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Netflix Unpacks APAC
Singing from the same Kim sheet: Sara Merican headed to Tokyo this week for a Netflix Asia Pacific showcase event, which brought together many of the streamer’s key players from the region. Amid the manga and k-drama deluge, she sat down with Minyoung Kim, Netflix’s VP of Content for APAC to discuss everything from the streamer’s multi-billion-dollar program and movie investment in Korea to how she hopes zombie films from Indonesia and Thailand will land later this year. She even got into talking about the chance of live sports coming out of APAC (spoiler: not likely). An interesting nugget was the disclosure that Netflix is potentially on track to spend even more than its planned $2.5B over four years between 2023 and 2027 – something that will please Kim, who told Sara she wants to see a future where Asia is “on par with Hollywood in terms of the scale and the ability.” That interview wasn’t the only news breaking out of Tokyo, with Kim revealing on stage that film viewership among Netflix’s APAC subs grew 20% in 2024, thanks to titles such as Korea’s Uprising, Indonesia’s The Shadow Strays and Japan’s City Hunter. Given Netflix’s up-and-down success rate in the movie space, it was quite something to hear that APAC viewers watch an average of seven films a month. Seems like those films are cutting through culturally as well, with Kim noting Netflix’s live-action adaptation of City Hunter led to combined digital and physical sales of the original manga series skyrocketing by 900%. However, it wasn’t all good news for Kim and her Netflix APAC colleagues, as news broke during the week that the streamer’s content chief for Australia and New Zealand, Que Minh Luu, is leaving after nearly five years. She’ll remain in a consultancy capacity and Netflix insiders say a replacement is being sought. Elsewhere, an extra treat out of the showcase was this exclusive interview with Bullet Train Explosion director Shinji Higuchi, who talked casting singer-actor Tsuyoshi Kusanagi and the morality behind the film.
RIP Pope Francis
Watch on Deadline
Scorsese & others pay tribute: Sad news earlier this week with the death of Pope Francis, who passed away on Easter Monday of all days at the age of 88. The Vatican camerlengo confirmed the news and said the first Argentinian Pope’s “entire life was dedicated to the service of the Lord and of his church.” The world’s news cameras and column inches have since been trained on the Vatican, analyzing the complex legacy of the man who had been tasked with bringing a dose of modernity to Catholicism. The Pope’s death has been met with a global outpouring, not least from the world of entertainment, where he was remembered by the likes of Martin Scorsese, Whoopi Goldberg and Russell Crowe. “He was, in every way, a remarkable human being. He acknowledged his own failings. He radiated wisdom,” Scorsese wrote in a statement shared with Deadline. Short-term focus now turns to the funeral, which will likely be watched by tens if not hundreds of millions around the world on Saturday, taking place on the parvis of Saint Peter’s Basilica (the space in front of the basilica). In the slightly longer term, Edward Berger’s Oscar-winning papal drama Conclave has led to a sense of intrigue in terms of the succession process and who may replace Francis, who was himself portrayed by Jonathan Pryce in Fernando Meirelles 2019 movie The Two Popes. And for a sense of Francis’ own love of the big screen, Mel dug into an old interview in which he revealed his favorite movie and said he “owes my cinema culture above all to my parents.”
Luc Besson Goes Low Budget
Back to basics: Across a four-decade career, Luc Besson has pretty much done it all. With June & John, he has gone back to basics. The French filmmaker sat down with Mel to discuss the inception of an ultra-low-budget romance shot entirely with smartphones in L.A. during the Covid-19 pandemic. “It felt good to be uniquely creative without the pressure of money,” said the Fifth Element and Leon auteur. The movie, which released this week, follows the two titular characters who are ripped out of their humdrum lives after exchanging looks on the subway, setting in motion a crime-ridden, romantic adventure played out against the tents of the L.A. homeless. Just prior to the pandemic, Besson had been developing a project for a major Chinese smartphone brand, and it was this that got him thinking. With plenty of material to discuss, Besson also dove deep into his disenchantment with L.A., why studios have become risk-averse and his next pic, Dracula: A Love Tale. Check it out over here.
When Louis Returned To The West Bank
Being “perpetrator focused”: One of our top-read international pieces over the past few days has been this guest column from none other than celebrated documentarian Louis Theroux, who wrote about the knotty, complex issues surrounding the occupied West Bank territory, which he returned to this year after 15 years for BBC doc The Settlers (airing Sunday in the UK). As he is wont to do, Theroux is going back to a place he has previously explored while it generates headlines to examine what has changed and dissect his own relationship with said subject matter. In the column, he wrote about taking a “perpetrator-focused” approach to his subjects – in this instance religious nationalist settlers, including the “Godmother” of the settler movement, Daniella Weiss – and how this can sometimes land him in hot water but ultimately allows unique perspectives to be confronted. “Making a documentary isn’t just a matter of handing someone a megaphone and saying ‘have at it’,” he wrote. “It’s a process of asking the right questions, challenging, contextualizing.” Theroux also touched on the success of No Other Land, the Oscar-winning doc about the West Bank that has nonetheless still had its detractors.
SXSW Comes To London
Taking ‘Deep Cover’: The inaugural SXSW London kicks off in a few weeks’ time and buzz is building. On Tuesday, we revealed that Amazon’s Deep Cover starring Bryce Dallas Howard and Orlando Bloom will kick things off. The movie is described as an improv comedy about a teacher beginning to question if she’s missed her shot at success. The premiere will take place on Wednesday June 4, the midpoint of the overall festival, which runs from June 2-7 in London’s Shoreditch. Mike Flanagan’s Tom Hiddleston starrer The Life Of Chuck has been set as the closing film and SXSW London will also feature documentary Love & Rage: Munroe Bergdorf, BBC drama What It Feels Like For a Girl and the World Premiere of MGM+’s drama thriller The Institute. Any SXSW expansion is bound to excite and we’ll be keeping a close eye on this one. “Our programme is designed to ignite conversations, inspire new connections, and showcase and celebrate screen storytelling across film, TV, and immersive,” said Anna Bogutskaya, Head of Screen at SXSW London.
The Essentials
🌶️ Hot One: Apple’s next big TV adaptation will tell the origin story of Philip Kerr’s Detective Bernie Gunther – Peter Straughan, Bad Wolf and Tom Hanks are attached.
🌶️ Another One: Miramax TV tapped Carissa Hope Lynch to lead UK and Lucy Dertavitian for MENA.
🎤 The big interview: Canneseries director Albin Lewi talked to us about life after MIPTV and American blockbusters.
📉 Results: A year after its dramatic recap move, Swedish studio Viaplay had a mixed Q1.
🏕️ Festival latest: Cannes added 16 new titles including Lynne Ramsay’s Die, My Love and Saeed Roustaee’s Woman And Child.
🏕️ More festivals: Annecy unveiled a buzzy 2025 lineup including an honor for animation legend Matt Groening.
🕴🏼 New job: For ex-Disney exec David Levine, who is helping Israeli streamer Izzy push into daily drama.
📽️ Clip: Feel the tempo with Korean crime thriller Yadang: The Snitch starring Squid Game‘s Kang Ha-neul.
International Insider was written by Max Goldbart and edited by Jesse Whittock, who also contributed.