Baltic Screen Industries Continue to Surge Despite Global Turmoil, Uncertainty

EXCLUSIVE: R.F. Kuang‘s bestselling fantasy novel Babel is in the works for the screen. Independent studio wiip (The Mare of Easttown, The Summer I Turned Pretty) has optioned the novel for television/film adaptation with Temple Hill Entertainment (Twilight) producing.

UK Music, which is the collective voice of the UK music industry, has urged Chancellor Jeremy Hunt to cut VAT in the spring Budget to throw the sector a “vital lifeline” and save venues that are threatened by closure.Tom Kiehl, UK Music’s Interim Chief Executive, has asked Hunt to use his Budget next Wednesday (March 6) to lower the current 20 per cent VAT rate on tickets to 10 per cent as a “boost for consumers, music professionals and venues”.The request to slash VAT is among the recommendations that UK Music has made to the Government in its Budget submission, which outlines the support the sector needs to grow (read it in full here).Currently, music fans in the UK must pay 20 per cent VAT on their tickets – almost double the EU average (10.3 per cent) and around triple the rate in countries like Belgium (six per cent) and Germany (seven per cent). ‌ The 20 per cent rate is the third highest rate of cultural ticketing in Europe. Gig-goers pay more tax on UK tickets than anywhere else in Europe, except Denmark and Lithuania.The calls come amid growing concerns for the future of grassroots venues.

Since Batman's first appearance in a comic book in 1939, the masked superhero has reached ultimate highs in the television and film industries. A number of well-known and well-regarded actors have appeared on-screen as the American hero for many years. Each new performance captivated audiences with a new take on the caped crusader.Though, some actors were more widely accepted and anticipated than others.

Sian Welby has announced that she is expecting her first child with fiancé Jake Beckett, just six months after they got engaged.The radio and TV personality, 37, shared the news very fittingly, taking to the Capital Breakfast show to inform her listeners of the joyous news. Sian said: “I’ve got a bit of an announcement for you! I’m pregnant! I don’t know how I’ve managed to keep it from you for so long.The lies, the deceit, the mocktails! I couldn’t wait to tell you.This is a whole new journey for me and I want to take you all on it with me, and don't worry I'm not going anywhere! This is going to be a lot of fun and I can’t wait to share it with you all.” While she announced the news on the radio, a sweet post also went out to Sian's 166K Instagram followers, which featured a variation of Polaroid snaps surrounded by letters which read: "We're having a baby".The Polaroid pictures showed Sian and Jake beaming with their positive pregnancy test in their hands, ultrasound scan pictures, and an adorable one of Jake planting a kiss on his fiancées growing tummy.

AS James Bond, he was the ultimate ladies’ man.

Sterling K. Brown is looking back at all the times he died on screen.

Marta Balaga Enough with the winter gloom: Feel-good shows are about to take over TV market London Screenings, as distributors echo Russell Crowe’s Maximus iconic words: “Are you not entertained?” “Most platforms are looking for entertaining shows. Escapism is a big thing,” says Fremantle International CEO Jens Richter. “You want to take the audience somewhere else and make sure they forget about their reality for a minute.

Good Morning Britain star Richard Gaisford has revealed that he was rushed to hospital after needing "emergency surgery".The ITV show's chief correspondent took to X (formerly known as Twitter) to tell fans that he had received "first class" treatment at a Portsmouth NHS hospital after being admitted on Sunday. "Not quite the Sunday I'd planned," Richard, 51, wrote.

Patsy Palmer is best known for her portrayal of Bianca Jackson in EastEnders, which she's set to return to, but she's since swapped Albert Square for sunny California.The actress relocated in 2014 with her family, following her exit from EastEnders. Patsy, 51, moved to Malibu 10 years ago with her husband Richard Merkell, 49, and their children; Fenton, 23, Emilia, 22, and Bertie, 13.The family have certainly thrown themselves into California life, having made pals with A-listers and carved out careers in showbiz. Patsy continues to dip in and out of acting - she's briefly reprised her role in EastEnders for some special episodes - and she's works as a DJ too.

Welcome to Deadline’s London TV Screenings list, our definitive look at next week’s buzzy event taking Soho by storm. If you’re wondering who’s exhibiting, what’s on offer and want to dive deeper into the distribs’ strategy, we’ve done the hard work for you, presenting profiles from nearly 30 exhibiting sales houses. Below, check out profiles for all the London TV Screenings founders, along with the outfits based in the UK. Read on, and find all our London TV Screenings content throughout the week here.

Deadline’s Read the Screenplay series spotlighting the year’s most talked-about scripts continues with Barbie, a cultural phenomenon that became 2023’s highest-grossing film at $1.45 billion worldwide. It’s also got eight Oscar nominations, including for Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach’s screenplay, which AMPAS put in the Adapted category despite other bodies — including the Writers Guild — clocking it as Original.

The State Department will screen 20 Days In Mariupol, nominated in the feature documentary Oscar category this year, at an event on February 27.

With terrible conflicts raging in the Middle East and Ukraine, the world has rarely felt so troubled and simultaneously intertwined with geopolitics.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Michael Keaton told People magazine in a recent interview that reuniting with Tim Burton and shooting the “Beetlejuice” sequel (officially titled “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice”) was “the most fun I’ve had on set in a long time.” The film is the follow-up to the duo’s 1988 comedy classic. Keaton stressed how refreshing it was to embrace practical filmmaking after “years” spent working with giant green screens. Prior to “Beetlejuice 2,” Keaton reprised his Batman role for the VFX-heavy comic book tentpole “The Flash.” “On one hand, you’d go, ‘Well, of course it’s the most fun.

TV star Alex Jones is best known for fronting BBC's The One Show but away from the cameras, the Welsh presenter and her husband Charlie Thomson, who is from New Zealand, live a regular life with their young family in their London home.The couple share three children together: Teddy, six, Kit, four, and Annie, two. Alex, met insurance broker Charlie at a party back in 2011 and they announced their engagement four years later. She said at the time that she didn't want an over-the-top wedding saying: "It'll be just with our close friends and family and a day when everybody can have a bit of a laugh." The happy couple tied the knot on New Year's Eve in 2015 in a private ceremony at Cardiff Castle.

Ben Shephard has admitted that leaving Good Morning Britain for This Morning was a tough choice, especially because of his close bond with co-host Kate Garraway. The two have been a popular pair on the morning show, and Ben was there for Kate when her husband Derek Draper was battling long-term effects of Covid-19.They were also together on the show when Kate returned to work after her husband's tragic passing at 56 in January.

The One Show star Jermaine Jenas, known for his football career and now a popular TV presenter, lives a luxurious life away from the BBC cameras.The 40 year old star resides in a plush £1 million mansion in Hertfordshire with his wife Ellie Penfold and their three children. Jermaine had an impressive football career, playing for top Premier League teams like Aston Villa, Queens Park Rangers, Nottingham Forest, Newcastle United, and Tottenham Hotspur. He even played for England before retiring in 2016 due to a knee injury, reports MyLondon.

Christopher Vourlias The Russian invasion of Ukraine will mark its second somber anniversary next week, though in recent months the conflict has been pushed from the headlines in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war. But with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy arriving in the German capital on Friday in an effort to shore up flagging European support for his country’s defense, Ukrainian film professionals at the Berlin Film Festival are determined not to quietly disappear from the global stage.

Christopher Vourlias One year after sharing the stage at the European Film Market as joint Countries in Focus, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia continue to shine. Despite the downturn sparked by the coronavirus pandemic, the lingering fallout from the ongoing war in Ukraine and the growing economic uncertainty worldwide, production across the region has been at or near record highs in recent years.

EXCLUSIVE: We are hearing that Apollo Global Management, who was mulling an offer for National Amusements, the Redstone family company that controls Paramount Global, is no longer considering that now.