Vietnam Showbiz Latest News and Updates

Welcome to Deadline’s International Disruptors, a feature where we shine a spotlight on key executives and companies outside of the U.S. shaking up the offshore marketplace. This week, we’re talking to Vietnamese entrepreneur Minh Bui whose Beta Cinemas chain has introduced a new concept of affordable but trendy theatres to Vietnam’s fast-growing cinema market. Deadline sat down with Minh in Ho Chi Minh City to talk through how he launched the company, his business model and ambitions for the future. This was followed by an unannounced visit by Deadline to a Beta Cinemas site in Go Vap, Ho Chi Minh City, to watch a Vietnamese comedy accompanied by a very large tub of caramel popcorn, during which there were no discernible differences with the high-end multiplexes in the country (and the popcorn was delicious).

Convicted killer Charles Sobhraj has spent almost half of his life in prison. The French national was accused of committing a trail of robberies and scams in his 20s, which led to him being imprisoned in Afghanistan.

EXCLUSIVE: Jonathan Keasey, the scribe behind Danielle Deadwyler’s Parallel and Demi Lovato’s Tow, has signed on to adapt The Barracks Thief, a novella from award-winning author Tobias Wolff. 

Many may not know the name Shirley Chisholm, but it is not for lack of Hollywood trying to keep her flame alive. The seven-term Brooklyn congresswoman, who became the first African American woman elected to Congress when she won in 1968, also became the first woman and first African American to seek the nomination for President of either major party when she ran for the Democratic nomination in 1972. She defined the word “trailblazer” and her story is indeed inspiring, if also frustrating for all the obstacles she had to overcome in a male-dominated business of governing. Uzo Aduba won an Emmy for her supporting role as Chisholm the 2020 limited series Mrs. America, even as the series itself was focused on conservative gadfly Phyllis Schaffly played by Cate Blanchett. That series touched on the 1972 campaign and thus Chisholm as well, but now, after 15 years of trying, Regina King has realized a longtime goal of doing a movie solely focused on Chisholm. In addition to playing the title role, King is also a producer, probably facing the same stiff odds bringing Chisholm’s life to the screen that her subject faced in Congress, where she introduced more than 50 pieces of legislation during her career and truly made a difference.

Steve Brown has become a familiar face amongst BBC viewers as part of the presenting team on Escape To The Country, joining names such as Jules Hudson, Alistair Appleton, and Melissa Porter to front the show.The TV presenter joined the series in early 2017, helping the public purchase their dream property in rural areas of the UK. After exploring each house, the presenter asks the buyers to guess the asking price before revealing it. However, alongside his TV work, Steve is actually a sportsman at heart and is a former member and captain of the Great Britain wheelchair rugby squad.

a popular movie starring a young Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams. Like Pavlov’s pups, millennials habitually sob during that 2004 film, and the production has seized upon its teary reputation by selling branded tissue boxes. During the final 10 minutes, the noses are deafening.I suspect, however, that it is audience members’ fond memories of the movie and book, more so than the merely pleasant proceedings in the theater, that are prying open their tear ducts.Because as elegantly staged as “The Notebook” is by co-directors Michael Greif and Schele Williams, and despite boasting an appealing cast, the show amounts to a series of un-involving pencil sketches rather than a layered portrait of a decades-long love.Not a single change book writer Bekah Brunstetter has made improves the simple story’s effectiveness.

Pat Saperstein Deputy Editor Sam Mercer, producer on several M. Night Shyamalan movies and former head of ILM, died Feb.

Sam Mercer, who produced seven M. Night Shyamalan films including The Sixth Sense, headed Lucasfilm‘s Industrial Light & Magic and was location manager on several classic 1980s pics, has died. He was 69.

Patty Jenkins is still working on the screenplay for Star Wars: Rogue Squadron. This is per her appearance on the TCM/Max podcast. Many assumed the project was dead and it’s not.

Robert Kennedy Jr. confirmed to The New York Times that NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers and former Minnesota governor and professional wrestler Jesse Ventura were on the top of his shortlist to serve as his running mate in his independent presidential bid.

David Mixner, the activist and political strategist who lobbied — and protested — political figures in the movement for LGBTQ equality, died on Monday. He was 77.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Escaping Man,” a Chinese drama feature about a man dragged into a kidnap plot, heads the FilMart slate of Hong Kong-based sales agency Autumn Sun Company. The protagonist is a man who spent 20 years in jail after being falsely accused of rape. After his release, he intends to confront the woman, but instead falls for her again — to the point that she is able to manipulate him into kidnapping the child for which she is the nanny.

Naman Ramachandran Taiwan-based anime distribution and licensing company Muse Communication has acquired Asian distribution rights for anime “Dan Da Dan,” it was revealed at Hong Kong rights market FilMart on Monday. Written and illustrated by Yukinobu Tatsu, Japanese manga series “Dan Da Dan” was serialized in Shueisha’s Shonen Jump+ app and website from 2021. The anime series based on it is due to bow in October.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter Muhammad Ali will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2024, Variety has learned exclusively. Ali will be inducted during the Hall of Fame ceremony taking place on April 5 at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He will be inducted by his widow, Lonnie Ali.

Vietnamese distributor and producer Mockingbird Pictures is making its debut as an international sales agent at Filmart with a slate of local horror, comedies and action films, headed by record-breaking horror hit Crimson Snout (Quy Cau).

EXCLUSIVE: Specialty distributor 3388 Films has acquired rights to Vietnamese smash Mai, and has set a March 22 theatrical release across North America and Europe. From director Tran Thanh, the romance drama is now the No. 1 movie of all time in Vietnam, having crossed 500B VND ($20M) locally this past week. 

NewJeans attended the 2024 Billboard Women in Music Awards to receive the ‘Group of the Year’ award, saying it was “something we really don’t take for granted”.This year’s Billboard Women in Music awards ceremony took place on the evening of March 6 at Los Angeles’ YouTube Theater, with NewJeans named Group of the Year at the ceremony, making them the first-ever K-pop group to have done so in the awards’ history.After receiving their trophy from country musician Lainey Wilson, Australian-Vietnamese member Hanni expressed in her acceptance speech how starstruck she was to be in the same room with artists the group look up to.“To be here today celebrating Women’s History Month and to participate in an awards show that’s overflowing with such amazing artists is so surreal and it’s hard to believe we’re in the same room as you all,” Hanni said. “I’d like to thank all the artists that are here because without your music, I don’t think we would have been able to grow up so inspired.

After a successful return as a physical event last year, Hong Kong International Film & TV Market (Filmart, March 11-14) is taking place again this year against a complicated backdrop, both in terms of market realities and the shifting geopolitics of the region. 

Room to Read, a global education nonprofit tackling illiteracy and gender inequality, announced a partnership with Warner Bros. Discovery for the premiere of , the first nonprofit-led animation and live-action film project to promote gender equality through the stories of young women around the world.

Naman Ramachandran Warner Bros. Discovery and Room to Read have partnered on “She Creates Change,” an animation and live-action film project to promote gender equality through the stories of young women around the world. Room to Read is a global education nonprofit aiming to creating a world free from illiteracy and gender inequality.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Atlas Distribution Company, a U.S. indie distributor, has set Vietnamese-American co-production film “A Fragile Flower” on course for a theatrical release in the U.S. Produced by the duo Mai Thu Huyen and Jacqueline Thu Thao, the romantic musical drama, with a screenplay by Vietnamese singing sensation Nhat Ha, is set debut from Mar.

Blink-182‘s Tom DeLonge has written a new sci-fi novel, which will hit shelves this summer.The musician has teamed up with frequent collaborator AJ Hartley to co-write Trinity, a novel loosely based on a purported UFO event around a nuclear testing site.The book will be published on June 11 via his To the Stars Media company and distributed by Simon & Schuster.“This story takes place around a seminal UFO event that I believe happened,” DeLonge said. “Although the location may have been changed, the importance of what I believe transpired remains.

Saturday Night Live host Shane Gillis sported a mullet and a southern accent to play Ricky Monroe, an alum of Greenbow High School who graduated alongside Forrest Gump.

Lunar New Year is a key box office period in several Asian territories, but nowhere was it more hotly contested this year than in Vietnam, where several local, Japanese and Hollywood movies were slugging it over the week-long holidays (February 9-15).

Hill Harper left his hit ABC series The Good Doctor at the end of season six and now the show has revealed how they are handling his absence.

Hill Harper‘s exit from The Good Doctor was addressed in the Season 7 premiere of the ABC medical drama.

A woman who was "unceremoniously" dumped on her 50th birthday while on holiday is now helping other midlife singles find love and navigate the online dating world, often giving men tips such as not posting inappropriate photos or pictures of themselves in cycling shorts on their Tinder profiles.

The teaser trailer for HBO’s upcoming limited series The Sympathizer has debuted online!

Gisele Bundchen is celebrating New York Fashion Week with a star-studded party!

Pat Saperstein Deputy Editor In the months since it has premiered at Cannes, “The Taste of Things,” a lushly romantic love letter to French cooking, has quickly been anointed one of the best food-focused movies ever made. The film, now playing in selected theaters, revolves around the romance between Juliette Binoche‘s Eugénie and wealthy gourmet Dodin Bouffant, played by Binoche’s former real-life partner Benoît Magimel.