Extras! Bryan Singer calls up some old X-men, Tease-cendence, Paul Rudd is officially antsy, JK Rowling is playing with Harry Potter, and I saw the devil talk English?! Plus much more!

Welcome to The Extras! A daily dose of all the smaller movie related news, clips and just plain cool stuff that you might have missed!

Yes, okay, I know that the ending to the incredible Lord of the Rings: Return of the King went on longer than most movies, but I love that film anyway. The fact that it won 11 Oscars probably means that a lot of people do too. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t make fun of what’s “wrong” with it, because that’s just what the internet does.

It’s official! Paul Rudd is going to be Ant-Man. Okay, okay, so we said that yesterday already, but this time it’s official official, because now Marvel have issued a press release to confirm it. What’s interesting about the press release though is that the press release indicates that “the casting of Rudd represents the actor that Marvel had long ago identified as its first choice to play Ant-Man”. Director/co-writer Edgar Wright has been working on the film for a couple of years now, so it will be interesting to find out when Rudd actually got the nod.

Also, exactly how many scenes from Mac and Me he’s snuck into the screenplay.

Looks like despite his signature finishing move in the WWE, Dwayne Johnson is hitting anything but rock bottom. According to Forbes, Johnson is officially the biggest box office star for 2013 with his movies grossing $1.2 billion for the year.

Speaking of Mr. Johnson, some talented fan has gone and created this rather cool poster to show what The Rock will look like as Marvel superhero Luke Cage.

As if the $918 million – yes, nine hundred and eighteen million dollars! – that Despicable Me 2 took on the international box office wasn’t enough, the animated sequel’s recent home release saw the film pull in an addition $80 million from roughly 4.5 million units sold. This feat broke the record held by – yep, you guessed it – Despicable Me, to become the most successful animated Blu Ray and digital download release in its first week.

They say you should always go with what you know (which explains hillbilly inbreeding), and that’s exactly what Bryan Singer is doing for X-Men: Apocalypse. The director tweeted out a pic, captioned “Late night X-Men Apocalypse story session” showing himself and X-Men: Days of Future Past screenwriter/producer Simon Kinberg working on the script with X-Men 2 scribes Mike Dougherty and Dan Harris.

X2 was long considered the best of the comic book movies at the time of it’s release, so Harris and Dougherty’s involvement bodes well.

And if pics of middle-aged white men sitting around a boardroom table is not your thing, here are two new pics from X-Men: Days of Future Past showing off Jennifer Lawrence’s Mystique in action as well as Sy Omar’s Bishop packing a rather large gun. No, this is not a sexual euphemism.

Wally Pfister will be making his directorial debut with Transcendence but for many years he was best known as Chris Nolan’s director of photography. And looks like he’s picked up a few tricks from Nolan, namely the art of releasing teaser trailers that show absolutely nothing. The first two teasers have been released, featuring stars Johnny Depp and Morgan Freeman talking. Yes, just talking. The film’s new synopsis has also been revealed, which gives a better context for the clips.

Dr. Will Caster (Johnny Depp) is the foremost researcher in the field of Artificial Intelligence, working to create a sentient machine that combines the collective intelligence of everything ever known with the full range of human emotions. His highly controversial experiments have made him famous, but they have also made him the prime target of anti-technology extremists who will do whatever it takes to stop him.

However, in their attempt to destroy Will, they inadvertently become the catalyst for him to succeed to be a participant in his own transcendence. For his wife Evelyn (Rebbeca Hall) and best friend Max Waters (Paul Bettany), both fellow researchers, the question is not if they can, but if they should.

Their worst fears are realized as Will’s thirst for knowledge evolves into a seemingly omnipresent quest for power, to what end is unknown. The only thing that is becoming terrifyingly clear is there may be no way to stop him.

The new Terminator: Genesis is off to a strong start so far with some great casting decisions and a capable director, but the verdict is still out on whether this will just be another Terminator: Salvation. I mean, not even Batman could save that waste of film. Literally. The folks have Uproxx have thus looked at what we know about the production and worked out the Five Ways Terminator: Genesis Could Save The Franchise And Five Ways It Could Tank It.

Director Kim Jee Woon made his English language directing debut earlier in the year with The Last Stand, but apparently prospective fans hoping to check out the rest of his filmography won’t have to learn Korean or read subtitles, as one of his most successful flicks, I Saw the Devil, is getting the English language remake treatment.

1984 Private Defense Contractors – which still has the coolest name of any production company out there – has picked up the rights to the 2010 film. The original followed RED 2 and G.I. Joe: Retaliation‘s Byung-Hyun Lee as Soo-Hyun, a special agent who is obsessed with tracking down a twisted serial killer (played by Oldboy‘s Choi Min-sik) who murdered his pregnant fiancee. Soo-Hyun’s single-minded quest for revenge eventually sees him turn into a monster himself as he will do anything to find and punish his prey.

I really enjoyed Thor: The Dark World despite the fact that it had its problems with some silly plot points/supporting characters (Grrrrr, Darcy!) and was a tad bit derivative in places (Yo Marvel! Jumper called and wants it’s action movie gimmick back!). One thing I didn’t have a problem with, was the ending, but apparently there was a much easier way it could have all gone down.

Get ready to whisper-shout in celebration, as it’s been revealed that the world’s greatest counter-terrorist agent who can go an entire day without eating or peeing, Jack Bauer, will be returning to screens sooner than expected. Originally slated for the US summer in 2014, the 12-episode “event series”, 24: Live Another Day, will now instead be premiering in April 2014.

JK Rowling has already made more money than Scrooge McDuck from her Harry Potter franchise, as it’s been translated to just about every medium out there. But there’s one format it hasn’t graced with its presence: the stage. That’s all about to change though, as Rowling is apparently producing a West End stage production that will focus on Harry’s early years before he discovers he’s a wizard and enrolls in Hogwarts. So in other words, 90 minutes of Harry being bullied by his fat cousin and being locked in the cupboard. Yeah, totally sounds like fun.

The grandaddy of movie awards, The Oscars, will be upon us in March and to kick off the build up to the glitzy event, a fun new trailer has been released, featuring host Ellen DeGeneres and directed by Bridesmaids’ Paul Feig.

And on that note, we’re off. Yes, we smell funny, but we’re also taking a break over the festive season. You won’t have too long to wait though, as we’ll be back to entertain, inform and occasionally gross out (sorry, we’ll try to keep Darryn away from the webcam) on Monday, January 6, 2014.

If you have anything you would like to contribute to Extras, whether it be interesting stories, funny videos, or artistic photos of yourself in morally questionable poses, feel free to drop a mail to kervyn@themovies.co.za.

Last Updated: December 20, 2013