Kōki Named AFA Rising Star; Quiver Boards ‘Culprit'; ‘Real Men' Format Spin-Off; ‘Grace' Renewed; Amol Rajan Doc; Amir Locke Film Deal
The first winner at the upcoming Asian Films Awards has been named. Japan's Kōki has won the AFA Rising Star Award, joining previous winners such as 2017's Park Seo-joon and 2019's Win Metawin.. Known as a singer and model, Kōki made her acting debut in 2022 and earned a Blue Ribbon Award in Japan for her dual role performance in horror film Ox Head Village. She went on to star in UK-Iceland romantic feature Touch and more recently was in British survival thriller Tornado, about a young Japanese woman who finds herself in peril when her father's traveling puppet show crosses paths with a ruthless criminal gang. It is due to premiere as the opening night gala at the Glasgow Film Festival this month. She will also appear in upcoming Japanese pic True Beauty. Kōki will attend the AFA ceremony in Hong Kong next month on March 16.
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Quiver Boards Crime-Thriller 'Culprit'
EXCLUSIVE: Quiver distribution has picked up North American rights to Culprit, a crime-thriller from Good Rebel Pictures, starring Jamie Donovan (Lethal Weapon) and Laura Vale (Desperate Housewives) and directed by Rich Ronat. Release is later this month online. Set in present-day Huntsville, Texas, Culprit tells the story of an ex-con, played by Donovan, who gets released after serving 27 years behind bars for the murder of a 9-year-old girl. The victim's older sister, played by Vale, helps get him released believing he was innocent. The pair team up together to find the real killer, but two days after his release, another 9-year-old girl is found murdered. Judah Katzler, Larry Greenberg and TJ Smith negotiated the deal with worldwide sales agent, JD Beaufils of Blacktop International. The film is produced by Cosmos Kiindarius of Inmotion Pictures and Rich Ronat, who co-founded Good Rebel Pictures with Laura Vale.
'Real Men' Spin-Off 'Real Gen Z' Leads Seven.One Sales
With the London TV Screenings around the corner, Seven.One Studios International has struck a series of deals for the likes of Real Men, My Man Can, Buying Blind and My Restaurant Rocks. Poland's TTV has ordered a seventh season of Real Men, but will spin it off as Real Gen Z. The show, premiering next month, will see five overweight young men go on an inspiring journey to improve their physical and mental wellbeing. Culinary competition My Restaurant Rocks is getting two more seasons in Italy, where it is on Sky Uno and known as 4 Ristoranti. A new spin-off, 4 Hotel, is in the works at Banijay Italy. LaSexta in Spain and TV3 in Cataloni have also recommissioned their version, while Germany's Sat.1 is bringing Redseven Entertainment format The Taste back for a fourteenth season. High-energy gameshow My Man Can has new homes in Romania, on Kanal D, and Turkey, where TV8 has ordered a 20-part run. In lifestyle, RTL Nederlands has added another season of real estate format Buying Blind, with Belgium's Play Media ordering its own version for later this year, along with all five seasons from its neighboring country. Elsewhere, the BBC in the UK has acquired all five seasons of Irish reno show The Great House Revival. Back in the the Netherlands, pubcaster NPO has licensed the Belgian version of The Restaurant That Makes Mistakes and UK history title Forged with Steel has been picked up by Seven.One Entertainment.
ITV Says 'Grace' For Sixth Time
UK network ITV has ordered a sixth season of John Simm detective drama Grace. The show follows Simm as Detective Superintendent Roy Grace as he investigates crime in Brighton. Four two-hour standalone films will begin filming this summer, with Richie Campbell, Zoë Tapper, Laura Elphinstone and Brad Morrison also starring. The show, co-produced by Tall Story Pictures and Vaudeville Productions and sold globally by ITV Studios, is based on novels by Peter James. It is also on BritBox in North America and Australia, badged as an original. Season 5 is set to launch in the spring on ITV and STV in Scotland, with Season 6 guest stars and writers announced closer to filming.
Amol Rajan Doc Set At BBC
The BBC has ordered a doc in which journalist and presenter Amol Rajan explores the world's biggest gathering, the Maha Kumbh Mela Festival in India. Fremantle's Wildstar Films is making Amol Rajan Goes to the Ganges (working title) as its first non-natural history show. The Kumbh, which takes place once every 12 years, sees up to 500 million pilgrims come together in an area the size of Manhattan. This year's event is a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence due to a special alignment of the solar system's planets, which last happened 144 years ago. Fremantle is selling the documentary, which is being sold under the working title Earth's Biggest Festival: Kumbh Mela and being launched to global buyers at the London TV Screenings next week.
Amir Locke Documentary Deal
Rugged Entertainment (Notorious B.I.G.: Bigger Than Life) has acquired world rights to doc No Knock, No Charge? The Amir Locke Story by Andrew Tyler. In the early hours of February 2022, a SWAT team executed a no-knock raid on an apartment in Minneapolis. Within seconds, 22-year-old Amir Locke—startled awake on his cousin's couch—was fatally shot. He was not the target of the warrant. He had no criminal record. Yet, in just eight seconds, his life was taken. For Amir's uncle, Andrew Tyler, the incident became a mission to expose the full truth and he demanded access to 56 bodycams from the night. The film 'goes beyond a single tragedy, revealing the chaos, fear, and irreversible consequences of unchecked police force'.
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