Extras! 23 October 2014

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!

• Congratulations, Air New Zealand. When it comes to air safety videos, you guys are most definitely doing it right. And epic.

• When it comes to the Josh Trank directed Fantastic Four reboot, it seems that Kate Mara’s Sue Storm is overdoing her powers just a tad as thus far the movie has been pretty much invisible. Besides for some leaked grainy set pics, we’ve seen nothing of the movie. And according to producer/screenwriter Simon Kinberg, that’s simply because they want to make a really good first impression.

“We’re putting it together now, and one of the important things, because this Fantastic Four is a reboot, and is such a different tonality and vibe from those other films, we want to make sure that the first thing we put out really expresses the voice of the movie, and isn’t compromised by not having visual effects ready, or anything like that.”

“I don’t actually know when it’s coming out, but I’ve seen all the footage from the movie. I was there for pretty much the whole shoot. It is a very different film from the others, and one that I think is very different from other superhero movies. It’s a very emotional, character-driven, more grounded film than I think people are anticipating.”

• Poster of the day: Nikita

• When Chronicle screenwriter Max Landis was 19, he wrote a 436-page script for Super Mario Bros. Yes, that Super Mario Bros. Much like the infamous live-action video game adaptation, Landis’ script sucks. That’s at least according to his very own words emblazoned across the front of the gargantuan script that he has now uploaded in its entirety for people to read. If the prospect of so many words frighten you as much as it does Darryn, then you’ll be happy to know that there are also nice pictures to look at Landis has also thrown up the very cool looking concept art he had commissioned for the script.

• If you’ve ever wanted to see Benedict Cumberbatch doing a seriously intense impersonation of a dragon with a face painted like he’s just visited every Moyo restaurant in the province, then this B-roll from The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug – in which we see Cumberbatch’s motion capture of the titular dragon – is just for you.

• The trailer for Avengers: Age of Ultron – and especially that Hulkbuster fight – may have us geeking out hard right now, but it’s all just make believe. Back in 2010 though, we saw some real Hulk rage when Marvel and Edward Norton parted ways on very hostile terms after The Incredible Hulk. We’ve heard parting shots on both sides as to what went wrong, with Norton saying that Marvel was stiffing him on his paycheck and Marvel saying that Norton forcefully took over the movie from director Louis Leterrier so that he could edit it himself. Whatever happened, it was bad enough that Marvel decided to ditch Norton and recast Bruce Banner/Hulk with Mark Ruffalo. But it seems that since then, Norton has changed his tune a bit, and now looks at losing out on the chance to star in the Avengers as a good thing.

“My feeling was that I experimented and experienced what I wanted to. I really, really enjoyed it. And yet, I looked at the balance of time in life that one spends not only making those sorts of films but then especially putting them out, and the obligations that rightly come with that. There were just a lot of things—I wanted more diversity. I sort of chose to continue on my path of having a diversity of experiences. Maybe on some unconscious level, I didn’t want to have an association with one thing in any way degrade my effectiveness as an actor, in characters. I think you can sort of do anything once, but if you do it too many times, it can become a suit that’s hard to take off, in other peoples’ eyes. And if I had continued on with it, I wouldn’t have made Moonrise Kingdom, or Grand Budapest, or Birdman, because those all overlapped with [Avengers]. And those were more the priority for me, but I continue to be a fan and I’m really, really happy I got to do it once.”

• Damn it, movies! Stop lying to us about how famous places look in real life!

• The day we’ve all been waiting for is finally here. Somebody has really, for real, legit, no Tony Hawk hoax, developed a proper working hoverboard like the one famously used by Marty McFly in Back To the Future II.

• Wait, what?! According to a report, Peter Jackson’s bloated unnecessary [ok, the second film was much better] The Hobbit Trilogy has cost a whopping $745 million do produce! And that’s more than likely not including marketing costs, which could double that amount!

To put that into perspective, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, which I think we can all agree are superior movies all around and actually features far bigger setpieces, only cost $2810 million in total. What the hell are they spending that other half a billion dollars on? Was that some kind of exceptionally rare bird poop used on Sylvester McCoy’s face?

• Maybe Peter Jackson can send some of that Hobbit money may way. I don’t need much, just $1 million so that I can buy James Bond’s famous Lotus Esprit, aka the submarine car from The Spy Who Loved Me, which has just gone on sale at eBay (And if there are any high-rollers reading this who thinks this might be a great purchase to avoid that rush hour traffic, this model was only ever used to show off the car’s rectractable wheels and can’t actually drive).

• And just when I thought I couldn’t top yesterday’s “Goats singing Star Wars theme songs” video from yesterday, along comes this gem. Back in 2012, singer-songwriter Rob Cantor wrote a hilarious song about Shia LaBeouf and how he was secretly a cannibal (this was before we realized that Shia was a loon and would probably actually eat other people). The song went viral for a while, but was then forgotten. But after LaBeouf’s latest bout of craziness, Cantor has now not only revived the song, but with the help of a number of Los Angeles choirs and dancers, has reinvented is a theatrical piece. And its total random genius.

 

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: October 23, 2014