Japanese Location Production Operation Launched by Toho, Country’s Major Film Group (EXCLUSIVE)

Elle Fanning has had many great roles in many movies, but there was one in particular that she lost all because of her social media follower count.

Naman Ramachandran Principal photography has commenced on Adam MacDonald’s survival thriller “Out Come the Wolves.” The feral feature, which will be shot on location in Dundas, Ontario throughout May, follows the story of a woman who takes her fiancé to a secluded cabin to meet her best male friend, before things take a dark turn during a hunting trip. The film is represented for international by Altitude Film Sales, who will be discussing the film with buyers at the upcoming Cannes Film Market. MacDonald’s credits include “Backcountry”, which had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival and “Pyewacket”, which also debuted at TIFF. He also directed the third and fourth seasons of “Slasher” and the upcoming season five for AMC’s Shudder. Most recently, he completed directing the first virtual reality horror movie experience for Meta entitled “Be Mine.”

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Bruce Berman, a senior executive who was previously chairman and CEO of Los Angeles-based Village Roadshow Pictures, has come out of retirement to board the recently-founded film studio Through the Lens Entertainment. The company, founded by producer Aditya Chand, is headquartered in Singapore with operations in the U.S. and Japan. It aims to combine the opportunities of the East and the power and experience of the studio systems in the West, “to offer a new studio ecosystem out of Asia, that is built for the digital age.” Two film projects are already underway and a third with “Slumdog Millionaire” star Frieda Pinto is in development.

Requests by scripted TV production companies to film on location in Los Angeles plummeted 51% in the first week of the Writers Guild’s strike compared to the same week a year ago, according to FilmLA, the city and county film permit office.

Sophia Scorziello editor Eva Longoria’s fictional feature directorial debut “Flamin’ Hot” staring Jesse Garcia will open the 2023 Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival, announced Wednesday as part of the full festival lineup. This year, the festival will feature over 80 films, 19 world premieres and 100 student films. LALIFF will take place May 31-June 4 at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. Longoria’s film is based on the true story of Richard Montañez (Garcia), the Frito Lay janitor who used his Mexican American heritage to turn one snack into a global sensation. Closing the festival is the Los Angeles premiere of Julio Torres’s A24 feature film “Problemista” starring Torres and Tilda Swinton, which tells the story of an aspiring Salvadorian toy maker in New York City and the race against his work visa as he tries to realize his dreams.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The selection of two restored films by Ozu Yasujiro for the Cannes Classics section will kick-off a six-month long celebration of the iconic Japanese auteur around the world. Cannes revealed last week that it will showcase Ozu’s 1947 “Record of a Tenement Gentleman” and his 1950 picture “The Muneteka Sisters.” The screenings mark the 120th anniversary of Ozu’s birth and the 60th anniversary of his death. Ozu died in 1963 on the day of his 60th birthday, just a few months after the release of his last film “The Taste of Sake.” Major studio, Shochiku, where Ozu spent the majority of career and made his iconic movies, is planning a series of curated retrospectives, festival screenings, and special events around the world that pay homage to his enduring legacy as one of the most influential directors in cinema. These will last until the end of 2023.

Jonathan Majors appeared via Zoom during a status update hearing about the assault charges that have been brought against him.

Latino-owned global entertainment company Fuse Media on Tuesday announced exclusively to TheWrap the launch of Ignition Studios, a separate production consultancy that will be headed up by Fuse Studios VP Jon Scarlett.Former Broadway Video and Comedy Central executives Jennifer Danielson, Mitch Lewis and Steve Elliott have been brought in to lead the initial effort in building out Ignition along with Fuse Media head of development Sydney Kim. “Fuse Media is succeeding in our mission to deliver uplifting content to young, culturally diverse audiences both in the U.S.

Jonathan Majors could be imprisoned for up to a year if found guilty of a charge unveiled this morning in his domestic violence case. At the same time, the actor’s attorney today slammed proceedings as a by-product of “the racial bias that permeates the criminal justice system.”

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Los Angeles-based sales agency MultiVisionnaire Pictures has acquired worldwide rights, outside of Japan, to “Samurai Ninja Onimanji.” The picture is a gory-fantasy-action film by Japanese VFX master, artist, and director Nishimura Yoshihiro. Nishimura is a prolific special effects artist with over 100 film credits ranging from effects work to writing and directing. Credits across the J-sploitation genre include “Tokyo Gore Police,” “Meatball Machine Kodoku” and the recent “Tokyo Dragon Chef.”

Naman Ramachandran Sony Pictures International Productions (SPIP) is making its debut in Tamil-language cinema with a film starring Sivakarthikeyan. The project is currently identified as “SK21,” meaning that it is the 21st film starring Sivakarthikeyan, who headlines the film alongside Sai Pallavi. SPIP is producing alongside multihyphenate Kamal Haasan’s Raaj Kamal Films International (RKFI) and co-produced by God Bless Entertainment, with Haasan and R. Mahendran serving as producers with SPIP. The film, written and directed by Raj Kumar Periasamy (“Rangoon,” “Bigg Boss Tamil”), is billed as a tale of “guts and gore” and “high on patriotism.” It is based on a chapter in Shiv Aroor and Rahul Singh’s “India Most Fearless” series of books that recount stories of Indian military heroes. The film has commenced principal photography with a two-month schedule in the northern Indian state of Kashmir.

A seven-mile stretch of the Minnesota State Highway 5 is being renamed for Prince Rogers Nelson, the rocker behind such hits as “Purple Rain,” “When Doves Cry” and “Raspberry Beret,” among many other songs.

Ed Meza @edmezavar Emeraude Toubia is set to star in the high-concept horror film “Rosario,” the debut feature of director Felipe Vargas, who will shoot the pic in his native country of Colombia. Toubia, whose credits include the Freeform fantasy series “Shadowhunters: The Mortal Instruments” and Gloria Calderón Kellett’s new Amazon Studios series “With Love,” stars as Rosario, a successful Wall Street broker forced to confront an unthinkable and otherworldly evil. When her estranged grandmother suddenly dies, Rosario has to spend the night with the body while waiting for the ambulance to arrive. Trapped in the apartment by a heavy snowstorm and surrounded by unfriendly neighbors, Rosario is attacked by menacing supernatural forces that have possessed her grandmother’s corpse.

EXCLUSIVE: As the horses near the starting gate for Saturday’s running of the Kentucky Derby, Peyton Manning’s Omaha Productions has lined up twin projects about Rich Strike, the upset winner of last year’s race.

Delays are expected this morning after a car burst onto flames on a major UK motorway.

A teenage boy is missing after he failed to resurface while playing in a river with friends.

, 41, who worked as an actress before marrying Prince Harry, will be represented by global talent agency WME, which counts her close friend among its A-list clients. Tilda Swinton, Sir Patrick Stewart, and Helena Bonham Carter are also on the books.“Film and television production, brand partnerships, and overall business-building will be explored,” reveals , which first broke the news of the signing.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Netflix has set Xavier Gens’ (“Gangs of London”) untitled Paris-set genre movie starring Bérénice Bejo (“The Artist“) and Nassim Lyes (“Overdose”) as its next French film original. Set in the Summer of 2024, the film unfolds in Paris which is hosting the World Triathlon Championships on the Seine for the first time. Sophia, a brilliant scientist, learns from Mika, a young environmental activist, that a large shark is swimming deep in the river. To avoid a bloodbath at the heart of the city, they have no choice but to join forces with Adil, the Seine river police commander. Bejo and Lyes star in the film opposite Léa Léviant. The film is produced by Let Me Be and is slated for a launch on Netflix in 2024.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Without a “Spider-Man” movie during the last financial year, Sony’s pictures division was unable to keep up with previous levels of profitability. Games and network services was another weak spot for Sony Group Corporation.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Wattpad Webtoon Studios, the entertainment arm of the user-generated fiction and comics entertainment outfit, and Italy’s Leone Film Group have announced two new adaptations based on hit young-adult Wattpad novels. Taiwan-based author Ann Rae’s romantic mystery “The Locker Exchange,” which is set in a U.S. high school and has over 26 million reads globally on the Wattpad platform, is set to become an English and Italian-language feature film. And “Love Me, Love Me” by Italian writer Stefania S, which has scored 12 million reads in Italy, is to be adapted into an Italian-language series by Leone’s Lotus Production unit.