopino, half Korean, half Filipino,...

Projects will be presented during festival’s Industry Days section.

Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (Kviff) has unveiled the projects that will be showcased during its Eastern Promises industry strand, which takes place on July 3-4.

27 film projects have been selected for Eastern Promises’ Works in Progress, Works in Development – Feature Launch and First Cut+ Works in Progress strands.

The most promising projects, selected by international juries, will receive awards worth a total of €115,000. The showcase of projects to industry professionals will take place during this year’s Kviff Industry Days.

Eleven fiction and documentary features have been selected for the Works in Progress strand.

Karlovy Vary Intl. Film Festival’s Eastern Promises industry platform has unveiled 27 film projects that will be showcased during its Works in Progress, Works in Development – Feature Launch and First Cut+ Works in Progress presentations. The most promising projects, selected by international juries, will receive awards with a total value of 115,000 Eur.

The showcasing of projects to industry professionals will take place in Karlovy Vary, during this year’s Kviff Industry Days on July 3 (Works in Progress and Works in Development – Feature Launch) and July 4 (First Cut+ Works in Progress).

For Works in Progress, 11 fiction and documentary feature films in the late stage of production or post-production from the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, the Balkans, the former Soviet Union, the Middle East and North Africa have been selected.

The following projects will compete for prizes of a total value of 100,000 Eur:

“Distances” (Poland)

Director: Matej Bobrik

Producer: Agnieszka Skalska...

‘The Tyrant’ director Park Hoon-jung is behind ‘The Witch’ films.

South Korea’s Acemaker movieworks has sealed deals on Park Hoon-jung’s upcoming action film The Tyrant (working title) and actor Jung Woo-sung’s directorial debut A Man Of Reason to a slew of territories.

The Tyrant has pre-sold to Germany (Splendid), Taiwan (MovieCloud), Southeast Asia (Purple Plan), Thailand (Neramitnung Film), Cis (Paradise Group) and inflight (Eagle).

Director Park is the filmmaker behind hit features The Witch: Part 1 and Part 2 and Venice title Night In Paradise as well as upcoming action feature The Childe, which is in post-production.

The Tyrant...

Stars of ‘Decision To Leave’ and ‘Squid Game’ were among those on the red carpet.

The 24th Jeonju International Film Festival opened tonight (April 27) with stars on the red carpet, a dramatic taekwondo performance onstage, and Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne greeting the audience at the Sori Arts Center of Jeollabuk-do before the screening of opening film Tori And Lokita.

“Thank you for welcoming us and for defending cinema in the world,” said the Belgian filmmaking duo on their much-anticipated first trip to the country. “Thank you also to the cinema of Korea, because we did not know South Korea except...

Dethklok of Metalocalypse fame and Babymetal have announced a co-headlining 2023 North American tour with support from guitar virtuoso Jason Richardson.

Affectionately dubbed the “Babyklok tour,” trek kicks off August 30th in Houston and runs through October 11th in Los Angeles. Along the way, the bands will also make stops at the Blue Ridge Rock Festival on September 10th in Alton, Virginia; the Louder Than Life festival on September 23rd in Louisville, Kentucky; and the Aftershock festival on October 7th in Sacramento, California.

A Babymetal artist pre-sale begins today (April 11th) at 1 p.m. local time via Ticketmaster using the code Theotherone. A Live Nation pre-sale starts Wednesday (April 12th) at 10 a.m. local time using the code Vinyl., while general ticket sales begin Friday (April 14th). Fans can also look for deals or pick up tickets to sold-out shows via StubHub, where your purchase is 100% guaranteed through StubHub’s Fan Protect program.

Dethklok of Metalocalypse fame and Babymetal have announced a co-headlining 2023 North American tour with support from guitar virtuoso Jason Richardson.

Affectionately dubbed the “Babyklok tour,” trek kicks off August 30th in Houston and runs through October 11th in Los Angeles. Along the way, the bands will also make stops at the Blue Ridge Rock Festival on September 10th in Alton, Virginia; the Louder Than Life festival on September 23rd in Louisville, Kentucky; and the Aftershock festival on October 7th in Sacramento, California.

Tickets are available via StubHub, where orders are 100% guaranteed through StubHub’s FanProtect program. StubHub is a secondary market ticketing platform, and prices may be higher or lower than face value, depending on demand.

In other Dethklok news, the highly anticipated feature film Metalocalypse: Army of the Doomstar is set for a release later this year, along with an accompanying original soundtrack and a new Dethklok studio album,...

Ever since original member Yuimetal left the band in 2018, Babymetal have been operating with core founding members Su-metal and Moametal, along with a backup dancer for each live performances. Now, the Japanese pop-metal act has named one of those backup dancers, Momoko Okazaki, an official band member, to be known as Momometal.

Okazaki has been performing live shows with Babymetal since 2019, as part of a rotating cast of backup dancers upon Yuimetal’s departure. Now, following the recent release of their new album, The Other One, Okazaki was dubbed as the third core member of the group over the weekend, as Babymetal played a pair of shows dubbed “Babymetal Begins” in Yokohama, Japan.

Prior to joining Babymetal, Okazaki was a member of the Japanase idol girl group Sakura Gakuin, and also appeared on the South Korean reality TV show Girls Planet 999.

Now, as the trio of Su-metal, Moametal, and Momometal,...

Exclusive: Hulu has acquired Daisy May Cooper’s hit BBC comedy-thriller Am I Being Unreasonable?

The streamer has taken U.S. rights to all six episodes of the genre-bending comedy, which was written by the This Country creator and Selin Hizli (Mum), and exec produced by Jack Thorne. Show will debut as a Hulu original on April 11. BBC Studios struck the deal, having shopped the show at Mipcom Cannes.

Am I Being Unreasonable?, which has been recommissioned for a second season, aired to critical acclaim on the BBC last September and is considered a frontrunner for the upcoming UK TV awards season.

The six-parter from Boffola Pictures and Happy Valley producer Lookout Point follows Nic (Cooper), a mother grieving a loss that she can’t share with anyone whilst stuck in a depressing marriage. Only her son, Ollie, keeps her going. But when Jen (Hizli) arrives in town,...

New TV shows are like Pokémon. There are bloody loads of them, each with only the faintest of differences from the next, and apparently, you’ve gotta catch ‘em all. To help us all do that, we need solid recommendations so we don’t end up wasting hours of life that we could otherwise spend watching sunsets and embracing our loved ones.

Below are a selection of new shows from last year that our writers were frustrated not to find on our Best of 2022 lists. These are all great shows, some critically underappreciated, some highly reviewed but underwatched, and some quiet joys simply drowned out by all the other TV noise. Please add your own recommendations to the pile below.

Reboot

Stream on Hulu (US); Disney+ (UK)

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before but there is just simply Too Much Television. Nobody feels that more acutely than...

Finally! After almost seven years, Happy Valley is back, and this BAFTA-winning crime drama’s third and final season is set to be as nail-biting as ever. These six fresh episodes from writer Sally Wainwright are definitely worth the wait.

Series Three dives back into the action around five years after the explosive events of the Series Two finale, beginning with Sergeant Catherine Cawood (Sarah Lancashire) discovering the remains of a gangland murder victim in a drained reservoir, a discovery which will lead her all the way back to her nemesis Tommy Lee Royce (James Norton).

Catherine still lives with her grandson Ryan (Rhys Connah) who’s now sixteen and working out what kind of relationship, if any, he wants with Royce, the man who fathered him when he raped Catherine’s daughter Becky. Needless to say, Catherine won’t take this well.

Still battling with the local drug problem,...

The final two months of every year are a great time to catch up on horror movies that were released throughout the year, as there typically aren’t all that many new releases coming along at this point in time. Halloween is now behind us and things are slowing down a bit on the horror front for the holidays, but each new week still brings new releases along with it.

This week, 5 brand new horror movies will be available at home…

Here’s all the new horror releasing November 8, 2022 – November 13, 2022!

First up, the Bloody Disgusting-powered Screambox streaming service is serving up another slice of gross-out indie horror this week with All Jacked Up and Full of Worms.

Alex Phillips’s psychedelic freak-out is now streaming on Screambox!

In the film, “Working at a seedy motel, maintenance man Roscoe (Phillip Andre Botello) is always searching for his latest fix. When he...

“Spellbound” director Hwang In-ho may be best known for his quirky romcoms, but he tries to reinvent himself as an action movie director with the upcoming “Decibel”.

Synopsis

Don’t make a noise otherwise the bomb will go off!

Former lieutenant commander Do-yeong suffers from Ptsd caused by the hellish submarine accident in which he lost his colleagues. Even though he is revered as a national hero, he feels guilty and tormented by his own family estrangement.

One day, Do-yeong receives a cryptic phone call from a mysterious person, threatening he’ll blow up a football stadium with improvised explosives triggered by a certain decibel. In the nick of time, Do-yeong saves innocent lives but the terrorist remains intent on inflicting further casualties, including Do-yeong’s wife and daughter. Now he must race against the clock to track the terrorist down and save his family as well as other people.

"Why is that witch going on a witch hunt?" Well Go USA has revealed an official US trailer for a Korean mystery thriller sequel titled The Witch 2 - The Other One, also known as The Witch: Part 2 - The Other One, from director Park Hoon-jung. Arriving on VOD in the US this November after first opening in Korea. A girl wakes up in a gigantic secret laboratory. When the girl escapes from a laboratory, she stumbles upon Kyung Hee, who is trying to protect her house from criminal gangs. When the girl comes face to face with a criminal organization approaching Kyung Hee's house, the girl overpowers them with overwhelming power, and in the meantime, they start chasing her in the secret laboratory. Who is this mysterious girl and why is she being chased? A follow-up to The Witch: Part 1 - Subversion - which is available to watch now.

Stars: Shin Sia, Park Eun-bin, Seo Eun-soo, Jin Goo, Kim Da-mi | Written and Directed by Park Hoon-jung

I was lucky enough to see The Witch Part 1: The Subversion as part of my coverage for Glasgow Frightfest in 2019. It was my favourite movie of the festival and was the perfect action horror movie. I can only assume they delay in the sequel was because of the pandemic but in truth, three years isn’t too much of a wait. As soon as I heard Part 2 was part of Fantasia, I knew I had to see it immediately!

A girl is the lone survivor after an attack on a research facility. Covered in blood and left for dead she walks through the woods and into the life of Kyung-hee. She is struggling herself, as, alongside her brother, is trying to keep her farmland away from local gangsters. When these henchman threaten the siblings though,...

A powerful debut for “Hansan: Rising Dragon,” a locally-made historical action film, lifted the South Korean box office to its second highest weekend of the year and helped July to be the best month of 2022.

The film is a prequel to “Roaring Currents” a tale of an heroic 14th century naval admiral that amassed some 17 million admissions in 2014 and is currently the most-watched Korean film of all time.

Data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic), showed that “Hansan” earned 13.4 million from 1.63 million ticket sales between Friday and Sunday, for a market share of 60. Over its first five days in theaters, the film amassed 17.9 million from 2.27 million spectators.

That makes it only the third Korean film so far this year to pass the 2 million ticket sales mark, behind “The Roundup” which has now reached 12.7 million spectators and 100.4 million in revenues and “The Witch: Part 2.

May to June period saw a return to pre-pandemic levels led by The Roundup.

South Korea’s box office reached nearly 50 of pre-pandemic levels in the first half of 2022, according to a new report from the Korean Film Council (Kofic).

Total box office for the first six months of the year period was 345.7m, the equivalent of 48.7 of the same period in 2019.

Compared to the first half of 2021, ticket sales have increased by 143. Admissions rose 124.4 to hit 44.94 million.

Box office takings have accelerated sharply in South Korea since pandemic social distancing restrictions were loosened on April 18. From April 25, cinema-goers have...

The latest Marvel movie “Thor: Love and Thunder” opened on top of the South Korean box office with a convincing 10.0 million take that accounted for half of nationwide cinema revenues over the weekend.

“Thor” played over 2,000 screens according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council. Over its full five day opening run it amassed 14.8 million.

The score was enough to fly past “Top Gun Maverick” even though the latter is still speeding along strongly and commanded 33 of the total market. The Tom Cruise vehicle earned 6.58 million in its third weekend at the Korean box office for an aggregate of 38.5 million.

The power play by the two U.S. tentpoles kept the overall weekend score at 20.1 million, which is at the upper end of a range where Korean box office has settled since mid-May.

But the polarization is stark. Behind the top two, all other...

“Top Gun Maverick” flew even higher on its second weekend at the Korean box office, holding on to the top spot and fractionally increasing its gross take. The sky-high performance was more than enough to overshadow the otherwise promising opening of Park Chan-wook’s “Decision to Leave.”

“Top Gun Maverick” earned 9.72 million between Friday and Sunday, with a 59 market share, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic). That compared with 9.55 million and a 57 market share on its debut weekend. After 12 days in Korean cinemas, the film has accumulated 27.6 million.

The meticulously-made “Decision,” which earned Park the best director prize at Cannes in May, represented interesting counter-programming to the unabashed spectacle of “Top Gun Maverick.” It opened brightly with 2.57 million over the weekend, representing a 16 share, and 3.84 million over its opening five days.

“The Witch: Part 2. The Other One” earned 1.73 million on its third weekend,...

Korean Movies Upcoming

Cj Enm Hong Kong has secured the first and exclusive Pay TV, pay-per-view, video-on-demand and over-the-top (Ott) rights in key Southeast Asia markets to a slate of current and upcoming South Korean films. These are to play on the tvN Movies channel in Southeast Asia. Titles include: “The Roundup” (a.k.a. “The Outlaws 2”), which is currently on release and approaching the 100 million landmark; “The Witch: Part 2. The Other One,” which also opened in first place at the theatrical box office; Cj’s own “Decision to Leave,” which earned Park Chan-wook the best director award at Cannes; disaster-action film, “Emergency Declaration,” which played at Cannes last year and will have an August release in Korea; Hyun Bin and Yoo Hae-jin-starring “Confidential Assignment 2”; Don Lee-starring comedy drama “Men of Plastic,” action thriller movie Decibel, from Megabox Plus M; “A Man of Reason” (formerly “The Protector”) directed...

’Top Gun: Maverick’ to cross 900m worldwide in next day or two.

Jurassic World: Dominion grossed a confirmed 136.3m at the global box office as Universal-Amblin’s adventure kept Top Gun: Maverick and new arrival Lightyear at bay to reign supreme as the weekend champion.

After several weeks in release Colin Trevorrow’s latest entry in the Jurassic franchise which began 29 years ago stands at 623.6m worldwide. Seventy-three international territories brought in a further 77.3m after a 54 drop for a 373.5m running total. The North American tally is 250.1m after two weekends and the film ranks number one there too.

The theatrical debut of much-anticipated local horror-action film “The Witch: Part 2. The Other One” dominated the Korean box office chart over the latest weekend and overshadowed the simultaneous release of Pixar title “Lightyear.”

Distributed by Next Entertainment World, “The Witch: Part 2” conjured up an 8.21 million opening weekend from just shy of 1,800 screens nationwide. That gave it a market share of 48. Including Wednesday and Thursday figures, the film enjoyed an 11.7 million five-day debut, earned from 1.46 million ticket sales.

The film is a sequel to 2018 title “The Witch: Part 1. The Subversion” which was made on a budget of less than 6 million and grossed more than 24 million. Both films were written and directed by Park Hoon-jung.

The strong start for “The Witch: Part 2” lifted nationwide aggregate gross receipts to 17 million over the weekend, up from 14.7 million previously. In a further sign of normality being restored, the top two titles were Korean-made.

The action sequel is set for a co-ordinated release in 12 countries across North America and Asia.

South Korea’s Contents Panda has sold action sequel The Witch: Part 2. The Other One to 124 countries including to Spendid Film for Germany, Benelux and Poland.

Director Park Hoon-jung’s follow-up to his 2018 Warner Bros-backed sci-fi action mystery The Witch: Part 1. The Subversion, the sequel stars Shin Sia as another girl with unnamed powers who escapes from a top-secret laboratory, pursued by multiple violent groups.

The film has also sold to China (Pumpkin Film), Japan (Twin), Cis and the Baltics (Volgafilm), Latin America...

Park Hoon-jung’s sequel to his 2018 smash hit ”The Witch: Part 1. The Subversion” is finally upon us! A project that looked like it might not materialise for a while, after parent production company Warner Bros withdrew all operations from Korea, Park found a new home with New, one of the biggest production houses and distributors in the country and fasttracked the feature, which is now ready for release, to much elation and anticipation from fans of Park and the first film.

Synopsis

Somewhere, a girl wakes up in a huge secret laboratory. The girl accidentally meets Kyeong-hee who is trying to protect their house from the gang who harasses her. When the gang bumps into the girl, they are overpowered by an unexpected power of her. In the meantime, the secret laboratory starts to find the missing girl. Who is this mysterious girl and why is she being chased?

Unlike the first part,...

We are launching a brand new segment on our YouTube Channel called Amp News. With this segment, we’ll try to bring all the latest film news, be it about new projects, production updates or release details, physical media news and film festivals related news on a regular basis to our channel in video format.

For the first video, Rhythm Zaveri talks about the two big release schedule updates and trailer and poster reveals for two hotly anticipated films: Choi Dong-hoon’s “Alien: Part 1” and Park Hoon-jung’s “The Witch: Part 2. The Other One.”

Watch the full video here:...

Following the success of their collaboration on Nicolás Postiglione’s debut feature “Immersion,” production shingles Whisky Content of Mexico and Chile’s Juntos Films have forged a medium-term strategic alliance for the joint development of nine films in six years.

The agreement comes just days after the premiere of “Immersion,” a thriller headlined by Chile’s most bankable star, Alfredo Castro, at the Miami Film Festival where its poster won the Best Poster Design Award. The film has already racked up top awards from the festivals of Guadalajara, Tallinn Black Nights and Punta del Este.

The move also comes as further cooperation among Hispanic companies continue apace in response to the increasing challenges of local content production. The insatiable demand for content from both traditional and new players – especially streamers – in the entertainment industry is also a key factor.

“This is another firm step towards our goal of turning our...

Let’s be honest: 2021 was one of the worst years Korean cinema had in recent times. One would’ve hoped that they would have built upon the brilliant couple years that 2019 ad 2020 were but sadly that wasn’t to be. The pandemic situation did not help, with many production houses deciding to pull scheduled releases, halting production or waiting on things to calm down before releasing some projects that have big money riding on them. Even on the indie cinema front, which actually thrived in 2021 due to the lack of mainstream releases, did not manage to impress with what little out there was.

Things however do seem to be on the up with this year, as a few postponed releases are finally getting rescheduled and seeing theatrical releases. New releases are also being talked about and promotional material for some long gestating projects is also being circulated. Without further ado,...

Warner Bros has rolled cameras in the UK on its new musical movie Wonka, starring Timothée Chalamet.

Additional cast members just announced include Sally Hawkins, Rowan Atkinson, Olivia Colman and Jim Carter.

They join Mathew Baynton (Ghosts), Tom Davis (Paddington 2), Simon Farnaby (the Paddington films), Rich Fulcher (Marriage Story), Kobna Holdbrook-Smith (Paddington 2), Paterson Joseph (Noughts + Crosses), Emmy and Peabody Award winner Keegan-Michael Key (Schmigadoon!), Calah Lane (The Day Shall Come), Matt Lucas (Paddington), Colin O’Brien (The Mothership), Natasha Rothwell (The White Lotus), Rakhee Thakrar (Sex Education) and Ellie White (The Other One).

Neil Hannon of the band The Divine Comedy is writing original songs for the film. The pic takes place before the events of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Paul King is directing from a screenplay he wrote with Paddington 2 co-writer Simon Farnaby. Harry...

Variety published this week a digital Chile Documentary Spotlight, looking at one of Latin America’s fastest-evolving content production scenes, galvanized by changing narratives, historic socio-political upheaval and unprecedented opportunities in distribution presented by global platforms.

Chilean documentaries and projects have and will feature at many of the year’s most high-profile documentary get-togethers including Switzerland’s Vision du Reel, where Francisco Bermejo’s “The Other One” topped its Burning Lights sidebar, October’s Dok Leipzig and Amsterdam’s upcoming IDFA.

Included in the spotlight is an overview of the state of play in Chile, where the industry is bursting out from the oppressive shadow of Pinochet’s regime, a detailed list of 16 high-profile shorts, features and VR productions, and a look at Chile’s International Doc Forum, Conecta.

To read more, please click anywhere in the Spotlight below.

Chile has experienced an historic cultural change over the past year, led by a mobilized and energetic generation of young and highly educated people demanding change. The world has looked on as many of the stains of Pinochet’s brutal dictatorship have been washed away, making room for new narratives to be explored by an enthusiastic generation of documentary filmmakers.

This month, several Chilean documentary shorts, features and VR projects have or will feature in prestigious international festivals and markets such as Dok Leipzig and IDFA. Burning Lights, an international competition at Switzerland’s Visions du Réel festival dedicated to “new vocabularies and expressions” was won by “The Other One,” the first feature out of the gate from new Chilean production house Juntos.

Of course there will always be stories of, or inspired by, the trauma Chile suffered under Pinochet, but science, human rights, indigenous stories, and interpersonal experiences are...

In today’s Global Bulletin, Bill Gates will participate in this year’s World Congress of Science and Factual Producers as keynote speaker, Netgem and France Channel co-create a new French content streaming platform, Storyglass announces an arts-themed podcast, “Stath Lets Flats” gets a third season at Channel 4, Damian Kavanagh leaves Tiger Aspect and James Purnell departs the BBC, and ViacomCBS Networks International promotes Lee Sears.

Keynote

The World Congress of Science and Factual Producers (Wcsfp) has announced its highest-profile speaker for this year’s event in Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates, who will take part in an interview with medical journalist Dr. Mercy Korir at the upcoming digital edition of Congress ’20.

Originally planned for early December in the French city of Strasbourg, Wcsfp was forced to move this year’s physical event online as a result of the Covid-19 crisis. The rescheduled event will stream Dec. 7-...

The most unexpected relationships can often times become the most rewarding in life. That’s certainly the case with the half-sisters on the new British comedy television series, ‘The Other One.’ The show explores the relationship of two adult women, after they discover that their father was living a lie and had two families. The Other […]

The post Lauren Socha Takes Ellie White on a Sister honeymoon on The Other One appeared first on Shockya.com.

Exclusive: AMC Networks streamer Acorn TV has landed the North American rights to BBC One’s estranged family comedy The Other One, which stars BAFTA-winning Avenue 5 actress Rebecca Front.

Acorn TV, which has also acquired The Other One in the Netherlands, will premiere the Tiger Aspect show on August 10 in the U.S. and Canada, while it will go live in Mexico three days later.

The Other One tells a seven-part story of two half-sisters, both named Catherine Walcott, who discover each other’s existence after the death of their father.

Written by Holly Walsh (Motherland) and Pippa Brown (Psychobitches), the series stars Front, Siobhan Finneran (Downton Abbey), Ellie White (The Windsors) and Lauren Socha (Misfits). Caroline Quentin (Doc Martin) and Stephen Tompkinson (Wild at Heart) also feature.

Don Klees, SVP of programming for the Acorn brands and AMC Networks SVOD, described The Other One as an “extremely funny,...

“I’ve got another family in Telford that I’ve never spoken about,” announces comedian and writer Holly Walsh on a Zoom press call. “Luckily, by writing this, it’s tax deductible.”

She’s joking of course. Since writing a sitcom pilot about two step-sisters who only discover each other’s existence after their dad’s death, Walsh keeps being asked if the premise is autobiographical. It isn’t, but The Other One is inspired by a true story she heard about a man with two families who gave his kids the same name to avoid confusion or being sprung. “I thought that’s such a brilliant story.”

Walsh and her writing partner Pippa Brown turned it into a six-episode sitcom about uptight, high-achieving Cathy (The Windsors and Ellie & Natasia‘s Ellie White) and freewheeling, fun-seeking Cat (Catastrophe and Misfits’ Lauren Socha). Half-sisters just five days apart in age, they...

The Virtues of Virtual Festivals

Put together in just a few weeks, the online edition of Visions du Reel is perhaps the first festival which really moves the dial on the virtues of virtual festivals, suggesting that, at least when it comes to festivals or markets whose titles are most commonly seen in a broadcast space – drama series, doc features – the onus is now on events to justify doing nothing at all. 95 out of the 97 films selected for Visions du Reel accepted screening online, with one of the Remainers unable to finish postproduction post-lockdown. “There was a real readiness on the audience and filmmaker and producer side,” said Visions du Réel artistic director Emilie Bujes. Though she is fascinating in person, the Claire Denis masterclass was watched by 1,400 viewers around the world who might not have time to attend a three-hour talk at a physical event or fly to Switzerland in the first place.