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!
Due to the fact that just being in close proximity to them prompts my body into trying to expel my spleen through my nostrils, I’m not a cat person. However, this is the internet, which means I am legally bound to post at least one cute kitten video annually. So today I give you Toy Story reenacted by kittens!
It’s been a while since we’ve seen 1997’s Most Bromantic Couple Award winners Matt Damon and Ben Affleck on screen together, but Harvey Weinstein, the guy who first gave them their big break together in Good Will Hunting, is looking to change that. The Weinstein Company is apparently putting together a sea survival feature film adaptation of a recent New York Times article by Paul Tough (yes, that is his real, really cool name) titled A Speck in the Sea. The original true story article detailed what happened when two lobstermen went fishing 40 miles off the coast of Montauk, New York. While one was sleeping though, and with their boat on autopilot, the other fell overboard and had to survive 12 hours alone at sea, using only his rubber boots as floatation devices, before he was rescued.
The project is still in its infancy, with no writer/director attached, but Weinstein apparently wants the dynamic duo of Damon and Affleck to star as the two lobstermen.
And as if you needed any more reasons to fuel your Gillian Anderson geek crush, the X-Files star is apparently going to be co-writing a new sci-fi book series called the “EarthEnd Saga” which features a child psychiatrist heroine who discovers that one of her patients is “tied to much greater forces in the universe, and as the story unfolds, she must prevent destruction on a grand scale.”
Here’s a new poster for 300: Rise of an Empire, which – surprise, surprise! – features a bearded man stabbing something with a bloody sword while grimacing.
Darren Aronofsky has been broadening his genre horizons, and after his take on a Biblical disaster epic in Noah, he was set to get espionage-ing in Red Sparrow, an adaptation of Jason Matthews’ spy novel of the same name. However, he’s apparently bailed on the project, and will now be looking for a new follow-up to Noah.
Fox still thinks the story has lots of potential, and will continue searching for a screenwriter to adapt Matthews’ book. Since the development it set to take some time still though, they will also leave the door open for Aronofsky in case he changes his mind and wants to return. Red Sparrow tells the tale of “a Russian spy seductress and a young CIA agent who deals with Russian moles”, who she’s sent to assassinate. “The two play a cat-mouse game that has global implications, with the action moving from Russia, across Europe to the U.S”
TheShiznit has a damn funny gallery for If 2014’s Oscar-Nominated Movie Posters Told the Truth.
I mentioned yesterday of how the two big instances of snubbery for this year’s Oscars was Tom Hanks for his performance in Captain Phillips and Robert Redford for All Is Lost. Now while Hanks’ missing name can probably be attributed to the fact that one man can only win so many Oscars, leaving off Redford, who has already picked up several awards for his performance and was considered by many as the odds on favourite to take home the golden statue, was a bit surprising. But according to Redford himself, a little thing called “people had no idea my movie existed” came into play.
“Let me speak frankly about how I feel about it… I’ve been part of the Hollywood film industry for much of my career. I’m very happy about it. [But] Hollywood is what it is. It’s a business.”
“In our case, we suffered from little to no distribution. I don’t know what [the film’s distributor Lionsgate] were afraid of. They didn’t want to spend money or they were incapable. We had no campaign to cross over into the mainstream.”
Would it have been wonderful to be nominated? Of course. I’m not disturbed by it or upset by it.”
Yes, we’re still obsessed with Doctor Who. No, that’s not going to change any time soon. Which is why you get to check out this cool video of an intro credits scened for the 50th Anniversary Special, Day of the Doctor, done like Friends.
Denis Villeneuve, the man behind the gripping revenge thriller Prisoners, has signed on to direct The Story of Us, an adaptation of Ted Chiang’s Nebula award winning sci-fi short story of the same name. Eric Heisserer, who penned The Thing reboot and Final Destination 5, will be adapting the story which is set after alien craft land on Earth, and follows Dr. Banks, a government employed linguist called into to help understand what these aliens’ mysterious intentions are. Through her communications with the aliens though, she learns how to perceive time differently to other humans and gets the ability to “remember the future”, including the ultimate fate of her unborn daughter.
Based on Villeneuve’s past work, I’m also guessing that at some point she locks an alien in a sealed shower of steaming hot death.
If you can’t be bothered to watch the Kellan Lutz starring Legend of Hercules (and by all accounts, nobody would blame you) then might I suggest this hilarious breakdown of Legend of Hercules by the numbers, as an alternative to brain-death-by-film. In case you’re wondering, the “Longest String of Words Kellan Lutz Is Allowed to Say Uninterrupted” is 14.
This behind the scenes clip from Gareth Edwards’ Godzilla, shows some post-monster attack footage and even has a nice interview with current Oscar nominee Sally Hawkins. But really there’s only one major reason to check it out: Bryan Cranston doing his own impersonation of the titular monster.
Damn, I knew those guys looked familiar.
Latino Review is still dishing out the Star Wars rumours, and you can read all about them over here. Most of it is just to do with the massive rumours that hit the net this weekend past, but there is one in particular that could be pretty massive if it turns out to be true. We’ve heard the story that writer Lawrence Kasdan is working on a Boba Fett spin-off solo movie, but according to Latino Review, the movie won’t quite be about Boba Fett. Kind of.
Essentially they claim that Kasdan is not a fan of how the badass bounty hunter seen in The Empire Strikes Back is introduced as just a child clone of a mercenary named Jango Fett in the Star Wars prequels. To this end, the writer is reportedly going to retcon the whole business by opening his movie with this Boba Fett being killed by a stranger, who then takes and dons Fett’s iconic armour, “starting a Man-With-No-Name bounty hunter tale”. This “Western” take on the character will be used to return a lot of the cool air of mystery that originally surrounded Fett. Well, if it’s true, that is.
Latino Review also claim that 3 different sources have informed them that Captain America: The First Avenger and Rocketeer director Joe Johnston is apparently at the top of Lucasfilm\Disney’s list of directors they want to helm the movie. This makes a whole lot of sense, not just because he knows a thing or two about guys wearing jetpacks, but Johnston actually begun his career in showbiz as a concept artist and production designer working under George Lucas on the original Star Wars trilogy, and has been credited with actually coming up with the design that would eventually become Boba Fett.
While it has it’s niggles, I found The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug to be a far better film all around than its predecessor. But man, DAT ENDING! I couldn’t have been the only person that wanted to scream totally inappropriate things at the screen when it suddenly faded to black. So how else could it have ended? Well, like this, for one thing.
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: January 17, 2014
