Disney+ K-drama ‘Grid’ is a story about protecting the Earth, says director

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefChinese streaming video platform iQiyi has announced plans to raise $285 million from a private placing of shares, part of which will be taken up by parent company Baidu.The move comes in the same week that the NASDAQ-listed company said it was suspending its weekend live broadcasts of English Premier League football (soccer) due to the sport’s public displays of solidarity with Ukraine.iQiyi is understood to have informed the Premier League that it would be removing the coverage following the league’s announcement that a “moment of reflection and solidarity” would be held before matches at the weekend. Several teams also displayed armbands in the blue and yellow colors of the Ukrainian flag.

Milo Ventimiglia has potentially found his next starring vehicle.

Milo Ventimiglia is taking on a new role!

Joe Otterson TV ReporterABC has ordered the drama pilot “The Company You Keep” with Milo Ventimiglia attached to star, Variety has learned.The pilot is based on the Korean format “My Fellow Citizens.” A night of passion leads to love between con-man Charlie (Ventimiglia) and undercover CIA officer Emma, who are unknowingly on a collision course professionally. While Charlie ramps up the “family business” so he can get out for good, Emma’s closing in on the vengeful criminal who holds Charlie’s family debts in-hand – forcing them to reckon with the lies they’ve told so they can save themselves and their families from disastrous consequences.The pilot keeps Ventimiglia in the broadcast TV business.

Squid Game cast for the first time at the 2022 SAG Awards.Korean-American actress Sandra Oh (Grey’s Anatomy, Killing Eve) was in attendance at the 2022 Screen Actors Guild (SAG) awards ceremony on February 27, where Lee Jung-jae and Jung Ho-yeon made history with acting wins.Oh, along with The Morning Show’s Greta Lee, was spotted going over to the Squid Game cast to congratulate them on their wins for the night, during a pause at the time of the ceremony.At the commercial break, Sandra Oh runs over to the ‘Squid Game’ table to congratulate Jung Ho-Yeon and Lee Jung-Jae on their #SAGAwards victories. pic.twitter.com/8QtQUzJCG4— Ramin Setoodeh (@RaminSetoodeh) February 28, 2022Earlier this week on March 2, Oh spoke to Variety while on the red carpet of the new animated movie Turning Red about her experience meeting the Squid Game cast and the importance of their wins at the awards for the Asian community.“I couldn’t believe how many Korean people were there,” she said, reflecting on the event.

Darren Criss is mourning the devastating loss of his older brother Charles “Chuck” Criss.

Darren Criss penned a lengthy tribute to his older brother, Chuck Criss, revealing that the musician died by suicide at age 37.

NCT Dream have announced the details of their highly-anticipated comeback with a brand-new teaser.Today (February 28) at midnight KST, the boyband shared a striking new teaser for their upcoming release, titled ‘Glitch Mode’. The record, which be their second full-length album, is due out on March 28.NCT DREAM The 2nd Album〖Glitch Mode〗➫ 2022.03.28 (KST)#NCTDREAM #GlitchMode#NCTDREAM_GlitchMode pic.twitter.com/RTDSegNjNj— NCT DREAM (@NCTsmtown_DREAM) February 27, 2022The forthcoming ‘Glitch Mode’ record will also mark the NCT sub-unit’s first release of 2022.

Variety, Yang discussed his vision for TVING – a streaming service backed by Korean media giant CJ ENM, search engine Naver and cable network JTBC – following a banner year of 60 per cent subscriber growth in 2021. The CEO also touched on the global growth of Korean content and how he plans on challenging Netflix, both at home and abroad.“It’s a game of capital,” Yang said of potential growth in the streaming space.

Squid Game breakout star Anupam Tripathi has been cast in a new scripted audio series titled Scammers. Tripathi will protray a telemarketer-turned-phone scammer from India, with the series set to a chronicle of his journey as he creates a new identity, as reported by Deadline.

Korea, one of the world’s most advanced economies and now one of the most competitive OTT markets.Now, local contender Tving reckons it has many of the tools it needs to unseat Netflix from its hard-earned position as Korea’s top dog streamer.Streaming industry numbers in Korea have risen in roughly inverse proportion to the decline of theatrical film industry. South Korea was the world’s fourth biggest box office market until 2019, but it is now chugging along with a dearth of local titles and aggregate revenues averaging a miserable $5 million per weekend so far in 2022.Consultancy, Media Partners Asia has estimated in contrast that Netflix may have ended 2021 with some six million paying subscribers (in a population of 51 million).

NBA All-Star Weekend is over and about four weeks away from March Madness starting. So, with this relative lull in between major basketball events, it’s not surprising that HBO has decided to debut its ambitious new basketball series right in between.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterFans of “American Crime Story” were perplexed when “Impeachment,” the newest installment of the show, was not available to stream on Hulu after its linear premiere other FX titles these days. Network chairman John Landgraf says that fact may have hurt the show’s standing in the cultural conversation.“I think that not being on a streaming platform played to ‘Impeachment’s’ disadvantage,” Landgraf said in an interview with Variety.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorApple tapped Park Chan-wook, among Korea’s most successful and critically acclaimed directors, to make a movie shot entirely on its latest iPhones.Park’s “Life Is But a Dream” is the first project in Apple’s “Shot on iPhone” marketing campaign to be produced, shot and edited entirely in Korea. (Watch Park’s film below or at this link.)The film blends martial arts with romance, dark comedy and pansori (판소리) — Korea’s traditional musical storytelling technique — to tell a surreal tale featuring both a wedding and a funeral.In the 21-minute movie, an undertaker digs up an abandoned grave to steal a coffin for the burial of “White Marten,” a warrior who had died saving a village.

BERLIN -- The Catalan family drama “Alcarràs” won the Golden Bear award for best movie at the Berlin International Film Festival on Wednesday.Director Carla Simón's film was picked from a field of 18 by a seven-member jury under American filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan.He said the movie was honored “for its extraordinary performances, from the child actors to the actors in their 80s, for the ability to show the tenderness and comedy of family and struggle, and for the betrayal of our connection and dependence on the land around us.”The film depicts a family that spends its summers picking peaches in an orchard in a village in Spain's Catalonia region, but faces new owners who plan to replace the peach trees with solar panels.Meltem Kaptan took the best leading performance honor for the title role in German director Andreas Dresen's “Rabiye Kurnaz vs.

The world of “The Boys” is expanding.

The Boys universe gets eight distinct new looks in the latest glimpse at Prime Video’s spinoff animated series The Boys Presents: Diabolical.

Focusing on the positive. Weeks after splitting from ex-boyfriend Garrett Hedlund, Emma Roberts reflected on the good in her life as she rang in her 31st birthday.