News

BBC Studios Renews Pact With Zdf

BBC Studios has struck another renewal agreement, unveiling a new deal with Germany’s Zdf today at its annual Showcase event. Notably in the multi-year agreement, which follows an earlier pact struck in 2019, the new deal will extend to co-development of scripted shows. This comes after Zdf entered into a co-production with AMC Networks-owned Acorn TV through a deal instructed by an initial partnership with the BBC’s commercial wing. Zdf will get first option on pre-sales and acquisitions, with BBC shows such as Kingdoms, Make Me Famous and This is Going to Hurt confirmed for ZDFneo. Zdf is also a c-producer on landmark natural history series Mammals and Asia.

‘Doctor Foster’ Gets Japanese Remake On Nippon TV

Another one out BBC Studios Showcase. Japan’s Nippon TV will be the latest network to get a local remake of psychological relationship drama Doctor Foster...

Exclusive: Lavish stage play filmed using ‘Geki Cine’ style with 20 HD cameras.

Japan’s Village Inc is launching an international cut of its latest ‘Geki Cine’ production, Stray Nightingale, at this week’s European Film Market (Efm) in Berlin.

Village Inc’s Geki Cine label films the company’s lavish stage plays using 20 HD cameras, surround sound and high-end post-production.

Stray Nightingale, directed by acclaimed theatre director Hidenori Inoue and starring Arata Furuta (Shin Godzilla), has already had a sell-out run in major cities in Japan.

Written by rising playwright Yutaka Kuramochi, the play tells the story of a retired thief taking refuge in a tavern who comes across a man who saved his life many years ago. The cast also includes TV actress Izumi Inamori and rising actor Shunsuke Daitoh.

“Some of our previous Geki Cine productions have screened in China and Korea to full houses and positive reviews,” said Village...

Two productions being introduced to buyers at Hong Kong Filmart.

Japan’s Village Inc. is launching sales on samurais-battling-demons story Asura and avenging samurai love story Midare Uguisu at Filmart.

The films are part of Geki Cine’s portfolio which, motivated by fans who complained their star-powered stage plays’ runs were too limited, started shooting the productions two times each with 20 HD cameras, and then doing post-production including sound mixing and special effects at Warner Brothers.

Hiroyuki Hata, director of International Operations at Village Inc. said: “The productions have much more work in them than your average independent film. For instance, top notch sound mixing by BAFTA winner Mike Prestwood Smith, who has worked on films such as Casino Royale and Mission: Impossible

Directed by Hidenori Inoue and written by Kazuki Nakashima (Kill La Kill), Asura stars Somegoro Ichikawa (Semishigure), Yuki Amami (Amalfi), Tsuyoshi Ihara (Thirteen Assassins).

Midare Uguisu as a film is in pre-production with Izumi Inamori...

Today it was announced that Kie Kitano will be starring in Bakushin (ground zero), a film adaptation of a novel by Akutagawa Prize winner and Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum curator Yuichi Seirai.

Kitano, who discussed the project at a press event in Tokyo, revealed that this is her first time playing a character who confronts death and she felt like she was carrying the weight of many people’s emotions with the role.

Also in attendance at the press conference were director Taro Hyugaji and cast members Izumi Inamori, Renji Ishibashi, Junko Miyashita, and Chizuru Ikewaki. Additionally, it was learned that actor Yuya Yagira plays a boy named Yuichi who falls for Kitano’s character.

In the original novel, various short stories are told about every day lives of individuals living in the areas surrounding the center of the atomic blast that hit Nagasaki on August 9, 1945.

In the film version,...