Buzz Titles From Taiwan in EFM

Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish decided to, in his words, “cross the line” and address a recent bid the company received for Showtime.

Although she gained instant notoriety within Hollywood for her 1992 film "Basic Instinct," Sharon Stone admitted she lost custody of her son because of the role. "I lost custody of my child," Stone revealed of her son Roan on the "Table for Two" podcast with Bruce Bozzi. "The judge ask[ed] my child, my tiny little tiny boy, ‘Do you know your mother makes sex movies,'" Stone recalled of her custody battle with ex-husband Phil Bronstein in 2004.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Though Showtime is being rebranded into Paramount+ With Showtime, Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish says the Showtime brand is alive and well and more projects based on the cable channel’s most iconic series, including “Ray Donovan,” are in the pipeline for the integrated platform. “We’re not just doing that streaming, we’re doing that linear as well,” Bakish said during a Morgan Stanley-hosted investor conference. “So come sometime this year, when you turn on Showtime linear, it’s going to be Paramount+ With Showtime. And it’s what I call a win-win-win. It’s a win for consumers, because the product is going to be fundamentally better than Showtime. You’re going to get ‘1923’ on it, you’ll get ‘Tulsa King,’ as part of your Showtime subscription. It’s just going to be a bigger, broader product. We fundamentally believe in a broad thesis. So that will work at the consumer level and as part of that, we’re leaning into the Showtime franchises. So you could think about the slate as smaller, which will be less expensive, but also really giving the people what they want — which is more Showtime, maybe more ‘Dexter,’ maybe more ‘Ray Donovan,’ and really leaning into that. And we have some exciting plans there.”

“Basic Instinct” was used against Sharon Stone in her ’00s custody battle.

Hoda Kotb's time away from the Today Show is seemingly coming to an end soon, according to her co-star Jenna Bush Hager.The former is going on almost two weeks of being off from the popular morning show, her last appearance was a pre-taped President's Day show on Monday, February 21st.After fans kept urging for an answer on her whereabouts, on Wednesday Craig Melvin revealed a "family health matter" was behind Hoda's absence, and now her 4th Hour co-star has given another, hopeful, update.WATCH: Hoda Kotb reveals daughter's reaction to becoming a big sisterMORE: All we know about Hoda Kotb's Today Show replacement, Tom LlamasAs Jenna walked on stage for March 2nd's installment of 4th Hour with Hoda and Jenna, she walked out next to Hoda's occasional replacement, Willie Geist, who typically hosts Sunday Today.As she made her way towards her usual spot on the news desk, she announced: "We have Willie, he is in for Hoda, who will be back very, very soon," she promised.MORE: Today Show star Hoda Kotb reveals true opinion on Prince HarryShe went on to praise her temporary co-host for adapting to his new role so seamlessly, telling him: "Can I just say, because you've been here for the last two weeks off and on, your range, going from Morning Joe, to here…" getting a prompt round of applause from the crew working behind the scenes.A post shared by TODAY (@todayshow)Hoda's co-star gave a long-awaited update on Wednesday"It's just really incredible," Jenna added, and Willie praised the show in return, telling her: "This show is a breath of fresh air, I love it here."DISCOVER: T.J.

Showing her support. Jenna Bush Hager gave a sweet shout-out to her Today coanchor Hoda Kotb amid the journalist’s continued absence from the morning show.

Sophia Bush (“Love, Victor”), Amber Riley (“Glee”), Indya Moore (“Pose”), Lisa Ann Walter (“Abbott Elementary”), Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell and California Lieutenant Governor Eleni Koulanakis will participate in the program’s panel discussion, with Garcelle Beauvais (“The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills”) serving as moderator. Additional panelists will be announced ahead of the event. In addition to the panel, “Community” actress and EMILYs List board member Yvette Nicole Brown will conduct a one-on-one with Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.

EXCLUSIVE: HBO Films has closed a deal for U.S. rights to the Berlin Film Festival buzz competition title Reality. Directed by Tina Satter, the docudrama is a breakout turn for Sydney Sweeney as convicted classified document leaker Reality Winner. Sweeney stars in the hit HBO series Euphoria.

Rock & Roll Hall of Fame career will forever be intertwined with that of another 1960s folk legend: Bob Dylan.So what did she think when the “Blowin’ in the Wind” bard received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016?“I thought, ‘Oh, how Bob,’” Baez, 82, told the Hollywood Reporter. “I mean, people differ about whether or not he deserved it for his writing, but whatever — I thought he was a great writer of music. It moved me for half a century and millions of people ever since.”But Dylan was a no-show in Stockholm to accept the prestigious honor.

Damon Albarn has revealed that after Gorillaz’ divisive Glastonbury headline set in 2010, Kate Bush phoned to tell him it was “one of the best shows she’d ever seen”.Last night (February 23), Albarn and visual artist Jamie Hewlett sat down for a Q+A session with comedian Alan Carr for Banquet Records, attended by NME.Taking to the stage at former-cinema-turned-nightclub Pryzm in Kingston, Albarn explained that “Glastonbury was very memorable because it was so different to any other performance that had been before us”.“We wanted to just be, and not do the normal schtick of ‘hello Glastonbury, how are you all feeling?’ We wanted to just do our thing,” he continued.Gorillaz were last-minute replacements for U2 who had to postpone their appearance after Bono injured his back. Albarn returned to the iconic festival with Gorillaz one year after topping the bill with Blur.“I realised halfway through the Gorillaz set that the audience had no idea who some of the guests that we were bring onstage were, because I wasn’t introducing them,” he said of the set that included the likes of Bobby Womack, Bootie Brown, De La Soul, Lou Reed, Happy Mondays‘ Shaun Ryder, The Fall‘s Mark E.

European Film Market which at one and the same time has underscored the challenges still facing the international independent film business.  Following by way of an industry wrap, a dozen takeaways on the 2023 Berlin market, including its Berlinale Series Market, an ever more building proposition at the Festival.  The Verdict If the European Film Market is anything to go by, broadly, the international movie market is in some ways making a international comeback, despite still vastly challenging circumstances. On Thursday, the EFM reported “record results” of a total of over 11,500 market participants from 132 countries. “It was a rather busy market, with no single must-have, but much mid-sized product,” recognizesConstantin’s Martin Moszkowicz of this year’s Berlin European Film Market, noting that Constantin received about 90 project submissions prior to market, “which is a lot.” “There’s been more deals happening at the EFM than at Sundance and we sense a new vibrancy in the international markets,” says Nick Shumaker, at Anonymous Content’s AC Independent.

There’s a pretty traditional formula that most music documentaries follow. They’ll often center around a standard birth to mainstream success overview, populated with talking heads and contemporaries to contextualize the music, politics, and social scenes.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic For the last 60 years, it’s been hard to see Joan Baez as anything other than a saintly figure, or certainly, at the least, a beatifically placid one. Early on in the new documentary “Joan Baez I Am a Noise,” over shots of its subject being swarmed by fans at the height of her early-‘60s success, the present-day Baez quips that much of the public came to view her like the Virgin Mary — and confesses that, with her head swelled by fame at the time, she was not much inclined to disagree. But occasional flashes of ego seem like the least of the psychological problems dogging the singer, as portrayed in a music doc that starts out as a fly-on-the-wall view of Baez’s farewell tour and ends as an extended look at family trauma and recovery from mental illness.

Marta Balaga Director: Vita Maria Drygas Producer: Vita Żelakeviciute Production companies: Drygas Film Production Sales: Dogwoof Documentary is a journey to places devastated by military conflicts, seen through the eyes of thrill-seeking tourists. (Generation 14plus) Director: Asaf Saban

Series Mania’s Forum Co-Pro Pitching Sessions, still one of Series Mania’s industry centerpieces, which in 2023 looks set in many ways to be a bumper edition. Running March 21-23, the Forum hosts ever building industry initiatives at Series Mania, which unspools in Lille, northern France, over March 17-24. 450 projects from 66 countries answered the call for admissions, an all time record, said Francesco Capurro, head of the Series Mania Forum.  “We have more and more projects from outside Europe. An increasing number from Africa: Kenya, Senegal, Nigeria, which is very encouraging, as well as from other big markets outside Europe, like Canada, Turkey, Taiwan, he added.

Christopher Vourlias Since the launch of its cash rebate in 2018, which covers up to 40% of qualifying expenditures along with 30% in tax relief, Greece has become one of Europe’s hottest filming destinations. But domestic production is surging as well, and the industry reached new heights in 2022, with the rebate scheme supporting 132 international and domestic projects. Here’s a round-up of some of the top Greek feature films currently in the pipeline: Buzzheart (pictured, top)Director: Dennis IliadisProducers: Amanda Livanou, Dennis IliadisThe veteran director, who helmed the 2007 remake of Wes Craven’s “The Last House on the Left,” returns with a film that asks: If you had to make sure that someone could truly love without any moral limitations, how far would you go?Sales: N/A

Christopher Vourlias When the European Film Market kicks off in Berlin on Feb. 16, the three Baltic nations of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania will share the stage as the EFM’s joint Countries in Focus. The showcase, which is supported by the Estonian Film Institute, the National Film Center of Latvia and the Lithuanian Film Center, will offer a range of events within the framework of the EFM, along with a selection of market premieres and screenings of Baltic films already making waves on the festival circuit. Twelve up-and-coming Baltic producers will also be presented to the international industry during a happy hour on Feb. 17 in the Gropius Bas. Here’s a selection of Baltic buzz titles that the region’s top producers will be taking to Berlin:

Chloe Sims appears to be living her best life in America after recently taking the plunge and relocating to Los Angeles. The Only Way Is Essex favourite Chloe, 41, officially swapped Essex for sunny California in January, after jet setting between the US and UK for several months prior to the big move.The mum-of-one, who has moved with her daughter Madison, 17, appears to be making the most of the sunshine over in the US, and was recently snapped enjoying a day out at Miami Beach, Florida.

Former Love Island star Cally Jane Beech has hit back after fans compared her new boyfriend to her ex, Luis Morrison. Cally shares a daughter with ex-Love Islander Luis, whom she met on the show, becoming the first contestants from the series to have a child in 2017.

Stephen “tWitch” Boss’ wife, Allison Holker Boss, gathered friends and family in a massive celebration of life event on Saturday, February 11. The late dancer’s wife described him as a “light” during her heartfelt speech.“He chose love, grace, and kindness,” she said, as reported by People.