News

Since we live in a time when every single film ever produced should be remade at least once, it’s fair to expect a new reimagining of some intellectual property come out every other few week or so. Some of those, like the recent English-language version of Speak No Evil, manage not only to capitalize on the already existing qualities of the original, but to also expand on them and possibly introduce something novel. Right now, it’s time for a new take on Bad Genius (Chalard games goeng) – a memorable Thai hit from 2017 about a brilliant highschooler who helps her well-off classmates cheat during exams. The 2024 film, shot in English and transferring the setting to Seattle, is penned by J.C. Lee (for whom it’s...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

The New York Asian Film Foundation and Film at Lincoln Center announce the 23rd edition of the New York Asian Film Festival (Nyaff), running July 12–22 at Film at Lincoln Center, with additional screenings from July 22–28 at the Sva Theatre and July 13–15, 18–21, and 23–25 at Look Cinemas W57, plus a special collaborative presentation of films at the Korean Cultural Center New York.

“For so many, Asian films start and end with Parasite or Everything Everywhere All At Once (who could blame them?), but the real action is happening in the trenches of Asian cinema, where audacious auteurs and daring debutantes are unleashing a tidal wave of talent that's about to crash on American shores,” said Samuel Jamier, festival director and president of the New York Asian Film Foundation. “This year's festival is like sriracha sauce – it's spicy, it's tangy, it's got a kick that'll wake up your senses. And it's hard to find right now!

Reminiscent of the outsized Chinese box office success once enjoyed by a certain genre of Hollywood movie – think “Expendables 3,” Pacific Rim” and “Transformers: Age of Extinction” – some Japanese anime films are now earning more in China than they are in their native Japan.

Last year, “Suzume” (pictured above) earned $117 million in China, coming in ahead of the film’s $104 million total in Japan.

And this year, Oscar winner “The Boy and the Heron,” despite its late release in China, enjoyed Middle Kingdom gross revenues of $109 million, dwarfing that of Japan, where the film was received more tepidly and earned only $57 million.

The scale of the China theatrical market has occasionally thrown up other examples of outsized success — in 2016, “Dangal” earned $190 million in China, compared with its already huge $77 million in India; the same year “Bad Genius” earned $41 million in China, compared with its $3.3 million in its native Thailand; Luc Besson...

Led by Cj Enm Hong Kong, in collaboration with the Hong Kong Tourism Board, the micro-series project “Hong Kong in The Lens By Asian Directors” features three short films directed by filmmakers from Korea, the Philippines, and Thailand, showcasing the vibrancy of the city of Hong Kong. Nattawut “Baz” Poonpiriya, the director behind 2017's phenomenal success “Bad Genius”, writes and directs “Zi Mui” the Thai contribution to the project.

Zi Mui is screening at Short Shorts Film Festival and Asia

Two young Thai women are sitting at the counter of a hip cocktails bar in Central, Hong Kong, showing the phone to a hunky bartender (Sebastian Mok). They are sisters, April and May (real life sisters Ploi and Cris Horwang) and they are looking for a beautiful young singer named Joyleen (Leanne Jackson), pictured on the phone in an affectionate pose with their dad. May, the eldest, is pressing the bartender to help them,...

Exclusive: New Line’s horror thriller Weapons has rounded out its cast with the addition of Benedict Wong (3 Body Problem), Amy Madigan (Antlers), Austin Abrams (Euphoria), and Cary Christopher (Days of Our Lives).

As previously announced, Josh Brolin, Julia Garner and Alden Ehrenreich will lead the cast.

Pic’s plot and all roles are under wraps. Written and directed by Zach Cregger, it marks his follow-up to Barbarian, the horror film marking his debut solo outing which opened #1 at the box office in 2022 and sits at 93% on Rotten Tomatoes. Starring Georgina Campbell, Bill Skarsgård, and Justin Long, that film grossed ten times its production budget of $4.5 million to ultimately take in more than $45 million worldwide.

Cregger will also produce Weapons alongside his Barbarian producing team, Roy Lee of Vertigo and J.D. Lifshitz and Raphael Margules of BoulderLight Pictures, as well as Vertigo’s Miri Yoon.

Best known for his...

Zdf Latest To ‘Race Across The World’

A six-part series based on Studio Lambert’s Race Across the World is set to air on German pubcaster Zdf in spring 2025. Planning is underway for casting and filming is set for the fall, with All3Media’s German producer, Tower, attached to make the show. Kirstin Benthaus-Gebauer will be the producer with Friederike Haedecke, Johannes Geiger, Thorsten Haas and Daniel Nemetschek the editors. The original BBC show has run to strong ratings in the UK for three seasons and one celebrity series. New seasons of both versions have been commissioned after the the first ep of the celebrity run drew 6.2 million viewers, consolidating the format’s position among the BBC’s top factual programs. The German deal, struck with distributor All3Media International, marks the fifth international version of the show, coming after three seasons on TV2 in Denmark, an upcoming production on MTV Katsomo and MTV3 in Finland,...

South Korean sales outfit K-Movie Entertainment has boarded upcoming Thai action horror Operation Undead and is introducing the title to buyers at the European Film Market (EFM) in Berlin.

The film, now in production, is set in 1941 and centres on a unit of Thai soldiers who are pitted against invading Japanese forces with a terrifying biological weapon, which has plans of its own. A first look at the film can be seen above.

The leader of the unit is played by Awat Ratanapintha, the star of gritty romantic drama Doi Boy, which premiered at Busan in October and was acquired by Netflix.

Gdh plans to acquire three to four international films per year.

Bangkok-based Gdh 559 has acquired Celine Song’s Past Lives from A24, which it will release theatrically in Thailand as its first non-Thai film.

Gdh is expanding into the theatrical distribution of international features through new business unit Out Of The Box. The US romantic drama, which proved one of the most critically lauded selections at this year’s Sundance and Berlinale, will be released in Thai cinemas on July 6.

The Korean and English-language drama centres on childhood friends who reunite in New York two decades after one family emigrated from South Korea.

Box office headlines have lately been dominated by Hollywood movies like Universal’s “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” which has become the first movie of the year to hit $1 billion, and Disney’s “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3.” But a closer look at the global box office recovery indicates that Tinseltown does not have the field to itself.

In fact, international films and markets — not the United States — are driving the current global box office recovery. In some territories, local-language titles are even dominant over Hollywood releases. And the overall scale of overseas ticket sales now dwarfs that of North America by more than two to one.

In the first weekend in May, the global box office charts were led by “Super Mario.” But the top 10 ranking also contained five non-English-language titles, according to data service Comscore. Three were Chinese, one was Japanese “(The First Slam Dunk”) and one...

Benedict Wong, Bel-Air star Jabari Banks, and Callina Liang are set to star in the English-language remake of Thai hit Bad Genius.

Picturestart and Picture Perfect Federation are behind the project that will be directed by Jc Lee from a script he wrote with Julius Onah. Shooting is expected to begin this May.

The film’s synopsis describes it as “a high-stakes, high-octane thriller about a diverse group of young people who team up to fight the system of injustice and inequity and take down the rigged academic institutions around them.”

The original film, titled Chalard Games Goeng (Bad Genius), was written and directed by Nattawut Poonpiriya and produced by Thai film studio Gdh 559 Company Limited. Released in 2017, the film broke box office records in Thailand, including becoming the highest-grossing Thai film of the year.

Erik Feig and Jessica Switch will produce via the Picturestart with Picture Perfect Federation’s...

Major pre-sales closed ahead of scheduled May production start. Mallory Edens’ Little Ray Media financing.

Picturestart and Picture Perfect Federation have set Jc Lee to direct the English-language remake of Thai hit Bad Genius (Chalard Games Goeng) and have cast rising stars Callina Liang (Tell Me Everything) and Jabari Banks (Bel-Air) alongside Benedict Wong (Doctor Strange franchise).

Picture Perfect Federation has also announced a raft of pre-sales, closing deals for the UK (Studiocanal), Australia/ New Zealand (Roadshow), France (Metropolitan), Germany and Austria (Constantin), Italy (Leone), and Latin America (Sun).

Rights have also gone in Japan (Gaga), Benelux (Belga), Scandinavia (Nordisk...

“Luce” writer Jc Lee is set to make his directorial debut with “Bad Genius,” the upcoming English-language remake of the 2017 hit Thai film “Chalard Games Goeng (Bad Genius).”

Picturestart and Picture Perfect Federation are producing the project, which will star Benedict Wong (“Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness”) alongside up-and-coming talent Callina Liang (“Tell Me Everything”) and Jabari Banks (“Bel-Air”). The film is financed by Mallory Edens’ Little Ray Media and will begin production in May.

The original film was written and directed by Nattawut Poonpiriya and produced by Thai film studio Gdh 559 Company Limited. The movie debuted at No. 1 at the Thai box office, quickly becoming the country’s highest-grossing Thai film of the year and, ultimately, the most internationally successful Thai film ever.

In addition to directing the remake, Lee reteams with “Luce” filmmaker Julius Onah to pen the script for “Bad Genius.” Their adaptation is described as “a high-stakes,...

Picturestart and Picture Perfect Federation have set Jc Lee to direct the English-language remake of Thai hit Bad Genius and also announced key cast members as well as a raft of international presales.

Lee also takes co-writing credits for the English-language screenplay with Julius Onah, who was previously announced as the director. The pair previously collaborated on the Sundance 2019 title Luce, adapted from Lee’s original play of the same name.

Up-and-coming talents Callina Liang, star of Itvx teen drama Tell Me Everything, and Jabari Banks (Bel-Air) will star with veteran UK actor Benedict Wong (Doctor Stranger In The Multiverse Of Madness).

The English remake is billed as a high-stakes, high-octane thriller about a diverse group of young people who team up to fight the system of injustice and inequity and take down the rigged academic institutions around them.

It is produced by Erik Feig and Jessica Switch at Picturestart...

Leading Thai production and sales company Gdh 559 is introducing comedy drama Not Friends and twin sister story You & Me & Me to buyers at Filmart, produced respectively by award-winning directors Baz Poonpiriya and Banjong Pisanthanakun.

The new films mark the first time both renowned filmmakers have acted as producer for other directors.

Baz is the director of Thai box office hit Bad Genius and Sundance award-winning One For The Road, while Banjong is the filmmaker behind acclaimed horror The Medium and Pee Mak, which became Thailand’s highest grossing-film of all time when it was released in 2013.

Not...

"Do it until it's right!" Netflix has launched the official trailer for an intense thriller film called Hunger, made in Thailand about the food industry in Thailand. At first glance this reminds me of The Menu, but it also seems a bit more like FX's "The Bear" meets Eyes Wide Shut (yeah check it out). With a few sprinkles of The Platform thrown in. "Experience the kind of hunger you have never seen before... in Hunger." A woman running her family's noodle restaurant receives an invite to join the fine-dining industry under the tutelage of an infamous chef. Model Chutimon Chuengcharoensukying stars as Amy, a young woman who gets taken into a high society cooking company called "Hunger" and learns how insane people are up there. The film also stars Nopachai Jayanama and Gunn Svasti Na Ayudhya . This will be streaming on Netflix in April worldwide - I definitely need to watch this.

Netflix has revealed the first images from “Hunger,” an upcoming Thai drama film in which a woman in her twenties chases her dreams in the unsavory world of fine dining.

The film stars Chutimon Chuengcharoensukying, locally known as ‘Aokbab’ and internationally recognized as the star of “Bad Genius,” in the lead role. She plays alongside Gunn Svasti Na Ayudhya (“Diary of Tootsies”) as the sous-chef who gives her a break and Nopachai ‘Peter’ Jayanama as her ingenious and intolerant rival.

Directed by Sitisiri Mongkolsiri and produced by Kongdej Jaturanrasame and Soros Sukhum (“Memoria”) through Song Sound Productions, the show is expected to be uploaded in April.

“Hunger” is part of a wider menu of Thai-language films and series content set out by Netflix late last year. Other Thai contnet in the pipeline included writer-director Prueksa Amaruji’s dark comedy film “Lost Lotteries”; veteran director Wisit Sasanatieng (“Tears of the Black...

Click here to read the full article.

Netflix has released the first trailer for its Thai original series Thai Cave Rescue, a docudrama of the incredible rescue of the Wild Boars boys soccer team that captivated the world in 2018.

Filmed entirely in Thailand, Thai Cave Rescue is told from the local perspective, and the trailer captures the fear faced by the boys as the cave filled with water and the scale of the rescue operation the international team faced as they raced against time and the elements.

The six-episode limited series will release on Netflix worldwide on Sept. 22.

Created by Michael Russell Gunn (Billions, Designated Survivor) and Dana Ledoux Miller (Designated Survivor, Narcos), Thai Cave Rescue is co-directed by Thai hitmaker Baz Poonpiriya (One for the Road, Bad Genius) and Thai-American director Kevin Tancharoen (The Brothers Sun, The Book of Boba Fett, Warrior). Gunn and Miller also serve as co-showrunners and writers of the project.

Nyaff is thrilled to announce that the 20th Anniversary edition of the New York Asian Film Festival (Nyaff) will kick off on July 15 with the international premiere of the propulsively-paced Thai romantic comedy Fast & Feel Love, directed by Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit.

The director will be joined at Film at Lincoln Center on opening night by his leading actress, Urassaya “Yaya” Sperbund, who is being honored with the Screen International Rising Star award.

Nat Kitcharit in Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit’s “Fast & Feel Love”

In Fast & Feel Love, Sperbund plays the supportive girlfriend of a world champion sport stacker (Nat Kitcharit) who only has time for his game. When she finally comes to her senses and dumps him, he must learn basic adulting skills to find a way to win her back.

“This is the perfect film for an opening that marks a true return to theaters as well as Nyaff’s 20th anniversary,...

The 20th Anniversary edition of the New York Asian Film Festival (Nyaff) will kick off on July 15 with the international premiere of the propulsively-paced Thai romantic comedy Fast & Feel Love, directed by Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit.

The director will be joined at Lincoln Center on opening night by his leading actress, Urassaya “Yaya” Sperbund, who is being honored with the Screen International Rising Star award.

“This is the perfect film for an opening that marks a true return to theaters as well as Nyaff’s 20th anniversary,” said Samuel Jamier, Executive Director of Nyaff and President of the New York Asian Film Foundation, in remarks to Screen International, which broke the news.

“Nearly as fast-moving as its sport-stacking protagonist, it hits all the right notes, from broad humor to poignant drama, and gives every character a show-stopping moment or two — as well as hilarious and clever cinephile moments. As the film says,...

Nattawut “Baz” Poonpiriya kills it once again with his hotly-anticipated feature, “One for the Road.” The Thai director first attracted attention with his 2017 high school testing heist, “Bad Genius” (now available on Netflix!) — the highest grossing film of the year in his homeland. Now, in his 2021 feature, he’s joined forces with legendary Hong Kong producer Wong Kar-wai to spin a nostalgic tale with a modern twist.

“One for the Road” is screening at Udine Far East Film Festival

“One for the Road” kicks off at New York bar. Boss (Tor Thanapob) is an attractive, but noncommittal bartender; he treats his customers with more than just drinks on the regular. One night, an old friend from Bangkok, Aood (Ice Natara) asks him to return. It turns out that Aood has cancer, and furthermore, has a strange request: he wants to revisit all of his exes again before he dies. Boss...

Production and sales outfit to sell ‘Fast And Feel Love’ and ‘Love Destiny The Movie’.

Major Thai production and sales outfit Gdh 559 returns to Filmart Online with two new titles: romantic comedy drama Fast And Feel Love and TV drama series spin-off Love Destiny The Movie.

Presented at the virtual Hong Kong market for the first time, Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit’s Fast And Feel Love centres on a world champion of sport stacking who, when dumped by his long-time girlfriend, has to learn basic adult skills to take care of himself.

The film stars Nat Kitcharit (4 Kings), Urassaya Sperbund (Brother Of The Year...

Brisk business around US packages and a raft of deals on festival titles signal green shoots of recovery.

Sony’s $60m acquisition of Tom Hanks comedy A Man Called Otto delivered a shot of adrenalin into the first days of the EFM market and was swiftly followed by some eye-catching deals on the early festival titles.

Golden Bear contender Fire has sold to 30 territories for Anton and Wild Bunch International (Wbi) and further competition films Rimini (Coproduction Office) and Return To Dust (m-appeal) as well as Berlinale Special Gala titles Call Jane (Protagonist) and Dark Glasses (Wbi) have also posted sales.

After a banner 2021 for high-end genre films, industry vets are hopeful that the fantastic can resurrect the corpse of pre-covid theatrical distribution.

As bolts of lightning reanimated the body of Frankenstein’s monster, Julia Ducournau’s “Titane,” which turned heads when it took the Palme d’Or at Cannes, and Sundance Grand Jury prize-winner “Nanny,” a supernatural tale from director Nikyatu Jusu, have revitalized the festival scene.

While “Nanny” may have been the jewel in the genre crown at Sundance, the influence that genre cinema held over 2022’s first major festival was wide-ranging and undeniable. Chloe Okuno’s psychological thriller “Watcher” impressed — segueing into several sales deals — as did Hanna Bergholm’s psycho-horror feature “Hatching,” sold by Wild Bunch and Charades-sold Spanish standout “Piggy,” the follow-up to Carlota Pereda’s 2019 Spanish Academy Award-winner “Cerdita.”

Among genre titles at Berlin this year are Dario Argento’s serial killer thriller “Dark Glasses” in the Berlinale Special section,...

Tom Hanks, Gerard Butler, Evan Rachel Wood and Rosamund Pike headline projects being brought onto Berlin’s virtual European Film Market.

Just how large its top-tier offers may be, and the volume of deals, are still open for debate.

“Very compact,” said Constantin’s Martin Moszkowicz of the EFM, which swelled somewhat thanks to a flurry of title announcements on Feb. 4, followed by a steady trickle of big unveils.

“The EFM does not look like it will have the comparable volume of the AFM,” Mister Smith’s David Garrett said. “But there will certainly be enough to whet people’s appetites.”

The market has, in fact, been building for nearly a fortnight. Following the IFC Midnight/Shudder domestic deal at Sundance for “Watcher,” AGC Studios moved forward its virtual EFM buyer screenings of the genre film by two weeks, closing international with Focus Features.

“The market’s definitely been kicking off,...

Exclusive: Erik Feig’s Picturestart and Patrick Wachsberger’s Picture Perfect Federation have set Luce and Cloverfield Paradox filmmaker Julius Onah to direct their college admissions thriller Bad Genius, which is gearing up for a summer shoot.

Luce scribe J.C. Lee, whose credits as a writer and co-producer also include series such as How To Get Away With Murder and Looking, has scripted the feature with Onah.

As previously announced, the film is an English-language remake of the hit 2017 Thai film by Nattawut Poonpiriya. The US-set adaptation is being described as a high-octane thriller about a group of entrepreneurial high school seniors who team up to take down a rigged college admissions system. Casting discussions are underway.

Former Lionsgate film chiefs Wachsberger and Feig are producing and will be overseeing sales and finance in coming weeks. International distributors are expected to be a key part of the finance.

Both execs...

Yeung will continue to grow We Pictures’ slate, while broadening its business in the areas of content creation, IP development and distribution.

Former Edko Films executive Esther Yeung has been appointed chief operating officer of Hong Kong filmmaker Peter Ho-sun Chan’s We Pictures.

In her new role, she will continue to grow We Pictures’ slate, while broadening its business in the areas of content creation, IP development and distribution. She will report directly to Chan.

Yeung most recently served as general manager, head of sales and distribution, at Bill Kong’s Hong Kong-based producer-distributor Edko Films. During her tenure,...

Korean dramas Move To Heaven and Sweet Home both took three prizes at the ceremony in Busan.

Netflix Korean drama Move To Heaven scooped three prizes at Busan’s Asia Contents Awards (Aca) on Thursday night, including the best creative award, best actor (Lee Je-hoon) and best writer (Yoon Ji-ryun).

The series, which started streaming on Netflix in May, follows a man with Asperger syndrome and his ex-convict uncle who run a trauma cleaning company.

Another Netflix Korean drama, Sweet Home, also took three prizes – newcomer actress (Ko Min-si), the Aca Excellence Award (Song Kang) and the technical achievement award.

Netflix has revealed the cast and showrunners for its limited series about the 2018 rescue of trapped soccer players in a Thai cave.

Dana Ledoux Miller and Michael Russell Gunn, both veterans of “Designated Survivor,” will serve as showrunners for the series, slated to premiere globally in 2022.

The limited series, set to start shooting in Northern Thailand, will tell the story how 12 young soccer players and their coach — known as the Wild Boars — were finally rescued after being trapped in a flooded cave in Thailand after more than two weeks.

The rescue mission received worldwide attention, with the likes of tech billionaire Elon Musk offering to help. The story also caught the attention of Oscar winning documentary filmmakers Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin (“Free Solo”), who directed “The Rescue,” a documentary about the rescue that is headed to the Toronto Intl. Film Festival.

The Netflix production has cast “Beam” Papangkorn Lerkchaleampote as “Coach Ek.

Balan Palanisamy, the veteran executive behind Southeast Asia distribution powerhouse Suraya Filem, has died at the age of 64 following a battle with Covid-19, according to several people who worked with him.

Based in Malaysia, Palanisamy was a regular at film markets, attending every AFM, Mifed, Filmart, and Cannes since his company was founded 1983. Suraya Filem worked across Malaysia, Brunei, Vietnam, Cambodia and more.

The company released numerous films per year, with notable recent titles from U.S. studios including A Long Walk to Freedom, Knives Out, and the upcoming Spiral, alongside big Asian pics such as Bad Genius from Thailand, Tamil title Aranmanai, and the Indonesian movies Ratu Ilmu Hitam and Pengabdi Setan.

According to distribution executive Yow Kong Tung, who heads up fellow Malaysian film outfit Golden Screen Cinema, Palanisamy clocked up the record grosses in Malaysia for titles from Thailand (Bad Genius), Indonesia (The Satan’s Slave), and...

As cinemas close in Thailand, "a supernatural thriller about experiments that cross the boundaries between life and death" has been acquired by Netflix, per Variety. Directed by Goff" Paween Purijitpanya, Ghost Lab stars "Tor" Thanapob Leeratanakachorn, "Ice" Paris Intarakomalyasut and "Nychaa" Nuttanicha Dungwattanawanich. It comes from Gdh 559, which is the Thai studio behind Bad Genius, which I quite liked. The article includes quotes from the filmmakers claiming that it is "bold, original," a good strategy to distinguish it from all those other Thai horror films (*cough cough* -- I need to catch up on recent Thai horror films). If you have a Netflix subscription, though, you won't have to wait too long to see for yourself: the streamer has set May 26 as its...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Supernatural drama, produced by Thailand’s Gdh 559 Co, will start streaming from May 26.

Netflix has acquired exclusive global rights to Thai supernatural thriller Ghost Lab, produced by Bangkok-based studio Gdh 559 Co, which it will start streaming from May 26.

Directed by “Goff” Paween Purijitpanya, the film stars “Tor” Thanapob Leeratanakachorn, “Ice” Paris Intarakomalyasut and “Nychaa” Nuttanicha Dungwattanawanich.

Gdh 559 Co was formed as a joint venture between Thai studios Gmm Grammy and Hub Ho Hin in 2016. The company is known for thriller Bad Genius, about exam cheating, which was a breakout hit in several territories, including China where it grossed $200m (RMB...

Streaming giant Netflix has picked up worldwide rights to “Ghost Lab,” a supernatural thriller about experiments that cross the boundaries between life and death. Production was by Gdh 559, the Thai studio behind the “Bad Genius” hit film and the Netflix adapted series of the same name.

“Ghost Lab” is directed by Goff” Paween Purijitpanya. It stars “Tor” Thanapob Leeratanakachorn, “Ice” Paris Intarakomalyasut and “Nychaa” Nuttanicha Dungwattanawanich.

“ ‘Ghost Lab’ is a bold, original film from the brilliant mind of director Paween Purijitpanya and an incredible Thai cast and crew,” said Malobika Banerji, Netflix’ director of content in Southeast Asia.

“The storyline is quite unconventional, because it attempts a deeper exploration of our belief in the supernatural, and whether this can be proven by science,” said Purijitpanya. “I hope this movie will encourage the audience to contemplate their ways of life and find the answers to their questions.”

The film is...

Netflix continues its expansion into Southeast Asia with the acquisition of Ghost Lab, the supernatural thriller from Thailand that is produced by major local outfit Gdh 559.

Directed by “Goff” Paween Purijitpanya (Body), the pic stars “Tor” Thanapob Leeratanakachorn, “Ice” Paris Intarakomalyasut and “Nychaa” Nuttanicha Dungwattanawanich in a story of supernatural experiments that cross boundaries between life and death.

Netflix will release the movie on May 26.

This is the streamer’s first deal with Gdh, which is a subsidiary of Thai entertainment conglomerate Gmm Grammy. The company is a successor to Gmm Tai Hub, which was one of the country’s most successful production houses. It operates as both a producer and distribution and has credits including the 2017 heist movie Bad Genius, which was a local awards hit and grossed an impressive $45M, the majority of which came from China. The film was spun off for TV – Bad Genius: The Series – which shows on Netflix.

Amitabh Bachchan and Deepika Padukone will star in the Bollywood remake of Warner Bros.’ “The Intern.”

Bachchan replaces the late Rishi Kapoor who was due to star in the project alongside Padukone, but died in 2020.

Directed by Nancy Meyers, “The Intern” (2015) collected $194 million globally.

Bachchan (“Gulabo Sitabo”) and Padukone (“Chhapaak”) will play the roles enacted by Anne Hathaway and Robert De Niro respectively in the original.

T 3864 – One more time .. Indian Adaptation of #TheIntern. Looking forward to working with @iAmitRSharma @deepikapadukone @warnerbrosindia @SunirKheterpal @AthenaENM @_KaProductions @ChromePictures @DenzD @Sen_Aleya @hemantchrome @gauravbose_TVW pic.twitter.com/HgjflGWGYb

— Amitabh Bachchan (@SrBachchan) April 5, 2021

The film will be directed by Amit Ravindernath Sharma, whose previous film “Badhaai Ho” (2018) was a hit with $39 million worldwide.

It will be produced by Sunir Kheterpal for Athena and Padukone via her Ka Productions. Co-producers include Aleya Sen for Chrome Pictures, Hemant Bhandari, Sharma and Gaurav Bose.

The adaptation...

Exclusive: In-demand Thai filmmaker Nattawut ‘Baz’ Poonpiriya, known for Asian box office smash Bad Genius and Sundance 2021 winner One For The Road, is to direct English-language horror-thriller The Innkeeper for Crazy Rich Asians and Midway backer Starlight.

Set against the backdrop of the Southeast Asian financial crisis in 1997, the film will chart the story of a man who must grapple with his own fears after discovering his disappeared twin brother in a desolate Thai hotel.

The movie is the first project hatched under Poonpiriya’s first look development deal with Starlight, whose Peter Luo will produce.

Script is written by Eakasit Thairath (Warrior King 2) and Poonpiriya, with revisions by Logan Martin (Meat). The plan is to shoot in the U.S and Thailand in 2022.

Poonpiriya’s thriller Bad Genius was the highest-grossing Thai film of 2017, and went on to become the most successful Thai film ever overseas after grossing more than $30M in China.

Academy award winning director Ron Howard has now tapped a hugely talented trio to lead his upcoming biographical survival drama Thirteen Lives, with Viggo Mortensen The Lord of the Rings, Green Book, Colin Farrell The Batman, and Joel Edgerton Warrior now signed on. Thirteen Lives will chronicle the real-life events of the 2018 Tham Luang cave rescue that saw a junior football team and their coach trapped in a cave for a period of 18 days.

The three A-listers will lead a stacked supporting cast made up of all sorts of familiar faces including Weir Sukollawat (Malila), Thiraphat Sajakul (The Serpent), Sahajak Boonthanakit (The Serpent), Vithaya Pansringarm (The Prey), Teeradon "James" Supapunpinyo (Bad Genius), Nophand Boonyai (Only God Forgives), Tom Bateman (Death on the Nile), Paul Gleeson (The Thin Red Line), and Lewis Fitz-Gerald (Pitch Black).

Taking place in 2018, the incident was highly publicised at the time, as many professionals and the...

Exclusive: It took a village to rescue those 12 boys and their soccer coach from a flooded Thailand cave in 2018. MGM and Thirteen Lives director Ron Howard have firmed a big international cast to play the heroic rescuers who took part in a dangerous operation that cost one rescue diver — Thai Navy Seal Saman Gunan — his life. All of the boys, and the coach, were saved before floodwaters completely filled the caves.

Viggo Mortensen, Colin Farrell, and Joel Edgerton will star with Weir Sukollawat (Malila), Thiraphat Sajakul (The Serpent), Sahajak Boonthanakit (The Serpent), Vithaya Pansringarm (The Prey), Teeradon “James” Supapunpinyo (Bad Genius), Nophand Boonyai (Only God Forgives), Tom Bateman (Death on the Nile), Paul Gleeson (The Thin Red Line), and Lewis Fitz-Gerald (Pitch Black).

The film will shoot in Australia — with the support of the Australian and Queensland Governments — and also Thailand. Production begins this month. Thirteen Lives will be released theatrically in the U.

’The Medium’ is directed by Banjong Pisanthanakun and produced by Na Hong-jin.

South Korean sales company Finecut has picked up international sales rights to Thai horror film The Medium (previously known as Rang-Zong), directed by Banjong Pisanthanakun and produced by Na Hong-jin.

It marks the first producing credit for the Korean director of The Chaser and The Wailing. Both of those thrillers played in Cannes official selection in 2008 and 2016 respectively, with Finecut representing them for international sales.

The Medium is in post-production and Finecut is launching sales at EFM. The film is backed and locally distributed by Showbox in South...

Top Thai director Banjong Pisanthanakun and Korean director-turned-producer Na Hong-jin (“The Chaser”) have teamed to create new Thai horror film “The Medium.”

Now in post-production, “The Medium” is a horrifying story of a shaman’s inheritance in the Isan region of Thailand. But the goddess that appears to have taken possession of a family member turns out not be as benevolent as it first appears.

The film (aka “Rang-Zong”) was developed by Na with the backing of Korean studio Showbox. Local production is by Thailand’s Gdh 559. Co-production is by Na’s company Northern Cross, with the film marking Na’s debut as a producer.

International rights are being handled by independent sales firm Finecut, which will launch the film at Berlin’s European Film Market. Finecut previously handled two of Na’s earlier films “The Chaser” and “The Wailing,” both of which premiered in the Cannes festival’s official selection.

Nattawut “Baz” Poonpiriya’s latest feature “One for the Road” turned heads at its premiere in this year’s Sundance World Cinema: Narrative Film competition. And rightly so, too: Poonpiriya’s last work, “Bad Genius” (2017), broke Thai box office records upon its release. Furthermore, “One for the Road” boasts an eye-popping producer on its credits, the legendary Wong Kar-wai — known for Hong Kong classics like “In the Mood for Love” (2000) and “Chungking Express” (1994).

Now, in the spirit of a virtual Sundance, we settle down with Poonpiriya over Zoom. Poonpiriya speaks to us from Thailand; with a leafy green set-up (compared to that of the rainy Bay Area!), his easy humor is contagious. Poonpiriya gives us the lowdown of what it was like to create this deeply personal work with another superstar director, and some of the scenes that spoke out to him.

How did your project get started?

After my...

Road to Redemption: Poonpiriya Paves the Way for Heartfelt Crowd-Pleaser

Teetering between cornball and poignant, Baz Poonpiriya’s One for the Road is a big-hearted melodrama that hits all the right notes, almost too neatly, then makes up for its sins with welcome surprises. We’ve all seen our share of weepy dying-buddy films, and while it doesn’t reinvent the wheel—there’s enough fresh fun here in the filmmaker’s third outing.

Poonpiriya showed a knack for mainstream appeal with his 2017 breakout, Bad Genius; here, he combines broad strokes with personal touches—a feat in and of itself, even when the results are mixed.…...

This year’s Sundance Film Festival only sees two Asian entries in its World Cinema Dramatic Competition — and Nattawut “Baz” Poonpiriya kills it with his hotly-anticipated feature, “One for the Road.” The Thai director first attracted attention with his 2017 high school testing heist, “Bad Genius” (now available on Netflix!) — the highest grossing film of the year in his homeland. Now, in his 2021 feature, he’s joined forces with legendary Hong Kong producer Wong Kar-wai to spin a nostalgic tale with a modern twist.

One for the Road is screening at Sundance

“One for the Road” kicks off at New York bar. Boss (Tor Thanapob) is an attractive, but noncommittal bartender; he treats his customers with more than just drinks on the regular. One night, an old friend from Bangkok, Aood (Ice Natara) asks him to return. It turns out that Aood has cancer, and furthermore, has a strange request: he...

Thai director Nattawut Poonpiriya‘s impossibly stylish high school heist thriller Bad Genius was one of the best hidden gems to emerge from the Southeast Asian region over the past few years, and seemed to signal a bright new filmmaker in the arena who could rival Edgar Wright in breakneck editing and crazy camera acrobatics. That […]

The post ‘One for the Road’ Review: ‘Bad Genius’ Director Steers a Stylish Road Trip Dramedy [Sundance 2021] appeared first on /Film.

Wong Kar-wai hasn’t directed a film in eight years, but the Hong Kong maestro has just done the next-best thing, having produced a film by a young protégé that’s both swooningly beautiful and honestly affecting in its account of some young emotional searchers. Director Baz Poonpiriya has made two previous films, the second of which, Bad Genius, became the most successful Thai production ever throughout Asia four years ago, and while his style has clearly been amply influenced by the works of his producer, he’s also delivered a palpably personal and involving story of thwarted love, long-distance longing and incipient mortality.

Ping-ponging half-way around the globe between its settings on the roads of Thailand and the streets of New York, this gorgeous work is an account of young love/lust mixed with hindsight poignance, as well as a consideration of the variable fruits of trying to make amends for past mistakes.

One of the precious few movies that Wong Kar-wai has produced for another filmmaker in the last 20 years, Nattawut “Baz” Poonpiriya’s “One for the Road” is a syrupy glob of romantic melodrama that has as much in common with the likes of “The Bucket List” and “Elizabethtown” as it does with the lovelorn poetry of “2046” or “Chungking Express.” Despite his art-house cachet, Wong’s producing credits have always tended to fall on the commercial side of the fence.

Anyone familiar with Poonpiriya’s “Bad Genius” won’t be surprised to find that the director’s follow-up fizzes with the same pop sensibility that made his high-school heist thriller the most internationally successful Thai film ever, and afforded him this chance to make something more personal. To his credit, it does feel personal, even (or perhaps especially) as it speeds over a few potholes of forced schmaltz. For all...

The overloaded Thai equivalent of one of those YA weepies where terminally ill teens scramble to fulfill their bucket lists before expiring at a young age, all-the-feels buddy movie “One for the Road” is determined to leave audiences both shaken and stirred. Your mileage may vary as director Baz Poonpiriya (“Bad Genius”) packs this concoction with a lifetime’s worth of romances, breakups and reconciliations; a cancer diagnosis; a cheek-tweakingly adorable kid; all sorts of overdue apologies; several family surprises; and one of those scenes where the music swells as someone’s ashes are scattered to the winds.

Seeing so many emotions squeezed into 137 minutes surely explains why Sundance Film Festival programmers picked this broadly appealing international selection as one of half a dozen films to screen on opening night of the 2021 virtual edition. Well, that and the fact it was produced by Wong Kar Wai, whose blessing gives this...

Against the backdrop of a pandemic, maybe diversity at Sundance shouldn’t be at the fore. Then again, it’s well documented that Covid-19 has predominantly affected Black and brown people across the country, and it’s been particularly hard on filmmakers from marginalized communities, especially those from poorer socioeconomic backgrounds.

At Sundance 2021, the organization continues to support its mission to be consistently inclusive, especially in its competitive sections. In this year’s slate of 72 feature-length films, 27 are directed by a filmmaker of color and/or tell stories about people of color — about 38 percent. It almost reflects the country’s general population, which, according to the United States Census Bureau, is comprised roughly of 42 percent people of color.

Among the 40 films in the four main competition categories, 14 titles, or 35 percent, were directed by people of color. That compares to 44 percent last year, which was an all-time high for the festival.

Film Society of Ahmedabad (Fsa) are back with their second screening and seeing as many students across the state of Gujarat have their exams coming up soon, what better way to mark the occasion than by screening the Thai hit sensation “Bad Genius”?

Date: Tuesday, 26th January, 2021.

Venue: New Fangled Miniplex, Block-o, Safal Mondeal Retail Park, Besides Iscon Mega Mall, Sg Highway.

Time: 4:00pm

Entry is limited, but this screening is free-of-cost.

Synopsis: Even by 9th grade, Lynn is already a classic overachiever, so skilled in math that she can immediately calculate what it’s going to cost her widowed dad to accept a scholarship that promises free tuition and better opportunities for her after graduation. But after helping her panic-stricken best friend Grace get through a tough multiple-choice exam, she inadvertently discovers an exploding market of students with lots of money and little interest in studying, eventually developing...

Available for release, DVD, Digital

Tokyo Dragon Chef – available on DVD and Digital

From us: Yoshihiro Nishimura directs another preposterous combination, this time mixing yakuza, food, musical and exploitation in the most insane matter, and through a rather low budget approach that did not allow him to present his trademark special effects. The characters, however, are as absurdly hilarious as they can come, with the whole concept of the hardcore yakuza trying to be kind to their customers and hiring influencers to help them, being both extremely funny and a kind of social comment regarding social media and the fate of failed/retired yakuza. (Panos Kotzathanasis)

Deliver Us From Evil – avail. for release now

Distributor: Signature Entertainment

From us: Overall, this is an entertaining action movie featuring two strong and likeable leads, although the predictable set-ups are sloppy and the story offers nothing new. In fact it’s similar to Wilson Yip’s “Paradox,...

“It’s been an absolute beast,” says festival director Tabitha Jackson.

Rebecca Hall’s feature directorial debut Passing starring Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga, Metro Manila director Sean Ellis’ horror Eight For Silver, and Nikole Beckwith’s comedy Together Together starring Ed Helms are among 72 features selected for 2021 Sundance Film Festival, which runs online and in select US arthouse venues from January 28-February 3.

The line-up, announced on Tuesday (December 15), includes One For The Road, Thai filmmaker Baz Poonpiriya’s follow-up to Bad Genius; Edgar Wright’s music documentary The Sparks Brothers; Robin Wright’s feature directorial debut Land; Ben Wheatley...