Happy Friday Popsters! Welcome back to Pop Bitez and your Pop Blitz for the week ending June 3rd!

I’m off to L.A. this weekend to catch up with a few old friends and rub shoulders with a few new ones but, before I head off to the airport for what I’m hoping will be a full body scan and cavity search ( I take it where I can get it gang), I thought I should toss you a few poptastic nuggets to sate your pop hungry appetites as you prepare for a few weekend adventures of your own. So, without further, yada, yada, yada, let’s get this party started!

• Miles Kane- Colour of the Trap

Miles Kane is the co-frontman of The Last Shadow Puppets, (along with Alex Turner of Arctic Monkeys). He was also the frontman and lead guitarist for The Rascals (the indie rock band from Hoylake, England), who called it quits in August 2009.

Miles’ latest solo release, Colour of the Trap, is a traditional and infectious pop effort worthy of repeated listenings. Check out the first single release Come Closer. All 12 tracks are solid fun and I strongly encourage you to check the full album out when you have a few extra minutes. I’m loving this one and I’m guessing you will too!

• Skyline Sucks….. literally?

When it comes to bizarre marketing ingenuity, you’ve gotta give the Japanese credit, they know how to turn on the strange like nobody else.

In a move that I doubt would work very well here in the states, Shochiku, a Japanese film distribution company, has decided to market the widely panned Sci-Fi flick Skyline, by including a sex toy with every purchase of the DVD.

The distributor has partnered with Tenga , a manufacturer of an artificial “vagina in a plastic cup”. The distributor explains, “Tenga is known for its suction power,” and “there are scenes in the film where humans get sucked up by aliens”. Right about now I’m guessing George Lucas is wishing he’d packaged Howard the Duck with a vibrating egg.

• Long Lives the King!

Walt Disney Pictures The Lion King will be returning to the big screen for two weeks on September 16th in 3D before appearing in stores on Blu-ray and Blu-ray 3D on October 4th.

The Lion King is the best-selling home entertainment release of all time. The film debuted in 1994 and went on to win the Oscar© for Best Original Score (Hans Zimmer) and Best Original Song (Elton John/Tim Rice “Can You Feel the Love Tonight”), and also took home the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical.

Personally, I can’t wait to see this one in 3D on a giant IMAX screen. The Lion King, to this day, remains one of my all time favorite Disney flicks!

Here’s the official trailer

• Shark Night 3D

3D sharks and Katherine Mcphee in a bikini for 90 minutes, seriously, what’s not to love?

Shark Night 3D will be attacking theaters Labor Day Weekend, 9/2/2011

• Rocky: The Musical?

There have been plenty of Broadway musicals which, on the surface, sound like horrible ideas but have proven to be excellent, IE; 1776, Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita, Les Miserables, Avenue Q, Urinetown and The Book of Mormon. That being said, the bad that turn out to be great are vastly outnumbered by the bad that end up as awful as we assumed they’d be, IE; Carrie, Shogun, Dance of the Vampires, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Urban Cowboy, Big, 9 to 5 and, most recently, (for all intensive purposes), Spiderman: Turn Off the Dorks….err, Dark. Which list a singing Rocky Balboa lands on is anybody’s guess. Is this warbling palooka destined for Joe Allen’s “wall of shame” or a prime spot on the hallowed walls of Sardi’s? Well, if I were a betting man…….

It’s true, Rocky is being adapted for the Broadway stage. Playbill.com reported this week that a spring reading of the musical version of the ©Oscar-winning Rocky, with songs by Tony Award winners Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty (Ragtime) and libretto by Tony winner Thomas Meehan (Annie, The Producers, Hairspray), has inspired some European producers to move ahead with the show.

The film’s creator and star Sylvester Stallone attended the Manhattan-rehearsed reading presentation of the developing musical. Andy Karl ( Legally Blonde, Altar Boyz) played the title role and “Stallone loved him,” Meehan said. “He had never seen anybody else play Rocky.”

Barbara Darwall, a producing partner on the project confirmed the plan that an out of town try-out in Hamburg, Germany (“cuz, ya know the Germans always make great stuff”) is planned for the fall of 2012 and Broadway is “definitely a possibility after that.”

Possible song titles include; “Adrian’s Lament”, “I’m Not a Bum!”, “Me and My Butkus“, “Why, Paulie, Why?”, “Beat the Meat” and Apollo Creed’s show-stopping eleven o’clock number “You Goin’ Down, Sucka!” (alright, so I made these up, but can they really be that far off?)

• David Fincher’s Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The trailer for David Fincher’s remake of the The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo hit the net this week and, as much as I loved the original, I have to admit this looks GREAT! It’s gritty and dirty and this preview includes a Karen O and Trent Reznor duet of Led Zeppelin’s Immigrant Song, YES!

Girl with the Dragon Tattoo comes to theaters on 12/21/2011

And that’s all the news that’s fit to POP for this week Popsters! Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to Lala land for a little shmooze and cruise. Feel free to follow Pop Bitez on Twitter, I’m sure I’ll be updating throughout my trip. Today I’m going to leave you with a bit of classic pop kitsch, it’s Raquel Welch and her backup spacemen from the 1968 television special, “Raquel!” Why exactly am I including this today? Well, dear Popsters, for now, let’s just say that’s for me to know and for you to find out! 😉 Have a great weekend, play hard and play safe and I’ll see ya here next week! Cheers!- Scott