Stuff You Need to Know: Jonathan Harker, P.I.

A single blog post about a pop culture news story? That’s so 1997. I know–I was writing a version of them back then. I’d rather you got all the news you need in one post. Read it, and you’re good for a few days. I’ll take you through the high points of pop culture news, then let you get back to your life. You’re welcome.

Harker is an interesting spin on Dracula. They’re taking Jonathan Harker and making him a Scotland Yard detective chasing Dracula. If Renfield is Harker’s driver and knows kung fu, then this could at least be better than Green Hornet. Helmer is Jaume Collet-Serra, who previously brought you the House of Wax remake. Source.

Fantastic Voyage is going to be helmed by Shawn Levy (the upcoming Rock Em Sock Em Robots movie), who’s currently co-reworking the script from Shane Salerno (the 2000 Shaft). This remake has been in the works as far back as I can remember, with Devlin and Emmerich along with James Wong and Glen Morgan being on board for a while and then Devlin and Emmerich went to Sony and blew up the idea. Two more months of script development apparently before the thing gets the possibility of being greenlighted. So it may still go nowhere. Source: Variety.

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Great Expectations is being remade with Mike Newell in the chair. It was last tackled on the big screen in 1998 with Ethan Hawke. Expect it to hit next year, since that’s the bicentenary of Dickens. Source.

Hobbit kicks off March 21st. Slight delay due to Peter Jackson having a brief ailment. Films are due to hit December 2012 and December 2013. Source.

How to Train Your Dragon Some More, or whatever it will be called, is in the second draft of the writing process and is setting up a trilogy. I dug the hell out of the first one, so I say bring that noise. Source.

Mr. Men, which only sounds like a Dark Horse comic title and is instead the series of kids books by Roger Hargreaves, is going to be an animated feature at Fox. The only reason I bring this up is I’m amazed it’s not live action. Source.

Didn’t make it to Broadway to catch The Pee-Wee Herman Show? Fear not. It’s hitting HBO on March 19th at 10pm.

The Sunset Limited is a play by Cormac McCarthy in which a college professor gets saved from committing suicide by an ex-con. Tommy Lee Jones and Sam Jackson play the respective roles with Jones helming. It airs on HBO this Saturday. For more info, go here. And here, have a trailer:

Direct link for the feedreaders.

So the Super Bowl happened. Having avoided the game and now watched all the movie trailers that came with it, it’s one of two things, really. You either saw the game and watched them. Or you didn’t and you need to catch up. Really, the only one worth seeking out is Captain America…the rest are either just bits we’ve seen before or not enough information (and you’ll see a new trailer soon anyway–I’m talking specifically about Super 8 there). Here…Captain America then.

Direct link for the feedreaders.

The one TV commercial that caught my attention is Terra Nova, the Spielberg executive-produced time travel dinosaur thingy. Mostly because I’m looking forward to more Stephen Lang. Yes, the bad guy from Avatar. Here, have this:

Direct link for the feedreaders.

So, Chris Nolan, is it Lana Lang or what? Anyway, with Henry Carvill in place as Superman, now the female lead, who’s not Lois, is being cast. They’re narrowing the contenders. When it gets interesting, we’ll let you know. Source: Variety. As an aside, there’s a rumor over at MovieWeb that Ursa is going to be a villain. I don’t see that happening–you need Zod, not just Ursa. But kudos for the thought.

I just found this: Yes No Maybe UK, which produced one of my favorite shirts of 2007–the “Keep Calm and Carry On” shirt that’s been copied and parodied all over–has a version of it specifically for Halloween. Ghoulish green with a fangy version of the crown…I dig it. You can find it here or click on the image. Tell them we said hi.

Steven Seagal follows up his role in Machete with Born to Raise Hell. Interpol agent vs. a gypsy gang vs. Russians. It’s available for pre-order now (click the media type to get it from Amazon). It hits DVD and Blu-Ray April 19th from Paramount.

Hitting next week on DVD and Blu-Ray is Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol, as well as Top Gear–the fourteenth and fifteenth seasons. To pre-order, use these links: Who (DVD; Blu-Ray), Top Gear 14 (DVD; Blu-Ray), Top Gear 15 (DVD; Blu-Ray).

Fox has three catalog titles hitting Blu-Ray on the 15th: Last Tango in Paris, Moonstruck and Rain Man. Tango is coming out with its “original explicit edition.” Click on the titles to pre-order yours. Also, check out the cover art. If there’s anything that says “Cher, you’re no longer bankable on your own…” it’s that.

Last Unicorn is hitting Blu-Ray from Lionsgate on the 22nd. You can pre-order yours here.

I know I mentioned previously that Walking Dead hits home video on March 8th, but now there’s a trailer, and well, you know how I am about zombies.

Direct link for the feedreaders.

You can pre-order your DVD or Blu-Ray by clicking on the type of release.