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I.E. Entertainment, the global distribution outfit founded and run by industry veterans Indra and Erlina Suharjono, has come on board to handle worldwide sales for Cathay Film Company’s “Coolie.”

The TV miniseries is inspired by the little-known history of enslaved Chinese ‘coolies’ in Cuba in the 1860s. It begins shooting this week in the Dominican Republic and will also include locations in Panama.

I.E. Entertainment will introduce “Coolie” to buyers for the first time at the Asia Television Forum & Market (Atf), which runs this week in Singapore.

The eight-episode English and Chinese language drama series is a global production from Meileen Choo’s Singapore-based Cathay Film Company and features a multinational ensemble cast from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Cuba and Colombia.

Arvin Chen is directing. In-Ah Lee (“Land of Plenty,” “Don’t Come Knockin’” “The Way I Spent the End of the World”) is the series’ executive producer. Ed Buhr...

Fresh off making history, becoming the first Latin American to win the best picture award at Sitges with highly acclaimed Shudder Original “When Evil Lurks,” Argentina’s Demián Rugna figures among writers of six finalist screenplays at Tinta Oscura 2023, presented by Blood Window and Argentine independent Del Toro Films.

Part of Ventana Sur, backed by Cannes Marché du Film and Argentina’s Incaa film-tv agency, Blood Window unspools over Nov. 27-Dec. 1 in Buenos Aires.

Further finalists, chosen from some 300 submissions, take in Mexico’s extraordinarily prolific and multi-prized horror writer Sandra Becerril (“Desde tu infierno”) and the Dominican Republic’s Junior Rosales. co-writer of Isaac Ezban’s “Evil Eye,” a B.O. hit.

Screenplays must be original and unpublished fantastic genre works, either horror or sci-fi stories. The winning script will be announced at Blood Window on Dec. 1. It will receive a $10,000 cash prize from Del Toro Films which will produce the title,...

Arvin Chen is to direct “Coolie,” a limited series featuring enslaved Chinese workers in 19th century Cuba.

The eight-part series is the first to emerge from Cathay Film Company, a recent production venture launched by Singapore-based industry veteran Meileen Choo.

In the mid-1800s, when the African slave trade was outlawed throughout the Americas, plantation owners in Cuba instead began trafficking indentured servants from China and other parts of Asia. These, so-called coolies were often treated as slaves, but some integrated into Cuban society and joined the country’s fight for independence from Spain. The provided a low-cost workforce for farms, restaurants, factories and were instrumental in setting up Chinatowns across the world.

With Hong Kong actor Louise Wong in the lead role as a young woman who departs from southern China to marry a political exile working on a sugarcane plantation in Cuba, the narrative sees her join forces...

It should come as no surprise that Fox’s WWE “Friday Night Smackdown” wrestled its way to another ratings win on Friday. The primetime matchups took home a 0.6 in the demo, crowning Fox the primetime champion among the major broadcasters.

But it was ABC that came in first in terms of total viewers, with an average of 3.1 million people tuning in for “Shark Tank” and “20/20.” The network got a 0.4 overall in the demo.

That’s compared to the 2.5 million total viewers that “Smackdown” managed, which is still an impressive feat for the program. In fact, it’s the largest audience since Christmas Day 2020, when 3.3 million people tuned in.

Here’s how primetime broke down across the major broadcast networks:

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Fox, which aired “Smackdown” across primetime, was first in ratings with an average 0.6 rating in the key demo,...

It looks like ABC made the right decision handing “Dancing With the Stars” off to Disney+ in favor of Monday Night Football.

During primetime Monday, the broadcast network posted a whopping 3.5 in the advertiser-coveted 18-49 demographic and 12.1 million total viewers broadcasting the NFL matchup between Minnesota Vikings vs. the Philadelphia Eagles.

For comparison, season 30 of “DWTS” (the last to air on ABC) averaged a 0.74 in the demo and about 5 million total viewers.

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Overall, the summer ratings slump seems to be nearing its end. While ratings across the other major broadcasters were no doubt depressed by the two pro football games that aired last night, they all still saw a decent boost in ratings now that they’ve got some new programming to debut.

The premieres of Season 22 of “The Voice” on NBC and “9-1-1...

About 6.4 million people tuned in to watch Simon Cowell declare that he’d found the best act of the season on Tuesday night’s episode of “America’s Got Talent.” The episode was the most-watched program of the night, and also the highest-rated with a 0.7 in the key 18-49 demographic.

NBC’s follow up program, a new game show called “Password,” also performed fairly well with a 0.5 and 3.9 million eyeballs, earning NBC the night’s ratings trophy.

Here’s how the rest of primetime shook out across the major broadcasters:

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NBC was first in ratings with an average 0.7 rating in the key demo and in total viewers with an average of 5.6 million, according to official live + same day Nielsen data.

“America’s Got Talent” fought its way to a 0.7 demo rating and 6.4 million total viewers at 8 p.

Surprise, surprise. “The Bachelorette” won with primetime viewers on Monday night.

The juicy episode in which the men who have been eliminated during Gabby Windey and Rachel Recchia’s journeys to find love returned for one final moment in the spotlight during the “Men Tell All” special courted a 0.8 demo rating and 3.3 million total viewers and was the most-watched and highest-rated program of the night — which also helped boost ABC to the top spot among the broadcast networks.

ABC’s newest competition series “Claim to Fame” couldn’t hold onto the momentum though, managing only a 0.3 and 1.6 million total viewers (which is still fairly decent for broadcast ratings).

“American Ninja Warrior” also had a strong showing on NBC, with a 0.5 demo rating and 3.1 million total viewers. NBC was the second highest-rated network of the night.

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