Stuff: New Export to Nigeria: Sesame Street

There’s a lot of stuff going on in the world of pop culture. But you just want the gist. We got you covered. Read this and then go have a life or something.

Amazon‘s killer deal of the day is the complete Seinfeld, for 66% off. That’s $84.99 today only and while stocks last. Snag it here.

Sesame Street Nigeria is the working title for exactly what you think it is. Sesame Workshop is working up seventy-eight half-hour shows, backed by a five-year grant from the U.S. federal government. As you might expect, they’re doing what they do best: doing a crapload of studies to figure out how best to get out the show’s messages, which will, sadly and by necessity, have a degree of focus on HIV/AIDS. This will feature Kami, the HIV-positive character from the South African version of Sesame, who along with Big Bird was introduced to Nigeria in a project this year. Source.

Addams Family the musical has officially started its pre-Broadway run. Finally, here’s a glimpse of Nathan Lane, Bebe Neuwirth and the rest of the cast. Source.

Eclipse, aka Twilight 3, is hitting IMAX at the same time as your regular cinema: June 30, 2010. So now you can relax, I’m sure. Source.

Fela is the Fela Kuti biopic that Steve McQueen, writer/director of Hunger has been tapped to helm and co-scribe. Focus Features has snagged the film rights to the music, Fela’s life story and the biography by Michael Veal. While I had some familiarity with his music, I didn’t know that much about his life. But apparently he was hardcore. As the article states, “Fela lived large — with some 27 wives — and paid a high price for speaking out against oppression in Nigeria. In one attack on his home, Fela’s 78-year-old mother was killed after being thrown from a second-story window. Fela responded by placing her coffin on the steps of the Nigerian leader’s residence.” Just damn.

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The third season of Gavin and Stacey will hit BBC America in 2Q2010. Good timing, as I’m sure all the people on this side of the pond who want to see it will have already “legally acquired” it by then. Also, ABC wants to do a U.S. version of the show and has ordered a script. There’s no pilot ordered yet, so don’t worry…yet. Source.

Jane Eyre is getting the feature film treatment again, this time from Cary Fukunaga, director of Sin nombre. Mia Wasikowska (the new Alice for Disney) and Michael Fassbender (300) will be playing Jane and Rochester, respectively. The adaptation, scribed by Moira Buffini, was apparently on the 2008 list of best unproduced screenplays in Britain. Hmmm. Source.

Lionsgate has three films of interest hitting Blu-Ray on February 16th: the original Ladykillers with Alec Guinness, Kurosawa‘s Ran and Godard’s Contempt. Which made me realize that the Criterion DVDs of their are out of print. So I recommend snagging those when you can. Here’s Criterion Ran and here’s Criterion Contempt. And Contempt is still in stock, so snag it while you can. You can pre-order the Blu-Ray Ran here, and the Blu-Ray Contempt here. The Blu-Ray Ladykillers isn’t available for pre-order yet, but when it shows up, I’ll let you know.

Speaking of Kurosawa and Criterion, they’ve released a 25-film boxed set that features the DVD debut of four of his films. As I write this, Amazon has it for $299.99. Just damn.

MySpace has snagged imeem for a discounted rate if you ask me. This further cements MySpace as the place that’s a great home for bands…and people who haven’t been arsed to move off of it yet. Source.

Rapunzel from Disney hits during the holidays next year. Mandy Moore will be providing the voice of Rapunzel. Nathan Greno and Byron Howard (who were head of story and co-director, respectively, on Bolt) are co-helming. Alan Menken provides the music. Yes, the film will be in 3D. Source.

Shakespeare in the Park in NYC already has Al Pacino and Jesse L. Martin on board for their double-bill of Merchant of Venice and Winter’s Tale. Pacino will be playing Shylock. Shows will run June 9 – August 1, 2010. Source.

Stone stars Robert DeNiro, Edward Norton and Milla Jovovich and will be out next year. Norton plays an arsonist, DeNiro the parole officer, and Jovovich is Norton’s wife who he tries to use to manipulate DeNiro. Trailer doesn’t look bad, but it played commercials in Russian, so I opted not to embed it. Check it out here if you like. Source.

Unknown White Male is coming out from Dark Castle and has an even more intriguing cast than when we last mentioned it: January Jones, Diane Kruger, Frank Langella are joining Liam Neeson. Neeson’s a guy who wakes up from a coma only to find that he’s been replaced by someone else who’s taken his identity. Langella will play the man’s friend. Production starts in January. Source.

DreamWorks bought the pitch for Wife vs. Ninja, which according to the article, “centers on a Long Island housewife who discovers that the beautiful young intern who recently stole her scientist husband is actually a bloodthirsty ninja assassin intent on stealing his work.” And thus, this film either will be brilliant or suck in ludicrous amounts. With a premise like that, there really isn’t room to do anything in between. Source.

Zombified Disney at last. Now where the hell is the undead Harry Potter cosplay I ordered?