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!
- Just in case you missed the memo that Dame Judi Dench is awesome, check out this video of Harvey Weinstein – who kickstarted the big time career of Dench, who had just been a stage and TV actor before then – where he offers a really cool, but unexpected anecdote about the Oscar-winning actress.
- Phew! Guys, that was close one, but it’s now finally been confirmed that Ian Ziering and Tara Reid will be returning for Sharknado 3. I’m sure some of you guys were losing sleep over the uncertainty.
- Looks like somebody didn’t follow the rules and put the Gremlins reboot in direct sunlight. Nestled in an interview with screenwriter Seth Grahame-Smith in which he updated on several of his projects, sits the news that Warner Bros’ planned new take on the furry critters has stalled.
“I think we just ran out of steam. It’s one of those things where everybody got busy doing other things. It’s something I would love to come back to, but right now Steven’s [Spielberg] making two movies back to back and Chris Columbus is busy. We’re all taking a five-minute break on that.”
- Poster of the day: American Sniper
- “Hello, my name is Papa Smurf. You killed my father. Prepare to die!” At least that’s how I hope Sony’s new all-animated reboot of its Smurfs franchise will go now that Mandy Patinkin – most recently seen as Saul in Homeland, but who achieved true cult status as revenge-driven Inigo Montoya in Princes Bride – is in talks to voice smurfy patriarch Papa Smurf. The previous two Smurf films, which saw the blue munchkins introduced into the “real” world, made a killing at the box-office despite being rather bad movies, but Sony are apparently abandoning that CGI/live-action hybrid approach for this fully animated origin story reboot which will hew much closer to the original comics and cartoon.
- It’s happened at last: George Lucas has finally seen the trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
“I saw the trailer. I saw it in a theater because I don’t watch movies online… Yeah, it was intriguing.”
That comment may seem very subdued now, but a in couple of years he plans to re-release it as a Special Edition comment with a whole lot of fancy effects and somebody screaming “Nooooooooooooooo”.
- This album of posters for Oscar nominated movies that tell the truth is a thing of hilarious genius!
- Kristen Stewart wants to be a superhero. The Twilight starlet is apparently a huge fan of what Marvel’s movies and after doing the more action-y Snow White and the Hunstman, thinks that she can easily make the transition to comic book movies.
“I love watching those movies. I would love to show people that I can do more than just be ‘Kristen Stewart’ in a different movie, in a different circumstance… I’m sure I could get on board with Captain America, you know what I mean?… It would just have to be the right thing.”
I know some of you are probably thinking that she should stay the hell out of your precious Marvel movies, but I say give her a chance. She can play Blank-Face Girl, a female crimefighter with the ability to drain all emotion in her surroundings!
- This baby stroller that looks exactly like the Tumbler/Batmobile from Batman Begins wins the internet for today!
- Hugh Jackman is the best there is at what he does, and what he does is apparently train record breaking Olympic skiers. Jackman has joined director Matthew Vaughn’s planned biopic of Eddie “The Eagle” Edwards, the first man to ever represent Britain in Olympic ski jumping at the 1988 Olympics. Jackman will play Chuck Berghorn, the washed-out ski instructor who mentored Edwards to greatness, while “The Eagle” will be played by relative newcomer Taron Egerton, who just had his big break in Vaughn’s Kingsman: The Secret Service.
- And speaking of Kingsman: The Secret Service, the film only officially opens in the UK on January 29, 2015, but the Vue Cinemas chain will be debuting it exclusively five days earlier. To mark the occasion, the cinema offered unsuspecting folk a free “Kingsman upgrade” to whatever movie they were going to see when frequenting the cinema this past weekend. So what is a “Kingsman upgrade”? It’s awesome fun, that’s what it is!
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 20, 2015