Mediaset CEO Pier Silvio Berlusconi Wades In On Italy’s Zelensky-Sanremo Video Debate

tweeted that “We need a national divorce. We need to separate by red states and blue states and shrink the federal government,” drawing furious responses from the left and more moderate right.“This is so laughable because blue states as we all know are the donor states, or the states where taxpayers take it on the chin to take care of districts like Marjorie Taylor Greene’s, to take care of districts across taxes where Ted Cruz talks about secession,” host Joe Scarborough said on Tuesday’s episode of “Morning Joe.”“What is it that so deeply offends [Republicans], like three trans athletes in Utah want to swim? Is that real?” he asked guest commentator Charlie Sykes.Both agreed that calls for a “national divorce” were not to be taken as a serious possibility, but rather as a tactic to collect funds from right-wing supporters.“It’s fascinating that they’re so desperate to raise money from small donors, they’re actually willing to say, we need to have a civil war,” Scarborough pointed out.Sykes agreed that their motives were purely “to keep racheting up the outrage.” Still, such rhetoric is not without danger, he said.“People like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Ron DeSantis are appealing to the id of the party, the id of the right, which is anti-Ukraine, which is willing to tolerate this sort of notion that our real enemy is not Vladimir Putin.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent New Disney+ original series “The Good Mothers,” which provides a fresh female take on the Calabrian mob, marks a case of truly organic collaboration between the U.K. and Italy to ensure that a great story didn’t risk losing an iota of authenticity.  The show, which is competing in the “Berlinale Series” section, depicts the Calabrian mob through the prism of three daring women inside the ‘Ndrangheta organized crime clan who collaborated with a female prosecutor and withstood the consequences of their attempt to escape its iron grip. It is produced produced by Juliette Howell, Tessa Ross and Harriet Spencer for London’s House Productions, which originated the project, and by Mario Gianani and Lorenzo Gangarossa for Rome’s Wildside, a Fremantle company, which helped to firmly root the story in its Calabrian context.

“Most people hosting a travel show want to do it. They have a sense of adventure.

Just after 5 AM ET on Monday, networks started to break in to regular programming for special reports that President Joe Biden had made a surprise trip to Ukraine.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Coming of age thriller “The Gymnasts,” one of the most recent titles from Europe’s public broadcaster partnership The Alliance, has been licensed to over 30 territories, London-based super indie All3Media International confirmed on Monday at the Berlinale Series Market.     Based on Ilaria Bernardini’s bestselling novel “Corpo Libero” (“The Girls Are Good”), the six-part series is produced by the Oscar-winning team at Indigo Film, behind “The Great Beauty,” in co-production with ZDF Neo’s German company Network Movie.  The series has been made in collaboration with Rai Fiction and Paramount+, and in association with All3Media International.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Matt Damon revealed he was in the “early stages” on a project about Ukraine during the press conference for “Kiss the Future” at the Berlin Film Festival. Damon is a producer on the documentary which chronicles the struggle of Sarajevo citizens during the Bosnian War. World premiering in the Berlinale Special section, the politically minded documentary is directed by Nenad Cicin-Sain and based on “Fools Rush in: A Memoir” the memoir of Bill Carter, an aid worker. It shows how his determination resulted in the enlistment of the world’s largest rock band, U2, to help shine a light. Fifth Season and WME handling worldwide sales. Asked if he was considering following the footsteps of Sean Penn with “Superpower” with a film on the war in Ukraine, he said he’s “watched as everyone has with horror that unfolded there in the last year,” and although they “don’t have anything on it right now there isn’t any doubt that we’ll be doing.”

Christopher Vourlias The war in Ukraine has taken center stage this week at the Berlin Film Festival, which is taking place for the first time since Russia’s full-scale invasion last year. At Thursday’s opening ceremony, Ukrainian president Volodomyr Zelenskyy appeared via satellite to encourage festival-goers “not to remain silent” over Russia’s unprovoked war of aggression. Sean Penn, who this week premiered his docu-portrait of the Ukrainian leader, “Superpower,” lashed out at Russian strongman Vladimir Putin, who he described as a “war criminal” and a “creepy little bully.” Moral outrage has not been in short supply since the start of the war, as the global film community — in a show of near unanimous condemnation of the Kremlin’s criminal attack — has rallied behind the Ukrainian war effort. But many U.S. and foreign companies quietly continue to do business with Putin’s pariah state or have resumed the deal-making that was put on pause once the war began.

Sean Penn has reiterated his offer to have one of his Oscars melted down by Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky – saying his gift to the battling leader was inspired by his “continuing shame towards the Motion Picture Academy.”

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Italy’s Kino Produzioni, the indie shingle that co-produced 2022 Berlin Golden Bear winner “Alcarràs,” is ramping up production with new films by emerging Italian filmmakers Carlo Sironi, Laura Luchetti and Irene Dionisio, as well as also Dutch director Michiel Van Erp and Argentine filmmakers María Alché and Benjamín Naishtat.  “We reached a turning point last year that started out well with the ‘Alcarràs’ victory,” said Kino chief Giovanni Pompili, speaking at the EFM. He noted that in 2022, the Rome-based outfit shot four films, “which for us was pretty challenging, but worked out well.” Meanwhile, the Kino team has grown. Producer Lara Costa-Calzado, who has been working for a decade between the U.S. and Europe on films such as Eliza Hittman’s Silver Bear winner “Never Rarely Sometimes Always,” Sally Potter’s “The Roads Not Taken” and Halina Rejin’s “Bodies Bodies Bodies,” has joined Kino as head of production.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Anne Hathaway and Kristen Stewart delivered a dose of major glamour on the red carpet on Thursday as the Berlin Film Festival returned to full-scale, in-person operation for the first time since 2020. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky revived Berlin’s role as a political platform.   The Hollywood stars were greeted by packed crowds outside the Berlinale Palast and by festival co-heads Mariette Rissenbeek and Carlo Chatrian.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Gael García Bernal and Renate Reinsve (“The Worse Person in the World”) will soon be appearing on screen as lovers caught in an unusual bind in Italian director Piero Messina’s sci-fi film “Another End.” French sales company Newen Connect is launching sales on the pic at the European Film Market.  “Another End” is set in a near-future when a new technology exists that can put the consciousness of a dead person back into a living body, in an attempt to ease the grief of separation, providing a little extra time to say goodbye.  The English-language sci-fier by Messina — whose first feature, “The Wait,” launched with a splash in the 2015 Venice competition — sees Bernal play Sal, a man whose wife dies, and Reinsve as Zoe, the woman who then becomes his partner after renting out her body, in which the memory and consciousness of Sal’s former wife have been temporarily implanted. First look image of Reinsve as Zoe above.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Italian director Daniele Luchetti, who most recently helmed the third season of RAI/HBO’s Elena Ferrante series “My Brilliant Friend,” is working on a new film titled “Confidenza” (“Trust”) toplining Elio Germano. Luchetti previously directed Germano in the drama “Our Life” in a role that in 2015 won the actor top honors in Cannes. Vision Distribution is launching sales on “Trust” at the European Film Market. In “Trust” Giordano (first look image, above) plays a teacher in his forties named Pietro Vella who works in a rundown Roman high school. He strongly believes he can help students strive for a better future and Teresa, and bright and rebellious student, is totally taken with him and his lessons. Then, a few years later, they meet up again and get romantically entangled. Teresa insists they must share their deepest secrets to bond for life. But as soon as Pietro really opens up, the relationship ends.

Anthony Ramos is ready to dive into the  universe, even if he had to encounter some deadly animals along the way. ET's Kevin Frazier spoke to Ramos ahead of Super Bowl LVII Sunday, where he shared what it was like to film Transformers: Rise of the Beasts in Peru.«Going to Machu Picchu, we were at Cuzco and we went to the Amazon right on the outskirts of the jungle. It was crazy,» Ramos shared. «It was wild.

Malina Saval Associate Editor, Features Sean Penn went to war and a movie broke out. That is, in effect, the story behind the making of the documentary “Superpower,” a gripping cinematic portrait of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky on the eve of Russian president Vladimir Putin’s military invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.  Co-directed by Penn and Aaron Kaufman, who helmed the 2021 documentary “Crusaders: Ex-Jehovah’s Witnesses Speak Out,” “Superpower” bows Feb. 17, out of competition, as a Berlinale Special Gala at the Berlin Film Festival. Fifth Season and Vice Studios are behind the film, with Fifth Season selling worldwide rights. “Superpower” was not conceived as a war story. Rather, Penn and Kaufman, as well as producer Billy Smith, endeavored to chart the trajectory of Zelensky’s unusual career trajectory — from actor-comedian-producer playing a history teacher elected as Ukraine’s president in the satirical TV series “Servant of the People,” to a rising political star elected as the real-life president of Ukraine in 2019. The intent was to relay a tale about an everyman — in Zelensky’s case, a Ukrainian, Russian-speaking Jew born under Soviet rule in the late 1970s — who finds himself at the helm of a fledgling democratic nation burning to embrace freedom. A Ukrainian president elected on an anti-corruption platform who, very soon post-election, finds himself in the crosshairs of an American president’s impeachment. 

EXCLUSIVE: Blumhouse/Sony/Depth of Field’s They Listen has added Greg Hill to the Chris Weitz written and directed feature. The pic reps Hill’s second collaboration with director Weitz, having worked with him on MGM’s post-World War II thriller Operation Finale, as part of the ensemble cast that included Oscar Isaac, Ben Kingsley, Melanie Laurent and Nick Kroll. 

Volodymyr Zelensky, the President of Ukraine, paid a historic visit to the UK on Wednesday — and surprised a compatriot with a hug during an impromptu moment during a press conference.

Paramount and Prime Video have struck a Star Trek deal for the former’s international streamer outside Canada.

Way back in 2019, it was announced that filmmaker Reed Morano, a cinematographer turned director (“The Handmaid’s Tale,” “The Rhythm Section”), would adapt, along with Jane Featherstone, the book “The Power” from novelist Naomi Alderman. The book centered on a central premise of women developing the ability to release electrical jolts from their fingers, thus leading them to become the dominant sex.

The Berlinale Film Festival has unveiled the jury members for its main International Competition, which will be presided over by Kristin Stewart.

After films like “Khadak,” “La Cinquième Saison,” and most recently, “The Barefoot Emperor” (all co-directed with Peter Brosens), Belgian-American filmmaker Jessica Woodworth goes solo with the black and white festival gem “Luka,” which premiered as part of Rotterdam’s Big Screen Competition. In a co-production between Armenia, Belgium, Italy, and Bulgaria, the film is delightfully angsty and bursting with desire: for power, togetherness, and a world at its breaking point.