Upside Down and Sideways

Shah Rukh Khan to Produce Horror Series for Netflix

Superstar Shah Rukh Khan will co-produce a horror series for streaming service Netflix. As per sources, it is a horror series Betaal, written and directed by Patrick Graham, co-directed by Nikhil Mahajan.

The story is about four Indian intelligence officers belonging to the Indian Intelligence Wing (IIW) who are compromised, before they can relay an important piece of information to India. They get captured and are about to be decapitated. The stakes are high.

This will be the third piece of content to be produced by Red Chillies Entertainment for Netflix, after Bard of Blood, featuring Emraan Hashmi, and Class of 83 with Bobby Deol.

Graham had earlier helmed Radhika Apte-starrer Ghoul for Netflix.

Class of 83 is directed by Atul Sabharwal. The film tells the story of an upright policeman-turned-police instructor whose students grapple with the complexities of honour, morals and devotion towards their nation.

Recently, Netflix had announced that Bard of Blood, will premiere on its platform on September 27. The seven-episode show is based on Bilal Siddiqi’s bestselling book of the same name.

As part of Netflix’s deal with Shah Rukh Khan’s company Red Chillies Entertainment, the series will feature actors such as Emraan Hashmi, Vineet Kumar Singh, Shobhita Dhulipala, Kirti Kulhari, Gaurav Verma and Rajit Kapoor amongst others.

We shall keep you updated.

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Industry leader Patrick Smith joins Technicolor’s pre-production studio as visualization head

Technicolor has announced the addition of industry leader Patrick Smith to head its visualisation department.

Reporting to Technicolor’s Pre-Production Studio head Kerry Shea, Smith will partner closely with filmmakers to help them perfect their visions in a digital environment long before they hit the set. By helping clients define lensing, set dimensions, asset placement, and even precise on-set camera moves, Smith and his team will play a vital role in helping clients plan their shoots in the virtual environment in ways that feel completely natural and intuitive to them.

“By enabling clients to leverage the latest visualization technologies and techniques while using hardware similar to what they are already familiar with, Patrick and his team will empower filmmakers by ensuring their creative visions are clearly defined at the very start of their projects – and remain at the heart of everything they do from their first day on set to take their stories to the next level. Bringing visualization and the other areas of pre-production together under one roof removes redundancy from the filmmaking process which, in turn, reduces stress on the storyteller and allows them as much time as possible to focus on telling their story. Until now, the process of pre-production has been a divided and inefficient process involving different vendors and repeated steps. Bringing those worlds together and making it a seamless, start-to-finish process is a game-changer,” stated Shea.

Smith has held a number of senior positions within the industry, including most recently as creative director / senior visualization supervisor at the third-floor visualization. For over a decade, Smith has brought a love of storytelling and vast film and artistic skillsets to titles such as Bumblebee, Avengers: Infinity War, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Guardians of The Galaxy Vol. 2, and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.

“Visualization used to involve deciding roughly what you plan to do on set. Today, you can plan out precisely how to achieve your vision on setting down to the inch – from the exact camera lens to use, to exactly how much dolly track you’ll need, to precisely where to place your actors. Visualization should be viewed as the director’s paintbrush. It’s through the process of visualization that directors can visually explore and design their characters and breathe life into their story. It’s a sandbox where they can experiment, play and perfect their vision before the pressure of being on set,” stated Smith.

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Cosmos-Maya secures coveted Diamond Button with 10 million subscribers for its anchor YouTube channel WowKidz

With individual videos clocking 100 million hits, the 26 million subscriber strong YouTube platform for kids is hitting the right notes and has surpassed the 10 million subscriber mark for its channel WowKidz.

Cosmos-Maya, the frontrunner in shaping industry trends has added another feather in its cap. WowKidz, it’s YouTube network for kids now has more than 10 million subscribers on its anchor channel and is now a recipient of the coveted Diamond Button. It all started with this one channel and the brand diversified into several sub-channels catering to numerous geographies world over. The channel has seen a 6-fold increase in the number of subscribers in just 18 months.


WowKidz had humble beginnings and Cosmos-Maya saw it as a source of additional revenue. It was given a push by CEO Anish Mehta who envisaged a brand which viewers could bank upon for 24X7 quality entertainment. In just 18 months, it is now a full-fledged business entity raking in a substantial share of Cosmos-Maya’s revenue pie. The platform now has 10,000 odd videos of quality entertainment for the 3-14 year demographic produced in-house and acquired from top producers worldwide. Boonie Bears, Smurfs, Simba, Om Nom are only some of the big-ticket international shows that run on WowKidz. WowKidz also has the world’s largest Hindi language animation content catalogue today.

Silver Button

 

A jubilant Anish Mehta,CEO Cosmos-Maya said, “This is a great development. There are only a handful channels worldwide which have received the coveted Diamond Button and even fewer Indian channels. We are very grateful to our viewers for their love and appreciation. Our mission with WowKidz is to make it a two-pronged content window – showcasing the best Indian animation to the world and bringing the best of world content to Indian kids. This is a leap in that direction.”

This development comes on the back of Cosmos-Maya’s recent impetus on regional and vernacular content. Cosmos-Maya’s bouquet of 32 YouTube channels under umbrella brand WowKidz, which has more than 26 million subscribers and 12.5 billion views, now has its content available in all major languages, namely Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Bengali, Gujarati, Punjabi, Urdu, Marathi, Bhojpuri and Nepalese. 

Devdatta Potnis, SVP Revenue and Finance, further added, “Programming has played a major role in WowKidz’s success. We have videos which have clocked 100 million hits. Motu Patlu and ViR, two of our biggest IPs have garnered more than 6 billion and 4 billion views respectively. This when Motu Patlu is geo-blocked in India. We have a wonderful mix of homegrown and acquired content which viewers can watch anywhere anytime. Fresh content is added to the mix on a daily basis. Our creative prowess adds further zing to the localization of acquired international content.” 

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Kerbal Space Program 2 announced

Eight years ago, a flight simulation game Kerbal Space Program was released which allowed players to tinker with intergalactic space. Well, its good news for the fans, Kerbal Space Program,the highly anticipated sequel to 2011’s hit title, is in the works.

With the original Kerbal Space Program having become one of the most beloved games of all time and now bigger than ever, Kerbal Space Program 2 has been fully redesigned from the ground up to meet the demands of modern and next-generation space exploration, all while maintaining the monumental foundations of the first game, Build a space program, construct powerful spacecraft, design resource-gathering colonies, and much more to uncover the secrets of the galaxy. A plethora of exciting new features will captivate veteran and returning players, as well as usher in a whole new wave of Kerbonauts to the ingenious and comedic world that has entertained millions of players.

Kerbal Space Program 2 will create a whole new generation of space flight experts who will find themselves accidentally learning rocket science. New animated tutorials, improved UI, and fully revamped assembly and flight instructions allow both experienced and novice players to quickly put their creativity to the test without sacrificing any of the challenge from the original game.

In Kerbal Space Program 2, the astoundingly inventive creations that KSP is known for will be taken to a whole new level. Players will be delighted and challenged by next-generation engines, parts, fuel, and much more. This new tech will not just create novel puzzles for players to solve, but will also enable new feats of space exploration within and beyond the original Kerbolar System.

The upcoming sequel is being handled by Star Theory and Private Division and will be released in 2020.

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London, São Paulo, and Cookie Studio

In this Motionographer Q&A, we chat with Thiago Maia, Creative Director and Founder of Cookie Studio about their new studio and expansion to São Paulo.

Disney Classics

One Take Media acquires 3D animated series, ‘Brainy Bubbly Bug Buddies‘ for SAARC region

One Take Media (OTM) has acquired the rights for the globally popular 3D edutainment animated series Brainy Bubbly Bug Buddies for SAARC countries. Consisting of 104 episodes available in English, Hindi and other languages, Brainy Bubbly Bug Buddies comes from the makers of global hit animated series Boonie Bear.

The series, Brainy Bubbly Bug Buddies has won the Festival’s distinguished Platinum Remi award at the 45th WorldFest Houston International Film Festival in Houston, Texas. According to its official website, WorldFest is the oldest independent film and video festival in the world, and one of the three original international film festivals in North America.

One Take Media founder and CEO Anil Khera said, “A good children’s show ought to teach you something. Brainy Bubbly Bug Buddies reminds us that problem-solving is often best accomplished as a joint effort and coincidentally, we live in a vast world worthy of exploration at even the most minute level of existence. Watching Brainy Bubbly Bug Buddies will  be a delight to children and this will nurture  the children’s budding quest for knowledge and will inspire them with a healthy respect for life in the natural realm.”

The animated series revolves around the lively workings of the insect world which is sure to attract young minds. They will get an insight into the habits and habitats of actual insects of many kinds, and will learn how these creatures thrive in their environment—a lush wetland called The Marsh.

Among its inhabitants are Bartle Bee, the uncommonly observant honey bee; Flutterby, the pretty butterfly; Strobe and Sparkle, firefly twin brothers; McBroom, the honest, kind hearted and tough critter in the land and Joe Croaker is the only frog in The Marsh. The Marsh is always buzzing with activity, and little viewers will be captivated by the lively blend of action. These heroes bring their collective skills and ingenuity to bear on life’s challenges in The Marsh, and in the end, are rewarded for their efforts.

OTM is one of the leaders in providing value Added Services to DTH, Telecom, OTT and Cable industries. Their services include Hollywood Movies, Hollywood Movies dubbed in Hindi, Kids Animated Movies/shows, Celebrity based Cooking shows and Korean TV series.

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New Rambo V: Last Blood Trailer is out

New teaser trailer for Rambo: Last Blood has been released and Sylvester Stallone’s iconic character is slaying it. The new footage shows John Rambo fusing it with a cartel to save a friend’s daughter, and as you can see he will turn the world upside down to make sure she comes home safe.

You can check out the full teaser in the video above.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

!!! THE NEW TEASER. !!!! “HE DID NOT START IT , BUT HE WILL END IT “

A post shared by Sly Stallone (@officialslystallone) on Aug 20, 2019 at 6:23am PDT

Rambo: Last Blood is directed by Adrian Grunberg based on a screenplay by Matthew Cirulnick and Sylvester Stallone, and stars Stallone, Paz Vega, Sergio Peris-Mencheta, Adrianna Barraza, Yvette Monreal, Genie Kim aka Yenah Han, Joaquin Cosio, and Oscar Jaenada. You can check out the official description below.

Rambo: Last Blood hits theaters 20th September 2019

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“Paramour” Anna Meredith