Viaplay Sets Release Dates For Summer North American Slate Including Liv Ullmann Docuseries

An original documentary film that tells the story of the world’s largest and longest-running country music festival debuts on Hulu Wednesday, July 5.

EXCLUSIVE: BET+ has picked up rights to the previously unannounced action thriller Call Her King, starring Naturi Naughton (Power Book II: Ghost) and Lance Gross (House of Payne), slating it to premiere exclusively as one of the platform’s originals on July 6.

Marta Balaga In Cannes, nobody talks to Liv Ullmann at parties. “We went to this event and nobody noticed us. When I am around many people, they don’t always include me in the group. With Dheeraj, we both felt a little humiliated. But then we decided we will just tell great stories about it: ‘Catherine Deneuve was there too and she danced!,’” she laughs. The legendary actor – “I am no legend,” she insists – has presented documentary “Liv Ullmann – A Road Less Travelled” at the French fest, directed by Dheeraj Akolkar, further cementing her status as an artist who never conformed. Even in the U.S., where she was expected to look a certain way. In the film, she states: “I didn’t wear makeup. I am Norwegian.”

EXCLUSIVE: EST Studios has entered into a partnership with New York and Bangkok-based N8 Studios to represent a slate of Asian films at global markets including the Marche du Film at Cannes. 

Disney+ is setting premiere dates for two anticipated Marvel series.

Alison Herman TV Critic Patricia Arquette likes to go big. In 2018’s “Escape at Dannemora,” she donned copious prosthetics to play a prison employee who assists in an escape. In “The Act” the following year, she played an eerily doting mother with Munchausen by proxy. And in “Severance,” she’s an unhinged boss who lives a double life, surveilling her employees on and off the clock. The actor earned an Oscar in 2015 for a grounded turn in “Boyhood”; on TV, she lets her hair down. With “High Desert,” Arquette amps up the volume even further. Unlike those earlier outings on the small screen, the Apple TV+ comedy puts her at the top of the call sheet as Peggy Newman, a drug dealer turned methadone user, frontier-era reenactor and aspiring PI. But Arquette brings a supporting player’s lack of inhibition to the leading role. Others might feel the need to rein themselves in and play the straight woman to anchor a cast of eccentrics. Arquette makes Peggy a chaos tornado in feathered bangs, growling and rasping her way through a series of harebrained schemes. An early scene introduces Peggy hanging from a chandelier with her bloomers out, careening into a bar as part of a dinner theater display. The actor then sustains that momentum for eight consecutive episodes.

Charna Flam Netflix announced the return of “Is it Cake?” and the addition of its latest “Nailed It!” spinoff, “The Big Nailed It Baking Challenge,” with both to premiere on the platform this summer. “Is It Cake, Too?” will premiere on June 30. It will keep deceiving celebrity judges as some of the world’s most talented bakers compete to create hyper-realistic cakes that look exactly like everyday objects. As they compete with cash on the line, judges and audiences will ask, “Is it real?” or… “Is it cake?” The eight-episode game show is hosted by Mikey Day and executive produced by Dan Cutforth, Jane Lipsitz, Nan Strait, Dan Volpe, Andrew Wallace and Cat Sullivan.

William Earl Variety has announced the initial lineup for the Kering Women in Motion talks at the Cannes Film Festival. Moderated by Variety’s Senior Correspondent Elizabeth Wagmeister, this year’s talks include some of the most important women working in cinema and offers a mix between up-and-coming talent and iconic figures such as Cate Blanchett and Michelle Yeoh. On Thursday, May 18, playwright, actor and philanthropist Jeremy O. Harris, who stars in Directors’ Fortnight premiere “The Sweet East,” will kick off the Women in Motion series to discuss female representation in his work. Following Harris’ talk, actress and director Katie Holmes will speak about her work as a director and how the industry has changed in its approach to female directors since she first began working in television.

Marvel has set the Disney+ premiere dates for the second season of “Loki” with Tom Hiddleston, and the “Hawkeye” spinoff series “Echo,” studio chief Kevin Feige announced during the Disney upfront Tuesday. The Season 2 premiere of “Loki” will debut Oct.

Disney+ is going to end the year with two new entries to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Fans who have been waiting to see Avatar: The Way of Water on their favorite streaming platform are in luck!

Anna Tingley If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission. The lush forests, deep oceans and floating mountains of Pandora are finally heading to your living room. James Cameron’s blockbuster “Avatar: The Way of Water” has officially set a streaming release date.

Sophia Scorziello editor The 2024 Independent Spirit Awards are set to take place in Los Angeles on Feb. 25. The 39th annual awards will recognize achievements in American independent film and television and celebrate the power of independent visual storytelling. The February date, on a Sunday, puts the awards two weeks ahead of the March 10 Oscars, rather than the day before as the Spirits had been in some previous years. This year, the Spirit Awards embraced non-gendered award categories. ““For the first time in history, all the men will know how all the women feel when they find out they are competing against Cate Blanchett,” said the host of the evening, comedian, producer and writer Hasan Minhaj. The joke was met with a close-up of Blanchett looking quite confused.

Get ready for the return of Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan.

Succession‘s Jeremy Strong will star in playwright Amy Herzog’s new Broadway adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People. Tony-winning director Sam Gold will direct in early 2024.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic The FOMO of having missed Joni Mitchell’s appearance at the Newport Folk Festival last summer no longer needs to be so strong. Most of that comeback set, which as augmented by an all-star cast, is being released as a live album in July, “At Newport,” produced by Mitchell and Brandi Carlile. The album will be released by Rhino on July 28, four days after the one-year anniversary of the surprise show at the Rhode Island Festival. The guest stars who shared lead vocals and instrumentals with Carlile during the “Joni Jam” will all be represented — including Carlile, Marcus Mumford, Dawes’ Taylor Goldsmith, Lucius, Celisse and Wynonna Judd. Other players included Phil and Tim Hanseroth, Allison Russell and Blake Mills.

Here are the biggest albums yet to come for the rest of 2023,

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Prime Video has set May 18 for the global release of its upcoming Indian anthology series “Modern Love Chennai.” This is the third Indian adaptation of “Modern Love,” the internationally acclaimed original anthology directed by John Carney, following “Modern Love Mumbai” and “Modern Love Hyderabad.” Produced under the banner of Tyler Durden and Kino Fist, with Thiagarajan Kumararaja as the creator, the six-episode anthology presents a bouquet of love stories set in the city of Chennai that explore relationships, push boundaries, and open minds.  “Love stories and rom-coms have never been my cup of tea. Thus, ‘Modern Love Chennai’ was an interesting challenge,” said Kumararaja, creator of the series and writer-director of one of the episodes. “With these stories, we have explored and celebrated the old-world charm of the city, which remains rooted in a distinct blend of tradition and modernity.” 

Sky Ferreira has confirmed a handful of live shows as part of a 2023 North American summer tour.The singer, who has not released a new album in a decade since 2013’s acclaimed ‘Night Time, My Time‘, will be playing new live shows in various cities throughout California this July as part of a mini concert series being put on by independent L.A. music promoter Minty Boi, billed as part of his fifth-anniversary celebration. He has produced shows for 100 gecs, Ethel Cain, Eyedress and more.Ferreira is also set to play two shows in June that are unrelated to Minty Boi.

Here are the biggest albums yet to come for the rest of 2023,