Stuff: Restoring the Godfather and Putting Drew Barrymore on Wheels

This is where we take all the pop culture news of the day, strip out all the extraneous hoobah surrounding it, then shove it into a burrito and hand it to you. Eat it. It’s delicious.

X-Files fanatics take note: really, really good actress Gillian Anderson is going to be in a production of Ibsen’s A Doll House in London next spring. Start saving your pennies now. I hope the new movie makes lots of money for her sake if nothing else. Have you seen The Mighty? Damn, she’s good.

AVG‘s new ad campaign is Hugs for Hackers. Basically, the idea is that AVG will stop the hackers dead in their tracks, so they’re going to be pretty bummed. And they’ll need a hug. They even snagged and put up a site on hugsforhackers.org. No, I haven’t linked to it because I went there and trust me, I’ve already told you the clever bit. We must all now smirk, nod, and keep moving.

Godfather‘s back. “The Coppola Restoration” is hitting DVD and Blu-Ray (no pre-order available yet) on September 23rd. From what I can tell from Paramount’s press release, there’s no new footage or anything, it’s just that they restored it frame by frame over the course of a year, which is unlike that reel by reel restoration…I…guess. Regardless, the four-disc set we had previously is replaced by a five-disc set where the fifth disc is all new stuff, so it’s the old set and then some. The Blu-Ray collection is four-disc but appears to just slam all the bonus bits onto a single disc. However, I’d like to point out that there never was a Godfather III. That is a vicious rumor and by me posting this I am in no way subscribing to the crackpot theory that the film ever existed.

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British Remakes are the order of the day, seeing as how Life on Mars U.S. was so well received. Cracker is coming to TNT stateside. The Prisoner is for AMC with Jim Caviezel and Ian McKellen. And Eleventh Hour a ponderous short series starring Patrick Stewart as a scientist responding to Serious Threats, is being re-worked by Jerry Bruckheimer for CBS and premieres in October. Of them all, that actually sounds the most promising, probably because the original wasn’t that hot to begin with.

The Little House on the Prairie musical starring Melissa Gilbert has broken the one day record for ticket sales at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis. On June 26th, they sold 5500 or so tickets, easily beating Ian McKellen in Lear, which sold 3639 tickets there in one day last year. Gilbert will be playing the role of the mother in the show, and then to really press the feud with Sir Ian, will be taking over the role of Magneto in X-Men 4.

Needcoffee fave Tovah Feldshuh is in a new play called Irena’s Vow at New York’s Baruch Performing Arts Center. Previews start September 7th, regular shows September 22nd. The play “centers on a Polish woman forced to work as head housekeeper for a prominent Nazi officer and faced with the choice to protest 12 Jewish refugees who come under her care.” There’s going to be a PBS docu about what she did to prepare for the role and the research she did in Poland on this real-life persons he’s portraying. Most of you know her as every once in a while recurring character on Law & Order.

Rock Band 2 is slated for September and, also, exclusive to the Xbox 360. At least until right before the holidays. Expect the game to get previewed at E3. Maybe they’ll improve the singing-matching capability. And then I can have another go at “Sabotage.” I mean…how did I get a 73% on “Sabotage”? It’s just shouting in rhythm. I mean for Christ’s sake, Harmonix. That’s just not possible.

Sixpence None the Richer are back and have a Christmas album coming out on October 14th, The Dawn of Grace. They’re even giving away “Angels We Have Heard on High” for free. Find it here. Not bad. Any Christmas album that can keep the family happy and not bore the crap out of you is welcome with us. This will tide you over until you can break out The Vandals, anyway. No pre-order available yet.

Terminator: Salvation is looking to get Helena Bonham Carter on board. No word on whether or not her character will carry over into the next film, Terminator: Wicked Prayer.

Whip It! is exactly what you’ve been hoping for: a rollergirls feature film starring and directed by Drew Barrymore. Marcia Gay Harden, Juliette Lewis and Ellen Page are in skates as well. Well, no…Harden’s playing Page’s mom who disapproves of her rollergirling ways. Sorry, Leigh. I meant to say “rollerwomaning.” Anyway, I’m sure Harden will come around by the end and have a change of heart and accept her daughter and maybe even get on the rink and kick some ass and something something something.