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!
- Back in 1982, seven years before he would get handed the keys to the Bat-castle, a very young Tim Burton was hired by Disney to make a $116 000 Hansel and Gretel short film that would air on Halloween night. It aired that one time, and then was promptly never seen again. Maybe it had a little something to do with the fact that for some reason Burton made a Hansel and Gretel movie starring all Japanese actors that paid homage to Godzilla and saw the actors engage in kung-fu fights while promoting Japanese toys? Yeah, if I were Disney, I also wouldn’t know what to make of that.
Luckily though, an enterprising Youtuber has managed to track down the rare film and put it online for everybody to enjoy the totally loony weirdness for themselves.
- If you didn’t hear the news, this weekend past saw the passing away of US radio personality Casey Kasem, who was most famous for voicing Shaggy in the old Scooby Doo cartoons. So either the folks at Warner Bros just don’t keep up to date with these things, or they just have exceptionally poor taste as apparently they are considering rebooting the classic cartoon as a live-action feature film. Yes, I know there have already been two Scooby Doo feature films, but this is supposed to be a whole new beginning. I can see it now already: Hipster Shaggy and his ironic glasses.
- Poster of the day: Transformers: Age of Extinction Chinese version
- In the slightly incorrect words of Tina Turner, “We don’t need another Heroes“, but that’s exactly what we’re going to get when NBC relaunches the once good TV series as 13-episode mini-series Heroes: Reborn. And now we also know at least one name that will be returning. Jack Coleman, who played undercover company man Noah Bennet (also known as the Man in the Horn-Rimmed Glasses), has been confirmed to be reprising his role, but there’s no word on whether his on-screen, super-cheerleader daughter Claire (played by Hayden Panettiere) will also be returning. It is being reported though that the original series’ two leads, Milo Ventimiglia and Zachary Quinto (who played Peter and Sylar respectively) will not be available.
- Here’s the first, low-res look at Genndy Tartakovsky’s 3D CG feature film adaptation of classic cartoon/comic strip Popeye. Maybe the image can eat some spinach and grow a little bigger so that we can get a better look.
- So remember that rumoured lineup of Warner Bros’ DC Comics movies starting with Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice? Well, it looks like it just got a whole lot less rumoured. According to the latest SMODCast from writer/director Kevin Smith, who has some inside knowledge of these things through his friendship with Ben Affleck and also his relationship with WB (also he “knows people, motherf@#$er!), that list lines up perfectly with what he’s seen and been told as well.
Skip to the 1hr 29 min mark to hear his complete statement on it, including how the list is enough to make Grumpy Cat smile.
- And get ready to once again start asking about Planet Hulk over and over again, as according to Mark Ruffalo, the guy under the green rage monster’s skin, Marvel are once again considering a standalone Hulk movie.
“I think they are, for the first time, entertaining the idea of it. When we did The Avengers it was basically ‘No!’, and now there is some consideration for it.
“But there’s still nothing definitive, not even a skeletal version of what it would be. I look forward to going down that road, if we could crack that nut. I think obviously the Banner/Hulk storyline is not an easy nut to crack.”
- Did you enjoy the new trailer for The Expendables 3, or as I like to call it What the f$#k is that guy from that really bad Hercules movie doing standing next to my action legends? Well, maybe one of the reasons that Stallone and co is bringing in this new blood is because there isn’t that much old blood left to go around, especially when probably the biggest name missing from that cast, Steven Segal, claims he won’t join the franchise because of personal reasons.
“I just didn’t like some of the people involved… Life is too short to work with funny people… Of course [I won’t name names]. There’s good and bad people everywhere and a lot of people in The Expendables I like too. So it’s okay.”
What’s not okay to Segal is how some non-action guys like Liam Neeson are getting all the action roles nowadays.
“Times change. There are a lot of different methods of making movies now. They use a lot of special effects. People don’t have to be an action guy or a hero or a martial artist, they just get up there and let everybody spend the money and the time with special effects.
Look at Liam Neeson. He can’t fight, he’s not an action guy at all and he’s getting action movies now, so that should tell you something. He’s a great dramatic actor, a great guy. Is he an action guy? No. Is he a great fighter, a great warrior? No. Let’s be honest. It’s a strange journey. It’s just really, really odd. Just odd”
- Education time! Here are 7 facts about The Dark Knight you probably didn’t know.
- And because this is the internet where everything can be turned into a joke, here’s a gallery of pics showing Harrison Ford’s ankle in its prime.
- In two weeks time, the world’s highest film festival will be kicking off. No, this is not just a Cheech and Chong marathon, but rather the Ladakh International Film Festival, which will be held at 11, 000 ft above sea level in the Himalayas in the northern Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir.
- Do you have the voice of a pre-pubescent hamster? Do you wish you sounded more like the manly heroes you see in the movies? Well, then boy do I have a product for you today! This will change your life!
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: June 18, 2014
