Patrick: Last News

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Mixed martial arts franchise One Championship has come on board “The Beast in Me,” a sports action film starring Russell Crowe and Daniel MacPherson (“Land of Bad,” “Foundation”). In the film, MacPherson plays an out-of-work former MMA fighter who suffers a personal tragedy involving his brother. With the help of a veteran trainer played by Crowe, he sets out to avenge his brother by coming out of retirement to compete in One Championship.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Jon Bell’s “The Moogai” was Saturday named winner of the Film Prize at Western Australia’s CinefestOZ festival. With a cash award of A$100,000 ($67,000), it is one of the richest film festival prizes in the world. Sarah and Fergus, a hopeful young Aboriginal couple, give birth to their second baby. But what should be a joyous time of their lives becomes sinister when Sarah starts seeing a malevolent spirit that she is convinced is trying to take her baby.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Columbia Pictures’ “Venom: The Last Dance” has received approval for an Oct. 23, 2024, theatrical release date in China. The date is coordinated with the film’s release in other international territories and is two days ahead of its outing in North America. All foreign films seeking entry into China are subject to import controls and to censorship.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief A handful of holdover confirmed their resilience on what was otherwise a deathly quiet weekend at the mainland China box office. Chinese crime actioner, “Go for Broke” (aka “Chong Sheng”) earned RMB35.4 million ($5.0 million) between Friday and Sunday, according to data from consultancy firm Artisan Gateway. That lifted it to first place in its fourth weekend of release and gives it a cumulative of $53.4 million.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Cinema box office in South Korea amounted to a dismal $5.45 million over the weekend, propelling “Alien: Romulus” back to top spot, despite the film’s steep week-on-week decline. Among new releases there was joy for a Korean-produced panda documentary and disappointment for “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.” “Alien: Romulus” earned $905,000 between Friday and Sunday, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council.

Addie Morfoot Contributor In the Toronto Film Festival documentary “Space Cowboy,” the triumphs and tragedies of skydiving cinematographer Joe Jennings are examined. Jennings’ desire to film an open-top automobile falling from the sky with four passengers sitting in the car is the narrative device used to structure the story. Jennings’ successful marriage and the decades he spent capturing seminal aerial moments with his camera for extreme sports competitions, Super Bowl commercials, and Hollywood films, including “Charlie’s Angels” and “XXX” are all part of the 98-minute docu directed by Marah Strauch (“Sunshine Superman”) and Bryce Leavitt.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Taiwan-based Andrews Film has picked up international sales rights to drama film “Daughter’s Daughter” ahead of its premiere in the Platform section of the Toronto International Film Festival. Directed by Huang Xi (“Missing Johnny”), the film has an impeccable pedigree flowing from its executive producers Hou Hsiao-hsien and Sylvia Chang. Taiwan industry icon, Chang also stars in the picture, alongside Karena Lam and Eugenie Liu (“Old Fox”).

EXCLUSIVE: The L.A.-based Screamfest Horror Film Festival has unveiled the first wave lineup for its 24th edition, taking place at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood from October 8-17.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Specialty sales and finance firm Rediance has picked up international sales rights to “Bound in Heaven,” the directorial debut feature of experienced Chinese screenwriter Hou Xin. The tragic love story will have its world premiere this week in the Centerpiece section of the Toronto International Film Festival. It will subsequently travel to San Sebastian for its European debut. Adapted from the novel of the same title by Liu Xiuwen, the drama centers around a successful young woman who lives in the city with her abusive fiance and a lonely terminally ill man running a noodle shop in Wuhan.

Netflix subscribers say they can't stop watching an 'unbelievably good' Netflix drama that reminds them of Grey's Anatomy. Breathless, a Spanish-language medical series, dropped on the platform last week (August 30).

Patrick Corcoran Will the industry draw the right lessons from this summer’s successes and failures? It’s a tradition at the end of the summer to opine on lessons learned about what kinds of movies worked and why, and to extrapolate from that “what audiences want.” This focus is always too narrow and tries to prove too much. It also drives a mad chase after what worked or didn’t work in this season as markers for what will or won’t work in the future.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Stranger Eyes,” Yeo Siew Hua’s powerful film about surveillance and the surveilled, has been selected as the opening title for the Golden Horse Film Festival in Taiwan. The film, which is structured as a co-production between Singapore and Taiwan, stars Taiwan film icon Lee Kang-sheng alongside Wu Chien-ho, Vera Chen and Anicca Panna. In ‘Stranger Eyes,’ a young couple begins to receive strange videos after the mysterious disappearance of their baby daughter and realize that someone has been filming their daily life — even their most intimate moments.

The trailer for Amy Adams' latest film has left fans divided. Nightb****, an upcoming psychological comedy horror, is slated for release later this month.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Thai auteur, Sivaroj Kongsakul made his feature directorial debut with “Eternity,” which screened at festivals including Busan, Rotterdam and Hong Kong back in 2010. Having waited for over a decade, Kongsakul has chosen to entwine the fates of an old man, a little girl and a young soldier in his second feature, “Regretfully at Dawn.” The new film is confirmed to premiere in the New Directors section at the San Sebastian festival and will follow that shortly after with an appearance xx in Busan International Film Festival in October. The film is very different from “Eternity” and from Kongsakul’s recent TV work. In a small province not far from Bangkok, the life of Yong Junjam (portrayed by Surachai Juntimatorn, who is better-known as a veteran Thai rock musician) at first seems typical of an old man.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Chinese director Lou Ye’s pandemic-era docu-drama film which has its North American premiere this week at the Toronto International Film Festival will have a commercial release in the market in early 2025.North American rights to the film, which premiered in Cannes in May, have been picked up by indie distributor Film Movement. Sales are handled by the film’s co-producer The Coproduction Office. Plans for the film’s North American roll-out include a 2025 theatrical release, as well as distribution on leading digital platforms and in the home entertainment marketplace. Set in January 2020, “An Unfinished Film” follows director Xiaorui who convinces his cast and crew to resume the shooting of a film halted ten years earlier.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Busan International Film Festival will expand its screening program by some 8% in what it calls “an effort to maintain a scale befitting Asia’s top film festival.” This is despite a 50% cut in government financial support. The festival will open on Oct. 2 with “Uprising,” a star-studded period drama from Netflix that was scripted and produced by Park Chan-wook (“Oldboy”) and directed by Kim Sang-man.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Manta, one of the leading platforms for subscription-based digital comics, says it will add over 300 webcomic titles over the next year. It is also revamping its in-app currency, GEM.The company, which is owned by Korea’s RIDI Corporation, launched in 2020 and has become the number one comics app on Google Play in certain territories, including the U.S., Mexico and Spain. Manta, known for its successful ‘romantasy’ titles such as “I’ve Become a True Villainess,” and “Betrayal of Dignity,” will launch a new season of its top title “Under the Oak Tree” on Tuesday and go on to introduce about 50 series from Manta Studios and its partners within the month. Manta, which also carries “Solo Leveling,” “Villains Are Destined to Die” and “Daughter of the Emperor,” will add “over 300 webcomic titles from now through early next year.”Webtoons are a made-for-mobile genre of comics, that have become another Asian entertainment category that is having fast-growing international success, following the expansion of Japanese anime, Korean TV drama and K-pop.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Park Hoon-jung, an in-demand director of action-noir films, will begin production this month on “Tristes Tropiques.” The picture will be launched to distributors on the sidelines of the Toronto International Film Festival by Finecut, which is to handle sales rights. The film follows a group of young assassins affiliated with the Tristes Tropiques organization, which specializes in jungle warfare and is under the absolute rule of Master. The production will be located in Thailand and run from September to December. Finecut reports that it will boast an international cast adept at diverse styles of action, but it offers no details of either the Korean or foreign elements. “Tristes Tropiques” is produced by director Park’s own production company, Gold Moon Film and is co-produced by Mindmark, a content IP company owned by the Shinsegae department stores and duty-free shopping group.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Alien: Romulus” claimed a third weekend win at the mainland China box office. And Thai comedy “How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies” climbed into the top five on its second week of release in the Middle Kingdom. But those bright spots for imported titles underlined the currently poor performance of Chinese-made films which have dragged the Chinese summer season lower. “Alien: Romulus” earned RMB63.4 million ($8.9 million) between Friday and Sunday, according to data supplied by consultancy firm Artisan Gateway.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Concert film, “Lim Young Woong IM HERO The Stadium” was the top-grossing film at the South Korean cinema box office over the latest weekend, ahead of conventional narrative movies ‘Alien: Romulus” and “Pilot.” Data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic) show “IM HERO” to have earned $1.89 million between Friday and Sunday and $3.47 million over its five-day opening frame. “Alien: Romulus” earned $1.66 million in its third weekend and has a 19-day cumulative of $12.5 million. However, local convention allocates chart ranking according to spectator numbers.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief A love triangle involving a middle-aged couple and a younger woman is exposed and scrutinized from every angle when a professional breakup agent is employed in Elizabeth Lo’s “Mistress Dispeller.” The Chinese-U.S. documentary, which plays in Venice’s Horizons section, is extraordinary for both the candor of the subjects and the film’s exceptional fly-on-the-wall setup. The film’s static opening shot, depicting a woman quietly weeping under the dryer as she gets a new hairdo, sets the tone.