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"You probably brought me all this way to kill me... in the middle of the ocean... 'no one can hear you scream.'" Shudder has revealed the official trailer for an indie horror movie titled Influencer, made by a Canadian filmmaker named Kurtis David Harder. Yet another horror take on the darkness of influencer culture and how these people a vapid, shallow narcissists. This premiered at a few genre film festivals last year, including the Brooklyn Horror, and will be out for streaming on Shudder this May. While struggling on a solo backpacking trip in Thailand, social media influencer Madison meets CW, who travels with ease and shows her a more uninhibited way of living, but CW's interest in her takes a darker turn. Starring Emily Tennant as the "influencer" Madison, joined by Cassandra Naud, Sara Canning, Rory J. Saper, Paul Spurrier, and Justin Sams. This looks better than it sounds in the text description,...

Shudder, AMC Networks’ premium streaming service for horror, thrillers, and the supernatural, will be releasing writer/director Kurtis David Harder’s horror film Influencer on May 26th. The movie will also be available to stream on AMC+, and with just a couple weeks to go until its streaming premiere date arrives a trailer for the film has dropped online. You can check the trailer out in the embed above, and take a look at the Influencer poster at the bottom of this article.

Influencer racked up multiple awards while making the festival rounds. Harder wrote the script with Tesh Guttikonda, crafting the story of Madison, a popular social media influencer who is having a lonely and uneventful trip in Thailand despite what she tells her followers on Instagram. While reflecting on her boyfriend canceling the trip, she meets CW, a fearless and enigmatic traveler who offers to take her to...

[The following story contains spoilers from the film Tár.]

Well before Todd Field’s Tár opened in Thailand, I got my first review of the film from my friend, director Paul Spurrier. Paul had seen the film while in Los Angeles for the American Film Market.

“So we have here a mad genius conductor, who is kicked out of a major European orchestra after an act of violence, has rather ambiguous dealings with some young prodigies, ends up in Southeast Asia conducting a youth orchestra in a tawdry venue …,” he began.

“Oh!” I said, “You went to a screening of our film?” Because Paul was giving me the exact plot of our own film, The Maestro: A Symphony of Terror, a horror fantasy we made two years ago, which I wrote and starred in as the aforementioned “mad genius” conductor.

“Actually, no,” he said. “I just saw Tár.”

Since, I too have seen Tár and, as it turns out,...

Adventures in the sex trade, ladyboys and Thai boxing feature prominently on the debut film slate being launched at the AFM by Hollywood (Thailand).

The company is currently handling its own rights sales at the American Film Market. It recently struck a first-look deal with Epic Pictures for North American rights to the slate. The two companies made their relationship official on Tuesday, the first day of the market, with an afternoon signing ceremony at the Loews Hotel.

Hollywood (Thailand) is a Bangkok-based distributor and producer that previously made creature feature “The Lake” back in 2019. At 5 million, the film had a budget significantly above the Thai average and involved significant animatronics. The film was financed through a combination of pre-sales at AFM and Chinese investment.

The slate launch includes four titles in different stages of readiness.

Closest to completion is “22,” a reference to an infamous traffic circle in Bangkok where drugs,...

Law on taxing performers has been the subject of a long campaign.

Foreign actors will soon be exempt from taxation for work in Thailand following a move by the government to boost international production in the country.

The Thai cabinet passed the law on Tuesday (June 22) with the new measure valid for five years and expected to come into effect within the next three months.

All employees in Thailand are subject to a withholding tax, which varies by occupation and nationality: 5 for Thai performers and 10 for foreign performers. The tax is based on where the work is performed, not where they are paid.

Industry practitioners from Southeast Asia deliberated the devastating effects of Covid-19 on the entertainment industry in the region, but also found some silver linings, at the concluding session of the Asian Television Forum, part of the Singapore Media Festival, on Friday.

Speaking at a panel discussion moderated by producer Jeremy Chua of Singapore outfit Potocol (“A Love Unknown”), Micah Tadena, country manager, Philippines, 108 Media, said that the government’s decision not to renew the franchise of leading broadcaster Abs-cbn had shaken up the Philippines industry. Cinemas remaining closed because of the pandemic caused a shift to digital, Tadena said.

Rashid Karim, CEO of Iskandar Malaysia Studios, said that the Film in Malaysia 30% cash rebate incentive, worth $40 million remained open throughout the Covid period and is likely to continue into 2021. Though Malaysia and neighboring Thailand have remained relatively unscathed, compared to the West, strict border controls and quarantine requirements mean...

ScreenSingapore have announced finalists for the Southeast Asian Film Financing (Saff) Project Market 2020. Ten projects from China, Malaysia, Myanmar, Netherlands, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand were selected based on the project’s co-production viabilities and the strength of the filmmaking team. This year’s Saff Project Market sees entries coming in from 14 countries and regions across Asia, Europe and North America, including first-timers from Finland, France, and Iran.

Taking Asian Storytelling to the World

Since its launch in 2015, the Saff Project Market has emerged as a recognised regional platform for established and upcoming content creators to come together and present their projects to the international marketplace.

Finalists will be able to meet with financiers, commissioners, and investors – albeit virtually this year – who will be able to bridge them with the resources needed to take their projects to a global audience.

Selected projects will join the ranks of Saff Project Market alumni...

Hello everybody, what’s up? You’re listening to I Was Just Wondering With Tom Salmon! The podcast that dives into music, film and games and everything else in between.

My guests on this week’s episode are writer & director Paul Spurrier and producer David Allen Cluck, the creative team behind the three part television series Eullenia (2020) starring Alec Newman and Vithaya Pansringarm. Eullenia tells the story of wealthy businessman Marcus Hammond and his dark obsession to find the perfect deal in Bangkok, Thailand.

We jumped into Paul and David’s experience of how they first met in working in the Thai film industry, how the dark side of successful businessmen like Steve Jobs influenced the characters and story of Eullenia and what’s it like filming at the famous aeroplane graveyard and avoiding Bangkok jail.

You can checkout Eullenia on Amazon Prime right now at www.amazon.co.uk...

Hong Kong-based TV distributor Lightning International has picked up international rights to “Eullenia,” an English-language thriller series produced and set in Thailand.

The 6-part series is directed by Paul Spurrier and produced through Commercial Films Siam. It premiered at SeriesFest in Denver and has won awards at other festivals since.

The show stars Alec Newman and Thailand’s Vithaya Pansringarm in a story about one man’s quest for financial power and the dark purpose he wants it for. One innocent girl stands in his way. The series was created through partnership with U.S. producer David Cluck, and from executive VP of Warner Bros, Jeffrey Calman.

“’Eullenia’ is a great example of the skills and talents that have developed in Asia, and marks the first time that a series from Thailand has been produced in English language for the international market,” said James Ross, CEO of Lightning. Lightning’s deal excludes rights in China.

Thailand has produced some notable genre films, amongst them ‘Shutter’, ‘The Eye’, and the ‘Art of the Devil’ series. British-born director, Paul Spurrier, was attracted by the talents and skills of Thailand’s film industry, and in 2005 made his own contribution to Thai horror genre with ‘P’, a story of possession set in Bangkok’s seedy …

The post Eullenia – the first ever Genre Television Series from Thailand appeared first on Hnn | Horrornews.net. Copyrights 2008-2018 - Horrornews.net...

In Paul Spurrier's The Forest, Preecha (Asanee Suwan) walks into a bucolic village in nowhere Thailand to begin a new chapter in his life as teacher in the local village. Whatever hope and passion he has for his new profession quickly dissipates in the stultifying atmosphere where nothing happens, nothing works and the deadening hand of the local village headman Vithaya (Vithaya Pansringarm from Only God Forgives) aims to keep it that way Preecha finds one person he can help - a poor mute village girl Ja (Wannasa Wintawong) who is bullied by her classmates. He is determined to set things straight, but soon comes up against petty politics at which point the story pivots away from Preecha and his stifling new job to Ja...

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

The biggest European film festival excludsively dealing with Asian cinema will open on Friday the 22nd of April with the South Korean blockbuster “The Tiger” and close with the Hong Kong thriller “The Bodyguard” on Saturday the 30th with the presence of the legendary Sammo Hung. Legendary director Johnnie To and composer Lim Giong will also attend.

The festival will feature 72 films in the official selection (5 world premieres) a retrospective of Japanese science fiction, the restored 4K versions of four Bruce Lee masterpieces and over 100 events organized around the city.

The line up of 2016 includes the followings:

Competition Section

China (10)

Chongqing Hot Pot, Yang Qing, crime-action- hipster noir, China 2016, European Premiere

The Dead End, Cao Baoping, cop-loves-cop thriller, China 2015, European Premiere

Destiny, Zhang Wei, human drama, China 2016, World Premiere

The Left Ear, Alec Su, youth drama, China 2015, European Premiere

Lost in Hong Kong, Xu Zheng, clash of cultures comedy, China 2015, International Festival Premiere

The Master,...

The 18th Feff will feature 50 titles in competition, including Lost In Hong Kong, Mojin: The Lost Legend and Ip Man 3, as well as a new Focus Asia market.Scroll down for full programme

The Udine Far East Film Festival (Feff) has revealed the programme for its 18th edition (April 22-30), featuring a myriad of high-profile Asian titles from the past year.

The event will close with the European premiere of director and actor Sammo Hung’s latest feature, The Bodyguard [pictured], with Hung due to be in attendance.

Hung’s appearance marks the second year in a row that the festival has played host to a Hong Kong film icon, after Jackie Chan attended last year’s edition.

The Bodyguard (also known as My Beloved Bodyguard) has grossed close to $50m since its release in China on April 1. The film stars Sammo Hung as a retired bodyguard who strikes up an unlikely friendship with a young girl.

The...

The Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival (PiFan) has announced six Thai works from rising filmmakers for this year’s Project Spotlight in the Network of Asian Fantastic Films (Naff).

PiFan’s Project Spotlight takes a different Asian country each year to focus on selected genre film projects.

The seventh edition of Naff lauds Thailand as recently “running strong with its genre films of unique subject matters and techniques” and the filmmakers for the six selected projects as up-and-coming on the international stage.

Off his recent film Hong Hun featuring Ananda Everingham, Kulp Kaljareuk will bring mystery thriller Fallen Thailand as his next feature, with Nattaporn Kaljareuk producing. With shades of political commentary, the story is set in 2035 and features a Thai boxer battling zombies in a quarantined hospital to save his wife, a nurse, and help a lost child find his mother.

Director Nuttorn Kungwanklai, whose horror omnibus 9-9-81 screened at last year’s Udine Far East...

The Puchon International Film Festival (PiFan)’s Network of Asian Fantastic Films (Naff) has announced this year’s It Project line-up of 21 selections from 13 countries.

These include Greek filmmaker Costas Zapas’ Frankenstein: A Death Odyssey and Kei Ishikawa’s comic fantasy Baby, a Japan-Poland co-production.

Scroll down for full list

“Making the selection was a challenge this year with 141 project submissions - more than a 60% increase on last year,” says Naff managing director Thomas Nam.

Korean projects include Two Weddings And A Funeral director Kim Jho Gwang-soo’s period piece Secret Detective & Vampire; 2011 PiFan Audience Award winner Ji Ha Jean’s Re: Make; and Teenage Hooker Became Killing Machine director Nam Ki-woong’s Capsule.

Director Dain Said is teaming with producer Nandita Solomon again on Malaysian mystery Interchange. Their previous film, Bunohan, sold to Universal Pictures for several territories including UK, France, and Australia before premiering at Toronto.

Other Asian projects include Paul Spurrier’s Thai...

After four years of production, a new trailer for the Thai historical epic Edge of the Empire (Kon Tai Ting Pandin – คนไท ทิ้งแผ่นดิน) was released just in time for the theatrical opening in April. Directed by Nirattisai Kaljareuk, the film is based on a novel by Sanya Pholprasit and was shot by Paul Spurrier, who some of you might remember from his occult horror P.

The trailer looks a lot like the stuff that China and Hong Kong’s studios have been putting out in the last few years, but I hope Edge of the Empire will show us some more fights knee versus knee man versus man than just anonymous mass battles.

[via Wise Kwai's Thai Film Journal]...

Chicago – Many editions of the DVD Round-Up have featured a different genre and focus for each title within it. This week seems a little more thematically linked as we have a trio of foreign horror films and a few more independent films than usual. Of course, there has to a holiday comedy to spice things up.

Consider this column informational with synopsis, tech specs, and special features info for titles that might go otherwise unnoticed, but if you’re looking for more critical opinion, we covered “Sauna” when it played at the EU Film Fest, “Medicine For Melancholy” when it was available on IFC Direct, and “Nothing Like the Holidays” when it played in theaters.

“P” and “The Tournament” were released on October 20th, 2009

“The Butcher,” “Medicine For Melancholy,” “Nothing Like the Holidays,” and “Sauna” were released on October 27th, 2009

“Nothing Like the Holidays”

Photo credit: Anchor Bay

Synopsis: “John Leguizamo (Ice Age,...

DVD Playhouse—October 2009

By

Allen Gardner

The Wizard Of Oz 70th Anniversary Ultimate Collector’S Edition (Warner Bros.) A true highlight in digital restoration technology, Warner Bros. restoration of the 1939 classic is cause for celebration. The Technicolor of the late ‘30s looks as though it was shot yesterday, and is especially stunning on Blu-ray, which was produced by scanning each of the film’s original Technicolor camera negatives using 8K resolution. From this scan, a final “capture” master was created in 4K, yielding twice the resolution seen in the master utilized for the film’s previous DVD release. Judy Garland’s Dorothy is charming as ever, and the entire cast: Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr, Jack Haley and Margaret Hamilton as the Wicked Witch, are all stellar. Four disc set bonuses include: Sing-along track; Documentaries and featurettes; Two 1914 silent films produced by Oz author L. Frank Baum, based on his stories...

“P” is Thai for “ghost”. Alright, I had to look that up. I’m not actually that smart. However, what I do know is that P is one of the more intense horror films from Thailand I have seen. Despite that distinction, I still can’t get that Rental’s song “Friends of P” out of my head. Don’t worry; the two have nothing to do with each other. And this movie, “P” is chillingly excellent!

Dau (Suangporn Jaturaphut) is a young girl living in an impoverished Thai village and an outcast taunted by the other children. Dau becomes a student of her grandmother’s folk magic, until her grandmother’s illness and medical costs force Dau to find employment in Bangkok. Once in the city, the only job that underage Dau can find is as an exotic dancer and prostitute. As Dau embraces her dark powers and becomes...

Palisades Tartan has announced their first “Asia Extreme” release since acquiring Tartan’s film library and it’s Paul Spurrier’s Thai horror film P. The DVD will be released in the Us on October 20th and special features will include commentary by the director and a behind the scenes video. Synopsis: While growing up in rural Thailand , a young and beautiful orphan girl is taught the mysterious art of dark magic by her grandmother. When her grandmother falls sick, young Dau travels to Bangkok looking for work in order to earn enough money for medicine. She lands a job as an exotic dancer at a go-go club. Hesitant at first and ridiculed by the other dancers, circumstances force Dau to become an adult before her time and ultimately becomes the most popular and eerily seductive dancer at the club.

Shout! Factory gave Fango the scoop that it will release a special-edition DVD of the 1977 nature-run-amok cult favorite Kingdom Of The Spiders next year. The company also sent along final details on its disc of the original Stepfather, which we first told you about here.

Currently targeted for a January 19, 2010 street date, Kingdom will be presented with “a new anamorphic widescreen transfer, plus a slew of extras,” according to our source. Directed by John “Bud” Cardos, the movie stars William Shatner and The Candy Snatchers’ Tiffany Bolling as a rancher and entomologist battling an invasion of killer tarantulas in a Southwestern town. We’ll bring you more details as they come up.

The Stepfather, which cuts in October 13, will supplement its new hi-def widescreen transfer with the following bonus features:

Audio commentary by director Joseph Ruben, moderated by yours truly All new “The Stepfather Chronicles” retrospective documentary featuring interviews with Ruben,...

Palisades Tartan is poised to release P , the company's first Asia Extreme release since acquiring the Tartan Films library in May 2008. The film streets on October 20th. P is directed by Paul Spurrier, a former child actor who appeared in popular Us television shows Max Headroom and Anna Karenina. While growing up in rural Thailand, a young and beautiful orphan girl is taught the mysterious art of dark magic by her grandmother. When her grandmother falls sick, young Dau travels to Bangkok looking for work in order to earn enough money for medicine. She lands a job as an exotic dancer at a go-go club. Hesitant at first and ridiculed by the other dancers, circumstances force Dau to become an adult before her time and ultimately becomes the most popular and eerily seductive...

If you are thinking about ordering the HMV exclusive Machine Girl Blu-ray Disc announced here, please read this article, check out the full resolution screenshots below and then save your money!

I got my copy from Guernsey today and I just couldn’t believe my eyes when I popped the disc into my Bd player(s)…

I don’t know if Cine Asia didn’t get proper source material or if they screwed up during the mastering process but I don’t think material looking like this Pos should be allowed on Blu-ray Disc! I’ve tested the disc on my PC drive, a PS3 and my standalone Panasonic Dmp-BD80 (yes, I’m a freak!), and it looks absolutely terrible on every machine!

Machine Girl is no Hollywood blockbuster (hell, it’s not even a good movie!), but I wasn’t expecting something like this! Especially if you compare it...

Okay, the saga of Paul Spurrier’s Thai ghost story P and it’s failure to arrive on DVD is a long and complicated one, but all the fans really want to know is when will they finally be able to own the thing themselves? Well, Spurrier feels your pain, folks, and so he is self-releasing a region free Blu-Ray edition of the film with subtitles included in English, French, German, Spanish and Italian. There’s load sof coverage on this one in the archives, with articles stretching back years, so if you’ve been waiting now is the time ...