Filipino Star Enrique Gil On Breaking Boundaries In His Comeback After A Three-Year Hiatus, ‘I Am Not Big Bird’

Naman Ramachandran New Philippines anime franchise “Solemn Vow” has set several partnerships across the Southeast Asian region. Conceptualized as an anime series with a strategy for spinoffs into manga, games, music and merchandise, the franchise, created by Lawrence Panganiban, has formed partnerships with Philippines-based Enigma Kai and media startup Fire and Ice, and Singapore-based companies Anito Studios and Silver Media, in collaboration with Japanese animation giant Toei Animation Philippines, which will handle production.

GOT7 member BamBam has revealed how Sunmi became the reason he joined his current label, Abyss Company.GOT7’s BamBam joined Abyss Company in March 2021, following his departure from long-time agency JYP Entertainment in January that year. Meanwhile, Sunmi had signed with the label in 2017, back when it was known as MAKEUS Entertainment, after her contract with JYP Entertainment ended in the same year.In the latest episode of BamBam’s YouTube talk show, Bam House, which guest starred Sunmi, the Thai-born K-pop idol revealed that he wouldn’t have joined his current label if not for the former Wonder Girls member.“[Sunmi] is the lake of Abyss [because] you made our company grow,” BamBam told Sunmi, before admitting to her: “If you were’t there, I wouldn’t have joined Abyss.” He then explained that before he signed with the agency, he had contacted Sunmi and “asked about the company”.“I was like, ‘Is it a company I could trust?’ She told me really good things about the company,” he recalled.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “This Time,” a romantic drama reminiscent of Richard Linklater’s “Before Sunrise” trilogy, but not officially based on it, has been picked up for global distribution by fast-moving sales company EST N8. The story follows two high school sweethearts who unexpectedly reunite in Los Angeles 23 years after they were separated in Jakarta and must decide if they’re still in love. The film, directed by Sebastien Tobler, stars Ken Kirby (“Good Trouble,” “Dynasty”), Leila Perry (“Filthy Animals”) and was produced by Theresa Chiu. It had its world premiere at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival in May. The rights deal was brokered by Tenten Wei and Sophie Shi of EST N8.

Coronation Street's Ryan Connor - played by Ryan Prescott - hasn't had it easy in recent times.

Super exciting news has been revealed for fans of Drag Race!

Elon Musk has kicked off his plan to charge users of X, formerly known as Twitter, to post content to the social network. As of Oct. 17, 2023, X said in a post on its website that it has started testing “Not A Bot,” a new subscription tier for new users in two countries: the Philippines and New Zealand.

The moment a 29-year-old woman, just married, was left horrified to learn her nightmares were becoming real.

Jesse Jo Stark has shared her heartfelt new single ‘Fallout’ ahead of her final debut headlining North American tour date.The melancholic track features confessional lyrics that are both deeply personal and universally relatable. “Don’t buy me a ring / the scariest thing about being all alone / clouds grow / I don’t know how not to have you around / the beautiful thing about the things that come out your mouth fallout / I don’t know how not to have you around,” Stark sings in the song.Directed by Christina Bryson, the accompanying video for ‘Fallout’ features footage of Stark on tour performing the track to her loving fans.

Coronation Street's Jenny and Stephen were all set to build a new life together in Thailand – until Carla's devastating news put an end to their plans. But Sally-Ann Matthews, who plays Jenny, says there is genuine "heartbreak" over their relationship ending. On Monday 9 October, viewers saw Carla warn Jenny not to head off to Thailand with dodgy Stephen, telling her everything she knows in a bid to stop Stephen's Weatherfield escape.

Big Brother has returned, which means for the next six weeks, we'll be pretty much unavailable most evenings.The iconic reality show aired on Sunday after a five year hiatus, but now it's back and bigger than ever. With two new presenters - Strictly's AJ Odudu and Dance Dance Dance's Will Best - plus a fresh batch of new housemates and, just as we expected, there's been laughs, tears, and a whole load of drama. Housemate Zak Srakaew has already won over viewers with his laid back attitude and cheeky smile.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief EST N8, a recently-established finance, production and rights sales company, has added a Hong Kong remake of classic film “Tape” and the LGBT comedy-drama “ASOG” to its bulging sales slate at the AFCM market that accompanies the Busan Intenational Film Festival. “Tape” tells the story of three best friends who, following an event at a graduation party that transforms their lives, reunite 15 years later where a case of blackmail forces them to confront a terrible secret from their past. The original film starred Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman and Robert Sean Leonard and played at the Sundance, Toronto and Rotterdam festivals.In the Cantonese-language remake directed by Bizhan Tong, Selena Lee, Kenny Kwan, and Adam Pak play the contemporary characters while Mason Fung, Summer Chan, and Angus Yeung portray the characters’ younger versions. The script is written by Stephen Belber, Tong, Lee and Bonnie Lo, and is an adaptation of Belber’s own scripts from both the original film and stage play. The writers and director have significantly modernized the script to reflect advances in technology. Producers on the film include Tong, Lee and Belber.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief After making four documentary features about border conflicts, ethnicity, prostitution and human rights, Thai director Nontawat Numbenchapol picks up many of the same themes in his first fiction feature “Doi Boi.” The film, which premieres this week in the Jiseok competition section of the Busan International Film Festival, is the story of three young men living on the margins of society in Thailand and their common quest for justice. The characters are an illegal immigrant from Myanmar working, despite his own heterosexuality, as a gay prostitute in Chiang Main, a customer and an on-the-run political activist he is trying to help. The narrative takes in a large number of the social and political problems that have beset seemingly idyllic Thailand in recent years – undocumented workers, illegal immigrants fleeing the civil war in Myanmar, an oppressive political power structure, enforced ‘disappearance’ of those who the government’s political opponents and critics, police brutality – and traffic jams. “I was surprised to find so many immigrant men [from Myanmar’s Shan region] as sex workers in Chiang Mai.

Love Island star Jamie Clayton has gotten engaged to his girlfriend Harriette. The reality TV favourite, who has been dating the eyelash technician and podcast host in the years since he starred on the show's winter edition in 2020, popped the question to his stunning belle with a lavish proposal during their holiday to Thailand. The 31 year old recruitment consultant, who returned to his pre-villa job soon after taking part on the reality TV series, was seen in a series of pictures and clips of the gorgeous moment on Harriette's Instagram.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Oscar-winning cinematographer Greig Fraser was “devastated” when Warner Bros. announced that “Dune: Part Two” was shifting its release date from Nov. 2023 to March 2024.

Kathryn Bernado, known as the Queen of Philippines Cinema, and Triangle Of Sadness star Dolly de Leon are both almost unrecognizable in their new movie, A Very Good Girl, which ABS-CBN and Star Cinema are opening at the U.S. box office today (October 6). 

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Gareth Edwards’ “The Creator” was a resourceful sci-fi endeavor with an $80 million production budget, but its visuals are on par with epic blockbusters that cost three times that amount. Rather than shoot on a studio backlot, the filmmaker behind “Godzilla” and “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” opted to shoot in eight different countries, including Nepal, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia and Japan. For an all-out climatic action sequence set in Thailand, a village comes under attack by the U.S.

The stars are stepping out for Miu Miu‘s big Paris Fashion Week event!

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic Werner Herzog has traveled to the ends of the earth for his art, rolling cameras in places rarely seen by human eyes — from rapids along the Amazon River for 1972’s “Aguirre, the Wrath of God” to the rim of an active volcano in Antarctica. But what’s inside Herzog’s head is what fascinates fans of the German director. As revealed in a new memoir, “Every Man for Himself and God Against All” (the phrase served as the original title of his 1974 film “The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser”), Herzog’s far-ranging filmography represents only a fraction of the encounters and adventures that have shaped his worldview.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Hamaguchi Ryusuke’s “Evil Does Not Exist” collected four nominations for the Asia Pacific Screen Awards, making it the narrow favorite ahead of the three times nominated “Snow Leopard,” by the late Pema Tseden. The narrow lead matches the overall pattern this year’s, where Japanese and Chinese films dominate APSA nominations proceedings. Nominations were announced at midnight on Thursday in Gold Coast, Queensland, where the final awards will be celebrated on Nov. 3. “Evil Does Not Exist,” an eco-drama that premiered in Venice, is nominated in best film, best director, best screenplay and cinematography categories.

Tim Metcalfe looks as though he could be Stephen Reid's final victim as his exit from the cobbles beckons. As a new day dawns in Weatherfield, Stephen is planning his escape from the cobbles and the trail of dead bodies, unaware that, the residents of Coronation Street are putting together the pieces of a rather shocking jigsaw puzzle, one that could leave him seeing out his days behind bars, not running one on a beach.