Here’s your essential guide to summer’s big fantasy shows

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent The Venice Film Festival once again looks like the place to launch the heavy hitters of awards season. As the world’s oldest film festival —unspooling on the island of Lido —  celebrates its 90th year, it serves up a dazzling display of goods and stars, starting from its opener, Noah Baumbach’s black comedy “White Noise” — with Adam Driver, Greta Gerwig and Jodie Turner-Smith expected on the red carpet — to an impressive array of arthouse auteurs screening their latest. Assembling the 2022 Venice lineup has been a long and complicated process for festival topper Alberto Barbera and his team. They started viewing submissions in November, several months earlier than usual, so in some cases they had to take the plunge without knowing what else would become available by showtime. The Venice selection process was further hampered by the ongoing pandemic, which continues to disrupt delivery dates and distribution schedules. “I admit that it’s been the most challenging year,” Barbera says. 

Joe Otterson TV Reporter Scott Foley has joined the cast of the upcoming HBO Max series “The Girls on the Bus,” Variety has learned. Foley joins previously announced cast members Melissa Benoist, Christina Elmore, and Natasha Behnam in the show, which was ordered straight-to-series at HBO Max in February after having been set up at both Netflix and The CW. “The Girls on the Bus” is inspired by a chapter in Amy Chozick’s book “Chasing Hillary.” It is described as a comedic character-driven drama that chronicles four female journalists who follow every move of a parade of flawed presidential candidates, while finding friendship, love, and scandal along the way.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Netflix is bringing “Heads Up!”, the charades game that originated on Ellen DeGeneres’ daytime talk show, into the Upside Down — and into the worlds of the streamer’s other original shows. The streamer is launching an exclusive version of the “Heads Up!” mobile game that will include 28 new decks from top Netflix series including “Stranger Things,” “Squid Game,” “Shadow and Bone,” “Bridgerton” and “Selling Sunset” as well as entertainment-themed decks in categories like rom-coms and true crime. Netflix launched its version of “Heads Up!” on Tuesday. Netflix’s edition of the game is available in English and 13 additional languages on Android and iOS devices, available to streaming subscribers for no additional cost.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at LargeComedian Nick Kroll is returning to standup — and doing it via Netflix, the home of his animated comedy “Big Mouth.” Kroll’s first stand-up special in a decade — and his first for Netflix — is titled “Nick Kroll: Little Big Boy,” and will premiere globally on September 27.The special will air a month before the Season 6 return of “Big Mouth,” which returns Oct. 28. For “Little Big Boy,” Kroll shot the special in June at the Warner Theatre in Washington, D.C.“I could be wrong, but I don’t know if people think of me really as a stand up, because I’ve been doing sketch and animation and acting and the writing stuff,” said Kroll, who beyond “Big Mouth” and his voicework is perhaps best known for “The League” and “The Kroll Show,” as well as playing the geriatric Gil Faizon, opposite John Mulaney, in the “Oh, Hello” sketches that eventually turned into a Broadway show (also taped for Netflix).

Based on the Italian cartoon “Winx Club,” the initial first season of the 2021 live-action teen drama adaptation, “Fate: The Winx Saga” on Netflix was met with quite a lot of backlash from fans and critics of the original show. The teen drama, akin to “Riverdale,” was developed by Brian Young who also acted as the showrunner and executive producer.

Naman Ramachandran U.K. broadcaster Channel 4 is stepping up its factual programming with two commissions and a recommission. The broadcaster has has commissioned ITV Studios’ The Garden to make the first U.K.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterSPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not yet watched “A Dream of a Thousand Cats”/”Calliope,” the surprise 11th episode of “The Sandman” Season 1.Netflix’s “The Sandman” was always meant to have 11 episodes in its first season — you just didn’t know it until the special final installment, a two-part animated and live-action story titled “A Dream of a Thousand Cats”/”Calliope,” dropped Friday.Or, if you’re a diehard fan who has been following every piece of “Sandman” news since the TV adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s beloved graphic novels was first ordered to series in July 2019, you might have been slightly gaslit into not remembering that there were 11 episodes when the 10-episode season launched two weeks ago. “There may have been hints earlier.

10-episode first season earlier this month.The new episode is a mix of live-action and animated scenes, taking content from Gaiman’s “Sandman” DC Comics graphic novels: “A Dream of a Thousand Cats” and “Calliope.”“A Dream of a Thousand Cats” is the cartoon chunk of the show, with actor Tom Sturridge as his lead “Sandman” role as Morpheus/Dream.The guest voice cast members include Sandra Oh as The Prophet, Rosie Day as The Tabby Kitten, David Gyasi as The Grey Cat, Joe Lycett as The Black Cat and Gaiman himself as Crow/Skull Bird. “X-Men” star James McAvoy came on Golden-Haired Man along with “Doctor Who” alum David Tennant as Don, Michael Sheen as Paul and Nonso Anozie as Wyvern.“We endeavored to make the animated version of ‘A Dream of a Thousand Cats’ as mesmerizing and hypnotic as we could by utilizing the magic of real oil paintings on canvas,” Hisko Hulsing, who directed the animated segment, noted in a statement.

Jonah Hill is doing what is best to protect his mental health.

BreAnna Bell eOne has selected Kris Henigman as its new senior vice president of scripted television, where he will focus on the development and packaging of television projects, Variety has learned exclusively.“I am very excited to join the amazing team at eOne. In addition to eOne’s fantastic original series slate, Hasbro has a deep well of beloved IP that I have been a massive fan of since childhood.

More than 350,000 households ditched subscriptions to the likes of Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney+ last quarter, according to regulator Ofcom’s annual Media Nations UK report, which showed a record year for British high-end TV production.

EXCLUSIVE: Ace Entertainment has launched production in Yorkshire, England on A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow—a new film based on the New York Times bestselling novel by Laura Taylor Namey, which will star Maia Reficco (Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin), Kit Connor (Heartstopper) and Kate del Castillo (La Reina del Sur).

There are plenty of down-on-his-luck musician stories in films and TV series. However, the new Netflix film, “I Used to Be Famous,” hopes that there’s still a little more fuel in the tank as the film subgenre gets explored one more time.  READ MORE: ‘Do Revenge’ Trailer: Maya Hawke And Camila Mendes Star In A Hitchcock-ian High School Revenge Dark Comedy As seen in the trailer for “I Used to Be Famous,” the film follows the story of Vince, a former member of a world-famous boy band, who now finds himself older and trying to hold on to any shred of fame he can.

What to watch: 7 movies & shows to stream this week - August 5What to watch: 7 movies & shows to stream this week - July 29Abbi Jacobson is back with a program of her own. Following the end of “Broad City,” Jacobson took her time to deliver a new project, turning in “A League of Their Own,” a TV show based on the legendary Madonna, Rosie O’Donnell and Geena Davis movie. Jacobson is the co-creator of the series and stars in it, telling the story of a team of female baseball players in the 40’s, with an expanded scope that accounts for race and sexuality.

Josh Peck is returning to the actor revealed during an exclusive sit-down with ET's Denny Directo on Friday's The Download. Peck played Drew, a vice principal at the school Jesse (Chris Lowell) is a teacher at and dated Sophie (Hilary Duff) for the majority of season 1. While they broke up by the end of the season, it appears their story may not be over just yet.«I think it's sort of unofficially official that yeah you can [expect to see Drew in season 2],» Peck said while promoting Netflix's.

Netflix has been making a lot of decisions lately about their canceled and renewed content.

The new season of “Cobra Kai” is getting ready to kick off.

new installment, titled “Big Sky: Deadly Trials,” sees newly appointed sheriff Beau Arlen (Jensen Ackles) joining the duo’s efforts to maintain order in town. But when a local backcountry trip led by likable outfitter Sunny Barnes (Reba McEntire) goes awry, the trio faces their most formidable mystery yet, and no camper is to be trusted.Most recently, Arquette finished filming a fun cameo role in Jason Woliner’s untitled Peacock series executive produced by Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg and Caviar.

“Netflix argued the WGA should accept a substandard formula the company negotiated with DGA and SAG-AFTRA. After a hearing, however, an arbitrator determined differently: that the license fee should have been greater than the gross budget of the film,” read the WGA West memo from president Meredith Stiehm and other leaders.