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!
This weekend a sizzle reel/featurette for Jose Padilha’s Robocop reboot popped up online that had cast and crew showing off concept art and shedding some light on some of the design/narrative choices. Unfortunately, it then got pulled off the internet faster than you can say “This suit sucks!”. Luckily though, Collider grabbed some screenshots, and also did a little write-up on the clip.
[And look at that yet another takedown notice this time from Columbia Pictures ordering us to remove the Robocop concept pictures]
Some of the highlights are that they confirm the R&D process that was written about in that script review, with Robocop going through several versions with the last being the recently revealed one. And before you get your hopes up, that way, WAAAAY better concept design above more than likely isn’t Robocop’s. In the film, he’s nothing but a product for Omicorp to sell, and it sounds like this could be one of the mass-produced models.
In addition to his policing duties, Robocop will also have military applications, going up against other robots in battles that the film’s creative team describe as “Call of Duty-style shoot-outs with a lot of drones and robots.” I’ve had to type the last part of that last sentence with one hand, as the palm of my other hand is buried firmly in my face.
Bourne Supremacy and Ultimatum director Paul Greengrass will be tackling assassins of a different kind, as he’s revealed that his next project will be Memphis, a tale revolving around the assassination of Martin Luther King jr. The script will be drawn from Greengrass’ own research and will focus on the manhunt for gunman James Earl Ray after the tragic shooting on April 4, 1968.
If you’ve been wondering what raunchy ensemble comedy Movie 43 is all about, well they’ve released this new Red Band featurette of the ridiculously large cast (it’s almost as big as Jacob Zuma’s family. Almost) sort of explaining what the movie is about. Kind of. Maybe.
If you’ve been experiencing sleepless nights for the last few months wondering whatever happened to that Casey Affleck written and directed biopic about baseball player Josh Hamilton, well then boy do I have a nightcap for you: Deadline reports that the film has been picked up by Relativity for distribution… And that’s it. Sorry, I tried my best to make it a more exciting story about sportsmen most South African folk have never heard playing a sport most of us never watch.
I don’t know whether to spoiler this out, seeing as this is currently nothing but a rumour, but there’s a story making the rounds that a certain actress will be playing a certain super-heroine in her civilian guise in Iron Man 3. Highlight the White Wall of Non-Spoilers below to find out what’s allegedly cooking:
When French actress Stephanie Szostak joined IM3 a while back, her role was never revealed, but according to some “industry sources” she’ll be playing none other Janet Van Dyne aka The Wasp. She has quite the history with Hank Pym aka Ant-Man, some of it rather violent, though I doubt that Marvel would bring that up. It’s a tad bit difficult to sell action figures of a wife-beater.
Ok, spoilers done now.
…Or are they? We’ve seen plenty of set pics thus far for Thor: The Dark World, but now a new video has appeared showing Chris Hemsworth in full costume as Thor doing his best Mc Hammer impersonation on Christopher Eccleston’s big bad, Malekith the Accursed. I wouldn’t classify this as a spoiler, simply due to the fact that if you were surprised at the fact that at some point during the movie Thor was going to try to hit the villain in the face with his hammer, then I simply need to ask how you’re even capable of operating a mouse and keyboard.
Quvenzhane Wallis is a name you need to remember, even if it’s only as part of a cautionary tale about how not to name your children. Come Oscars time, there’s a pretty good chance that the 9-year old star of Beasts of the Southern Wild will have her name on the list of Best Actresses (and it will probably also get massacred by whomever is presenting that award). If she wins, which a lot of people think she will, she will officially become the youngest Oscar winning actress in history. Something which poses some rather unique challenges, as THR explains.
Being Movember and all, Screencrush has put together a list of The Best Movie Mustaches. I guarantee you that just clicking on that link will turn you into twice the man you already are.
If you think that all the Twilight has ever given the world was sparkly pedophile vampires and werewolves allergic to shirts, well then you’re in for one big surprise. Because as Yogurt taught me, the greatest part of a film is mechandising. So with that in mind, I present to you The Most Disturbing Twilight Products of All Time. And yes, that is indeed a plushie version of Bella’s womb, the creepiest baby doll known to man and a Twilight dildo that you can put in the fridge to give it that authentic cold-blooded vampire feel.
It’s time like these that I can’t help hoping that the Mayans got it right.
Once upon a time, before Will Smith turned it into a decent movie but horrible adaptation, Ridley Scott was attached to adapt Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend. The film was supposed to star Arnold Schwarzenegger as Robert Neville, but it never got off the ground due to budget issues and some pretty out there choices by Scott: the first hour of the film contained zero dialogue. But before everything collapsed, Scott hired Tom Woodruff Jr and Alec Gillis to produce make-up and designs for the vampiric creatures in the film. Thanks to Blastr finding this video, we now get to see what they would have cooked up, and it looks pretty amazing.
Director David Twohy has revealed the first Riddick update in ages. He posted the first look at the film’s logo on his blog, and then went to shame every single one of us who moan about our 9-5 desk jobs.
“Been pulling 14-hour days trying to finish RIDDICK. My typical day starts at 9am with intensive visual effects meetings, sweating out the details of our 900 VFX shots. Then I jet across town to the mix stage, Soundelux, where I supervise the sound, balancing out the often-competing elements of music, sound fx, sound design, and dialog. At night I hit the lab, Technicolor in Hollywood, staying until midnight to do “DI work” — color-correction of the movie. This is where David Eggby and I have one last chance to get the images right, dropping in grads and power windows to finesse what we shot on set. It’s a great tool, the Digital Intermediate. Kind of like Photoshop for movies. Gotta love it. Gotta love the challenge of bringing it all home.”
There’s been no release date set yet for the Vin Diesel starring sci-fi sequel, but hopefully Twohy brings it all home sooner rather than later.
Perpetual journeyman and vowel-aversed McG (Charlie’s Angels, Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle, Terminator Salvation), will be stepping out of his comfort zone a bit, as Variety reveals that he’s looking to produce and possibly direct an adaptation of Gitty Daneshvari’s School of Fear book series. Here’s a synopsis of the first book, which was published in 2009:
With very few options left, the parents of four perpetually scared twelve year-olds send them to the highly elusive and exclusive School of Fear to help them overcome their phobias. But when their peculiar teacher, Mrs. Wellington, and her unconventional teaching methods turn out to be more frightening than even their fears, the foursome realize that this just may be the scariest summer of their lives.
And it looks like those folks over on ESPN are huge fans of classic 1980’s fantasy/adventure/comedy The Princess Bride. So to prove it, during a recent episode of NFL Kick Off , hosts Trey Wingo, Mark Sclereth, and Tedy Bruschi simply crammed as many Princess Bride references into a 30-minute show as they could.
“THERE WILL BE NO SURVIVORS!”
Last Updated: November 19, 2012
