‘The Marvels’ Secures China Day-And-Date Release; Will Leverage Golden Week Holiday To Jump-Start Local Promotion

Chinese director Ning Hao has flown directly from Busan film festival in South Korea to China’s Pingyao International Film Festival (PYIFF) with his latest film, The Movie Emperor, starring Andy Lau. 

Distributor Gkids has announced the English voice cast for Oscar-winning filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki’s new feature, The Boy and the Heron. The dubbed version of the film will feature the voices of Christian Bale, Dave Bautista, Gemma Chan, Willem Dafoe, Karen Fukuhara, Mark Hamill, Robert Pattinson and Florence Pugh.

‘Marie Antoinette‘ Back On The BBCThe BBC has announced that it has acquired the second season of Canal+ Creation Originale Marie Antoinette. Sue Deeks, head of acquisitions for the BBC, said the first season of Deborah Davis’ drama had been a “great success” for the corporation. Marie Antoinette is produced by Claude Chelli and Margaux Balsan for Capa Drama, Stéphanie Chartreux for Banijay Studios France, as well as Bedside Productions. Season 2 is currently in production.

Wei Shujun’s Only The River Flows was presented with Best Film in the Fei Mu Awards at this year’s Pingyao International Film Festival (PYIFF), while Inside The Yellow Cocoon Shell, directed by Vietnam’s Pham Thien An, won Best Film in the festival’s Roberto Rossellini Awards.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief A dearth of new release films allowed Zhang Yimou’s “Under the Light” to retain a comfortable lead at the China box office over the weekend, in its third week of release. The contemporary crime drama film earned $13.5 million (RMB97.2 million) between Friday and Sunday, according to data from consultancy Artisan Gateway. Since releasing on Sept. 28, it has accumulated gross revenues of $163 million (RMB1.17 billion).

The Wrestler, directed by Bangladeshi-Canadian filmmaker Iqbal H. Chowdhury, and September 1923, from Japan’s Tatsuya Mori, picked up the New Currents Awards as Busan International Film Festival wrapped a busy 28th edition on October 13. 

Hunter Ingram For once, Stede Bonnet and Blackbeard aren’t the most dysfunctional pirate couple on the deck of Max’s comedy series “Our Flag Means Death.” In Season 2’s fourth episode, titled “Fun and Games,” that distinction belongs to legendary pirates Anne Bonny (Minnie Driver) and Mary Read (Rachel House). As the series has done with the shared history between the real-life Stede and Blackbeard, “Our Flag Means Death” interprets the fearsome women pirates as a couple. But they’ve been at the whole dating thing a lot longer than the boys.

This Morning was thrown into turmoil this week, when its main presenter Holly Willoughby unexpectedly quit after 14 years.The 42 year old star said she was living ITV's popular daytime TV show for the sake of "me and my family", following a year that saw her embroiled in a queue jumping drama to see the Queen lying in state, as well as the departure of her co-presenter and friend Phillip Schofield from the show, after he admitted to an "unwise but not illegal" affair with a much younger male colleague. It now looks as though This Morning could be heading for a major revamp in the new year, including a new set and possibly new presenters too.

Coco Gauff will be visiting Mexico at the end of the month. The American tennis player recently announced she’d be participating in the WTA Finals, hosted in Cancun. These matches start on October 29th, running until November 5th.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Zhang Yimou-directed contemporary drama film “Under the Light” retained its top spot at the mainland China box office for a second weekend, but with numbers that dropped steeply, as macro-economic weakening led to a Golden Week of across the board disappointment. Financial media Monday reported that consumers travelled less and spent less on leisure than had been forecast, likely reflecting general economic belt tightening, high unemployment and property sector worries. Before the holidays, cinema ticketing firm Maoyan had forecast that the first three days would throw up box office of RMB1.5 billion (208 million) and that “Under the Light” alone would reach RMB2 billion ($278 million) by the end of the eight-day holiday season (Sept. 29-Oct.

China’s Pingyao International Film Festival has announced the line-up for its seventh edition (October 11-18), which will open with Wei Shujun’s Only The River Flows and close with the world premiere of Fei Yu’s Football On The Roof. 

Good Morning Britain's Richard Arnold treated viewers to their first look inside the brand new Big Brother house during Friday's broadcast.The presenter gave fans a sneaky glimpse inside the swanky house, which holds sustainability at the forefront, ahead of the reality show's highly anticipated return to TV this Sunday. Richard teased viewers with a quick tour of the luxurious garden which features an outdoor water tank which collects rainwater that will fill the famous hot tub as well as a cosy outdoor fireplace area.The first look inside the Big Brother house comes as a brand new batch of housemates prepare to move in this weekend.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Feted in Busan this week as the Asian Filmmaker of the Year, Hong Kong superstar Chow Yun-fat bemoaned censorship in China for its impact on the film industry. “We have a lot of censorship requirements in mainland China. Scripts must go to many departments. So, we need [to portray] clear situations in scripts.

King of the Yees (★★★☆☆), making its D.C. premiere with Jennifer Chang’s lively production at Signature.By, about, and chock full of Yees, real and fictional, and set partly inside a Chinatown social club dedicated to bringing Yees together, King of the Yees digs deep at one family’s roots to harvest a universal tale of daughter-father love and admiration.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent “The Head,” The Mediapro Studio’s biggest hit, will have a third season, Ran Tellem, TMS head of international content development, confirmed Tuesday at Iberseries & Industria Platino. “‘The Head’ started out something like four years ago as a limited series only for six episodes and now it’s going into third season, so you might say we never lived up to our promises,” Tellem joked on stage at an early Iberseries panel, entitled Creative Content Strategies, where he shared the stage with former Netflix international head Erik Barmack, now at L.A.-based Wild Sheep Content. The Mediapro Studio will produce ‘The Head,’ Season 3 out of Spain.

Coco Gauff took a week off from Tennis after winning her first Grand Slam at the US Open but is ready to get back to work. The 19-year-old champion accepted a wild card to play the Zhengzhou Open, a WTA 500 tournament in China.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Trinity CineAsia has picked up U.K. and Ireland rights to Chinese hit film “The Ex-Files 4: Marriage Plan.” The film ranked third worldwide at the box office over the latest weekend. Trinity CineAsia will give it an official release from Oct.

Refresh for latest…: Here we are with a sort of hybrid weekend at the international box office: there were fresh entries from the Hollywood studios, as well as major new titles timed to holiday play in local markets, and a holdover that’s continuing to rack up records.

Three of Indonesia’s leading studios – MD Pictures, Falcon and Screenplay Films – explained their plans for taking local content international and how they’re juggling between producing for streamers and theatres, in a session at APOS. 

EXCLUSIVE: Kino Lorber has acquired North American distribution rights to Fantastic Fest and Sitges 2023 movie The Invisible Fight from LevelK. Above is a new international teaser for the movie.