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Did you know that Lucille Ball was not the first woman of sitcom television land? In fact, there was another who not only came before the famous redhead, but who should also be counted as one of the pioneers behind the screen? No? I didn't either.

Enter Gertrude Berg, who is the focus of Aviva Kempner's new documentary Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg, which is hitting theaters this week in New York City before heading to DC on the 17th and LA on the 24th. This isn't your heart-tugging, dramatic art doc, but rather a straight-forward account of someone we should know because, frankly, her success was impressive. (That picture to the right -- that's Berg with her scripts.)

Turns out that before I Love Lucy, there was a show radio show that hit television called The Goldbergs. It was Berg's own creation -- a brainchild she shopped around herself, wrote, and starred in from 1929 to 1954. (Writing daily episodes while also raising children and being an all-round wonderwoman, I might add.) Billboard called her the First Lady of Radio, she nabbed the first Best Actress Emmy, was the highest-paid guest star on TV ... the list goes on and on.

Yoo-Hoo plays out as a simple, informative film, one bolstered mostly by the context it creates. Berg's influence extended to everyone from Ruth Bader Ginsberg to Ed Asner and Norman Lear, and her success is bolstered by the fact that she was a self-made female professional of the '20s, who fought for her success through the rise of Hitler (she was Jewish), and even against the rabid insanity of McCarthyism.

In other words, a kickass woman and talent we should all be familiar with.

It looks like Brooke Shields is making her way back to the big screen, and this time she won't be getting saucy in The Blue Lagoon. After a decade away, The Hollywood Reporter posts that Shields has signed onto the live-action comedy Furry Vengeance. Actually, considering the title, it's probably good to note that this is a family film. There's no word on what role she'll play in the Brendan Fraser flick, which follows a real estate developer who gets a hard time from a band of raccoons. One -- What's the obsession with coons lately? Davey Crockett on the brain? Two -- It might be the usual Fraser fair, but the cast does boast Ken Jeong, Samantha Bee, and Dick Van Dyke as well.

Meanwhile, in the shadow of Parenthood heading to the small screen, THR also posts that Freestyle Releasing has picked up Motherhood, and will release it this October. This is the Uma Thurman/Minnie Driver/Anthony Edwards project that has Uma trying to pull together her daughter's sixth birthday party in the midst of "urban challenges." As the ed note pointed out in the post about her casting last year, "More Goose!" But there's also the perk of a practically fully female production. Katherine Dieckman wrote and directed it, and it's produced by Pamela Koffler, Christine Vachon, Jana Edelbaum, and Rachel Cohen. They say: "From the outset, Motherhood has been a labor of love for us. As a collection of female filmmakers, we immediately took to the humor and honesty of the project."

Hopefully the labor is worth it!

It's entirely possible I am the only one disappointed by the following news, but bear with me. The latest word on Rob Zombie's dirty lucha libre cartoon, The Haunted World of El Superbeasto, is that it's headed directly to DVD and Blu-ray. That's the bad news. The good news is that after three years, it will finally see the light of day (or the darkness of night). Zombie's first foray into animated filmmaking has plenty of clever characters doing the voice acting, like Rosario Dawson, Paul Giamatti, Danny Trejo (!), Clint Howard, and Zombie regulars Bill Moseley, Sid Haig, and Sheri Moon Zombie.

Zombie told IGN in an interview this past spring, "It came out awesome... That started off as this little tiny half-a-million dollar direct-to-video movie that expanded into this $10 million animated extravaganza." Except, well, it's a $10 million animated extravaganza that is going direct to DVD.

I have high hopes that it will make an appearance as a midnight movie in my local theater (and yours!) and perhaps get some attention at one of the many horror festivals like Fantastic Fest. Even though I'd like to see in on the big screen, it does look like the type of movie that would make more money on DVD than in theaters, especially with its target audience, which I can only guess is made up of fans of over-the-top cartoons, horror, heavy metal, and Mexican wrestling... or stoners. Not that they're mutually exclusive, of course.

(Courtesy of FEARNet)

Hey, remember the Morgan Freeman / Antonio Banderas thriller, The Code (also known as Thick as Thieves)? No? That's ok, no one does! This poor film was doomed to go straight to DVD shelves, but there it was not forgotten. Home Media Magazine reports that the flick topped the rental charts last week, deftly knocking Gran Torino out of #1. (Mr. Freeman, did you call and crow over your pal Clint for that one? If not, you should. I'm sure he'll get a good laugh.)

Scott Weinberg believes this is the first DTV movie to ever top the rental charts. If anyone out there knows of another one that has, you should correct him. But for now, history has been made by Mimi Leder!

The plot follows an aging jewel thief (Freeman) and the uppity young Turk he recruits to help him pull off one final job. They're not going after just any family jewels, but those most treasured by the Romanovs -- Faberge eggs! The ultimate goal of the heist is to pay off the Russian mob, and I'd like to think Banderas and Freeman are stealing the Faberge eggs just to really piss them off. Meanwhile, Radha Mitchell gets in between them, and makes things sexy. Check out the trailer below the jump, and contemplate renting it for yourself. It topped the rental charts, and millions of people can't be wrong!

Hearing about a mixture of Lori Petty and David Alan Grier immediately brings to mind the wonderful '90s, when Petty was the tough-as-nails Tank Girl in a post-apocalyptic water-hungry world and Grier was one of the big names of In Living Color. But now the two have teamed up, and it's not for some quirky bit of comedy, but rather a super-heavy drama that's finally going to hit the big screen.

Variety reports that Phase 4 Films has picked up the U.S. rights to The Poker House, which just so happens to be Petty's directorial debut from a script she wrote with Grier. The Living Color alum stars with Selma Blair and Jennifer Lawrence in the story which can, simply and vaguely, be described as "a portrait of life in a poor small town in Iowa in 1976," as Variety says. But a little more specifically, it's the story of a young basketball playing girl who has heavy troubles at home -- think prostitutes, pimps, and the struggles of desperation and poverty.

For IGN, Todd Gilchrist compared the film to the heaviness of Boys Don't Cry, Monster, and In the Bedroom, but stated: "Ultimately, The Poker House just isn't a very good film, regardless of where it came from, who made it or what it's trying to say." So why bother? One, it's looking to be one of those films you love or hate. Two, it's based on Petty's actual experiences, so it could give you a look into the mind of our Tank Girl.

The film hits theaters on July 17.

So you wanna rake in the indie cred in Austin at next year's South by Southwest Festival? You have a skootch more than a week left to submit proposals for panels and/or rate the ones that have already been submitted for SXSW. But lucky for you, the SXSW Panel Picker is at your fingertips any time of the day or night. This cool new tool allows for everyone to have a say in what panels get okay'd for the festival.

According to the official site, "SXSW thrives on the creative intersection that takes place when great minds get together, and we feel the Panel Picker truly celebrates that. We believe that the real experts at SXSW are the people who bring the event to life - you, the thousands of people who attend every year. You know what you want to see, so this is your chance to help make that happen."

Previous panels include "The Incredible Shrinking (Expanding?) Film Critic Profession," which featured Cinematical's very own Scott Weinberg, "From Script to Screen," a Stanley Kubrick discussion, and much more. Get on your horse and head over 'cause the Panel Picker closes its doors on July 10th.

You can also stay up to date on all the latest SXSW-related film news and reviews over at the official blog. They gave Erik Davis' earlier post on the real girl behind SXSW's indie hit 500 Days of Summer a nice shout out, too. Even if you don't get your very own panel, you should do yourself a favor and hit up the festival since it's filled to the gills with enough media to burn your retinas and pop your eardrums. Plus, you can eat some BBQ with the peeps you Tweet at. Hey, just sayin'.

Indie Roundup reviews the past week of news from the independent film community and provides a peek at what's coming soon.

Opening. Two films opened yesterday which couldn't have less in common: Agnès Varda's essay film The Beaches of Agnès and Nia Vardalos' I Hate Valentine's Day. Tomorrow comes Anne Fontaine's comedy The Girl From Monaco.

Deals. Xavier Dolan's family drama I Killed My Mother, Kenneth Branagh's The Magic Flute, and Asghar Farhadi's drama About Elly have all been acquired by Here Films, the company formerly known as Regent Releasing. All three are headed for theaters next year. [indieWIRE]

Online Viewing. The 4th of July weekend inevitably brings thoughts of America as a land of immigrants, and that's the topic of Home, which debuts on Amazon VOD this week, featuring interviews with Mike Myers, Alfred Molina, and Liam Neeson. Also somewhat topical: if Michael Jackson had an impact on race in pop music, what about African-American musicians playing rock 'n' roll exclusively? Raymond Gayle's Electric Purgatory examines the issue (at iTunes). If you're looking for love, you have something in common with two women in the comedy/drama Arranged (also at iTunes.)

Box Office. Kathryn Bigelow's lacerating bomb squad thriller The Hurt Locker earned a per-screen average ($36,338) that bested even the giant robots, albeit on only four screens. Woody Allen's Whatever Works expanded to 35 screens and grossed $10,280 per outing. The combination of star Michelle Pfeiffer and director Stephen Frears could stir up only a tepid $5,338 per-screen at 76 locations for Cheri, which is less than the average for Duncan Jones' Moon in its third week on 21 screens. [Box Office Mojo.]

After the jump: David Hudson's The Daily takes a permanent (?) vacation, portending the end of the world as we know it.

Bet you didn't know there's a Shockwave game for Year One. That's because Shockwave, well, kinda sucks. I can't even get the game to play on my Mac; I tried Safari and Firefox, so if anyone would like to give it a whirl and report back let me know. So far all I know is that you try and herd ox without making them nervous and run away.

Granted, Sony's Year One is not exactly a property ripe for video game adaptation, and its target audience is much broader than movies whose studios put in a lot of effort at viral buzz, but if it's that the case, why bother even making one at all? It's shoddy and looks like the marketing department already knew Year One (which I liked, by the way) would already be poorly reviewed and have a weak box office showing despite the big names attached.

On the other hand, The Dark Knight, which was distributed by Warner Bros., built up a ton of online buzz from its viral websites like WhySoSerious.com, Friends of Harvey Dent, and others with help from the marketing company 42 Entertainment. The Dark Knight would have been very successful even without these sites, which took a lot of effort and money to put together. Same with the campaign for Terminator Salvation and its Skynet Research site. It's a no-brainer summer blockbuster, destined to rake in the bucks despite the many complaints from critics and fans.

With so many disappointments this summer, it's easy to forget that we'll finally get to see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, and that we'll finally start hearing more about the final chapter as it makes its way to the big screen.

But of course, the biggest question about Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows still centers on where they'll make the split between Film 1 and Film 2. Director David Yates dropped a hint to the LA Times, and if you haven't read the book, here be spoilers:

"We're here in the forest, we've just finished the scene where Harry, Hermione and Ron are captured by the Snatchers after being chased through the woods. The Snatchers are brutal and scary but they aren't the most intelligent of creatures.They're trying to figure out exactly who it is they've caught ... Things can change when you edit, of course, but the idea now is that it will be not long after the sequence that we are filming here today. That's what we're experimenting with. We've had three or four different ideas about where to cut off the seventh film. Traditionally, the movies have ended with a death or a bereavement, some sort of passage or arrival. This time we think we will end with more a cliffhanger. Again, though, that's the thought as of this moment."

I haven't read Deathly Hallows since it came out (and oh, I still remember pulling an all nighter at ComicCon for fear someone would spoil it) , so I had to go back and check this part out. The book is chock full of cliffhangers, but ending it here would definitely give Part 1 a terrifying conclusion, the kind I'm still disappointed Peter Jackson didn't go with in The Two Towers.

Enchanted director Kevin Lima is on board to direct a new version of Mary Shelley's classic horror novel Frankenstein. Frank has a helluva twist, though; the scientist cooking up cadavers is an "antisocial" young woman in med school who decides to "create" her own friends. And... it's a romantic comedy. Can you say undead boyfriend?!

According to Variety, the writer and one of the executive producers of this potentially awesome project is Karey Kirkpatrick, the writer of The Spiderwick Chronicles, Charlotte's Web, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and James and the Giant Peach, among others. He also directed the Eddie Murphy vehicle Imagine That,

Both Lima and Kirkpatrick have a bunch of projects that are in development, although Lima's have more of a family-friendly vibe (The Spook's Apprentice, Candy Land, The Incredible Mr. Limpet, and Thumb). Kirkpatrick's optioned projects include writing, directing, and producing Captain Abdul's Pirate School, about a girl who is sent to pirate school and plans a mutiny against their evil school principal slash lead pirate, as well as the more adult-minded The Best a Man Can Get, which he is also writing, producing and directing.

Based on distributor Fox 2000's track record, Frank could be focused more on the rom-com than the potential for blood and a cool chick lead, but maybe indie production company Radar Pictures (the peeps behind Richard Kelley's The Box, and remakes of The Amityville Horror and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, among a number of other projects) will make sure that we get a dash of gore with our giggles and girly goodness.

I'm voting for Kat Dennings as our protagonist -- she's smart, snarky, and sweet, and she plays the perfect "outsider." Who would you cast?

(Thanks to Zach for noting that Kirkpatrick is a man. Oops.)