KNOCK-OUT CAST FOR ‘KNOCK-OFF’
Kim Soohyun, star of “My Love from The Star,” “It’s Okay to Not Be Okay” and “Queen of Tears,” will team up with Cho Boah (“Tale of the Nine Tailed,” “Military Prosecutor Doberman”), in Korean crime series “Knock-Off,” which Disney has set for a 2025 release.
The show dives into the murky world of counterfeit goods, following a man whose life is ruined in the wake of the 1997 Asian financial crisis. Desperate to rebuild what he once had, the man finds himself drawn into the knock-off goods trade, quickly climbing up to the top of the counterfeit market scene. That sets him on a collision course with his ex-girlfriend who is now a special police office tasked with cracking down on the fake goods trade.
Disney has been racing to build up its Korean content library and has release ten shows so far in 2024.
Its upcoming slate includes “The Tyrant,” “Unmasked,” “Seoul Busters,” Light Shop” and crime thriller “Gangnam B-Side,” which will premiere as part of the Busan film festival (see Below). Premium, talent-driven scripted dramas in 2025 include “Tempest,” “Low Life” and “Nine Puzzles.”
RICH HAUL, ‘POOR THINGS’
“Poor Things,” the 2023 film directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, has obtained the FIPRESCI Grand Prix after having been chosen film of the year 2024 by the members of FIPRESCI, the International Federation of Film Critics. “Poor Things“ had its premiere at the Venice Festival, where it carried off the Golden Lion for best film. It since added two Golden Globes and five BAFTAs and four awards at the Oscars.
The FIPRESCI Grand Prix will be presented on Sept. 20 at the opening gala of the 72nd San Sebastian Festival and screen the same day.
Searchlight Pictures
BUSAN SPECIAL SELECTIONS
The Busan International Film Festival has set five films and six TV series to play in its Korean Cinema Today – Special Premiere section which is intended to showcase the latest and most prominent contemporary Korean commercial films.
While one, Hur Jin-ho’s “A Normal Family” first played last year the other four films are all world premieres. They include: “A Girl with Closed Eyes,” a thriller that delves into the complex and tense relationship between a criminal and a detective, who are reunited after the murder case of a bestselling author and stars Kim Minha (“Pachinko”) and Moon Choi; “Bogota: City of the Lost,” about Korean immigrants in Colombia who become smugglers; crime drama about two corrupt detectives, “Dirty Money,” that marks the directorial debut of director Kim Minsu (screenplay for “The Merciless”); and “Hear Me: Our Summer,” a remake of the 2009 Taiwanese film “Hear Me.”
The On Screen section includes “Beyond Goodbye,” a Japanese melodrama Kasumi Arimura and Sakaguchi Kentaro; “Born for the Spotlight,” by Taiwanese actor, writer and director and completing a trilogy that also includes “The Making of an Ordinary Woman.”
The Korean titles are: “Dongjae, the Good or the Bastard,” a spin-off series of the top-rated and nationally acclaimed drama “Stranger”; “Gangnam B–Side,” a crime action drama centered around a missing person case; “Hellbound Season 2,” again directed by Yeon Sang-ho and written by Choi Gyu-seok; and “Way Back Love,” a teenage coming-of-age fantasy romance in which an ex-boyfriend is now a grim reaper.
Gangnam B Side
Disney
SCREEN AUSTRALIA
Award-winning producer Darren Dale has been appointed as a member of the Screen Australia board for three years. He is the MD of First Nations-owned production company Blackfella Films. His credits include “First Australians” (2008), “Total Control” (2019-2024) and “Redfern Now” (2012-2014).
He currently serves on the boards of the Sydney Film Festival, the Sydney Festival and the National Institute of Dramatic Art, as well as serving on the NSW Government’s Creative Communities Council. He is also a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The appointment was announced by federal minister for the arts Tony Burke.
