News

Japan’s Dean Fujioka and the U.K.’s Callum Woodhouse are set to star in “Orang Ikan,” a WWII-set creature horror film. The picture is scripted by Singapore and Indonesia-based Mike Wiluan who will also direct the picture from next month.

International rights to “Orang Ikan” have been picked up by London-based Sc Films International, which will give the project its sales launch at the Busan festival and accompanying market next month.

Set in the Pacific, 1942, a Japanese ship transports prisoners of war to occupied territories as slave labor. After being torpedoed by allied submarines, a Japanese soldier and a British Pow are stranded on a deserted island, but soon discover they are not alone. They are being hunted by a ferocious mythological creature, the Orang Ikan, a human-fish hybrid. Unable to communicate in each other’s language, the two mortal enemies must come together to survive the unknown.

Documentary

Channel 4 in the U.K. have commissioned Flicker Productions to produce “Football Trolls” (working title), an hour-long documentary on the relationship between social media, racism and soccer, hosted by former Newcastle and Tottenham midfielder-turned BT Sport pundit Jermaine Jenas. The commission comes amid outcry about racial abuse suffered by England players Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka following England’s loss to Italy in the Euro 2020 final. Many Black players in the English Premiere League have suffered targeted, racial abuse on social media for years.

“This film is incredibly important to me and something I’ve been working on for a while. there has been an ongoing conversation surrounding racism and football for as long as I can remember, and the reactions to the Euros has been heart-breaking,” said Jenas in a release. “I’ve felt sick to my stomach reading the comments and chants and promise...

Richie Mehta’s harrowing Netflix series “Delhi Crime” was the big winner at the 2nd annual Asian Academy Creative Awards in Singapore on Friday.

Representing the show, lead actress Shefali Shah was rushed off her feet as she repeatedly had to return to the stage. “Delhi Crime” earned her best actress in a leading role, best drama series and best direction, and fiction, for Mehta. Earlier, the series also won best original program by a streamer/Ott on the first night of the two-day awards.

Shah was also on stage, at Singapore’s beautifully restored historical Victoria theatre to present the inaugural award for best feature film, that went to her compatriot Zoya Akhtar’s Indian Oscar submission “Gully Boy.” Indian animated show, “Lamput,” produced for Cartoon Network was also among the winners.

Indonesian Oka Antara won best actor in a leading role for Hooq’s “Brata,” while Jamie Aditya...

HBO Asia has expanded its burgeoning production slate with six-episode half-hour series “Invisible Stories.” The first two episodes of the show, “Lian” and “Chuan,” play at the Singapore International Film Festival on Nov. 28.

The series is by writer and director Ler Jiyuan, who previously directed part of HBO Asia Original series “Grisse.” “Like 80% of Singaporeans, I live in a Housing Development Board flat, in a regular Hdb public housing estate,” Ler told Variety. “ ‘Invisible Stories’ is pretty much the world that I came from. I grew up in a three-room flat in Ang Mo Kio (residential town), back in the 1990s. My father was a taxi driver, my mother a factory worker who eventually lost her job during a financial crisis. The life I live, the people I see, were all inspirations for ‘Invisible Stories.’ For example, just two doors down from me was a spiritual medium who turned his flat into a temple.

Since joining HBO Asia as senior vice president of HBO Asia Original Productions in 2017, film and TV industry veteran Jessica Kam-Engle has shepherded acclaimed original projects that have a pan-Asian appeal, including the horror anthology series Folklore, the Taiwanese supernatural series The Teenage Psychic and the Western-style period drama Grisse, about an Indonesian rebellion against Dutch colonial rule in the 19th century. Deeply immersed in the filmmaking world in China before her HBO Asia appointment, she has looked after the 700-title Shaw Brothers film library at Celestial Pictures and produced Kungfu Cyborg (2009) and Just Another Pandora’s Box (2010) with Hong Kong director ...

Sci-fi drama Dream Raider is exec-produced by Soi Cheang, while Eric Khoo created food-themed series Food Lore.

HBO Asia has unveiled a slate of four original productions, including sci-fi drama Dream Raider, executive produced by Hong Kong filmmaker Soi Cheang, and food-themed series Food Lore, created by Singapore’s Eric Khoo.

Starring Taiwan’s Vivian Hsu and David Wang, Dream Raider is directed by Daniel Fu and Simon Hung and brings together talent from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Produced by Freeman Xiang, the eight-part series follows a team of scientists and cops investigating a criminal conspiracy that exploits human consciousness.

Other new original series include sci-fi Dream Raider and Taiwanese drama The World Between Us.

HBO Asia has unveiled a slate of four original productions, including sci-fi drama Dream Raider, executive produced by Hong Kong filmmaker Soi Cheang, and food-themed series Food Lore, created by Singapore’s Eric Khoo.

Starring Taiwan’s Vivian Hsu and David Wang, Dream Raider is directed by Daniel Fu and Simon Hung and brings together talent from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Produced by Freeman Xiang, the eight-part series follows a team of scientists and cops investigating a criminal conspiracy that exploits human consciousness. Taipei Film Commission...