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Stuff: Dear Federal Courts: Please Kick the FCC Again. Love, America.

FCC Ha!

There’s a lot of entertainment news going on. You honestly don’t need to know most of it. And the bits you do need to know, you don’t need to know them the second they happen. You, after all, have a life. Rather than write up a bunch of individual posts you have to read, here’s one post with everything. Enjoy.

  • The Amazon deal of the day is the complete series of The Brady Bunch. While stocks last and today only–it’s 55% off. Regularly $129.99 and it’s $58.99. Thought you’d like to know. Snag it here.
  • The FCC and federal courts are in a tussle again about whether or not we’re all adults and can handle a bit of profanity. The good news is a federal court has overturned the FCC’s silly “fleeting profanity” fees. It’s simple, folks. If you don’t like the language, change the channel. When you had only three channels to choose from, then maybe you had a case for sanitizing everything. But now we have limitless choices. So get the fuck over it already. Read the whole article here.
  • Avatar is being re-released in cinemas August 27th. But don’t get excited–the difference this time is eight minutes of extra footage. Seriously, people. You own the DVD and/or Blu-Ray. It’s eight minutes. Come on. Source.
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  • Batman 3 will start shooting in April, at least according to Michael Caine. And I mean, you go argue with him. I’m not gonna. Source.
  • Dance on Broadway is a dance-along-to-musical-choreography game for the Wii? Seriously?
  • Infected will star Michael Madsen and is about a father and son dealing with a “blood virus” that is rapidly spreading and zombifying folks. Sounds like it’s basically 28 Roads Later. I’m good with that. Source.
  • Law & Order: Los Angeles is gaining Skeet Ulrich as a cast member, playing an ex-marine who “gained experience during the Rodney King riots.” Source.
  • Denzel Washington is in talks to star in Safe House, a film in which a safe house run by the CIA has a witness inside it, a witness the baddies want dead. The guy who runs the house must not let this happen. Doesn’t sound interesting, but with Denzel in it, it will become magically interesting. That’s just the way he works. Source.
  • Sister Act, the musical on London’s West End, will be joined by Whoopi Goldberg in the role of Mother Superior. She’ll be performing the role for three weeks from August 10-31 and the show (sans Goldberg, at least for now) will hit Broadway next spring. Source.
  • Bob Balaban is one of the producers who just snagged the film rights to remake South Pacific. No script yet nor a scribe. Source.
  • Alec Guinness as George Smiley
    Sir Alec Guinness as George Smiley

  • Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, which featured the character of George Smiley–played to perfection in two miniseries by Alec Guinness–is being made into a feature. Tomas Alfredson (Let the Right One In) will helm and Peter Morgan (Frost/Nixon) adapting from the John Le Carre book. Already of interest, yes, but put Ralph Fiennes, Colin Firth and Michael Fassbender in the cast–with Gary Oldman set to play Smiley. And yes, you have a friend to talk to. Production starts in October. Source.

  • TwoMorrows has placed seven digital editions of their various publications online for free as a sampler. If you’ve ever wanted to check out Alter Ego, Back Issue, Jack Kirby Collector or others, now’s your chance. Comic geeks? You must do this.
  • Peter Weller is going to be the “guest heavy” on the next season of Dexter, playing a cop with issues. Source. The fifth season starts September 26th.
  • Betty White, who rocks harder than almost anybody on the planet at the present moment, has a 2011 “pin-up” calendar coming out with all the proceeds going to help The Morris Animal Foundation. I assume it’ll be available where all fine calendars are sold, but watch this space.
  • Home Video Announcements

    If you plan to snag some of these from Amazon anyway, please do it through our site. We get kickbacks and that’s how we pay for things like bail. Thanks.

  • The Back to the Future Trilogy hits Blu-Ray on October 26th. You can pre-order that here.
  • The previously announced Exorcist Blu-Ray, out October 6th, is now available for pre-order here.
  • Image Entertainment has announced four classic films hitting Blu-Ray on August 24th–click on the title to pre-order from Amazon: The Long Good Friday, Mona Lisa, Time Bandits and Withnail & I.
  • Kick-Ass hits Blu-Ray and DVD from Lionsgate on August 3rd. You can pre-order the Blu-Ray combo pack here or the DVD here.
  • Modern Family‘s first season is hitting DVD and Blu-Ray on September 21st. You can pre-order the DVD here and the Blu-Ray here.
  • The complete collection of Prime Suspect with Helen Mirren is out September 7th on DVD from Acorn Media. You can pre-order it here.
  • Stephen Fry in America is hitting DVD and Blu-Ray on July 27th from BFS. You can pre-order the Blu-Ray here and the DVD here.