Singapore Unveils Film, TV Production Fund to Promote Tourism

A little under two weeks ago, the Cannes Film Festival unveiled its lineup for the upcoming event. However, as we know with film festivals, the initial lineup is far from complete and more films can be added at any time.

Concern about looming labor unrest and uncertainty surrounding pending corporate restructuring have contributed to a 35.8% plunge in on-location TV production in Los Angeles in the first quarter of 2023 compared with the same period last year, according to the latest report from FilmLA, the city and county film permit office.

Pixar’s Elemental will have its world premiere screening at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival on May 27.

You wouldn’t be wrong, as a film fan, to have your festival sights set on the upcoming Cannes Film Festival. That’s perhaps the premier festival each and every year.

Last week, after much speculation, we finally were given the initial lineup for this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Of course, the main lineup typically features the biggest names in film and this year is no different, with a new ‘Indiana Jones’ film as well as new films from directors like Martin Scorsese and Wes Anderson.

“The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” Thursday, the Academy Award winner took a trip down memory lane with the host while promoting his new film, “Renfield.”While Cage, whose real name is Nicolas Coppola, has some impressive blockbusters under his belt — including “National Treasure,” “Moonstruck,” and “The Rock” — the 59-year-old’s top five is comprised of his lesser-known work.“I’m going to start with ‘Pig’ that is my favorite movie I have ever made,” Cage told Colbert. “I love ‘Mandy,’ the movie that Panos [Cosmatos] directed. I love ‘Bringing Out The Dead’ that Martin Scorsese directed.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Cannes Film Festival’s longtime director Thierry Fremaux sat down with Variety following the announcement of this year’s lineup, which includes a bevy of star-studded period movies, including Martin Scorsese’s highly anticipated “Killers of the Flower Moon,” Karim Aïnouz’s “Firebrand” and Jonathan Glazer’s “Zone of Interest.” Along with a raft of politically-minded films, there’s also a record six movies directed by female helmers in competition, including newcomers like Senegalese direcotr Ramata-Toulaye Sy’s feature debut “Banel et Adama.” Fremaux said his only regret this year is to miss out on “Oppenheimer” and “Barbie,” but he’s keeping high hopes to convince Scorsese to vie for a second Palme d’Or 47 years after winning his first with “Taxi Driver.” He also revealed that as many as two or three movies are expected to be added to the competition next week, after Directors’ Fortnight and Critics’ Week announce their respective lineups.

EXCLUSIVE: Samuel Goldwyn Films has locked down North American rights to the British feel-good comedy Bank of Dave, starring Joel Fry (Our Flag Means Death), Rory Kinnear (Men), Jo Hartley (After Life) and Phoebe Dynevor (Bridgerton). The film featuring music and performances by English rock band Def Leppard is slated for release in theaters and on digital platforms later this year.

At last weekend’s Star Wars Celebration, Lucasfilm head Kathleen Kennedy revealed three new “Star Wars” movies in the pipeline.  Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy will direct a film that centers around Daisy Ridley‘s Rey; Dave Filoni has a film that culminates “The Mandalorian” and its connected Disney+ series; and James Mangold will helm “Dawn Of The Jedi,” about the birth of the Jedi order 25,000 years ago.

BreAnna Bell Warner Bros. TV has acquired the book rights to Jesse Q. Sutanto’s novel, “Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers,” the studio announced on Monday. Mindy Kaling’s Kaling International, which is currently under an overall deal with WBTV, is attached to produce alongside Harpo Films. The novel follows Vera Wong, a lonely widow living in San Francisco’s Chinatown who wakes up one morning to find a dead body on the floor of her struggling tea shop. “No one is more curious than a suspicious Chinese mother with time on her hands, so Vera decides to start her own investigation,” reads the description. The book was published by Berkley, an imprint of Penguin Random House, and HQ, a division of HarperCollins UK.

Prior to this year’s Star Wars Celebration event, folks were anticipating quite a bit of TV news, as well as the possibility that Lucasfilm would announce one new film. Well, we definitely got that, but even more, as the studio unveiled details about not one, but three new “Star Wars” films from directors Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy, Dave Filoni, and James Mangold, respectively.

Lucasfilm Animation is still churning out animated series set in the “Star Wars.” Even though landmark shows like “Stars Wars: The Clone Wars” and “Star Wars: Rebels” have ended, they’ve expanded the mythology and introducing fans to brand new characters that have made the jump to live-action. Their current efforts include anthology projects “Star Wars: Visions” and “Tales of The Jedi” covering various eras of the franchise alongside the episodic show “The Bad Batch.” The latter is in it’s second season that debuted earlier this year taking place after the events of “The Clone Wars” and there is a bit of an update of the streaming show’s future.

There were lots of big announcements at the Star Wars Celebration in London this past weekend, like James Mangold‘s “Dawn Of The Jedi“ and Daisy Ridley‘s return as Rey in a future film.

Star Wars Celebration is in full swing in London. Yesterday, we got some big updates about new films from James Mangold, Dave Filoni, and Daisy Ridley‘s return as Rey for the upcoming movie helmed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy (“Ms.

A while back there had been rumblings that Lucasfilm was looking to work with “Logan” director James Mangold on a possible film focused on Boba Fett, and while that ultimately never happened and he ended up tackling “Indiana Jones” for the studio instead with “Indiana Jones & The Dial of Destiny,” he’s officially joining the “Star Wars” franchise.

While Lucasfilm was able to give some updates about a range of previously announced “Star Wars” projects at Star Wars Celebration this weekend in London, they’ve now added some new things into the mix as well. READ MORE: Shawn Levy To Direct A ‘Star Wars’ Film After His Work On ‘Deadpool 3’ & ‘Stranger Things’ One of the big feature film announcements made this morning included Dave Filoni being set to make his film debut with a new project set in the Mandoverse.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief As recently as last month, government officials in the Malaysian state of Serawak, Borneo, told local media that their state needs to build a new film production facility like the Iskandar Malaysia Studios in the south of peninsular Malaysia. Serawak officials said that their state Premier had visited the studios and plans had been discussed with FINAS, Malaysia’s national film regulatory and financing body.

EXCLUSIVE: Singaporean reality gaming format Good Game has been optioned by Village Roadshow in the U.S. and ShinAwiL in the UK.

While “Solo: A Star Wars Story” isn’t one of the premier films in the franchise, most people can agree that Donald Glover’s performance as a young Lando Calrissian is pretty great. And there have been rumors about more Glover in the galaxy far, far away, but no confirmation that it’ll happen.

Singapore is launching a S$10M ($7.5M) fund to attract international productions to work with local filmmakers and shine a spotlight on the city.