Philippines-U.S.-Hong Kong Production Trio Team up for Asian Genre Slate Launch (EXCLUSIVE)

Naman Ramachandran Entrepreneur Karnesh Ssharma is launching Clean OTT, a streaming service focusing on female-oriented original content, in the first quarter of 2023.Female actors, directors and producers will be at the heart of the service, which aims to move away from the male gaze that plagues Indian content and to create a sustainable platform for female professionals to further their career in the entertainment industry, while also removing age barriers.The content will include originally curated and produced works by Clean and pre-selected projects that meet the Clean OTT messaging framework by other producers from India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Nepal.Ssharma is also a co-founder of Clean Slate Filmz (Netflix’s “Bulbbul,” Amazon’s “Paatal Lok”). The Clean OTT library will feature work from directors, scriptwriters, actors, and producers associated with Clean Slate Filmz, as well as providing opportunities to emerging talent.

Wu Jing, the highest-grossing male actor of all time in China, will join British action star Jason Statham in Warner Bros.’s “Meg 2: The Trench,” sources close to the production have confirmed to Variety.The giant shark actioner, however, will be without Li Bingbing (“Transformers: Age of Extinction”). The Chinese actor, who played a female oceanographer, embodying both brains and beauty in Jon Turteltaub’s testosterone-fueled 2018 “The Meg,” is not returning to the franchise at this point.With Ben Wheatley in the directing chair, production on “Meg 2: The Trench” began at the end of January at the Warner-owned Leavesden Studios outside London.

Pete Davidson’s short-lived Instagram run is over once again. The Saturday Night Live actor deactivated his Instagram account on Wednesday, Feb. 23 amid his ongoing drama on the social media platform with his girlfriend Kim Kardashian’s ex-husband, Kanye West. Earlier this morning, the comedian seemingly took a jab at Ye, leaving a link to a YouTube video of fictional comedian Rupert Pupkin saying, “Better to be king for a night than schmuck for a lifetime,” in his Instagram bio. Just hours later, his account was deleted.

The Hong Kong Film Festival has been forced to alter plans for its 46th edition due to a spike in local Covid cases caused by the Omicron variant.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefThe Hong Kong International Film Festival, scheduled to have taken place from the end of March, has been postponed due to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. Organizers also canceled remaining screenings in the Cine Fan community outreach program.This decision follows the Hong Kong government’s moves earlier this week to extend social distancing measures until April 20, 2022.

Vivienne Chow Hong Kong protest films “Revolution of Our Times” and “May You Stay Forever Young” will have their British premiere in March at a new film festival organized by artists and culture sector workers who have relocated to the U.K. Ng Ka-leung, a producer and director of Hong Kong dystopian anthology “Ten Years,” and documentary filmmaker and writer Wong Ching, co-curators of Hong Kong Film Festival U.K. 2022, said the festival is more than just about screening films that can no longer be shown in their hometown due to political changes.It is organized by Hong Kong Umbrella Community, a U.K.-based body co-founded by Nathan Law, a former Hong Kong lawmaker who is now living in exile in Britain.

Coronation Street fans have been left with plenty of questions as not one but FOUR characters disappeared - again.

This is exactly what Kim Kardashian didn’t want to happen…

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefThe Osaka Asian Film Festival has unveiled its biggest ever program – a total of 76 films – to unspool next month (March 10-20, 2022).Its competition section includes the acclaimed Korean debut film “Aloners,” which offers an exacting critique of the alienating effects upon life of modern capitalist economies; Hong Kong biopic “Anita”; the world premiere of “Angry Son,” which combines LGBT and mixed race themes in a heartwarming comedy; Kong Dashan’s new take on “Journey to the West,” as a ragtag group of people on a UFO hunt; “Mama’s Affair,” the second film by Kearen Pang, whose 2017 debut “29+1” won Osaka’s audience award, “No Land’s Man” from Mostofa Sarwar Farooki and festival circuit hit “Barbarian Invasion.” The spotlight section includes ten titles. Among them are “The Ground Beneath her Feet” from Bangladesh’s Mohammad Rabby Mridha; “A Room of Her own” from China’s Xie Yiran; and Carlo Francisco Manatad’s “Whether the Weather is Fine.”The largest component section is the twenty-title Indie Forum, a platform for Japanese indie films that allow the winner to claim the Japan Cuts Award.

Emilio Mayorga Argentina’s Gentil Cine and El Borde, Brazil’s Vitrine and Punta Colorada, Spain’s Doxa and French company 4a4 Productions have teamed for Albertina Carri’s seventh feature “White Roses, Fall!,” a gender-themed road-trip where the main characters include a porn filmmaker, a trans grandmother, non-binary grandchildren and lesbian clairvoyant vampires.“White Roses, Fall!” centers on Violeta, a young film director who once made an exultant lesbian porn movie and is now hired to make a mainstream and ecological porn feature. She struggles with her ideas about genre and gender, which prevent her from shooting.

Vivienne Chow Action thriller “Limbo” and “Anita,” a biopic about the late Canto-pop queen Anita Mui lead the nomination race for this year’s Hong Kong Film Awards, which is holding its 40th edition after being postponed from last year.“Limbo,” a Cantonese noir that follows a cop duo’s hunt for a serial killer, received 14 nominations including best film, best director for Soi Cheang, best screenplay, best actor for Lam Ka-tung and best actress for Cya Liu. The film had earlier won the critics heart at the annual Hong Kong Film Critics’ Society Awards, which named “Limbo” as best film and Liu best actress for her role as a young addict.“Anita” received 12 nominations, including best film and best director for Longman Leung.

Vivienne Chow Police in Hong Kong on Tuesday arrested Tommy Yuen, a popular singer and pro-democracy campaigner. Local media and rights groups reported that Hong Kong authorities have also blocked access in the city to a pro-democracy website operated from the U.K.Yuen, a former member of the Canto-pop boy band E-kids, was arrested by national security police over the suspicion of sedition and money laundering.

Mark Wahlberg is bringing another real-life story to the screen. After biographical films like, and, the actor is portraying Father Stuart Long in the upcoming drama.

Season 2 of has been building up to episode 5, which sees Leslie (Nika King) and Gia (Storm Reid) confronting Rue (Zendaya) over her relapse and continued drug use. King, Reid as well as Colman Domingo, who plays Rue’s sponsor, Ali, opened up to ET’s Denny Directo about the emotional intervention that went down with the family and if there’s a sober future for Rue. In season 2, “Leslie is still that mother who is hopeful to see Rue go down a different path.

RZA and producer DJ Scratch have released an official music video for their single ‘Saturday Afternoon Kung Fu Theater’, which originally dropped last year.The Danny Hastings and RZA-directed clip arrived on Friday (February 4), and plays out like an old-school martial arts movie. It draws inspiration from films made by the Hong Kong production house Shaw Brothers (Shaolin Prince, The One-Armed Swordsman, The Five Deadly Venoms), featuring RZA as himself and his alter ego, Bobby Digital, whom he faces off against.Check it out below.‘Saturday Afternoon Kung Fu Theater’ is the titular single off RZA and Scratch’s forthcoming collaborative album, formally titled ‘RZA vs Bobby Digital’.

Apparently, Meghan King is already getting back in the saddle and dating again after splitting from her estranged husband Cuffe Biden Owens last year.