Japan’s Oscar Entry ‘Plan 75’ Sells To KimStim For North America; Deals Also Closed For Korea & Spain

EXCLUSIVE: Dark Sky Films has acquired North American distribution rights to Mother, May I?, the psychological thriller starring Kyle Gallner (Smile) and Holland Roden (Teen Wolf). 

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor After two straight quarters of subscriber losses, Netflix returned to growth in the third quarter of 2022 — and told investors it’s expecting a strong Q4 to finish the year, even though it doesn’t expect big gains right away from the launch of its cheaper, ad-supported plans. The streaming giant reported 2.41 million net new paid subscribers in Q3, including a gain of 100,000 in the U.S./Canada region, to stand at 223.1 million worldwide as of the end of September. That handily topped Netflix’s previous forecast of a 1 million pickup for the period. For Q4, Netflix expects to gain 4.5 million new streaming customers, compared with 8.3 million in the year-earlier quarter. Netflix Basic With Ads is slated to launch in the U.S. on Nov. 3 and priced at $6.99 per month — three dollars less than the regular Basic plan. Similar ad tiers are also coming next month to 11 other countries: Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, Spain and the U.K.

EXCLUSIVE: In a deal with True Colours, Breaking Glass Pictures has acquired North American rights to Mario Martone’s Nostalgia, Italy’s entry for the Best International Feature Oscar. The drama debuted in the Cannes competition last May, and Breaking Glass will continue its festival run in the U.S. through the end of the year with theatrical rollout set for early 2023.

Viaplay Plans November 1 Launch Date For UK As Premier Sports Deal Closes

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic Who can forget Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal,” that cheeky work of early-18th-century satire in which the author had the nerve to suggest cannibalism as a means of keeping Ireland’s unwanted kids “from being a burden on their parents or country, and for making them beneficial to the publick”? In “Plan 75,” debuting director Chie Hayakawa floats an equally extreme idea of her own without so much as a glimmer of irony, and the suggestion is upsetting enough that the public will likely still be citing it decades down the road. Set in near-future Japan, where it’s a surplus of seniors — versus an abundance of babies — that’s causing trouble, this chilling social drama takes its name from a hypothetical new legislation whereby an overtaxed government offers its elderly citizens an incentive to euthanize.

Cinedigm has acquired all North American rights to the psychological horror film Family Dinner, which debuted at Tribeca earlier this year. 

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) said Thursday she believes Democrats are "wasting money" by focusing on abortion in races across the U.S., as Republicans emphasize crime, the economy and the border crisis.  The congressional candidate joined "The Faulkner Focus" to discuss how Democrats are failing to address issues affecting the American people.  "Normal people, normal voters, they're talking about gas, groceries, grandkids.They're talking about long-term solutions to the challenges that we're facing," she said, adding that "abortion is not the issue" that will motivate most voters.

 EXCLUSIVE: Since the service was made available across the Asia Pacific region in 2016, Amazon Prime Video has focused on producing content in the markets where Amazon has a strong retail membership service – India, Japan and Australia. Based in Los Angeles, Erika North, Amazon Studios’ Head of Originals, Asia Pacific, has been tasked with expanding that local content footprint into other APAC territories. North joined Amazon in February 2020 after similar stints heading production in the region for HBO Asia and Netflix.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Future Laobans,” a project directed by Maung Sun and produced by Maung Sun and Ma Aeint, claimed the Busan Prize, the top award at the Asian Project Market, on Tuesday. The awards were made at an event held at the Paradise Hotel in Busan’s Haeundae district at the end of three days of quick-fire meetings between producers and directors and an array of potential co-producers, financiers and distributors. Organizers said that they put together 705 such one-on-one meetings. The CJ ENM Award went to Indonesia’ “Gaspar,” to be directed by Yosep Anggi Noen and produced by Yulia Evina Bhara and Cristian Imanueli.

EXCLUSIVE: Ava DuVernay’s Array Releasing has acquired Ivan Herrera’s drama Bantú Mama for distribution in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. The company will be presenting the film — which has been named as the Dominican Republic’s 2023 entry for the Best International Feature Film Oscar — on select screens and on Netflix beginning November 17.

Matt Brodlie and Jonathan Kier’s Upgrade Productions has signed up Mediawan and Leonine Studios co-pro exec Caroline Kusser to head up series.

North Korea has fired two short range missiles toward its eastern coast hours after the U.S. military concluded military training exercises with South Korea. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement they detected the two missiles launched between 1:48 a.m.

Paramount’s Network 10 Preps Aussie ‘Taskmaster’ 

North Korea fired an unspecified ballistic missile toward the East Sea on Thursday morning local time, just two days after Pyongyang sent an intermediate-range ballistic missile flying over Japan, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said.  About 40 missiles have been launched by North Korea this year, including six in the past two weeks, but Tuesday's test marked the first time in five years that the country has sent a missile over Japan.  The U.S. and South Korea staged joint drills on Wednesday in response, with the USS Ronald Reagan moving into waters east of South Korea.

Rage Against The Machine have cancelled their forthcoming North America tour dates in 2023.The band were due to hit the road in Portland on March 23 for their ‘Public Service Announcement’ tour before going on a run of dates which wrapped up in Detroit on April 2.But frontman Zack de la Rocha‘s leg injury, which happened during the second show of their previous North American leg in Chicago on July 11, has now forced the band to cancel further forthcoming dates.In a statement on RATM’s social media pages, which you can view in full below, the frontman confirmed that he has torn his Achilles tendon.He said: “It’s been almost three months since Chicago, and I still look down at my leg in disbelief. Two years of waiting through the pandemic, hoping we would have an opening to be a band again and continue the work we started 30 some odd years ago.