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!
- You may have noticed that we had no Extras yesterday. As with just about all things in life, you can blame Eskom for that. Eskom and the fact that I was too busy watching Interstellar. Yes, I’ve seen it and [——-REDACTED——-]. Oh, looks like you’re going to have to wait for my review tomorrow morning, as I don’t want to spoil anything now. Speaking of spoilers, it would seem that Idris Elba is in director Joss Whedon’s bad books after he recently spoiled the fact that [——-REDACTED——–] in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Whedon is too nice of a guy to have a real go at Elba, but he is considering a bit of a private scolding.
“Um, should he receive an email from me, there might be an attitude of scold.”
“Yeah, when you have a cast of 19,000 people, inevitably, once every month, you pick up [a story] and you’re like, “Awww.”
- Whedon may not be the only person over at Marvel that would like to give Elba an earful, because besides for spoiling surprises, the Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom star has also been heavily slagging his time in the Thor movies.
“It was really weird. I’d just done eight months in South Africa. I came to England and the day I came back I had to do reshoots on ‘Thor 2.’ And in the actual scene my hair was different, my…[deep sigh] I was like, ‘This is torture, man. I don’t want to do this.’ My agent said: ‘You have to, it’s part of the deal.’ ”
“I’m actually falling down from a spaceship, so they had to put me in harness in this green-screen studio. And in between takes I was stuck there, fake hair stuck on to my head with glue, this f*cking helmet, while they reset. And I’m thinking: ‘24 hours ago, I was Mandela.’ When I walked into the set the extras called me Madiba. I was literally walking in this man’s boots. [Within] six months, the crew, we were all so in love with this film we had made. I was him. I was Mandela, practically. Then there I was, in this stupid harness, with this wig and this sword and these contact lenses. It ripped my heart out.”
Awkwaaaaard.
- And just to lighten up the mood a bit, if anybody should suddenly find the urge to buy me one of these wearable Marvel sleeping bags, I will not look you in the mouth (that’s we’re not supposed to do to gift horses, right?)
- And let’s keep lightening that mood, and actually get back to Chris Nolan, with his hilarious Cliff Notes video for his twisty classic Memento.
- London bridge is falling down, and this time it has nothing to do with a catchy nursery rhyme (or Fergie from the Black Eyed Peas). The pond-hopping sequel to last year’s Olympus Has Fallen aka Exhibit B in the “Terrorists Take Over White House” case, London Has Fallen has officially started production and will once again see Gerard Butler’s Secret Service Agent needing to foil some devious terrorist plot, this time transplanted from Washington to the English capital. And according to the plot synopsis which has finally been released, Butler is going to have his hands full in Ol’ Blighty, and I’m not just talking about all the fish ‘n chips.
The story begins in London, where the British Prime Minister has passed away under mysterious circumstances. His funeral is a must-attend event for leaders of the western world. However, what starts out as the most protected event on Earth turns into a deadly plot to kill the world’s most powerful leaders, devastate every known landmark in the British capital, and unleash a terrifying vision of the future. Only three people have any hope of stopping it: the President of the United States, his formidable Secret Service head (Gerard Butler), and an English MI-6 agent who rightly trusts no one.
- Poster of the day: Fargo
- Something monstrous this way comes, only we don’t have a clue as to what it is. Well, we actually have several clues, but nothing specific thanks to a very clunky movie title. Universal, who have just recently kinda-sorta taken the first step in revitalizing all their classic movie monster properties into a single shared universe, have now revealed a release date of Friday, April 27th, 2017 for one of their next monstrous efforts. The movie? Oh just that lovingly titled classic UNTITLED UNIVERSAL MONSTER FRANCHISE FILM. With Dracula already on-screen and the Alex Kurtzman helmed The Mummy reboot scheduled for 2016, that leaves either the Wolfman, Bride of Frankenstein or the Creature From the Black Lagoon up to take that spot. Personally, I’m guessing it’s ol’ Wolfy, that way Universal has then built up an awareness using their three most well-known properties.
- I’ve yet to see horror anthology sequel The ABC’s of Death 2 and based on that messed up NSFW trailer I wasn’t sure that I ever would. But after learning how the movie’s incredible title sequence was created, I may just find myself learning my ABC’s all over again. Speaking to Movies.com, animator Wolfgang Matzl explained that it was all done painstakingly hand-animating actual paper cut outs, which is just ridiculous in this day of CGI overload. Here’s the amazing title sequence itself for reference:
- Screen icon Sophia Loren is responsible for arguably the most famous bout of side-eye in movie history when she was caught ogling fellow acting legend Jayne Mansfield’s cleavage at a fancy party nearly 60 years ago. The pic has become part of Hollywood lore as people have wondered just what Loren was staring at. Now, after all this time, the 80-year old actress has finally revealed the story behind the snap, and was it all a case of just the wrong camera angle at the right time? Nope, it was exactly what we were all thinking all along.
“Paramount had organized a party for me. All of cinema was there, it was incredible. And then comes in Jayne Mansfield, the last one to come. For me, that was when it got amazing.
She came right for my table. She knew everyone was watching. She sat down. And now, she was barely… Listen. Look at the picture. Where are my eyes? I’m staring at her nipples because I am afraid they are about to come onto my plate. In my face you can see the fear. I’m so frightened that everything in her dress is going to blow—BOOM!—and spill all over the table.”
And here’s that famous pic. You know, for reference.
- We love John McTiernan’s classic action flick Die Hard. Besides for just being a great instructional video on the handiness of skyscraper air ducts and why should always keep on your shoes in the case of a terrorist emergency, we consider the Bruce Willis starring flick to be one of the greatest action movies ever made. And now it’s officially the greatest. Time Out New York has released a list of the 100 greatest action movies of all time, put together by polling a veritable who’s who in the movie business both in front of and behind the camera, and sitting right at the top is John McClane and his fateful Christmas at Nakatomi Plaza. Yippie ki-yay, motherf@#$er, indeed.
And in case you’re wondering, here’s the Top 10, which I really cannot argue with at all.
1. DIE HARD
2. RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK
3. TERMINATOR 2: JUDGEMENT DAY
4. HARD BOILED
5. THE ROAD WARRIOR
6. ENTER THE DRAGON
7. POLICE STORY
8. THE WILD BUNCH
9. SEVEN SAMURAI
10. ALIENS
- A few weeks back we posted a really handy infographic laying out all the superhero movies being released over the next few years to 2020. But after Marvel unveiled their Phase 3 plans last week, that chart needed to be updated, which the folks at Comics Alliance have kindly done. What they haven’t done is take the initiative to map out what could possibly also be on the way for the next decade and a half, which is where this new calendar from Dorkly comes in.
(Click to enlarge)
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: November 5, 2014
