Tag: disney

Disney Is Considering Selling Its Indian Streaming and TV Business, Reliance Is Among Potential Buyers

Walt Disney has held preliminary talks with potential buyers for its India streaming and television business including billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries, according to people familiar with the matter.

The US entertainment giant has discussed a range of options with would-be suitors, from a deal for the entire Disney Star business to a piecemeal transaction that may include some combination of its assets including sports rights and regional streaming service Disney+ Hotstar, the people said.

Disney has been weighing strategic options for the business including an outright sale or setting up a joint venture, Bloomberg News reported in July after the Indian unit lost its streaming rights to the Indian Premier League cricket tournament to Viacom18, a tie-up between Paramount Global and Reliance. Disney had approached Reliance about potentially buying a stake in the business, a person familiar with the matter said at the time.

Discussions are ongoing and may not lead to any deal, the people said, asking not to be identified as the information is private. Disney could decide to hold onto the assets for longer, they added. A representative for Disney declined to comment.

A spokesperson for Reliance said the company “evaluates various opportunities on an ongoing basis” and will make the required disclosures when necessary, declining to comment further.

Though Disney Star has seen declining subscriber numbers after losing the IPL streaming rights, it hasn’t ceded the entire cricket business, securing the television rights through 2027. Last year it agreed to license the TV rights for International Cricket Council men’s matches to ZEE Entertainment for four years, with Disney+ Hotstar retaining the digital rights.

JioCinema, the streaming service backed by Reliance, netted a record 32 million concurrent viewers in May for the IPL final, which was free to watch on the platform. The venture has begun charging for some content on the platform after signing a multi-year pact to stream Warner Bros. Discovery’s exclusive content in India.

© 2023 Bloomberg LP

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Netflix, Amazon, JioCinema-Backed Group Protests New Tobacco Warning Rules in India

An Indian group representing Netflix, Amazon and Disney has told the government its new tobacco warning rules are impossible to implement for streaming giants and will impinge on content creators’ freedom of expression, a letter seen by Reuters showed.

As part of India’s anti-tobacco drive, the health ministry last month ordered streaming platforms to insert static health warnings during smoking scenes within three months. Also, India wants at least 50 seconds of anti-tobacco disclaimers, including an audio-visual, at the start and in the middle of each program.

The three companies, and Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s streaming platform JioCinema, were recently part of a privately held discussion to consider pushback options, including a legal challenge, as executives worried that the rules would require editing of millions of hours of Indian and Hollywood content.

The amount of multilingual content on platforms “is very high … there is a practical impossibility associated with including such warnings across content,” the letter by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) stated.

IAMAI asked the health ministry to revisit the “onerous” rules, saying a survey had shown viewers were indifferent to depictions of smoking on streaming platforms, the letter said.

Netflix declined to comment, while IAMAI and the other companies did not immediately respond. The health ministry also did not respond.

Beyond Hollywood content, streaming companies Netflix, Amazon, Disney and JioCinema have become inreasingly popular in India. Popular Hindi content starring Bollywood actors on such platforms have smoking scenes.

Activists have welcomed India’s new rules, saying it would discourage smoking in a country where tobacco kills 1.3 million people each year.

The companies believe content descriptors — which warn users with a label “smoking” in a video alongside its title at the start — were more effective, IAMAI said.

The “disruptions” caused by warnings, the group said, were “problematic for creators that put in considerable investments.”

All smoking and alcohol drinking scenes in movies in India’s cinemas and on TV, under law, require health warnings, but there were so far no regulations for the streaming giants.

In 2013, Woody Allen stopped his film, Blue Jasmine, from being screened in India after learning that mandatory anti-tobacco warnings would be inserted into its smoking scenes.

Sanjay Seth of non-profit Sambandh Health Foundation said there should be no difference in how smoking is discouraged in cinema, and on digital platforms.

“They must implement this. It will save lives,” Seth said.

© Thomson Reuters 2023 

The Motorola Edge 40 recently made its debut in the country as the successor to the Edge 30 that was launched last year. Should you buy this phone instead of the Nothing Phone 1 or the Realme Pro+? We discuss this and more on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.
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Netflix, Disney, Amazon, JioCinema to Challenge Tobacco Warning Rules for Streaming Services in India

Streaming giants Netflix, Amazon, and Disney on Friday privately discussed a possible legal challenge and other ways to stall India’s new tobacco warning rules, amid fears they will need to edit millions of hours of existing web content, sources said. The pushback is the latest headache for streaming giants in India, a top growth market. Companies often face legal cases and police complaints their content sometimes hurts religious sentiment, and many have self-censored content over the years. As part of India’s anti-tobacco drive, the health ministry this week ordered streaming platforms should within three months insert static health warnings during smoking scenes. 

Also, India wants at least 50 seconds of anti-tobacco disclaimers, including an audio-visual, at the start and in the middle of each program. In the first signs of industry distress, executives of the three global streaming companies, and India’s Viacom18 which runs billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s JioCinema app, held a closed-door meeting, where Netflix said the rules would hit customer experience and push production houses to block their content in India, according to two sources familiar with the discussions.

Executives in India also discussed ways of a possible legal challenge to assert that other ministries – IT and information & broadcasting – have powers over streaming giants, and not the health ministry, said one of the sources. The companies, and India’s health ministry, did not respond to a Reuters request for comment. Reuters is the first to report the industry’s planned pushback.

Already, all smoking and alcohol-drinking scenes in movies in India’s cinemas and on TV, under the law, require health warnings, but so far there were no regulations for the streaming giants, whose content has become increasingly popular. In 2013, Woody Allen stopped his film, Blue Jasmine, from being screened in India after learning about mandatory anti-tobacco warnings would be inserted into its smoking scenes. Activists have welcomed new anti-tobacco rules by India, the world’s second-largest producer of tobacco that kills 1.3 million people each year in the country. India also has stringent cigarette pack warning rules.

HEALTH VS WARNINGS “HARASSMENT”

Truth Initiative, a public health nonprofit group, in March, said 60 percent of the 15 most popular streaming shows among 15- to 24-year-olds it analyzed contained depictions of tobacco, “effectively exposing 25 million young people to tobacco imagery” in 2021. But in India, companies from Netflix to Amazon to Disney, also have popular Hindi content which often shows Bollywood actors smoking, something activists say encourages tobacco use.

India is a hot market for streaming giants, and executives fear business impact and higher costs. Ambani’s JioCinema has just in recent weeks signed multiple content deals with NBCUniversal and Warner Bros, bringing popular shows like ‘Succession’ and ‘The Office’ to its platform. Together, the companies have millions of hours of content. 

“New content being created needs to be changed and old content needs to be modified. It could require insertion of ad-type warning in between,” said Kaushik Moitra, partner at Bharucha & Partners who advises streaming firms and production houses. During the Friday meeting, Amazon and other companies made the point there was no way films can be edited in three months, said the second source, adding the industry decided to consult lawyers and write letters in protest.

Dylan Mohan Gray, a filmmaker who directed documentaries such as ‘Fire in the Blood’, said the new Indian rules amount to ‘harassment’, saying that murder, war, and extremely violent crime scenes were not regulated in the same way. “Smoking, which though certainly a serious public health problem, is both legal and a massive source of government revenue in this country,” he said. 

© Thomson Reuters 2023

Samsung Galaxy A34 5G was recently launched by the company in India alongside the more expensive Galaxy A54 5G smartphone. How does this phone fare against the Nothing Phone 1 and the iQoo Neo 7? We discuss this and more on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.
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Avatar: The Way of Water Disney+ Hotstar OTT Release Date in India Set for June 7

Avatar: The Way of Water is set to release June 7 on Disney+, Disney+ Hotstar, and Max (wherever available). The much-anticipated sci-fi sequel from James Cameron, transporting you back to the exotic lands of Pandora, will arrive a whopping 173 days after its theatrical release on December 16 worldwide. That’s almost a half-year gap between release to streaming — Disney had implemented a minimum 45-day window before movies become available on its streaming platform, Disney+. This time, the film will also be available to stream on HBO Max — soon to be ‘Max’ on May 26 — owing to an unusual streaming agreement production company 20th Century Fox made with Warner Bros.

In India — over on Disney+ Hotstar — Avatar 2 will be up for streaming in English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, and Kannada. Unlike the Marvel Cinematic Universe films, there is no mention of an IMAX Enhanced version, which would expand the aspect ratio, resulting in more picture on screen. That said, a 4K Ultra-HD version with Dolby Vision/ Atmos can be purchased as VOD on Apple TV, which also includes Spanish subtitles. The movie clocks in at 3 hours and 12 minutes, and currently takes the no. 3 position among the highest-grossing movies of all time, besting Cameron’s own 1997 disaster romance film, Titanic. Avatar 2 made $2.319 billion (about Rs. 19,064 crore) at the worldwide box office.

It would also seem strange for a major release as such to premiere on two streaming platforms at the same time. This has to do with the timing of the deal 20th Century Studios struck with Warner Bros. The former — under the title ‘20th Century Fox‘ — did not have a streaming platform or owner, and therefore, signed a contract to collectively stream its movies exclusively on HBO Max and Disney’s services such as Disney+ and Hulu. Even now that the studio is owned by Disney, it has to honour its deal with WB for Avatar 2 — or rather, for half of the studio’s titles through the 2022 release year.

Set 15 years after the events of the first film, Avatar: The Way of Water sees Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) as parents to five kids, thriving in the lush forests of the moon planet Pandora. A resurrected Recombinant Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) and other ‘Sky People’ bring a new challenge for the family, who is forced to flee and seek help from the shoreline-dwelling Metkayina clan, who teach them the ways of the water and help prepare for the upcoming battle. The film won an Oscar for Best Visual Effects, in addition to being nominated in the Best Picture category. Cameron also previously alluded to introducing the fire culture of natives in Avatar 3.

Avatar: The Way of Water is out June 7 on Disney+, Disney+ Hotstar, and HBO Max wherever available. In India, the film will be available in English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, and Kannada.

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PlayStation, Xbox, Ubisoft and More: Summer Game Fest 2023 Partner Lineup Revealed

Ahead of the annual Summer Game Fest event, creator Geoff Keighley has announced the full list of partners expected to showcase their titles. The list includes 43 publishers and developers, including heavy hitters like PlayStation, which still hasn’t confirmed any exact dates or events for its summer months. The publisher, alongside Xbox, previously pulled out of the E3 2023 event, eventually leading to the cancellation of the video game extravaganza. Summer Game Fest is slated to kick off June 9 at 12:30am IST in India/ June 8 at 12pm PT in the US, live from the YouTube Theatre in Los Angeles. The event will be up for streaming on all major livestream platforms including YouTube, Twitch, Twitter, and TikTok.

Xbox is also part of the partner lineup, hosting a Games Showcase on June 11, focusing on first looks from its internal and third-party studios, followed by a Starfield Direct event, airing immediately after. Ubisoft is another major publisher to have a fixed date for its games showcase — set for June 12, which could possibly feature updates on the long-delayed naval combat game Skull and Bones. From CD Projekt Red, we can expect some news on Cyberpunk 2077’s Phantom Liberty expansion, whereas Disney has been cooking up some Black Panther x Captain America team-up game.

This year’s Summer Game Fest can also be attended in person, with tickets available from the official website (Ticketmaster is the portal). It is worth mentioning that the event is merely meant as a platform for developers to show upcoming games and trailers, in addition to special guests who might pop up on stage. There are no hands-on gameplay/ demo sessions for consumers. That said, there is a special invite-only preview event for media and influencers — called PlayDays — which will take place after the show, allowing them to test out games.

We can expect to see a more detailed schedule as we near Summer Game Fest, but for now, here’s the complete list of confirmed developers and publishers attending the event, so far:

  • Activision
  • Amazon
  • Annapurna Interactive
  • Bandai Namco
  • Behaviour Interactive
  • Capcom
  • CD Projekt Red
  • Devolver Digital
  • Digital Extremes
  • Disney
  • Electronic Arts
  • Epic Games
  • Focus Entertainment
  • Gearbox Entertainment
  • Grinding Gear Games
  • Hoyoverse
  • Kabam Entertainment
  • Larian Studios
  • Level Infinite
  • Magic: The Gathering
  • Neowiz
  • Netflix
  • Nexon
  • Niantic
  • North Beach
  • Paradox Interactive
  • Pearl Abyss
  • Phoenix Labs
  • Plaion
  • PlayStation
  • Pocket Pair
  • Razer
  • Samsung Gaming Hub
  • Second Dinner
  • Sega
  • Smilegate Entertainment
  • Square Enix
  • Steam
  • Techland
  • Tribeca Festival
  • Ubisoft
  • Warner Bros Games
  • Xbox

Keighley introduced Summer Game Fest in 2020, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, in response to all major events getting cancelled as part of lockdown protocol. The online digital-only festival opened room for publishers — both AAA and indie — to showcase their games without paying a major fee for a physical booth, as seen in E3. Back then, it was a four-month-long festival — a format that most gamers didn’t appreciate since there would be long periods of nothingness before a new announcement came about.

Summer Game Fest kicks off June 9 at 12:30am IST/ June 8 at 12pm PT in the US.

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Stranger Things Season 5 Production Halted Due to Hollywood Writers’ Strike

Production on the fifth and final season of Stranger Things has been delayed, owing to the ongoing Hollywood writers’ strike. In a tweet, co-creators Matt and Ross Duffer confirmed that they stand in solidarity with the strike and hope that a fair deal is reached soon. The rules set by the Writers Guild of America state that all writer-producers are barred from participating in any writing or creative-based duties on film and television productions during the strike. It’s also refreshing to see Netflix respecting the creators’ wishes and delaying filming until further notice — a huge undertaking, given how popular the Stranger Things IP is. Meanwhile, on Disney’s side of the fence, Andor will resume production on season 2 without its primary writer.

“Duffers here. Writing does not stop when filming begins. While we’re excited to start production with our amazing cast and crew, it is not possible during this strike,” the tweet reads. “We hope a fair deal is reached soon so we can all get back to work. Until then — over and out.” Back in November, the creators revealed the title for episode 1, ‘The Crawl,’ with the chapter being set primarily in Hawkins, charting the lead characters’ investigation of the parallel world — the realm where demons like the Demogrogon lived in.

Stranger Things 5 was originally planned to begin filming this month, as per actor Noah Schnapp, who was revealed to have a massive part in this season. It is also worth mentioning that the Duffer Brothers have struck an overall partnership with Netflix for multiple Stranger Things projects, including an animated series and a stage play.

As per Variety, Andor season 2 is among the few shows that will continue production amidst the ongoing strike, with executive producer Tony Gilroy not showing up on set or writing scripts. However, he will continue working on non-writing aspects such as picking a musical score and casting. Reports from last week confirmed that Amazon Studios was continuing production on The Lord of the Rings: the Rings of Power season 2 without its showrunners on set.

Despite 19 days of filming remaining on the LOTR spinoff show, the team feels a bit relaxed as showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay planned things in advance for a potential writers’ strike. Meanwhile, in the case of HBO’s House of the Dragon season 2, executive producer Ryan J. Condal is reportedly present on the UK set, albeit in a strictly non-writing capacity. Scripts for the season were completed long before.

Earlier this month, Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos confirmed that the streamer was better prepared than most studios, in case a writers’ strike did go through, which eventually did happen. The executive pointed at its large slate of upcoming movies and shows, noting that it would keep any disruptions from the strike to the minimum. Meanwhile, other studios had been stockpiling screenplays and greenlighting series renewals earlier than required.

Currently, there is no release window for Stranger Things season 5. Andor season 2, however, is aiming for an August 2024 release on Disney+ and Disney+ Hotstar.

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Netflix Expected to Report 2 Million New Subscribers Following Price Cuts and Ad-Supported Plan: Details

Netflix is expected to report that it added some 2 million subscribers in the first quarter and investors will scrutinize whether recent price cuts and the launch of an ad-supported plan are tempting people to subscribe and stay on.

The company, which lost 200,000 subscribers in the year-ago quarter, returned to subscriber growth in the second half of 2022 but its pace of additions has slowed dramatically, forcing it to think of ways to squeeze out revenue from the 100 million people who use the service without paying for it.

To do that, the streaming giant has cracked down in some countries on password-sharing or streaming Netflix by non-members who don’t belong to the same household, which may prompt people to drop the service as a knee-jerk reaction but they are likely to come back to it, analysts said.

The crackdown will have a “more meaningful impact” in the June quarter and Netflix could gain more than 10 million new subscribers as it converts free users to paid ones, Rosenblatt Securities analyst Barton Crockett said.

Netflix is expected to add 3.43 million subscribers in the April-June period, according to 16 analysts polled by Refinitiv, compared with 970,000 subscriber losses in the year-ago quarter.

In the quarter that ended March 31, the company is expected to have added a net 2.07 million subscribers, versus a drop of 200,000 subscribers a year earlier. Netflix itself has stopped giving forecasts for the metric.

GRAPHIC – Netflix faces slowing subscriber growth

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Netflix is set to post first-quarter quarter revenue growth of nearly 4 percent, according to Refinitiv, marking its second-slowest growth ever after a nearly 2 percent rise in the December quarter.

The March quarter lacked major releases with non-English shows such as Korean revenge drama “The Glory” and the third season of Mexican drama “La Reina del Sur” doing well, according to Jefferies.

Netflix has faced strong competition from Walt Disney, Amazon.com and Warner Bros Discovery. Amazon knocked Netflix off the top spot in the United States last year, according to consulting firm Parks Associate.

GRAPHIC – Netflix stock trails peers this year

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Warner Bros said on Wednesday it will launch a new streaming service on May 23 called “Max”, combining HBO Max’s scripted entertainment with Discovery’s reality shows.

Netflix in November introduced a streaming plan with advertising for $6.99 (roughly Rs. 572) per month in 12 countries, after resisting commercials for years. Disney’s Hulu and Disney+, and HBO Max already have ad-supported options.

“The role of advertising continues to grow in importance to premium (streaming services) as a part of their profitable growth strategies,” social media analytics firm Antenna said in a note last month.

“In 2020, only one in five new sign-ups were to ad-supported plans; last year, it was nearly one in three.”

© Thomson Reuters 2023

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Star Wars Celebration 2023: Ahsoka Teaser, Daisy Ridley Returns, Andor Season 2 Release Window, and More

Star Wars Celebration 2023, held on April 7 in London, had a ton of surprises from Lucasfilm’s galaxy far, far away, ranging from new information on TV shows and movies. This year’s event coincides with the 40th-year anniversary of Return of the Jedi and drops details on three new theatrical movies, a teaser for the Rosario Dawson-led Ahsoka limited series, and exclusive first looks for Star Wars: The Acolyte and Andor season 2 for attendees at the event. The upcoming Star Wars movies would mark the first in the franchise to grace the silver screen since 2019’s Star Wars: The Rise of the Skywalker. Since then, we’ve only had Disney+ shows such as The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett.

For your convenience, we have listed below the biggest film, TV, and game news from Star Wars Celebration 2023:

Three new Star Wars movies confirmed

Daisy Ridley is set to reprise her role as Rey Skywalker in the long-gestating Star Wars movie directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy (Ms. Marvel). Development on this film has been in limbo for a while now, where at first, Disney hired Damon Lindelof (Lost) and Justin Britt-Gibson (Counterpart) to write the script. However, they exited the project last month, paving way for Steven Knight (Peaky Blinders) to take over. The untitled film is set 15 years after the events of The Rise of the Skywalker and follows Rey’s struggle to build a new Jedi Order by recruiting Force-sensitive warriors.

Rey Skywalker will try building a new Jedi Order in the untitled Star Wars movie
Photo Credit: Lucasfilm

Dave Filoni — best known for co-creating The Mandalorian — is helming the second Star Wars film, set in the same timeline as the Disney+ shows. A blog post notes that the film will focus on the New Republic and ‘close out interconnected stories’ told in his other shows. Jon Favreau previously confirmed that all upcoming shows, which includes the Jude Law-led Skeleton Crew, take place within the same time period, so it isn’t unusual for his work partner Filoni’s film to follow suit. The entire arc and its characters’ interactions have been mapped out already, and Favreau has already finished writing The Mandalorian season 4.

Then there’s a third from James Mangold (Logan), which will go back to the dawn of the Jedi — set 25,000 years before the sequels. There are no release windows for any of these movies, and this update arrives a while after Patty Jenkins’ Rogue Squadron was quietly removed from Disney’s production schedule. “Rogue Squadron, that definitely is something that we still talk about. Whether it’s a movie, or whether it ends up being in the series space, that’s definitely something,” Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy said at the event.

Meanwhile, Taika Waititi is still writing his standalone Star Wars film, with Kennedy adding that he ‘doesn’t really want to bring others into that process’.

Ahsoka teaser and release window

Ahsoka finally got a teaser trailer at the Star Wars Celebration 2023, stressing the titular Jedi’s (Rosario Dawson) next adventure as she anticipates Admiral Thrawn’s return — though, it is unclear who’s playing him. The women of Star Wars: Rebels take centre stage in the series, with Mary Elizabeth Winstead (10 Cloverfield Lane) assuming the role of ace pilot general Hera Syndulla and Natasha Liu Bordizzo (Guns Akimbo) as the Mandalorian warrior Sabine Wren. In the trailer, Ahsoka is also seen fighting Ray Stevenson’s Baylon in a dark arena, alongside a quick glimpse at Mon Mothma (Genevieve O’Reilly), one of the founders of the Rebel Alliance who played an important role in the battle against the Empire.

Ahsoka premieres in August on Disney+ and Disney+ Hotstar.

Andor season 2 release window

Andor creator Tony Gilroy and a few cast members at the Star Wars Celebration event showed an exclusive first look at the second and final season. The footage was only shown to attendees and as of now, there is no word on when it will appear online. That said, Gilroy confirmed that the show is aiming for an August 2024 release window. “We started shooting in November,” he said at the event (via IGN). “We’re about halfway through. We’re going to shoot through August. We’re on the exact schedule. Finish in August, spend another year on post. I suppose we’ll come out the following August.”

After revealing its massive cast lineup back in November, Disney reportedly showcased the first footage for its upcoming show Star Wars: The Acolyte, at the event. The eight-episode series is directed by Leslye Headland (Russian Doll) and is best described as a mystery-thriller set during the final days of the High Republic era, exploring the Dark Side of the Force. “This is when the bad guys are outnumbered. They are the underdogs. I’m really excited for you guys to see things you haven’t seen in live-action yet,” Headland said.

The Acolyte stars Amandla Stenberg (Bodies Bodies Bodies), Carrie-Anne Moss (The Matrix), Lee Jung-jae (Squid Game), Dafne Keen (Logan), Rebecca Henderson (Inventing Anna), and Dean-Charles Chapman (1917).

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor features Coruscant as a playable planet

Stig Asmussen, director of the upcoming Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, confirmed that the city-covered planet Coruscant will be available in the game, albeit not entirely open world. “We’re taking our Metroidvania approach a step further and, just to talk about another planet, we’re going to have Coruscant as well. I think there’s been a lot of speculation on that,” he said.

Following his comments, Andy McNamara, communications lead, EA’s Star Wars, lowered fan expectations by stating that Coruscant was merely one of the destinations in the game and that there are plenty of other planets to deeply explore with their ‘biggest environments to date.’ Star Wars Jedi: Survivor releases April 28 on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series S/X.

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Saas Bahu aur Flamingo Web Series Starring Dimple Kapadia Releases May 5 on Disney+ Hotstar

Actress Dimple Kapadia is leaving no stone unturned to impress the audience with her acting skills. After her stellar performance in ‘Pathaan‘, she is now all set to come up with a new web series titled ‘Saas, Bahu aur Flamingo’. Helmed by Homi Adajania, the project will also feature Radhika Madan, Angira Dhar, and Isha Talwar in lead roles. Produced by Maddock Films (Dinesh Vijan), ‘Saas Bahu aur Flamingo’ will be out on May 5 on Disney+ Hotstar.

The series is billed as a new spin on the ‘saas-bahu’ drama sub-genre that generally explores the power dynamics between tough, ruthless mothers-in-law and meeker daughters-in-law. ‘Saas, Bahu Aur Flamingo’ will instead feature an ‘unapologetically hardcore’ mother-in-law and ‘steadfast and formidable’ younger women.

Excited about the project, Dimple Kapadia said, “Saas Bahu Aur Flamingo is a story of what makes ordinary people extraordinary in a world full of passion and chaos. It’s a bunch of bad-ass women telling a narrative which is often played only by male characters and believe me, it’s got some of the most colorful characters you’ll ever see. The show is as wild as my crazy director Homi Adajania’s mind. He has flipped a family drama on it’s head giving us such a captivating binge-watch that’ll be coming on Disney+ Hotstar.”

The makers also unveiled Dimple Kapadia’s first look wherein she is seen holding a gun and shooting someone. The series will also star Ashish Verma, Varun Mitra, Udit Arora, Deepak Dobriyal and Monica Dogra in pivotal roles.

Homi Adajania also shared a few details about the project, “You remember the line ‘Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned’? When the world has scorned these women and turned its back on them, they learn to thrive by creating their own system of morality in a bold and lawless place that they inhabit. Women are the evolved half of our messed up species and Saas Bahu aur Flamingo is to date the maddest world that I have created. Its characters are so beautifully complex and conflicting, navigating their way through a world of passion, manipulation and chaos,” he shared.

Smartphone companies have launched many compelling devices over the first quarter of 2023. What are some of the best phones launched in 2023 you can buy today? We discuss this on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.
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Dwayne Johnson Partners With Disney to Announce a Moana Live-Action Remake

Hollywood star Dwayne Johnson has announced the live-action remake of his popular Disney movie Moana.

Johnson, who voiced the character of Maui, the demigod of the wind and sea, in the 2016 animated feature, shared the news on Twitter.

“Humbled to say we’re bringing Moana’s beautiful story to the live-action big screen! Maui changed my life (miss you grandpa) and I’m honoured to partner with Disney to tell our story through the realm of music and dance, which at the core is who we are as Polynesian people,” the 50-year-old actor tweeted.

Set in ancient Polynesia, the film follows the story of Moana, the strong-willed daughter of a chief of a coastal village, who is chosen by the ocean itself to reunite a mystical relic with the goddess Te Fiti.

When a blight strikes her island, Moana sets sail in search of Maui, a legendary demigod, in the hope of returning the relic to Te Fiti and saving her people.

Actor Auli’i Cravalho, who voiced Moana in the original animated film, will executive produce with Scott Sheldon of Flynn Picture Co, reported entertainment news outlet Variety.

John Musker and Ron Clements directed the original movie, from a story by themselves, Chris Williams, Don Hall, Pamela Ribon, Aaron Kandell and Jordan Kandell. Bush was the sole credited screenwriter.

The live-action film is being produced by Johnson’s own Seven Bucks Productions, alongside Dany Garcia and Hiram Garcia — the same team behind his DC Comics venture Black Adam. The original Moana collected $690.8 million (about Rs. 5,677 crore) at the global box office against an estimated budget of $150 million (about Rs. 1,233 crore).

Back in February, Disney announced animated sequels for Toy Story, Frozen, and Zootopia, which are currently in the early stages of development. Just like the aforementioned Moana, none of them has a confirmed release window, for now.

Smartphone companies have launched many compelling devices over the first quarter of 2023. What are some of the best phones launched in 2023 you can buy today? We discuss this on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.
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