Westbrook Studios & Japan’s Akimoto Developing English-Language Comedy Series About Hollywood ‘It’ Couple

Joe Otterson TV ReporterThe “One Piece” live-action series at Netflix has added six new cast members, Variety has learned.Morgan Davies (“The End,” “The Evil Dead: Rise”), Ilia Isorelýs Paulino (“The Sex Lives of College Girls,” “Me Time”), Aidan Scott (“Action Point,” “Between the Devil”), Jeff Ward (“Brand New Cherry Flavor,” “Hack”), McKinley Belcher III (“Ozark,” “The Good Lord Bird”) and Vincent Regan (“300,” “Troy”) have all joined the series.They join previously announced cast members Iñaki Godoy, Mackenyu, Emily Rudd, Jacob Romero Gibson and Taz Skylar. The new cast members will appear as the following characters: Davies as Koby, Paulino as Alvida, Scott as Helmeppo, Ward as Buggy, Belcher as Arlong, and Regan as Garp.

PlayStation Productions has been putting together a string of high-profile, live-action projects based on its video game IP, which includes the latest Sony Pictures box office hit “Uncharted” starring Tom Holland (“Spider-Man: No Way Home“), the post-apocalypse HBO series “The Last of Us” led by Pedro Pascal (“The Mandalorian“), Anthony Mackie‘s “Twisted Metal” series at Peacock, a film at Sony based on the samurai game “Ghost of Tsushima” set in feudal Japan during the first Mongol invasion with director Chad Stahelski (“John Wick” franchise) attached, and it looks like a live-action “God of War” project is also on the horizon.

Mark Schilling Japan CorrespondentToho Cinemas, Japan’s largest cinema chain, is under investigation by the Japan Fair Trade Commission for possible violations of Japan’s anti-trust law. According to reports in the Japanese media, the company, a subsidiary of local industry giant Toho, has pressured local film companies to allow only Toho Cinemas to screen their films.

At Contenders Film: The Nominees, Deadline presented a panel with the director and star of perhaps the most historic nominated film at this year’s Oscars, Drive My Car, which represents Japan’s first-ever Best Picture nomination. It’s an astounding feat for a three-hour Japanese-language film, about a stage director’s personal crisis interweaved with his trip to Hiroshima to direct a production of Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya.

Naman Ramachandran Netflix has greenlit a trio of series across Japan, Australia and Taiwan, featuring top talent.Japanese sitcom “Let’s Get Divorced” follows a rookie politician and his actor wife who struggle with their marriage life and they decide to split up. However, their parents and agents don’t allow them to do it.

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HYBE and YG Entertainment are set to launch a BLACKPINK-themed Korean language learning packet later this year.Earlier today (March 2), HYBE Edu and YG Entertainment announced that they will be launching a BLACKPINK-themed Korean language learning material titled ‘BLACKPINK In Your Korean’, per Kpop Herald.According to Kpop Herald and KBIZoom, ‘BLACKPINK In Your Korean’ hopes to familiarise fans with the Korean language through words and phrases that the K-pop quartet frequently use.The packet will include textbooks, stickers, quizzes and animated videos that will teach learners correct pronunciation. Notably, the videos will be available in Korean, English, Chinese, Japanese and Indonesian..@HYBE_EDU is launching "@BLACKPINK IN YOUR KOREAN," a Korean language education material using the act's IP.

Marvel’s Deadpool gets help in his battle against evil from All Might, the muscular hero in “My Hero Academia,” a hit Japanese manga that’s sold 65 million copies worldwide.“Deadpool: Samurai,” published in Japanese last year, came out in English translation this month. The Japanese “Deadpool: Samurai” was the best-selling Marvel comic last year, surpassing more than 1 million views online.

Pocketpair, the studio behind Palworld, has given staff a paid holiday today (February 25) so they can stay at home and play Elden Ring.FromSoftware’s open-world action role-playing game is out today and according to Pocketpair’s CEO Takruo Mizobe, he believes staff will be “unable to focus on work”.The company announced the “Elden Holiday” in a company wide email, which was later shared on Twitter.ポケットペアは、全社員対象者にエルデン休暇を支給します！エルデの王は金、月は出勤する必要はありません！ pic.twitter.com/HforPa0TkN— ポケットペア公式 – Craftopia/クラフトピア (@PocketpairJapan) February 22, 2022Rumour has it that the Dragon Quest series is so popular in Japan, that developer Square Enix now releases its games on Saturdays to prevent kids from skipping school and adults from calling in sick to work to play the game.And last year, Japanese tech developer Mark-On Ltd announced a ‘Monster Hunter Holiday’ for all non-executive employees to coincide with the launch of Monster Hunter Rise after CEO Masaki Hiyama received an overwhelming number of holiday requests for that day.Elden Ring launched earlier today. Steam reviews for the PC version of the game are currently “mixed” due to performance issues and missing features. Bandai Namco has since released a post about the issues in Elden Ring, stating that it is “constantly working to improve the game so that it can be played comfortably on various PC environments and platforms.” In a five-star review of the game NME wrote: “Trying to summarise all of Elden Ring‘s successes, trying to pinpoint why it feels so special, is a gargantuan task.

The first trailer for “Pachinko” has been released, offering a first look at the upcoming Apple TV+ adaptation of Min Jin Lee’s sprawling multigenerational saga chronicling how one family’s journey from Korea to America over the course of decades, told in three different languages: Korean, Japanese and English.

Naman Ramachandran Kids’ content distributor Federation Kids and Family and ZDF Enterprises have sold all three seasons of hit series “Find Me in Paris” to streamer Disney Plus as part of a worldwide multi-territory deal, while Italian state broadcaster RAI also picked up season 3 following on from its successful run of the first two seasons.Broadcast in over 80 territories, “Find Me in Paris” (78 x 26’) follows the story of Lena Grisky, a time-travelling ballet dancer from 1905 Russia trapped in modern day Paris, and the many dilemmas she faces finding her place between two worlds. The series has also been a social media hit across all platforms, with the soundtracks registering 18 million streams across all music streaming platforms for 2020/2021 and its YouTube channel recording 46.1 million views to date.

Red Velvet have announced their first concert in over two years as a full group, The ReVe Festival: Prologue, will take place next month.The K-pop girl group last gave an in-person concert in February 2020 when they performed in Fukuoka, Japan. However, they were without singer Wendy for the show, who was recovering from a stage accident that happened in December 2019.Red Velvet’s full line-up – completed by Seulgi, Joy, Yeri and Irene – will bring The ReVe Festival: Prologue concert to Seoul’s Olympic Handball Gymnasium on March 19 and 20.

Paul Thomas Anderson, the director of the Oscar-nominated movie Licorice Pizza, is finally responding to the backlash the film received for scenes in which an actor uses a fake Asian accent.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorLooking to widen its podcast biz beyond English-language audiences, iHeartMedia inked a deal to use Veritone’s synthetic-voice technology to translate and produce podcasts in other languages.Initially, iHeart plans to use Veritone’s artificial-intelligence system to translate its most popular podcasts into Spanish across the iHeartPodcast Network; the company didn’t identify which shows will be first in the hopper.Overall, Veritone offers stock voices in 119 languages and customized voices in 13: Chinese (Mandarin, simplified), French (Canada and France), German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish (Mexico and Spain). Its verified synthetic voices also provide different dialects and accents.

Mark Schilling Japan CorrespondentLeading Japanese entertainment firms Toho, Toei, Studio Khara and Tsuburaya Productions are joining forces to launch the Shin Japan Heroes Universe, a project modeled on the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Shin Japan Heroes brings together such iconic characters as Godzilla, Ultraman and Kamen Rider, as well as the world of anime maestro Anno Hideaki’s Evangelion sci-fi franchise.Details in Monday’s announcement were scanty, but the project team has revealed an emblem and visual showing all four “heroes” together, as well as a website.A starting point for the project was “Shin Godzilla” (translation: “New Godzilla”), the 2016 smash hit live-action film that Anno scripted and co-directed. It was followed by last year’s hit anime “Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time,” which was also directed by Anno for his Studio Khara anime house as the fourth and final film in the “Rebuild of Evangelion” film franchise.

Brett Bull Each January, the Motion Picture Producers Assn. of Japan holds a press conference to reveal the previous year’s box office data and its list of top-grossing films.One year ago — at what was then thought to be the height of the coronavirus pandemic — the event was a somber gathering: Receipts for 2020 were down a whopping 38% over the year before.On Jan.

Starz has released the official trailer for Shining Vale, its upcoming horror comedy starring Courteney Cox, Greg Kinnear and Mira Sorvino.