Stuff You Need to Know, Thursday, September 4, 2008

Fox and MGM are creating a boxed set for…well, I’m not sure who the target audience is. It’s their fifty best known musicals in a sixty-one disc set called The Hollywood Musicals Collection that is available for pre-order on Amazon for $375. Apart from postcards that reproduce the theatrical posters, it’s probably the same discs that were released for these musicals individually–and probably have the same DVD art and everything. Now, granted, if you don’t own these fifty titles already (click through to Amazon to see the full array), this would be the way to get them all, since it comes out to about $6 a disc. But if you really enjoy musicals, you probably own the key ones already and it wouldn’t make sense to snag this, even if you had the coin to drop on it. Crazy. Source: Hollywood Reporter.

The Closer, the popular show on TNT starring Kyra Sedgwick, is getting a spinoff called The Fixer. We don’t know anything else about it except I’d like to state I’d probably watch the hell out of a show about the Venture Bros. character “The Cleaner.” I don’t know about your feelings in the matter. Source: Hollywood Reporter.

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Creation (which the IMDB lists as “Origin”–which probably pisses off Marvel) is a Darwin biopic in which Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly will be playing Chuck’s parents. John Collee (co-writer on Master and Commander) is the scribe and it’s based on the book Annie’s Box, which was written by Randal Keynes, Chuck’s great-great grandson. The film “portrays Darwin as a man torn between his love for his deeply religious wife and his own growing belief in a world where God has no place. The scientist finds himself caught in a struggle between faith and reason, love and truth.” And little did he know he would have awards named after him, which would do so much good for the gene pool and provide us with so much fun. Production starts the end of this month in England. Source: Hollywood Reporter.

153 works from L. Ron Hubbard are going to be back in print, kicking off this month, in both print and audio form–the audio bits will be in ye olde radio show style, even. You can check out the official website here. And I’d like to point out, since I’ve distracted Doc with a bottle of whisky two floors down from here, that I heartily endorse the publication of Hubbard.

Why? Is this a Scientology trick? Am I an LMD Widge and not the real one? Nay. I want this to make lots of money so we can finally get the sequel to Battlefield Earth in cinemas. Because that movie is the funniest film of the last ten years and I have never laughed harder. So I desperately want a sequel.

The movie Dark Streets, a “’30s-era blues musical,” features the first film score to come from B.B. King. Samuel Goldwyn Films snagged the rights and should be releasing it later this year. The soundtrack has original songs by Solomon Burke, Natalie Cole, Etta James, Dr. John, Aaron Neville, and Richie Sambora. And half of the film’s profits will be donated “to the Blues Initiative, which aids New Orleans musicians hurt by the Gustav and Katrina hurricanes.” Source: Hollywood Reporter.

You might be wondering why the article which revealed George Lucas is being held prisoner by aliens is still in our featured slideshow gizmo. That’s because people click the living shit out of it. Far and above it is the most popular article to ever get a slide. So it stays for the time being.

Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine is releasing his second solo album, The Fabled City, on September 30th. Streaming sample thing below. System Of A Down’s Serj Tankian and also Shooter Jennings make appearances. You can pre-order your copy here. That’s out from Epic.

And BTW, Doc just sent me this, which is pretty badass. Take away Rage Against the Machine’s instruments? Fuck it, they’ll perform anyway.

Direct link for the feedreaders.

Lionsgate is releasing three of the Persuaders TV movies that were recut from episodes: London Conspiracy, Mission Monte Carlo and Sporting Chance. They’re coming out November 4th. It’s coming out as a triple feature release that can be pre-ordered here.

Oh dear. Stephen Sommers is in talks to helm Tarzan with Stuart Beattie (co-writer on 30 Days of Night) co-scribing with him. This basically means that it will probably make shitloads of money and more than likely I’ll hate it. Apparently there was another attempt five years ago with John August (co-writer on Corpse Bride) scribing and Guillermo Del Toro helming. Source: Variety.

Top Shelf‘s having a massive sale between now and Friday, September 12th. A slew of books and such are marked down to $3. Can’t beat that. Here’s some recommendations:

From Hell–my favorite graphic novel ever–in hardcover for $20 off
Lost Girls for $10 off
Both Alan Moore CDs they have–Snakes & Ladders and Highbury Working–are just $10 each
Van Helsing’s Night Off for $3

The trial for the Watchmen rights dispute is set for January 6th. What does all of this mean to you? Nothing. Warner Brothers will pay Fox and it will all eventually go away. Source: Variety.