Entertainment News Roundup: Singapore lures Taylor Swift with grant for sold-out March concerts; Olivia Colman, Jessie Buckley reunite in sweary 'Wicked Little Letters' and mroe

"I did two other films with Hong Sangsoo, and his way of making films is unique," Huppert told journalists ahead of the film's screening at the Berlin Film Festival, explaining how Hong gives actors their lines just before shooting. Berlinale film 'Pepe' presents a hippo's experience of colonialism The story of Pepe, a hippopotamus from Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar's private zoo, inspired Dominican director Nelson Carlo de los Santos Arias to make a film reflecting on the impact of colonialism, he said.

Following is a summary of current entertainment news briefs.

Olivia Colman, Jessie Buckley reunite in sweary 'Wicked Little Letters'

Olivia Colman and Jessie Buckley play two very different neighbours in new film "Wicked Little Letters", a comedy mystery based on a real life British scandal from the 1920s, which saw people receiving expletive-laden notes. Set in an English seaside town, the movie follows Colman's pious and conservative Edith and Buckley's loud and rowdy Irish migrant Rose as they become friends.

Singapore lures Taylor Swift with grant for sold-out March concerts

Singapore has awarded Taylor Swift a grant to perform in the city-state, government authorities said on Tuesday, acknowledging efforts to persuade the pop superstar to perform on the island - her only stop in Southeast Asia - and the potential boon to the economy from her concerts. Swift is set to perform six sold-out shows in Singapore early in March.

From Berlinale to Eurovision, anger over Gaza clouds Europe's cultural events

Indian-American filmmaker Suneil Sanzgiri was set to showcase his film about anti-colonial resistance against the Portuguese empire at this month's Berlinale film festival but dropped out. Announcing his boycott on Instagram, Sanzgiri accused the German authorities of silencing voices speaking out for Palestinians in the war in Gaza. "I will not be complicit. We all have blood on our hands," he wrote.

French star Huppert finds meaning in unstructured nature of 'Traveler's Needs'

French star Isabelle Huppert said she was drawn to working with South Korean director Hong Sangsoo for a third time in "A Traveler's Needs," which premiered in Berlin on Monday, because of the uniquely unstructured nature of his work. "I did two other films with Hong Sangsoo, and his way of making films is unique," Huppert told journalists ahead of the film's screening at the Berlin Film Festival, explaining how Hong gives actors their lines just before shooting.

Berlinale film 'Pepe' presents a hippo's experience of colonialism

The story of Pepe, a hippopotamus from Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar's private zoo, inspired Dominican director Nelson Carlo de los Santos Arias to make a film reflecting on the impact of colonialism, he said. The hippo, one of many wild animals kept on Escobar's private estate, escaped into the surrounding countryside and lived there for many years after the drug lord's death in 1993.

Berlinale film spotlights the liquid rock that builds our world

Our concrete urban landscape is at the heart of "Architecton", Russian director Victor Kossakovsky's exquisite but contradictory documentary that examines how humans build and destroy their world. The film sets black-and-white drone footage of quarries, temples and cities destroyed by earthquakes or missile strikes to sumptuous brass music from composer Evgueni Galperine, interspersed with scenes of Italian architect Michele De Lucchi erecting a stone circle in his garden.

'Flower Moon' film song is an ode to endangered Osage language

Songwriter Scott George is looking forward to the performance of the Osage Nation song "Wahzhazhe (A Song for My People)" at the 96th Oscars ceremony on March 10. The song is featured in the final scene of the Oscar best-picture nominee "Killers of the Flower Moon," a drama directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Indigenous actor Lily Gladstone and Oscar winner Leonardo DiCaprio.

Berlinale honoree Scorsese ponders switch from gangsters to Jesus

Martin Scorsese, in Berlin to receive a lifetime achievement award from the city's film festival weeks before his latest movie, "Killers of the Flower Moon," will be competing at the Oscars with 10 nominations, is already planning his next project. The director, who as a young man considered a priestly vocation before becoming cinema's most famous maker of gangster movies, said that after some meetings with Pope Francis he was mulling ways of making a film on Jesus, although the project's contours were not yet clear.