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Executive producers Jack Turner & Bradley Cramp spoke with MovieWeb about developing and producing the surprising new docuseries for Apple TV+, K-Pop Idols. The two spoke about the Korean music and idol industry, building trust with performers and music companies, and the immense amount of painful effort these young people put into becoming stars. K-Pop Idols is now streaming on Apple TV+.

Glitz meets grit in this backstage pass to artists from around the world. Through trials and triumphs, Jessi, Cravity, and Blackswan give everything theyve got to an art form that demands nothing less than perfection. Over the course of six episodes, the series follows the superstars through trials and triumphs as they break down cultural and musical barriers in K-pop with passion, creativity and determination while they chase their dreams.

K-Pop Idols is produced for Apple TV+ by Boat Rockers Matador...

Today, Apple TV+ announced the new six-episode documentary event, K-Pop Idols, and revealed a first look at the new series, which will premiere globally on August 30, 2024.

K-Pop Idols offers fans an unprecedented backstage pass to the world’s biggest musical phenomenon. It features beloved artists Jessi, Cravity, and Blackswan and offers a behind-the-scenes look at the highly competitive reality of K-pop stardom.

Glitz meets grit as K-pop artists Jessi, Cravity, and Blackswan give everything they’ve got to an art form that demands perfection. Over the course of six episodes, the series follows the superstars through trials and triumphs as they break down cultural and musical barriers in K-pop with passion, creativity, and determination while chasing their dreams.

K-Pop Idols is produced for Apple TV+ by Boat Rocker’s Matador Content with Emmy Award-winning executive producer Todd Lubin (Billy Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry) and Jack Turner (War Game...

Apple TV+ is jumping on the K-pop train.

The streamer is launching the six-part documentary series K-Pop Idols on August 30.

The series will offer fans a backstage pass to the world’s biggest musical phenomenon, with a behind-the-scenes look at the highly competitive reality of K-pop stardom, featuring artists Jessi, Cravity and Blackswan.

It will follow the K-poppers through trials and triumphs, breaking down cultural and musical barriers in K-pop as they chase their dreams.

Jessi was born in New York, raised in New Jersey and moved to South Korea when she was 15. She is behind hits such as “Nunu Nana” and “Don’t Touch Me.”

Cravity is composed of nine members: Serim, Allen, Jungmo, Woobin, Wonjin, Minhee, Hyeongjun, Taeyoung and Seongmin. The group, which was formed by Starship Entertainment, has scored with singles as “Groovy,” “Break All the Rules” and “Gas Pedal.”

Blackswan, formed by Dr Music, features Fatou,...

The idea behind Invertigo is that gravity has reversed following a Nasa probe crashing back down to earth in New York City. It’s a disaster film, so it’s a lot like Dante’s Peak if the volcano were actually the threat of flying off the face of the planet. Upside Down (see the above image (or below image depending on how you look at it)) tried messing with the gravitational pull, too, but it had a world designed for it instead of untethering ours for dramatic effect. Sony announced the project from screenwriters Bradley Cramp and Ehren Kruger a while back and attached director D.J. Caruso. I spoke with Caruso recently, and while everyone still seems hung up on his adaptation of “Preacher,” this one seems more likely to actually get made. Caruso confirmed as much, saying, “We’re trying to shoot the movie in the spring. . . we’ll finish the rest of the movie...

Archaia has announced a reimagining of classic manga Cyborg 009. The publisher will team with Japan's Ishimori Productions on a reboot of Shotaro Ishinomori's sci-fi tale. Fj DeSanto (The Spirit) and Bradley Cramp (Gattaca) will write the new origin tale with Red Robin and Huntress artist Marcus To. Cyborg 009 centres around nine unwilling people who are kidnapped by the sinister Black Ghost Organisation and transformed into living weapons. Breaking free from their evil masters, the group goes on a mission to prevent the world being plunged into a cataclysmic war. "On the surface, Cyborg 009 appears to be a science fiction action/adventure story," said DeSanto. "However, Ishinomori's creation has (more)...

Cyborg 009, the first superhero team created in Japan, is getting the English-language treatment, with Archaia Publishing teaming up with Ishimori Production Inc. to introduce American audiences to the property. Archaia will publish an all-new graphic novel while Ishimori, the company founded by Cyborg 009’s creator, the late Shotaro Ishinomori, will explore taking the property to the big-screen and a transmedia level. Writer-producer F.J. DeSanto and Bradley Cramp, the co-writer of Columbia’s hot sci-fi project Invertigo, are penning the book. Art duties will be handled by Canadian Marcus To (DC's Red Robin). DeSanto,

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Director DJ Caruso (I Am Number Four, Eagle Eye) is reportedly signing on to direct an original sci-fi thriller called Invertigo, which was penned by Ehren Kruger (Transformers: Dark of the Moon) and Bradley Cramp (Lord of War) and will be produced by Neal Moritz (Total Recall, R.I.P.D.).

Deadline reports that Invertigo is a large scale project that has been fast-tracked by the studio about “A long lost Nasa space probe mysterious crash lands in New York City, apparently under the influence of a “dark energy” force that drives the universe’s expansion. But the scientific curiosity soon becomes a disaster of cataclysmic proportions as Earth’s own gravity is disrupted and eventually reversed, causing skyscrapers and bridges to be ripped from the ground and rivers to rain from the sky. A team led by the Office of Emergency Management supervisor is forced to mount a desperate mission into upside-down...

The story of excitable, if journeyman-level director D.J. Caruso is a long one, with him starting off his career with moodier fare like “The Salton Sea” and the far less impressive “Taking Lives,” before eventually delving into young-adult-prone projects like “Vertigo,” “Eagle Eye,” and last year's “I Am Number Four.” He’s continuing that string of films with the Val Kilmer, Radha Mitchell, Kate Maberly, Chandler Canterbury, and Annalise Basso-starring “The Goat Island,” his passion project indie, which he's just locked and will be showing to distributors. But he won't be sitting idle for long, as Caruso has lined up his next movie pretty quickly.

Deadline report that Caruso will be taking the director’s chair for “Invertigo,” a sci-fi epic with a script by fanboy punching bag Ehren Kruger ("Transformers") and Bradley Cramp about a Nasa satellite that crash-lands in New York City, creating a “reverse-g vortex” where gravity on earth becomes inverted.

There's been some speculation about the plot of the mysterious, big-budget science fiction Invertigo, which will be directed by DJ Caruso (Disturbia, Eagle Eye) and written by Ehren Kruger and Bradley Cramp and produced by mega-producer Neal Moritz (Fast Five). Though never officially released, everyone agreed on that fact that it was probably going to be about an major disaster involving the earth. Perhaps a reversal of the poles, perhaps something to do with gravity. Well, now it's official.

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"Eagle Eye" and "Disturbia" helmer D.J. Caruso is in talks to direct the dramatic thriller "Invertigo" at Sony Pictures reports Deadline.

Ehren Kruger and Bradley Cramp penned the story of a Nasa satellite that crash-lands in New York City, creating a “reverse-g vortex” where gravity is inverted.

A rescue mission soon gets underway. Neal Moritz will produce and production wouldn't kick off until 2013.

Eagle Eye director DJ Caruso is in talks with Sony Pictures to direct sci-fi drama thriller called Invertigo. The story was scripted by Ehren Kruger and Bradley Cramp, and according to Deadline the film is about a "Nasa satellite that crash-lands in New York City, and it creates a 'reverse-g vortex' where gravity is inverted. It imperils the planet if a rescue mission fails."

It sounds like one of those bad disaster movie from the 1990's like Armageddon, Volcano, and Deep Impact where a team of unlikely people are brought together to stop some kind of ridiculously epic disaster from destroying the world, and they end up saving it at the last minute under dire circumstances. The inverted gravity does add a pretty cool touch to the story though.

The movie will be developed as a big tent pole production that is being put on the fast track to production.

Having just locked the final edit on his indie family feature Goat Island, director D.J. Caruso has already entered talks to helm Sony Pictures big budget production Invertigo. Screenwriter Ehren Kruger (Transformers: Dark of the Moon) and producer Bradley Cramp (Lord of War) penned the Sony-snatched spec script that revolves around a Nasa satellite crash landing in New York City that unleashes a .reverse-g vortex. that inverts gravity, demanding a world-saving rescue mission. Now, I'm a big fan of movie science fiction that I can buy for the course of the narrative. No problem. But I am baffled by what inverted gravity would be. Are people drifting off the ground and just floating helplessly into space? Because that is absolutely horrifying, and I have no idea what kind of movie science scenario could right my new greatest irrational fear. But Caruso has shown skills with atmospheric horror before with ...

Director D.J. Caruso is in talks with Sony Pictures to direct their upcoming drama, Invertigo. We reported that writer Ehren Kruger had joined to pen the script last month.

The film is about Nasa satellite that crash-lands in New York City, and it creates a "reverse-g vortex" where gravity is inverted. It imperils the planet if a rescue mission fails. Ehren Kruger and Bradley Cramp wrote the script.

Neal H. Moritz is producing for Sony with Daniel Bobkur. The director is best known for his work on I Am Number Four and Disturbia.

This project is still in development.

So I don't know what this means for his supposedly "done deal" to direct Preacher, but DJ Caruso (I Am Number Four) is currently in talks to helm an original script by Ehren Kruger (Transformers: Dark Of The Moon) and Bradley Cramp called Invertigo.  The script is notable for being a large scale story that was bought while still in spec form, and deals with "a long lost Nasa space probe [that] mysterious crash lands in New York City, apparently under the influence of...

D.J. Caruso is in final negotiations to direct Invertigo, a sci-fi disaster movie that Sony has already slated for a spring 2014 release. Caruso, who last directed I Am Number Four, also directed Eagle Eye and Disturbia. This project would return him to the sci-fi genre of his last film, and this time he's working from a script by Ehren Kruger and Bradley Cramp. Here's the intriguing logine: "A long lost Nasa space probe mysterious crash lands in New York City, apparently under the influence of a "dark energy" force that drives the universe's expansion. But the

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Update: THR reveals that Invertigo will be hitting on March 7th, 2014.

It’s been about nine months since anything regarding Mr. D.J. Caruso came across our virtual desk, but he’s coming back… with a vengeance. (No, probably not.) As Deadline reports, the Disturbia helmer has signed with Sony Pictures for Invertigo, a high-concept sci-fi feature scripted by Ehren Kruger (Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Scream 4) and Bradley Cramp.

Our initial report was bereft of any goods on the story, so let’s get down to that before any directing business comes into play. As it stands, Invertigo centers on the effects of a Nasa satellite crashing in New York City — the creation of a “reverse-g vortex” that, as the title would indicate, inverts gravity — and the ensuing rescue effort to stop it. (I’ll just admit it right now: conveyed with the proper visual pinache, that could look rather incredible.

Exclusive: Big deal coming together at Sony Pictures that involves DJ Caruso in talks to direct Invertigo, a drama scripted by Ehren Kruger and Bradley Cramp about a Nasa satellite that crash-lands in New York City, and it creates a “reverse-g vortex” where gravity is inverted. It imperils the planet if a rescue mission fails. Neal Moritz will produce, with Daniel Bobkur and Cramp exec producers. This is a big-scale picture that was bought as a spec and is on a fast track toward production. Caruso last directed I Am Number Four, and before that the hits Eagle Eye and Disturbia. He just finished writing and directing Goat Island, a passion project that he made independently, and family film Brock Cole. He just finished his final edit Monday and it’s being shown at the Arclight tonight to distributors for the first time. Caruso is also been attached to Preacher,...

Ehren Kruger and Bradley Cramp's Invertigo picked up by Sony. Kruger, who co-writes the script with Cramp , will also serve as an executive producer alongside partner Daniel Bobker, reports Variety. Neil H. Moritz brought the film to Sony and is set to produce, while Andrea Giannetti oversees for Sony. The plot's being kept under wraps so far, but we'll get you details as soon as anything new develops. Kruger's scripted the last two of the Transformers flicks and is working on the next one. His previous credits include Arlington Road, Scream 3, Reindeer Games, Imposter, The Ring, The RIng Two, The Brothers Grimm and The Skeleton Key, among others.

Ehren Kruger and Bradley Cramp's Invertigo picked up by Sony. Kruger, who co-writes the script with Cramp , will also serve as an executive producer alongside partner Daniel Bobker, reports Variety. Neil H. Moritz brought the film to Sony and is set to produce, while Andrea Giannetti oversees for Sony. The plot's being kept under wraps so far, but we'll get you details as soon as anything new develops. Kruger's scripted the last two of the Transformers flicks and is working on the next one. His previous credits include Arlington Road, Scream 3, Reindeer Games, Imposter, The Ring, The RIng Two, The Brothers Grimm and The Skeleton Key, among others.

Ehren Kruger and Bradley Cramp's Invertigo picked up by Sony. Kruger, who co-writes the script with Cramp , will also serve as an executive producer alongside partner Daniel Bobker, reports Variety. Neil H. Moritz brought the film to Sony and is set to produce, while Andrea Giannetti oversees for Sony. The plot's being kept under wraps so far, but we'll get you details as soon as anything new develops. Kruger's scripted the last two of the Transformers flicks and is working on the next one. His previous credits include Arlington Road, Scream 3, Reindeer Games, Imposter, The Ring, The RIng Two, The Brothers Grimm and The Skeleton Key, among others.

Despite a terrible screenplay-filled career that doesn’t seem to be getting any better at this moment, Ehren Kruger (Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Scream 4) had a big day for himself. First up, THR tells us that the scribe will work with Disney on their mountain climbing action movie, which was, at one point, based on their Matterhorn ride. Now, however, Kruger coming in to rewrite Jason Dean Hall‘s script has allowed the project’s scope to be “broadened” — thankfully, the proceedings are still “grounded in hardcore adventuring.”

Ever since debut director Brian Beletic signed on for the project in early January, we’ve known that the basic plot goes like so:

“A small group of young, super adventure/explorers, each with a specific skill set, are brought to the remote backcountry of the Pennine Alps under various guises for a trek across one of the planet’s remaining untouched realms.

The noble Yeti: a creature neglected by modern cinema.  We lavish our attentions on vampires and zombies, but the Yeti goes ignored and unloved.  Until now.  THR reports that awful screenwriter Ehren Kruger (Transformers: Dark of the Moon) will write the screenplay for director Brian Beletic's untitled adventure movie based on Disney's Matterhorn ride.  Per the logline, "The story centers on five young adventure seekers -- an action sports guy, travel guide, cartographer, archeologist and escape artist -- who venture into the Alps for mysterious reasons and face Yetis that guard a secret."  In other Kruger news, Variety reports that he and co-writer Bradley Cramp have sold their script Invertigo, but there are no details on the plot.  Presumably, the plot does not involve yetis and is therefore less worthy of our attention. The scope has been broadened beyond the Matterhorn and Disney hopes "to keep part of the movie grounded in hardcore adventure.

Plot details are few, but variety is reporting that Sony Pictures has acquired a new script from Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and Transformers: Dark of the Moon writer Ehren Kruger. Titled Invertigo , the script was go-written with Bradley Cramp and will be produced by Neal Mortiz with Kruger and Daniel Bobker executive producing. Update: The Hollywood Reporter now has word that Kruger is also involved in Walt Disney Pictures' upcoming mountain adventure project , formerly known as The Hill . Announced last year , the film was to have been based on Disneyland's Matterhorn ride, though the trade notes that the scope has since been widened. Jason Dean Hall was formerly attached as the project's screenwriter and newcomer Brian Beletic is still slated to direct.

"Lord of War" is an oddly satisfying mesh of an international action-adventure with an extremely dark satire about the global arms trade. Writer-director Andrew Niccol says he has based his story on actual events and created in his anti-hero a composite of five real-life arms dealers. Operating on the theory it is better to laugh than to cry, Niccol treats the rising fortunes of such a creature with comic irony. And in Nicolas Cage, he has a leading man who can behave with anti-humanitarian instincts and still compel audience fascination.

Production notes indicate this is a $50 million project, modest for an international escapade but high for a movie whose dark subject matter veers from the mainstream. It's a playable film with colorful characters and exotic locales, but without festival exposure, from which it may have benefited, "Lord of War" will need strong marketing to reach its audience.

The film is intelligently crafted from beginning to end. Opening credits express the ensuing story succinctly by following the manufacture and delivery of bullets right up to the point one is about to enter a young boy's brain.

Cage's Yuri Orlov narrates the story of his evolution into an illegal gun-runner. Normally, a voice-over narration presages weaknesses in the script. Not here. This narration is filled with wry observations about the international conspiracy to get guns and ammo into those regions of the world where they will do the most harm.

Yuri's family emigrated to the U.S. from Soviet-controlled Ukraine when he was a boy by falsely claiming to be Jewish. So, in essence, everything about Yuri is B.S., from his rationale that dealers in cars and cigarettes actually deliver more death than he does to his insistence to trophy wife, Ava (Bridget Moynahan), that his business is international transport.

His climb out of the Little Odessa immigrant community in Brighton Beach, N.Y., initially includes his brother Vitaly (Jared Leto). But gun-running turns Vitaly into an all-purpose addict. Yuri soldiers on, though, donning a suit and tie to meet the world's worst despots and warlords.

Even so, he has a hard time maintaining the guise of extreme wealth for his wife until the fall of the Soviet Union offers the largest bonanza of arms in history: More than $32 billion in arms get stolen from the Ukraine alone. For Yuri, it's an inside job, as his Uncle Dmitri, a perpetually soused army general, has the keys to the cache.

His competition comes from Ian Holm's silky smooth Simeon Weisz, who has enough conscience to trade with what he believes to be the politically righteous side. But Yuri's unprincipled methods work best with figures such as maniacal Liberian strongman Andre Baptiste (Eamonn Walker) and his equally crazed son Andre Jr. (Sammi Rotibi).

As with Joseph Heller's great war novel "Catch-22", the comedy stems from your understanding that in war things really are this bad. What can one do but laugh at a guy who wears a bullet on a chain necklace, like a coke dealer's gold spoon, or worries more about catching AIDS in Africa than what his business is doing to the people?

Cage is brilliant. His Yuri is numb to reality, seeing only the next deal. He wears this stoicism as a badge of pride. The brother's spin out of control is the only realistic reaction one can have to the horror he sees and helps perpetuate. Leto's Vitaly is a kid who never should have left his parents' borscht restaurant.

Moynahan's character is hard to read because the movie views Ava only as Yuri sees her. Moynahan doesn't come into her home until her final scenes. Ethan Hawke as Interpol agent Jack Valentine, who dogs Yuri's trail for years, is perhaps too naive. Walker and Rotibi manage the trick of finding comedy in total insanity.

The production gets terrific mileage out of locations in South Africa, the Czech Republic and New York City, creating First and Third World countries worthy of a John le Carre novel.

LORD OF WAR

Lions Gate Films

Entertainment Manufacturing Company presents a VIP Medienfonds 3, Ascendant Pictures, Saturn Films production in association with Rising Star, Copag V and Endgame Entertainment

Credits:

Screenwriter/director: Andrew Niccol

Producers: Philippe Rousselet, Andrew Niccol, Nicolas Cage, Norman Golightly, Andy Grosch, Chris Roberts

Executive producers: Fabrice Gianfermi, Bradley Cramp, Gary Hamilton, Christopher Eberts, Andreas Schmid, Michael Mendelsohn, James D. Stern

Director of photography: Amir Mokri

Production designer: Jean Vincent Puzos

Music: Antonio Pinto

Co-producer: Douglas E. Hansen

Costumes: Elisabeth Beraldo

Editor: Zach Staenberg

Cast:

Yuri Orlov: Nicolas Cage

Vitaly Orlov: Jared Leto

Ava Fontaine: Bridget Moynahan

Simeon Weisz: Ian Holm

Baptiste Sr.: Eamonn Walker

Baptiste Jr.: Sammi Rotibi

Valentine: Ethan Hawke

MPAA rating R

Running time -- 122 minutes...