Stuff: And I Woulda Gotten Away With It Too, If It Hadn’t Been For Those Newsies!

There’s a great deal of pop culture news that comes out every day. It piles up. Some sites want you to read individual posts with 600 words about a single C-list actress joining the sixteenth Saw movie or something. If that’s your thing, great. But the rest of us have lives–thus Stuff You Need to Know. Enjoy.

Interesting insight into what makes a Broadway musical…in this case, Disney was getting consistent nagging about creating a Newsies musical (based on the film) so that regional to amateur theatres could tackle it. So to get that money, they created the show, with the help of original composers Alan Menken and Jack Feldman and a book based on the script by…Harvey Fierstein (nice). It ran at the Paper Mill Playhouse in New Jersey and will wind up on Broadway in March. Set to run 101 episodes, expect it to extend its run. Apparently another Disney musical, the Peter Pan prequel, Peter and the Starcatcher, will hit in the spring. Source: Variety.

As mentioned on Weekend Justice, up tomorrow, Kristen Stewart has been offered the role of Ky Reed in the Akira live action film. Interestingly, they’re saying that one of the considerations is that it’s seen as a potential franchise…and so is her Snow White. Nice work if you can get it. Source.

So, here’s the full Brave trailer. I’ll say this: it looks freaking gorgeous.

Direct link for the feedreaders.

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Bill Nighy is in talks to play a demon prince who wants Frankenstein‘s Monster (played by Aaron Eckhart) so they can build an army of reanimated corpses and rule the world. Mooha. Yeah, I know, but that’s the plot of I, Frankenstein which kicks off production in January and will hit cinemas on February 22, 2012. Source: Variety.

Cleopatra, not a remake but based on the recent book Cleopatra: A Life, has a scribe in the form of Eric Roth (Benjamin Button)…and from the way the Variety article is phrased it sounds like he’s starting over from work that Brian Helgeland started. The article also states that while James Cameron was still interested, the film could have been shot in 3D. Which means it would have looked awesome, at least. Right now David Fincher is looking at it and Angelina Jolie is set to star.

Warwick Davis might be hosting a panel show on the BBC? Nice. It’s called Ace of Clubs, according to Chortle, and “will feature enthusiastic members of a club or society who will have to prove themselves worthy of the title Ace Of Clubs.” A very odd panel show, but there have been odder. I’ll give it a watch.

Much has been made of reports that David Yates, helmer of more Potters than anyone else, has said he’s going to be working on a Doctor Who feature film that’s completely detached from the TV version. The part you need to know is that the consensus of Whovians that are smarter and far more connected than me: they’re shopping it. Relax. Rob is convinced if it’s going to happen, it’ll happen by the 50th Anniversary. Me, I think that makes way too much sense. This is Hollywood we’re talking about, after all.

Hunger Games trailer is out. And I don’t know a damn thing about this series, but the trailer is indeed intriguing:

Direct link for the feedreaders.

A Michael Jackson biopic is in development…and I’m fairly certain you know I mean the pop singer and not the beer expert. Although that would be pretty good too…especially if he went around solving crimes. Anyway, the Variety article points out that the project they have going with Cirque, Michael Jackson: The Immortal World Tour, is keeping them plenty busy, so this is shopping. Who the hell do you get to play Jackson? I’m thinking an unknown is safest bet, but who knows.

Yes, I know, we’ve been talking a lot about how trailers are crap at selling films. But they do exist. And they do extend a message. And this trailer for Mirror Mirror places this film a lot farther down on my priority list for next year. And it’s not because this one’s a comedy as opposed to much more interesting Snow White and the Huntsman…it’s just that there’s nothing in this trailer that appeals to me. It looks goofy rather than funny. But maybe it’s just me. Judge for yourself.

Direct link for the feedreaders.

Top Shelf has gone digital six ways from Sunday. They have their own apps for iOS, or you can snag them from Comixology, Graphicly, on the Nook, and so forth and so on. Pretty much a huge rollout. And the prices are reasonable: for example, From Hell, which in its print form can stop not just a bullet but a bullet towing a rhino, is just around $8.50. Nice. All the rundown and links can be found here.

Whose Line Is it Anyway? is working on getting an Indian version. Makes sense: they’ve been practically everywhere else. Source: Variety.