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!
- And the Sony hack has claimed another movie casualty. After Sony scrapped the release of The Interview in light of hacker terrorist threats (possibly from North Korea), New Regency have now also pulled the plug on an untitled thriller based on Guy DeLisle’s graphic novel Pongyang, which details his experiences living in North Korea. The film that was to be directed by Pirates of the Caribbean helmer Gore Verbinski and would have starred Steve Carrell as an American who is accused of espionage while in the totalitarian state, was scheduled to start production in March 2015.
- And now for something completely different: As much as I love Terminator 2, it has to be criticized for stuffing up the perfect time-travel loop established in the first film. Subsequent movies have definitely not made the time travel shenanigans any clearer, and with the latest installment, Terminator Genisys (ugh, that title!) even creating a new timeline, the time paradoxes will be flowing thick and fast.
- And while we’re on the subject of classic franchises being revised again with out of left changes, here’s a new pic from Jurassic World (courtesy of director Colin Trevorrow) showing Chris Pratt and his pet velociraptor. Parents prepare yourselves: I expect ever kid will want a pet velociraptor next year Xmas.
Happy Holidays from the editing room. Do not try this at home. pic.twitter.com/cL755EHExw
— Colin Trevorrow (@colintrevorrow) December 17, 2014
- Fan-casting upcoming comic-book adaptations is something that happens almost every day on the internet – and often with ridiculously unrealistic results – but when that fan is also the creator of said comic, then we have to pay attention. While Joseph Gordon-Levitt is the one developing an adaptation of Neil Gaimain’s epic dark fantasy Sandman, he’s not yet committed to starring in the film as well as the titular lord of dream, Morpheus. But Gaiman has a few ideas though about who he thinks could pull off the part, and they all sound like solid picks to me.
“It’s a funny thing with Morpheus. Again, it’s that thing where you look around and think, ‘Yes this person would be a fantastic person’, and then time passes. There was a time Johnny Depp would’ve been a great Morpheus, but now he’s too old and it’s fine. I think the first time I saw Benedict was as Sherlock Holmes, I thought, ‘Wow, that’s incredibly Morpheus’. And fans probably thought the same because they immediately started doing fan-art, meshing the two of them up…Then again, Tom Hiddleston is still out there! And the truth is, as far as I’m concerned, anybody who sounds English with great cheekbones can probably pull it off.”
- Poster of the day: Minority Report
- If there was ever any doubt that Michael Keaton is the greatest Batman of all time, then allow me to shatter them all. When Christian Bale was recently asked about how he felt about Ben Affleck now taking over the cape and cowl from him, he admitted that he was jealous and that “when I heard there was someone else doing it, there was a moment where I just stopped and stared into nothing for half an hour.” When Keaton was asked if he ever got jealous of other actors playing the Dark Knight, he responded with a much more awesome answer:
“No. Do you know why? Because I’m Batman. I’m very secure in that.”
He’s Batman. Perfect.
- Just in case you were being kept up at night, wondering about these things, Richard Linklater’s incredible Boyhood is US President Barack Obama’s favourite movie of 2014.
- I found The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies to be the best of Peter Jackson’s trilogy, a great step up from the bloated and silly first film. That step in the right direction actually began with the second film, The Desolation of Smaug, but despite its laudable efforts, it still had several slip-ups. All of which will pointed out, poked, poked, prodded and made fun of in this Honest Trailer.
- If you plan to Christmas lights on your house this festive season, just stop. Stop right now. Christmas has already been officially won by this house.
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 18, 2014
