BEIJING (AP) – A private film company in eastern China has agreed to invest at least $500 million in the studio of former Walt Disney boss Dick Cook to make movies to be distributed worldwide, the companies announced. 　The deal is the latest tie-up between Hollywood and Chinese companies as China is offering overseas producers more investment opportunities. Both look to increase their presence in each other’s film industries. 　Los Angeles-based Dick Cook Studios and Film Carnival, a film produce

If only love were all! Then loving what you live for -- for Ed Wood, it was the cinema -- would make you an interpretive artist of the highest order.　In “Marguerite,” the title character is working on a cruel passion-to-talent ratio. She’s a terrible, screechy, off-pitch would-be opera singer, but she loves Mozart and Bellini and Handel so much that her delusions prevent her from hearing how little she can bring to her pursuits. It’s a movie about a sweet-natured mediocrity and her social circle

Misconduct  (U.S.)　Opened March 30　　Drama/Thriller. Directed by Shintaro Shimosawa　　Ben (Josh Duhamel), an ambitious lawyer, becomes mired in a case of corruption and blackmail, caught between Denning (Anthony Hopkins), an unscrupulous pharmaceutical executive and his firm’s partner Abrams (Al Pacino).  　The Great Actor　(Korea)　Opened March 30　　Comedy. Directed by Seok Min-woo　　Obscure actor Jang Sung-pil (Oh Dal-soo), who has been playing a dog with no lines for nearly 20 years in a play, dream

Jeonju International Film Festival is striving to return stronger than ever this year for its 17th installment, reinforcing its aim of showcasing some of the world’s most experimental and avant–garde films -- while also reaching out to the wider public.　It is slated to run April 28-May 7 in Jeonju, North Jeolla Province, some 1 1/2 hours away from Seoul by high-speed train KTX. Most of the festival will take place on Movie Street, a street dedicated to films in Gosa-dong. This year’s edition boa

NEW YORK (AFP) - A documentary by a former British medical researcher who claimed a link between vaccines and autism has been withdrawn from the Tribeca Film Festival in New York, event founder and actor Robert De Niro said.　“Vaxxed: From Cover-UP to Catastrophe” had drawn protests from critics who said including the film in the festival line-up amounted to siding with the anti-vaccine movement spawned by the discredited research.　“My intent in screening this film was to provide an opportunity f

Space has become a new theme powering ticket sales in Korean theaters of late, thanks to the growing interest in science as well as evolving visual technology.The past three years at the Korean box office have seen a string of successful Hollywood movies set in space. Alfonso Cuaron‘s “Gravity” set the spark in October 2013, followed by the blockbuster hit “Interstellar” by Christopher Nolan in November 2014, and “The Martian” and “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” just two months apart in late 2015

One Way Trip　(Korea)　Opened March 24　Drama. Directed by Choi Jeong-yeol　Four friends who have just reached their 20s take off on a journey together. Carefree, they roam about the beach at Pohang in southeastern Korea when they come across a woman in danger. The four are then swept up in a crime case, testing their friendship and masking a cloud over their youthful days. 　Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice　(U.S.)　Opened March 24　Fantasy/Superhero. Directed by Zack Snyder　Two years after Superman’

Back in 2002, “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” became a bona fide cultural phenomenon, a romantic comedy that mined the cultural specificities of the Greek heritage of unknown writer and star Nia Vardalos. The film picked up an Oscar nomination for Vardalos’ original screenplay, everyone began adding “My Big Fat” in front of various nouns, and we all learned a thing or two about the versatility of Windex. Fourteen years later, Vardalos and gang are back again for another wedding, but this time, it’s t

Selected theaters around the country will screen “Dong-ju: The Portrait of a Poet” with English-language subtitles, starting Thursday.　The subtitled film will be shown at 12 theaters. In Seoul, it will be shown at Yeongdeungpo Lotte Cinema; Megabox cinemas in Coex, Central, Sinchon and Dongdaemun; and CGV cinemas Yeouido, Yongsan and Sinchon. Elsewhere around the country, it will be shown at CGV Cinema Centum City in Busan and Megabox theaters in Busan, Suwon and Ilsan.　Directed by Lee Joon-ik,

Korean filmmakers will boycott this year’s Busan International Film Festival unless the organizer -- Busan Metropolitan Government -- guarantees its autonomy, a pan-film industry emergency committee announced Monday. 　The emergency committee, formed last year and comprised of local movie producers, directors and screenwriters, requested that the BMG withdraw an injunction filed last Monday to nullify the appointment of 68 new members to the festival’s advisory committee. It further urged the BMG

Last year’s megahit Korean action film “Assassination” might soon hit Japanese screens, an official from the film’s distributor Showbox told local media on Wednesday. 　“It is uncertain whether it will be possible to release the movie in the country (Japan), but we are in talks for an exact release date, aiming for July,” added the official.　July is peak season for the film industry with many moviegoers flocking to theaters then. The movie has proved its immense popularity here, surpassing 12 mil

BEIJING (Yonhap) -- Comedian-turned-film director Shim Hyung-rae announced Saturday the production of a sequel to his fantasy movie “D-War” from 2007.　The sequel, “D-War II,” is the first “Hollywood-class” science fiction movie to be produced in China, Shim said at a news conference in Beijing.　Production will begin around June with the movie slated for release worldwide in the summer of 2017, he said. 　With the new movie, Shim said he aims to generate more than 4 billion yuan ($618 million) in