Tamsen Fadal’s Nationally Syndicated Broadway Show Gets New Name (EXCLUSIVE)

Carole Horst While the Korean film business faces challenges, 2022 does offer a bumper crop of Korean movies from big-name filmmakers. Here are some of the best:The Apartment With Two Women(Finecut)Kim-se In’s debut drama unspools in the Berlin Film Festival’s Panorama section.Broker (CJ Entertainment)“Shoplifters” director Kore-eda Hirokazu examines the trade in children in his Korean-language film debut.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefAlmost two years since “Parasite” won a handful of Oscars, the impact of COVID has meant that the Korean theatrical sector has been largely unable to capitalize on the trickle-down effect of those wins. Its current malaise stands in contrast to the pandemic windfalls enjoyed by other parts of the Korean entertainment biz — think BTS, Blackpink, “Squid Game” and the latest streaming phenomenon “All of Us Are Dead.”The current year potentially holds great things for Korean film, with nearly all of the country’s top-name directors having completed works, but the prospect remains tantalizingly out of reach.And the longer the hard times continue, the less likely a return to the old normal becomes.

Alissa Simon Film CriticVeteran Swedish documentary maker Magnus Gertten’s “Nelly & Nadine,” a love story that begins in the hell of the Ravensbrück concentration camp, world-premieres in Berlin. Rise and Shine World Sales reps this Panorama title“Nelly & Nadine” is the third film you have made inspired by archival footage showing survivors from German concentration camps arriving in Malmö, Sweden. What motivated you to start this project?  It all started out of curiosity.

webtoon 7Fates: CHAKHO.‘Stay Alive’, performed by vocalist Jungkook and produced by rapper Suga, dropped alongside a dramatic promotional video, which mixes animation from the webtoon and live-action scenes featuring the boyband.Despite being performed solely by Jungkook, the video for ‘Stay Alive’ features in-person appearances from all seven members of BTS. The video also notably uses a truncated, two-and-a-half minute version of the song.

Lucy Dacus suffered two herniated discs. Rather than cancel the show, however, she performed the entire set while lying down on a couch.She clued fans in on the situation just hours before the show begun, sharing a photo of herself lying down with the caption, “Sup, I have two herniated discs and the only way I’m not in pain is laying down SO tonight’s show I will be singing from a couch, I am both sorry and also pleased to offer this most humiliating and hilarious moment to you good people of Detroit.”“I am telling myself I am punk for this,” she joked in a Tweet, to many responses agreeing earnestly.I am telling myself I am punk for this please do not say otherwise I'm fragile pic.twitter.com/qpdu6rOUCq— Lucy Dacus (@lucydacus) February 10, 2022Despite being forced to deviate from her usual performance style, Dacus gave the sold-out crowd a riveting performance, with her vocal skills as sharp as ever.

Kate Garraway found herself having to defend her latest fashion choice during the latest edition of Good Morning Britain.The 54-year-old presenter was back on our screens on Friday morning alongside co-host Ben Shephard.As the pair finished going through the latest headlines, Ben let out a cheeky giggle.Kate asked her co-star what he was laughing at and he quickly admitted that her outfit had caught his eye.

Bob Saget, the "Full House" alum who died after being found unresponsive in an Orlando hotel room last month, suffered multiple fractures prior to his death, according to a report. The New York Post’s Page Six, citing the Orange County Medical Examiner’s office, reported that his skull had several fractures and concluded that it is likely that he fell backward and hit the "posterior aspect of his head." He had bleeding and contusions to his brain, the paper said.  Bob Saget attends the Women's Guild Cedars-Sinai Annual Gala at The Maybourne Beverly Hills on November 03, 2021 in Beverly Hills, California.

Council chiefs in South Ayrshire insist they won't levy extra parking charges on workplaces.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentUndeterred by the pandemic, the wheels of Switzerland’s film production machine kept on spinning in 2021, churning out the meticulously made multicultural co-productions the country is known for that scored slots at top festivals.Works by young directors such as Elie Grappe, whose coming-of-age drama “Olga” launched at Cannes; Niccolò Castelli’s terrorism-themed “Atlas,” which bowed at Locarno; and also the VR project “Caves” by Carlos Isabel Garcìa, which premiered at Venice; provided a preamble to the exceptionally strong Swiss presence at this year’s Berlinale.Berlin sees a record-breaking two competition slots filled by new works from established Swiss directors, Ursula Meier’s “The Line” and Michael Koch’s “A Piece of Sky,” plus several more Swiss titles in other sections. “In the worst year ever we shot three productions back-to-back during the pandemic; somehow we got used to it,” says Oscar-nominated Max Karli (“My Life as a Zucchini”), who is among the producers of “The Line” via his Geneva-based Bandita Productions, in tandem with Pauline Gygax.In Switzerland, the film and TV industry held firm last year as one of the few sectors where camera crews and actors continued to work, unlike advertising, which shuttered completely for many months.“It was quite hard because we were shooting without insurance pertaining to anything linked to the pandemic,” Karli says, though some government subsidies were made available for physical productions struck by COVID infections.But, as Karli and other Swiss producers point out, Switzerland is a confederation.

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentLola Arabia, the United Arab Emirates label of Oscar-winning Spanish producer Andrés Vicente Gómez (“Belle Epoque”), has struck a 12-movie co-production deal with Dubai-based Charisma Group.The alliance will take in a range of titles, from $2 million-budgeted contemporary comedies to banner productions budgeted at $40 million, revolving around contemporary and historic stories of West Asia.The partners aim to produce an average of four films a year, said Charisma Group co-president Ayham Al Ziyoud.Development has begun on the whole slate. “Although in principle we plan projects with modest budgets, these will be increased in the following year once we find the rights partners outside the Gulf States,” Gómez said.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentAt 81, Italian horror maestro Dario Argento is busier than ever.The director of a string of cult chiller classics starting in the 1970s, including “The Bird With the Crystal Plumage,” “Suspiria” and “Deep Red,” was at Cannes last July with his acting debut in Gaspar Noe’s “Vortex,” about a pair of old lovers. Argento was also celebrated last year with a new book by Italian critic Steve Della Casa and a retro at New York’s Lincoln Center.

Liverpool star Luis Diaz was so good on his Premier League debut against Leicester that he had the BT Sport pundits “drooling” over him, according to Michael Owen.There is a lot of excitement around Diaz, who joined Liverpool in the January transfer window from Porto for an initial fee of £37.5million, which could increase by a further £12.5m.Liverpool fans got a chance to see him for the first time in the 3-1 win over Cardiff City in the FA Cup on the weekend, but the Colombian international made his full debut at Anfield on Thursday night. He didn’t disappoint, putting in an exciting performance on the left side of Jurgen Klopp ’s front three as the hosts ran out 2-0 winners over Leicester.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and Media“Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” delivered the sizzle that struggling movie theaters so desperately needed, debuting to $71.4 million in its inaugural weekend.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaWhen Namir Smallwood took the stage for the first preview of his first show on Broadway, the audience gave him and his “Pass Over” co-star Jon Michael Hill a thunderous standing ovation. They stood and shouted for the actors, but also in recognition of the history being made that night in at the August Wilson Theatre, where “Pass Over” has become the first show to return after more than a year of COVID-related closures.“As soon as the curtain went up people were going crazy,” remembers Smallwood.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaMarvel’s “Shang-Chi and the Ten Rings” debuted to $8.8 million in Thursday night previews. The impressive number is the second highest preview result of COVID times, just behind the $13.2 million that “Black Widow” pulled in two months ago.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaUri Singer has obtained the rights “Invitation to a Beheading,” a surrealist and politically charged work by Vladimir Nabokov, the author of “Lolita.”Singer has been carving out a niche for himself by developing literary classics into potential films. He recently obtained the rights to Kurt Vonnegut’s “Hocus Pocus” and Don DeLillo’s “The Silence.” He is also producing another DeLillo adaptation “White Noise,” which is currently filming with Noah Baumbach directing Adam Driver and Greta Gerwig.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaReed Birney, the stage and screen veteran best known for his Tony-winning turn in “The Humans,” has joined the packed cast of Mark Mylod’s “The Menu.” The Searchlight Pictures dark comedy has already lined up an impressive ensemble of heavyweight talent, including the previously announced Anya Taylor Joy and Ralph Fiennes. The rest of the cast includes such award winners and film favorites as Hong Chau, Nicholas Hoult, John Leguizamo, Janet McTeer, and Judith Light.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaNina Dobrev, Jamie Chung, Michael Hitchcock and Chace Crawford will round out the cast of “Reunion,” an ensemble comedy from Artists Road. They join the previously announced Lil Rel Howery, Billy Magnussen and Jillian Bell in the film about a murder that takes place during a high school reunion party.

EXCLUSIVE: LeToya Luckett (Ballers, Greenleaf), Omar Dorsey (Queen Sugar, Harriet), Krystal Joy Brown (Hamilton, The Equalizer) and Paulina Singer (Dead of Summer, Gotham) are set to join Starz/Lionsgate’s Power prequel series, Power Book III: Raising Kanan in recurring roles.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaFemale directors had a better chance of having their documentaries screened at film festivals than their narrative features, according to a new study.Women accounted for 42% of directors, writers, producers, executive producers, editors and cinematographers on documentaries that were featured in Sundance, SXSW, AFI, New York Film Festival and other annual celebrations of moviemaking. In contrast, they comprised 35% of those working on narrative features at those same festivals.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaJay Duplass is the raging id at the center of “The Chair,” a new Netflix miniseries about an English professor who makes a tasteless joke that lands him in the middle of a massive social-media fueled controversy.