The Berlin Film festival is set to open tonight (Thursday) with a screening of Martin Scorsese's Rolling Stones concert documentary, Shine a Light. At a news conference earlier today, the Stones' Keith Richards indicated that the group had been approached several times in the past about making films of their concerts -- something, he indicated, that had never really interested him. However, when he heard that director Scorsese wanted to make such a film, he said, "I thought, 'This is interesting.'" The film, he said, is "Martin's movie. We're just the leading men." Scorsese himself acknowledged that he wanted also to capture "the humor, the absurdity of trying to put [a Stones concert] on film." When a reporter observed that the film may also demonstrate the futility of attempting to do so, Stones front man Mick Jagger suggested that it was intended not merely to present a concert on the movie screen. Rather, he said, it's "that night [of the performance] set in amber."

In his first major conference with analysts since taking over as CEO of Time Warner in December, Jeffrey Bewkes indicated Wednesday that he is considering splitting off Time Warner Cable to shareholders, carving AOL into two parts -- and selling off one of the parts, and shutting down New Line Cinema. He said that he plans to separate "AOL's access and audiences business," presumably meaning that under his plan the AOL portal would become one entity and the units that develop content for it would become another. (The Wall Street Journal said that the plan represented "the first steps to reversing the largest merger in Internet history.") As for New Line, Bewkes said, "There's an obvious question about whether it still makes sense for us to have two completely separate studio infrastructures." (Time Warner inherited New Line at the time of its merger with Turner Broadcasting.) Bewkes's words were taken as the clearest indication yet that he now intends to merge New Line with the larger Warner Bros. operation. On Wednesday, L.A. Weekly columnist Nikki Finke, who first reported on the New Line move last month, said on her blog that the studio's co-chiefs, Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne, had recently proposed to Bewkes that they institute major cost-cutting moves at the studio in exchange for contract renewals. "But Bewkes isn't interested in that scenario," Finke wrote, without citing sources.

Despite numerous reports that the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television producers have reached an agreement and are currently hammering out the wording, the Screen Actors Guild on Wednesday urged its members to show up in force at the Walt Disney Studios today (Thursday) "to let management know that we stand firmly with our brothers and sisters at the WGA." Meanwhile, Sid Ganis, president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, repeated his plea to leaders of the WGA to allow preparation for the Oscars to go forward. In an interview with Daily Variety, Ganis noted that the show involves complicated production numbers and making travel arrangements for presenters and nominees. "I'm nervous," he told the trade publication. "We're getting down to the final moments; we need to make plans." The 80th Annual Academy Awards telecast is scheduled to take place on February 24.

It is likely to be a long while before movie downloading becomes a significant challenge to the DVD rental business, NetFlix CFO Barry McCarthy told an investment conference in San Francisco Wednesday. "There are 100 million DVD players in U.S. households," McCarthy told the Thomas Weisel Partners Technology, Telecom & Internet Conference. "If you really think people are going to stop renting DVDs, you need to lie down until that thought passes." As reported by Video Business magazine on its website, McCarthy also suggested that Netflix may raise the price of its rentals for high-definition discs if those who rent them begin to represent a significant factor in online rentals.

Fox's controversial reality show, The Moment of Truth, continued to produce solid ratings results in its second week, registering a 9.8 rating and a 15 share in Nielsen's overnights. Nevertheless, that represented a 36-percent drop from lead-in American Idol, which recorded a 15.2/24. All other shows from the three rival networks were left in the dust Wednesday night, including NBC's hit game show, Deal or No Deal which produced a 5.1/8. Fox won the night handily with an overall 12.5/19 average rating. CBS was not even half a distance away, with a 6.2/10 to take second place. NBC followed with a 6.1/9, while ABC talent might as well have stayed at home, as the lineup settled for a 4.4/7.

Only two weeks before it is scheduled to debut, Knight Rider has lost the voice of KITT, the talking car. NBC disclosed that General Motors had asked Will Arnett to drop the voice-over role, maintaining that it conflicted with his work as the announcer for GMC Trucks. (KITT is a Ford Mustang.) Arnett had previously recorded his Knight Rider work, which had become part of the already-completed Knight Rider episodes. NBC said Wednesday that it will replace the Arnett tracks in the next week with new tracks recorded by onetime Batman Val Kilmer. (Presumably the makers of the Batmobile will have no objection.)

Sony said Wednesday that it plans to launch the smallest digital TV set ever -- one that will be capable of displaying live television as well as recording shows for future play. The Bravia XDV-D500 features a 3-inch screen, a battery that can last 8 hours, and a 2 GB storage device that can hold up to ten hours of programs. The devices are not compatible with U.S. digital TV standards and therefore will be marketed only in Japan, which uses the OneSeg digital standard.

Suggesting that just about any hit television show may be ripe for franchising, CBS Consumer Products said Wednesday that it has lined up two new licensees for its Survivor reality series. Liz Kalodner, head of the unit, told Daily Variety that she has "a lot of irons in the fire" -- beginning with Survivor Supercharged Sunflower Seeds, which will be produced by Full Charge Energy Foods, and Survivor Fitness Program from Fitness Team One. Kalodner also indicated that she's negotiating deals for Survivor camping gear, active apparel, corporate team building and outdoor adventure programs.

Recently retired ABC News national security correspondent John McWethy, 61, died Wednesday from injuries received during a skiing accident in Keystone, CO. Witnesses said that he missed a turn and rammed into a tree, suffering blunt-force injuries to his chest. "He was doing something that he truly loved, but he deserved many more years doing it than he was given," ABC News President David Westin said in a statement. Ironically, he had reported from numerous scenes of violence for ABC without being harmed himself -- including Bosnia, Haiti, Somalia, and Mozambique. He was also at the Pentagon on September 11, 2001 when terrorists crashed an airliner into it.