‘Lost in Perfection’ Is Live Action Debut for Animation Director and Former Journalist Sung Hsin-ying

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief After a few pandemic-addled years, the global box office is finally ready to feel the warmth of the studios’ tentpole releases. Though the swing-back to pre-pandemic release schedules is happening at different speeds in each market, the quartet of “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,” “Fast X,” “The Little Mermaid” and “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” — not to mention “The Super Mario Bros Movie” before them — have announced the arrival of Hollywood’s version of summer across much of the planet. France saw admissions climb by 33% in the first five months of 2023, compared with the equivalent period last year, according to data from the CNC (National Film Board). Compared with an average figure for 2017 to 2019, the performance of the 2023 box office is (only) 12% behind. France’s recovery has been powered by a string of successful local films including “Asterix and Obelix: The Middle Kingdom,” “Alibi.com 2,” “The Three Musketeers: D’Artagnan,” “The Crime Is Mine” and Cannes opener “Jeanne du Barry.”

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Park Chan-wook, the Korean filmmaker behind “Oldboy” and last year’s “Decision to Leave,” has joined as producer and co-writer of historical drama film “War and Revolt.” The film is Park’s first collaboration with Netflix, the global streaming platform that is market leader in Korea and which has been instrumental in the global success of Korean contemporary culture. “War and Revolt” tells the story of two childhood friends, portrayed by Gang Dong-won and Park Jeong-min, who become adversaries. It is directed by Kim Sang-man (“Midnight F.M.”) from a script by Shin Chul and Park Chan-wook.

Peter Meyer a prominent talent agent who prior to launching his company was a William Morris agent for over a decade, died Monday following a years-long battle with sarcoma. He was 68.“After a heroic five-year battle against sarcoma, Meyer found peace surrounded by his family.

A man who quit his job to hunt for the Loch Ness Monster has been living in a van on the shores of the loch for more than 30 years.

Fashion fans are running to Primark for a 'beautiful' £18 French Rivera-inspired skirt that can be worn for BBQs, Summer holidays, brunches and picnics. Primark lovers have been begging the high street retailer to stock the skirt for months, and now it is finally in stores.

Naman Ramachandran Sovereign has acquired U.K. and Ireland distribution rights for Lisandro Alonso’s Cannes title “Eureka,” starring Viggo Mortensen. The film recently had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival’s Cannes Premiere strand in May. “Eureka” follows the story of Alaina (Alaina Clifford), a police officer in the Pine Ridge Reservation who decides to stop responding to her radio, leaving her niece Sadie waiting in vain for her return. Hurt by Alaina’s absence, Sadie embarks on a journey with the guidance of her grandfather. The journey transcends time and space, taking her to South America and transforming her perception of the world. As Sadie encounters the dreams of the forest dwellers, she learns that birds, if understood, hold truths that humans can’t grasp.

Foo Fighters have expanded their world tour with new dates in Australia and New Zealand, set to take place over the end of 2023 and start of 2024.The tour, announced today (June 5), will commence on November 29 in Perth before taking the band to Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane throughout December, followed by Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington the following month. The Chats will serve as main support on four of the Australian dates, while UK duo Hot Milk will join the band as openers in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

From Terminator to Governator! Arnold Schwarzenegger played many roles throughout his impressive career.

Here we go again. Brandi Glanville is calling out the cast of Vanderpump Rules for their reaction to Le Scandoval.

Over it! Tom Sandoval lost his patience during part 2 of the Vanderpump Rules reunion — and sought comfort in Raquel Leviss during a pause in filming.  

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Responding to an increasingly global demand for Japanese pop culture, the Kodansha comic book publishing firm is to debut a web version of K Manga, its recently-launched U.S. serialization app. The storied firm will mark the launch of the ‘browser version’ of K Manga with a June 22 online party that is held in Japan, but hosted in English and targets manga (comics) and anime (animation) fans in the U.S. With a theme of “The Stories Behind the Stories,” the event will take multiple behind-the-scenes peeks at manga production and include fan greetings from more than a dozen manga creators.

Mason Thames and Nico Parker are set to star as Hiccup and Astrid in Universal’s new live-action adaptation of DreamWorks Animation’s How To Train Your Dragon. Dean DeBlois is directing the pic with the film set to bow on March, 14, 2025.

Royal nicknames have always been a topic of interest throughout history, ranging from affectionate to wickedly entertaining.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The 25th Shanghai International Film Festival, June 9 to 18, has unveiled the titles in contention for awards in its four main feature-length sections: main competition, Asian New Talent, Animation film and documentary. These are eligible for the festival’s prestigious Golden Goblet Awards, winners of which will be announced at the Shanghai Grand Theater on the evening of June 17. While SIFF remains the only mainland China festival to be accredited as a so-called A-list event by the International Federation of Film Producers (FIAPF), its selections are largely separate and distinct from those at other major international festivals.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Fast X” predictably won a second weekend on top of the mainland China box office, driving its total past the $100 million mark. But the disappointing start for Disney’s live-action “The Little Mermaid” was the bigger talking point. “Fast X” earned $17.6 million in China according to data from consultancy Artisan Gateway. That was a 66% drop compared with its opening weekend, but still gave the film a $110 million cumulative after 12 days and has caused estimates to be further revised upwards. Ticketing agency Maoyan is now forecasting that the film will finish with RMB880 million ($126 million), having previously predicted RMB728 million ($104 million), and then RMB840 million.

Keanu Reeves‘ grunge band Dogstar played their first gig in two decades last night (May 27) – watch footage from their set at the BottleRocket festival below.The band released two albums, 1996’s ‘Our Little Visionary’ and 2000’s ‘Happy Ending’, before calling it quits in 2002.

The chief constable of Scotland's police force has accepted his public admission that the service is "institutionally racist and discriminatory" could have come sooner.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Magic Fair, a Miami-Paris based indie sales company and Hong Kong- and Paris-based All Rights Entertainment have launched rights sales on upcoming feature animation “Pigsy,” directed by Chiu Li-Wei (“Barkley”) during the Cannes Film Festival’s Marche du Film. The film is a reimagining of the classic Chinese tale “Journey to the West.” The story follows a self-absorbed and lazy pig on a journey to lasting happiness. Set in a distant future, the film sees Pigsy embark on a deceitful quest for a better life, only to find that true happiness may be closer than he thinks. The production has recently added Taiwanese stars Greg Han, Liu Kuan-Ting, Harlem Yu, Tuo Tsung-Hua, Chung Hsin-Ling, Ivy Shao, Waa Wei and K.R. Bros. The film is to be completed in time for release at Chinese New Year in early 2024. Production is by the Netherland’s studio Submarine (“Where is Anne Frank,” TV series “Undone” Season 2, “Apollo 10 ½ : A Space Age Childhood”) with Taiwan’s Greener Grass (“GrX”) and Studio2 (“Barkley,” “Get the Hell Out,” “The Tag-Along”).

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Mainland Chinese star Wang Luodan (“The Dead End,” “Struggle,” “The Continent”) and Hong Kong-born Bosco Wong (“Lives of Omission,” “Triumph In The Skies”) head the cast of “My Dearest Stranger.” The high-end suspense drama series is a production fronted by mainland Chinese distributor-producer Hishow Entertainment, which announced the production at the Cannes Market, adjacent to the Cannes Film Festival in France. Based on the best-selling novel “Secret Love,” by Fan Shu and adapted by renowned screenwriter Cao Xueping (“Game Changer”), “My Dearest Stranger” tells a compelling story of Yu Xiao, a housewife who realizes her seemingly perfect husband may have a dark side. Yu decides to cooperate with policeman Song Cheng to find out the truth, while trying to keep her own secrets from the world.