Tom Cruise to Receive Honorary Busan Citizenship
Hollywood Reporter

Tom Cruise will become an honorary citizen of Busan, officials of the South Korean city announced Tuesday.

The actor will receive honorary citizenship when he visits the southern port city this week to promote Jack Reacher. Busan Mayor and Busan Film Festival chairman Hur Nam-sik will present special citizenship certificates to Cruise as well as the film’s director, Christopher McQuarrie, and its lead actress, Rosamund Pike. The ceremony will be held Thursday at the Busan Cinema Center, the main venue of the Busan Film Festival.

Lee Byung-hun Honored by Fellow Korean Actors
Hollywood Reporter

This year has been an eventful one for “South Korea’s Brad Pitt” Lee Byung-hun, who wraps up 2012 with an Achievement Award from the Korean Film Actor’s Association.

The organization, which was founded to promote the rights of actors and currently operates under the auspices of the Korean culture ministry, announced Thursday that it will be honoring Lee as well as veteran Ahn Sung-ki. In July, the two became the first local stars to leave their handprints in front of Grauman’s Chinese Theater.

Psy on Why President Obama Stopped Doing ‘Gangnam Style’
Hollywood Reporter

But with every career high — and he’s had plenty during the 12 years before “Gangnam” mania — comes controversies, including a recent British tabloid report of a man who died doing the “Gangnam Style” dance and political outlets that in December disseminated concert footage from 2002 and 2004 of Psy (who briefly studied at Boston University) seemingly denouncing U.S. military practices in Iraq.

The singer issued an apology “for any pain caused” and two days later was shaking hands with President Obama. The topic of conversation? Nothing of a diplomatic nature. Says Psy, “He told me he’s good at ‘Gangnam Style’ but that the ladies at his house are embarrassed when he’s dancing so he’s not doing it.”

‘Sin City 2′ Adds Jaime King and Jamie Chung (Exclusive) 
Hollywood Reporter

Jaime King and Jamie Chung have boarded Sin City 2, which began shooting on Monday in Austin.

Robert Rodriguez is directing the movie with Frank Miller, the comic book icon who created the Sin City comics that were published by Dark Horse in the 1990s. Rodriguez and Miller teamed up for the stylish 2005 hit adaptation.

‘Cloud Atlas’ Slammed for Lack of Asian Actors, ‘Yellow Face’ Makeup By Advocacy Group
Hollywood Reporter

“In the modern age of movie make up, it is disturbing to see poorly done Asian eye prosthetics to make Caucasian men look Asian,” the Media Action Network for Asian Americans said.

‘Hannibal’ Adds Potential Love Interest for Hugh Dancy
Hollywood Reporter

NBC’s Hannibal has cast a new member of Laurence Fishburne’s investigative team.

Hettienne Park, whose credits include Young Adult, Bride Wars and episodes of Mercy and The Good Wife, has joined the upcoming adaptation of the Thomas Harris books, The Hollywood Reporter has learned exclusively.

Industry Players Reveal Their Favorite Finds in L.A.’s Koreatown
Hollywood Reporter

Up-all-night, anything-goes Koreatown, where Los Angeles laws always seem a little looser, is ready for its zeitgeist-tapping close-up. On July 11, Electus chairman Ben Silverman’s just-launched YouTube channel Loud debuted K-Town, a Jersey Shore-inspired series that follows a party-hardy group of eight Korean-Americans (yes, there’s drink-throwing) in the glitzy, sometimes-gritty neighborhood between Hancock Park and downtown. The show’s producers include former MTV executives Liz Gateley and Tony DiSanto, as well as Tyrese Gibson. “It’s a really cool subculture that we haven’t seen in mainstream media,” says Silverman. Adds Gateley of the program, “Now you get to be a fly on the wall.”

The 24/7 sensory overload of today’s Koreatown — from spas to clubs, barbecue to bibimbap — has ramped up steadily during the past two decades, since the L.A. riots of 1992. But it began when South Koreans immigrated to the area in the 1970s during the reign of military strongman Park Chung-hee.

Will Yun Lee and Brian Tee Cast as ‘Wolverine’ Villains

Actors Will Yun Lee and Brian Tee will be joining the cast of The Wolverine, set in Japan and slated for a summer release in July 2013, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Tee, a Korean-Japanese American, has appeared in The Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift and Burn Notice. He will be taking on the role of Noburo Mori, the villanous minister of justice who plans to marry Wolverine’s love interest, the daughter of a Yakuza crime lord.

Korean American actor Lee of Witchblade and Bionic Woman will be playing the crime lord’s illegitimate son, Harada, also known as The Silver Samurai. (more…)

China-North Korea Co-production Offers Glimpse of Life in Present-day North Korea
Hollywood Reporter

Produced by Henan Film & TV Production Group – the studio that co-produced the blockbuster Ip Man series and the upcoming Saving General Yang – with China Film Stellar, and North Korea’s Korean Film Studio, the film downplayed politics and put culture – in this case, traditional Korean dance – at the center of a celebration of the two countries’ bond, and featured a eight-minute extract of the spectacular 100,000 people Arirang group performance re-created solely for the purpose of this film. The film is shown in the Focus China sidebar at the SIFF, and in competition for the SIFF Media Award.