‘Squid Game’ Star Lee Jung-jae to Reprise Role as Tattooed Killer From ‘Deliver Us From Evil’ in Series Spin-Off

Squid Game star Lee Jung-jae has made history by becoming the first Korean actor to win an Emmy award for Best Actor in a Drama. During Monday (12 September) night’s ceremony, the 49-year-old actor won the Emmy award for his lead role in the Korean-language series. “Thank you to the Television Academy, thank you to Netflix and thank you to the director for making realistic problems we all face come to life so creatively on the screen with a great script,” he said during his acceptance speech at the star-studded ceremony.

Lee Jung-jae is making history!

Squid Game star Lee Jung-jae made Emmy history tonight as the first first foreign-language actor to win Lead Actor in a Drama Series — he was also the first such actor to ever be nominated.

BreAnna Bell Lee Jung-jae became the first Asian actor ever to win in the category after taking home the Emmy award for Best Actor in a Drama at this year’s Emmys for his performance in “Squid Game.”  “Thank you to the Television Academy, thank you to Netflix and thank you to the director for making realistic problems we all face come to life so creatively on the screen with a great script. Thank you, ‘Squid Game’ team. Thank you to everyone watching in Korea,” he said after accepting his award. He then went on to repeat his speech in Korean. He was only the fourth Asian actor ever to win in any of the Emmy performance categories, and the first to win the drama award for a non-English speaking role.

star became the first South Korean actor, as well as the first actor of Asian descent, to win the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series. It was his first Emmy nomination and win.With his historic, record-setting win Monday night, the veteran actor joined a prestigious shortlist of actors of Asian descent to have taken home an Emmy for acting, following past winners Riz Ahmed, Archie Panjabi, Darren Criss and Shohreh Aghdashloo.«Thank you so much thank you so much.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Wang Xiaoshuai, director of “So Long, My Son” and “Red Amnesia,” will be the most senior mainland Chinese director to present a new film at a major Western festival this year. That may be a reflection of the growing political and economic separation between China and the West over the past couple of years — with COVID an additional irritant. But tough times can also breed innovation. Wang’s latest, “The Hotel,” a chamber piece about a small group of Chinese tourists trapped in a hotel in Thailand during the early days of the pandemic, was inspired by events that Wang personally endured in 2020. It was made in almost improvised fashion, with a hastily written screenplay and shot with available crew.

Squid Game star Lee Jung-jae is set to star in Disney+’s upcoming Star Wars series.According to Deadline, Lee is set to star as the male lead in Disney+’s The Acolyte. The series, which promises to depict the dark side of the Force’s rise to power during the final days of the film franchise’s High Republic era, marks the South Korean actor’s first leading role in a television series since starring in Squid Game.As of writing, specifics about Lee’s role in the series have yet to be released.

Lee Jung-jae is taking on a huge role.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Netflix announces production of upcoming Japanese series “House of Ninjas,” set for release in 2024. Ninjas are the legendary Japanese heroes of the shadows, known for their ambush attacks and ferocious fighting style. But they remain figures of mythology or, at least, the past. Set in modern-day Japan, “House of Ninjas,” tells the story of the Tawara family, the last ninja clan. It had abandoned its roots after an incident in the past, but now the family must take on the greatest crisis in Japanese history, one that threatens to shake the nation to its core.

previously announced star Amandla Stenberg.Going farther back in time than any live-action “Star Wars” project before it, “The Acolyte” will take place in the last days of the High Republic Era, centuries before “The Phantom Menace,” where the thought-to-be eradicated Siths have returned. “Russian Doll” co-creator Leslye Headland will be showrunning.Speaking to TheWrap last year, Headland — who is the first queer woman to be behind a “Star Wars” title — said “The Phantom Menace” appealed to her upon its release, when she was first discovering her sexuality.“I actually was very intrigued by why George Lucas had started us at that particular point.

This time last year, Netflix‘s ‘Squid Game‘ took popular culture by storm and became a global phenomenon. Now, Lucasfilm and Disney+ want to see if some of that magic rubs off on an upcoming “Star Wars” series.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer “Squid Game” star Lee Jung-Jae has been cast as the male lead in Disney+’s “Star Wars” series “The Acolyte,” Variety has confirmed. “Russian Doll” co-creator Leslye Headland is showrunning the series, with Amandla Stenberg (“The Hate U Give”) set to star in the leading woman role. Going farther back in time than any live-action “Star Wars” title before it, “The Acolyte” is set a century before the events of “Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace.” The series promises to depict the galaxy at the peak of the era of the High Republic, when the Jedi were at their strongest and the Sith were believed to have been eradicated from the galaxy.

EXCLUSIVE: The eve of his potential historic night at the Emmys, Squid Game star Lee Jung-jae looks to have found his first major studio role following that breakout in a property more popular then the Netflix global phenomenon.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Make no mistake: CJ ENM is on the move. The South Korean conglomerate that has done as much as any company to build out the nation’s entertainment ecosystem is actively looking to expand its “production capability and competency.” That’s the word from Kang Ho-sung, CEO of the cluster of film, TV and music companies that now share the CJ ENM banner. Kang gave a rare, extensive interview to Variety on Aug. 21 in downtown Los Angeles on the sidelines of CJ ENM’s KCON LA pop culture convention, which brought in close to 100,000 fans from across the U.S.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Prolific Japanese film director Miike Takashi and Indonesian genre specialist Kimo Stamboel will be among the star names in the ‘On Screen’ section of the Busan International Film Festival given over to TV series. Miike has made “Connect,” a Korean-language crime fantasy thriller about a man who is kidnapped and has one of his eyes removed by a gang of organ harvesters and transplanted into the body of a notorious serial killer. The unwilling donor now has terrible visions as he witnesses terrifying attacks on the residents of Seoul. The show was written by Nakamura Masaru and Heo Dam (“Monstrum”). It features Korean talent including Jung Haein (“Snowdrop,” “Start-Up,” “Tune in for Love”) in the lead role and Ko Kyungpyo (“Decision to Leave,” “Seoul Vibe,”) as the serial killer, and Kim Hyejun (“Inspector Koo,” “Kingdom,” “Sinkhole”) as the mysterious Irang.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief A weekend concert by Hong Kong acting and singing superstar Andy Lau Tak-wah attracted a record-breaking 350 million viewers on Douyin, the mainland Chinese sister company of TikTok. The concert ran for two hours and attracted 100 million viewers in the first 30 minutes, with tens of millions more joining by the end. The figures beat Lau’s own previous record on the platform, which he set in July last year at a concert to celebrate his 40 years in the business. The South China Morning Post said the record numbers were swelled by a recent wave of nostalgia for Canto-pop or Cantonese-language contemporary music, though the paper also noted that Lau also performed a couple of Mandarin-language classics.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Two Korean and two Indian movies make the cut in the Busan International Film Festival’s New Currents main competition section. Thet are joined by one each from Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia and Germany. The section has a track record of making significant discoveries among new Asian films and directors.The selected titles are eligible for multiple awards, including the New Currents Award, the FIPRESCI Award, the NETPAC Award, and the KB New Currents Audience Award. The selection comprises: “Ajooma,” directed by Hu Shuming (Singapore-Korea); “Blue Again” from Thailand’s Thapanee Loosuwan; “Hail to Hell,” by Korea’s Lim Oh-jeong; “Memento Mori: Earth,” by Vietnam’s Marcus Vu Manh Cuong; “No End,” directed by Nader Saeivar and flying the flags of Germany, Iran and Turkey; “A Place Called Silence,” by Malaysia’s Sam Quah; “Shivamma,” fromIndia’s Jaishankar Aryar; Japanese director Kubota Nao’s “One Thousand and One Nights”; “A Wild Roomer,” from Korea’s Lee Jeong-hong; and The Winter Within,” directed by Aamir Bashir, and structured as a co-production between India, France and Qatar.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Kore-eda Hirokazu will be the star turn at Emerging Japanese Films, a Los Angeles showcase organized by Japan’s Visual Industry Promotion Organization. The event, running Sept. 27 – Oct. 1, 2022, at the Harmony Gold Preview House, consists of four newly-released, dramatic and awards-worthy Japanese feature films and a retrospective night that honors Kore-eda, whose “Shoplifters” won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2018. Kore-eda will take part in a live video conversation after the screening of his “Like Father, Like Son,” a child-swap drama film that Steven Spielberg and Dreamworks previously optioned for remake.