‘Saturday Night Live’ Turns Around A ’Breaking News’ Cold Open Featuring Interview With The Fallen Chinese Balloon

Jimmy Kimmel went in on the Pentagon after it released a new photograph Thursday of the Chinese spy balloon the U.S. military shot down earlier this month.In the photo, taken by an American U-2 spy plane from above the balloon, two solar panels can be seen as part of an apparatus hanging from the balloon.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief China-based video streamer iQiyi achieved a surge in paying subscriptions and achieved net profits in the fourth quarter of 2022. While still loss-making over the full year, the company hailed its turnaround as “miraculous.” In the October-December period, gross revenues were RMB7.6 billion ($1.1 billion), representing a 3% increase year over year, the company said in a regulatory filing. Net income attributable to iQiyi was RMB304 million ($44.1 million), compared to a net loss of RMB1.8 billion in the same period in 2021. Over the course of the full 2022, total revenues were RMB29.0 billion ($4.2 billion), representing a 5% decrease from 2021. Net losses decreased from RMB6.2 billion to RMB136 million ($19.7 million).

A little less than five years after a tax-evasion scandal saw Chinese star Fan Bingbing disappear from public view for several months, the actress today addressed the Berlin Film Festival press corps in support of her latest movie, Green Night. 

"Rust" found a new production location and is moving from its previous New Mexico backdrop to the Yellowstone Film Ranch in Montana this spring. Alec Baldwin, 64, is still set to play the lead character in the Joel Souza-directed Western drama, despite facing involuntary manslaughter charges for the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.

— following the fatal on-set shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins in October 2021 — filming on the Western is set to be relocated to the Yellowstone Film Ranch in Paradise Valley, Montana.Yellowstone Film Ranch co-founders Richard Gray, Carter Boehm and Colin Davis issued the following joint statement on Wednesday, saying, «The dedication and passion of the entire production team to honor Halyna’s vision has deeply moved us. We’ve learned so much about Halyna as a friend and colleague, the depth of her artistry, and the lasting impact she had on so many.

threadbare release slate and decades-low grosses in August and September. The premium format company reported earnings of $2.6 million or 19 cents per share, an improvement from last quarter’s loss of 3 cents per share and beating projections of 15 cents per share.While Imax’s total box office only reached $177 million in Q3, “Avatar: The Way of Water” alone nearly eclipsed that total with $160 million grossed in Q4.

“Rust” has settled on its new filming location.

Lise Pedersen The Copenhagen Intl. Documentary Film Festival, also known as CPH:DOX, has unveiled the full program of its 20th edition, which includes 200 new films, more than half of which are world premieres, sealing CPH:DOX’s reputation as one of the leading events of its kind in Europe. For the first time, all 13 films competing for the top Dox:Award are world premieres. These include “A Storm Foretold,” the long-awaited doc on Donald Trump’s former adviser Roger Stone by Danish political journalist Christopher Guldbrandsen; established filmmaker Margreth Olin’s highly anticipated epic film “Songs of the Earth”; “A Tiger in Paradise,” a surreal journey into Swedish singer José González’ inner world by Ruben Östlund’s regular creative partners Mikel Cee Karlsson and Erik Hemmendorff; and “Total Trust” by Jialing Zhang (“One Child Nation”), described as “the first major film about the Chinese surveillance state (…) – a disturbing tale of technology, (self-) censorship and abuse of power in the 21st century.”

Marta Balaga Crime shows look for a new angle, argued Berlinale Series participants on Monday.  There is no shortage of new offerings, from Berlinale Market Selects’ “Two Sides of the Abyss,” Serbia’s “The Fall” or South Africa’s “Donkerbos,” created by Nico Scheepers, to China’s melancholic, decades-spanning “Why Try to Change Me Now,” with Golden Bear winner Yinan Diao attached as executive producer. But while there is still an appetite for traditional detective stories, producers and broadcasters are venturing out of the “damaged, middle-aged white detective slot on a Sunday night,” suggested All3Media International’s Rachel Glaister. They are also thinking about their younger audience.

Avril Lavigne revealed if there was any truth in a rumor that she had been cast in a Chinese reality show.

Jessica Kiang The unusual design of the White Pagoda, a 13th-century Buddhist temple in the Xicheng district of Beijing, makes it hard to see its shadow. This has given rise to the local legend that its shade can actually be found some two thousand miles away in Tibet, the temple’s spiritual home. The landmark is a constant presence in Chinese director Zhang Lu’s tender, brimming “The Shadowless Tower,” which fixes its setting in the very heart of the Chinese capital, a city rarely portrayed as fondly as it is here. But the pagoda can also be seen as an evocatively imperfect metaphor for a lifestage: that tipping point in the middle of one’s time when, with the past and future weighing equally on either side, you can feel disoriented and suddenly directionless, as when the sun is directly overhead and you cast no shadow. 

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Brazilian animated feature “Perlimps,” Alê Abreu’s follow up to Oscar-nominated “Boy and the World,” has been sold in key territories by Best Friend Forever ahead of the European Film Market. “Perlimps” has been picked up for Japan (Child Film and New Deer), China (DDDream), CIS and baltics (Kinologistica), Sweden (Njutafilm) and Portugal (Films4you). BFF is in advanced discussions to close German Speaking territories, Benelux, Spain, Italy and North America. As previously announced, UFO Distribution will release the feature in France. “Perlimps” was just released last week in Brazil by leading independent outfit Vitrine Filmes and Sony Pictures, which holds Latin American rights.

A.D. Amorosi With Son Lux – the composing trio behind “Everything Everywhere All at Once” – nominated for Best Original Score and Best Original Song (“This is a Life” with Mitski and David Byrne) at the 95th Academy Awards, analyzing the stunning complexities of their emotional score is key. To go with Daniels’ (the single name used for director-writers Kwan and Scheinert) mosaic-like vision of familial bonding, Son Lux’s Ryan Lott, Rafiq Bhatia and Ian Chang dissected over 100 musical cues, rearranged into 49 detailed tracks. “Nothing’s binary in ‘EEAaO’, each character is not one character,” said Lott. “The inherent challenge was to create themes that support the disconnect… but make the movie feel as one.”

Nikki Haley has announced her intention to run for president in 2024.

Yibing Wu poses with the Lamar Hunt Trophy after winning the Dallas Open tennis tournament on Sunday (February 12) 2023 at the Styslinger/Altec Tennis Complex in Dallas, Texas.

Super Bowl 2023 commercial featuring spheres in the sky.“An unidentified object has been spotted over the skies,” the ad proclaimed. While the commercial is advertising “U2:UV Achtung Baby Live at the Sphere” — a series of concerts that marks the band’s first live shows in four years — many on social media were quick to point out the similarities to the Chinese spy balloon that has been making headlines.“Did you guys make this commercial before last week?” one person asked.“Read the room.

Kate Ferdinand and husband Rio Ferdinand enjoyed a special date night at the Brit Awards.The couple, headed to the O2 Arena in London, for a night dedicated to celebrating British music, where we saw the S Club 7 ladies reunite and Mo Gilligan mess up Lewis Capaldi's name. Kate, 31, brought the glamour to proceedings wearing a floor-length black dress that perfectly showed off her growing bump, with a long slit to reveal one leg, and sheer sleeves on her arms. She paired the dress with Jimmy Choo black stilettos.

Subscribers to the Disney+ streaming service in Hong Kong won’t see yet another episode of The Simpsons, the latest one for referring to forced labor in China.

Pedro Pascal has finally made it to the Studio 8H stage!

Security officials in the US have reportedly shot down a Chinese balloon suspected of being used to spy on the country. The balloon was reportedly floating across the States at 60,000 feet and was around the size of three double decker buses.