Veteran Japanese film producer Muneyuki Kii has assembled a bold new venture to shake up Japan’s traditionally sclerotic and risk-averse approach to movie financing. The executive, formerly a lead producer at Tokyo-based studio Toei, revealed the launch Thursday of K2 Pictures, a mini-studio that aims to bring a more direct, Hollywood-style model of film funding to Japan’s industry.
The new company will launch a content fund — dubbed the “K2P Film Fund I” — to finance both live-action and animated Japanese features. K2P also has lined up an impressive roster of Japanese directors to collaborate with on its first slate, including Palme d’Or winner Hirokazu Kore-eda (Shoplifters), local industry mainstay Takashi Miike (Ichi the Killer, 13 Assassins), Shunji Iwai (Love Letter), Miwa Nishikawa (Sway), Kazuya Shiraishi (The Devil’s Path) and leading anime studio Mappa, known for mega-hits like Jujutsu Kaisen 0 and Attack on Titan.
Kii...
The new company will launch a content fund — dubbed the “K2P Film Fund I” — to finance both live-action and animated Japanese features. K2P also has lined up an impressive roster of Japanese directors to collaborate with on its first slate, including Palme d’Or winner Hirokazu Kore-eda (Shoplifters), local industry mainstay Takashi Miike (Ichi the Killer, 13 Assassins), Shunji Iwai (Love Letter), Miwa Nishikawa (Sway), Kazuya Shiraishi (The Devil’s Path) and leading anime studio Mappa, known for mega-hits like Jujutsu Kaisen 0 and Attack on Titan.
Kii...
- 5/10/2024
- by Patrick Brzeski
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The woman at the centre of the subtle but cathartic One Fine Morning is cursed by her consciousness. Try as she might, she can’t escape the fact that she’s ultimately alone, trapped in her own head, and tied through her actions to each and every person around her. It’s a torturous existence. Sandra (Léa Seydoux), a young widow, cares for her eight-year-old daughter. She also cares for her father Georg (veteran actor Pascal Greggory), whose sight is mostly gone and whose memory is crumbling away due to a neurodegenerative disease. At work, as a translator, she patiently reinterprets the words of strangers, or guides American World War Two veterans back down the paths of their old traumas.
She has carved up and rationed out every last part of her heart. There’s no more left for her own use, as she’s forced to admit: “I just...
She has carved up and rationed out every last part of her heart. There’s no more left for her own use, as she’s forced to admit: “I just...
- 4/13/2023
- by Clarisse Loughrey
- The Independent - Film
Netflix will give a May launch to “Sanctuary,” a sports drama series set in the specialized world of Japanese sumo wrestling.
Produced by the Slowtide company for the streamer, the show follows a juvenile delinquent who becomes a sumo apprentice. He soon finds himself on a collision course with a voiceless wrestler carrying a secret.
Netflix pitches it as “a gritty look into the underbelly of professional sumo, a world full of young men with ambitions for money, women, fame, and power […] where some may find sanctuary with a history of more than 1,500 years in Japan’s traditional culture and as a religious ceremony.”
The show is directed by Eguchi Kan from a screenplay by Kanazawa Tomoki. The producer is Fujita Daisuke and the executive producer for Netflix Sakamoto Kaata. The show will upload from May 4.
The diverse cast includes Ichinose Wataru, Sometani Shota (“Themis”), Kutsuna Shioli (“Deadpool 2”), Taguchi Tomorowo,...
Produced by the Slowtide company for the streamer, the show follows a juvenile delinquent who becomes a sumo apprentice. He soon finds himself on a collision course with a voiceless wrestler carrying a secret.
Netflix pitches it as “a gritty look into the underbelly of professional sumo, a world full of young men with ambitions for money, women, fame, and power […] where some may find sanctuary with a history of more than 1,500 years in Japan’s traditional culture and as a religious ceremony.”
The show is directed by Eguchi Kan from a screenplay by Kanazawa Tomoki. The producer is Fujita Daisuke and the executive producer for Netflix Sakamoto Kaata. The show will upload from May 4.
The diverse cast includes Ichinose Wataru, Sometani Shota (“Themis”), Kutsuna Shioli (“Deadpool 2”), Taguchi Tomorowo,...
- 3/29/2023
- by Patrick Frater
- Variety Film + TV
Netflix is giving global fans a sneak peak at its forthcoming Japanese original series Sanctuary, a YA drama set within the reclusive world of Japanese professional sumo wrestling. (See the first teaser trailer and art from the show below.)
Set to launch on Netflix on May 4, the series follows a juvenile delinquent who becomes a sumo apprentice — and soon finds himself on a collision course with a voiceless wrestler carrying a secret.
Netflix describes the show as offering “a gritty look into the underbelly of professional sumo, a world full of young men with ambitions for money, women, fame, and power.”
“This is the story of the sumo ring,” the streamer adds, “where some may find sanctuary with a history of more than 1,500 years in Japan’s traditional culture and as a religious ceremony.”
The series is written by Tomoki Kanazawa (who recently penned the TBS medical drama Get Ready!
Set to launch on Netflix on May 4, the series follows a juvenile delinquent who becomes a sumo apprentice — and soon finds himself on a collision course with a voiceless wrestler carrying a secret.
Netflix describes the show as offering “a gritty look into the underbelly of professional sumo, a world full of young men with ambitions for money, women, fame, and power.”
“This is the story of the sumo ring,” the streamer adds, “where some may find sanctuary with a history of more than 1,500 years in Japan’s traditional culture and as a religious ceremony.”
The series is written by Tomoki Kanazawa (who recently penned the TBS medical drama Get Ready!
- 3/29/2023
- by Patrick Brzeski
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Israel’s Reshet 13 is attached to “Dust and Coal,” selected for Series Mania’s Forum Co-Pro Pitching Sessions.
The eight-episode thriller focuses on a Mossad assassin, Esther, whose world collapses when her father reveals to her that she is, in fact, a Syrian sleeper spy. Planted in Israel as a child, as part of a Kgb program, her activation time has come.
Produced by Ronen Ben Tal for Bental Productions Ltd and France’s Morgane Le Moine for First Love, the show was created by Ben Tal, Ron Ninio – who will also direct – Eleanor Sela and Ofer Seker, co-creator of “Uri and Ella”, now airing on HBO Max.
“It’s a dark, realistic psychological drama. The spy arena is just an excuse to explore complex family dynamics and our main character’s journey of emancipation,” says Ben Tal, also promising an insight into the “backstage” of spy missions in Israel.
The eight-episode thriller focuses on a Mossad assassin, Esther, whose world collapses when her father reveals to her that she is, in fact, a Syrian sleeper spy. Planted in Israel as a child, as part of a Kgb program, her activation time has come.
Produced by Ronen Ben Tal for Bental Productions Ltd and France’s Morgane Le Moine for First Love, the show was created by Ben Tal, Ron Ninio – who will also direct – Eleanor Sela and Ofer Seker, co-creator of “Uri and Ella”, now airing on HBO Max.
“It’s a dark, realistic psychological drama. The spy arena is just an excuse to explore complex family dynamics and our main character’s journey of emancipation,” says Ben Tal, also promising an insight into the “backstage” of spy missions in Israel.
- 3/15/2023
- by Marta Balaga
- Variety Film + TV
As we continue to explore the best in 2022, today we’re taking a look at the articles that you, our dear readers, enjoyed the most throughout the past twelve months. Spanning reviews, interviews, features, podcasts, news, and trailers, check out the highlights below and return for more year-end coverage as well as a glimpse into 2023.
Most-Read Reviews
1. Deep Water
2. Don’t Worry Darling
3. Avatar: The Way of Water
4. The 2022 Oscar-Nominated Short Films, Reviewed
5. Gentle
6. Alice, Darling
7. Speak No Evil
8. Bones and All
9. First Love
10. Ticket to Paradise
Most-Read Interviews
1. Strange What Love Does: David Lynch on Remastering Inland Empire
2. Michael Bauman on Lighting Licorice Pizza and Bringing Paul Thomas Anderson’s Vision to Life
3. Licorice Pizza Editor Andy Jurgensen on Collaborating with Paul Thomas Anderson, Deleted Scenes, and Keeping the Momentum
4. Life Is Suffering: David Cronenberg on Kidney Stones, NFTs, and Crimes of the Future
5. Good Luck to You, Leo Grande Team on Sex Positivity,...
Most-Read Reviews
1. Deep Water
2. Don’t Worry Darling
3. Avatar: The Way of Water
4. The 2022 Oscar-Nominated Short Films, Reviewed
5. Gentle
6. Alice, Darling
7. Speak No Evil
8. Bones and All
9. First Love
10. Ticket to Paradise
Most-Read Interviews
1. Strange What Love Does: David Lynch on Remastering Inland Empire
2. Michael Bauman on Lighting Licorice Pizza and Bringing Paul Thomas Anderson’s Vision to Life
3. Licorice Pizza Editor Andy Jurgensen on Collaborating with Paul Thomas Anderson, Deleted Scenes, and Keeping the Momentum
4. Life Is Suffering: David Cronenberg on Kidney Stones, NFTs, and Crimes of the Future
5. Good Luck to You, Leo Grande Team on Sex Positivity,...
- 1/2/2023
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
NBC’s Quantum Leap returns from its midseason break with season one episode nine, “Fellow Travelers.” Episode nine, airing January 3, 2023, finds Ben leaping into the body of a pop star’s security guard. Deboran Ann Woll (True Blood) guest stars as pop singer Carly Farmer.
The sequel stars Raymond Lee (Kevin Can F**k Himself) as physicist Ben Song and Caitlin Bassett as Addison, a hologram who only Ben can see when he leaps. Ernie Hudson (The Family Business) plays Herbert “Magic” Williams, Mason Alexander Park (The Sandman) is Ian Wright, and Nanrisa Lee (First Love) plays Jenn Chou.
“Fellow Travelers” Plot: Ben lands in 1979 Chicago as Jack Armstrong, a devoted security guard to talented pop singer Carly Farmer. During Carly’s prep for a big concert, it quickly becomes clear her life is in danger and Ben must determine who is trying to kill her and why.
Season 1 Episode...
The sequel stars Raymond Lee (Kevin Can F**k Himself) as physicist Ben Song and Caitlin Bassett as Addison, a hologram who only Ben can see when he leaps. Ernie Hudson (The Family Business) plays Herbert “Magic” Williams, Mason Alexander Park (The Sandman) is Ian Wright, and Nanrisa Lee (First Love) plays Jenn Chou.
“Fellow Travelers” Plot: Ben lands in 1979 Chicago as Jack Armstrong, a devoted security guard to talented pop singer Carly Farmer. During Carly’s prep for a big concert, it quickly becomes clear her life is in danger and Ben must determine who is trying to kill her and why.
Season 1 Episode...
- 12/19/2022
- by Rebecca Murray
- Showbiz Junkies
In its second week on release the new Netflix series from Japan, “First Love,” has ascended to the number five spot on the streamer’s rankings for non-English content, as well as being its number one show in Japan for the week.
Based on two songs by Japanese megastar Utada Hikaru and directed by Kanchiku Yuri, the nine-episode romantic drama series released on Netflix on Nov. 24 and grabbed the number eight slot on the streamer’s Global Non-English list in its debut week. This week, with watch hours totaling 12.3 million, the series rose to number five.
Starring Mitsushima Hikari as a taxi driver in Sapporo who reconnects with a heartthrob (Satoh Takumi) from her teenage years after a gap of two decades, the show is also in the Netflix top ten lists of Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan and Thailand, all territories where Utada’s music is popular.
Another Japanese show,...
Based on two songs by Japanese megastar Utada Hikaru and directed by Kanchiku Yuri, the nine-episode romantic drama series released on Netflix on Nov. 24 and grabbed the number eight slot on the streamer’s Global Non-English list in its debut week. This week, with watch hours totaling 12.3 million, the series rose to number five.
Starring Mitsushima Hikari as a taxi driver in Sapporo who reconnects with a heartthrob (Satoh Takumi) from her teenage years after a gap of two decades, the show is also in the Netflix top ten lists of Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan and Thailand, all territories where Utada’s music is popular.
Another Japanese show,...
- 12/7/2022
- by Mark Schilling
- Variety Film + TV
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