Extras! Animals were indeed harmed, Day of the dead director, Alan Moore hates superheroes today, It's a wonderful wolf of Wall Street, and Magneto killed JFK?! Plus much more!

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!

Way back before all this Days of Future Past stuff and when Matthew Vaughn was still involved, the director indicated that his idea for an X-Men: First Class sequel would feature the discovery that it was actually Magneto who assassinated JFK (he magnetically controlled the “magic bullet” explaining its impossible behaviour), in retaliation for the US President claiming all the glory for diffusing the Cuba Missile Crisis, when it was actually ol’ Mags and his yellow jumpsuit wearing mutant friends.

It was a fascinating idea. One that was subsequently ditched in favour of a time travelling Wolverine. Well so we thought. A new viral website has popped up, featuring the documentary styled vid below,  indicating that new director Bryan Singer hasn’t forgotten about that idea at all. He was just waiting until a few days after the world relived the tragedy with the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s death. Classy.

It’s only Tuesday and we’re already onto our first Star Wars: Episode VII rumour for the week. These guys are getting good. According to THR’s sources, in addition to the “tough-cookie girl in the 17- to 18-year-old range and a charismatic, funny guy from 19 to 23” castings that we’ve previously heard hints about, a casting call has also gone out for “a 40-something military man a la Matt Damon in Elysium.”

This latest call is apparently due to changes in the script since JJ Abrams took over writing duties with Lawrence Kasdan. Also, no this does not mean that Matt Damon has been cast in Star Wars: Episode VII. Let’s just make that clear before the gossipmongers start spinning it as fact.

During the epic discussion that happened around yesterday’s trailer for Nymphomaniac, mention was made about the double standards towards women when it comes to things on screen of a sexual nature. This is something that bothers Jodi over at Pajiba as well, and which she addresses brilliantly in her astutely named article: Where’s the Ding Dang?: A Discussion of the Lack of Nudity Equality in Cinema.

If you don’t know who Tatiana Maslany is, then it’s only a matter of time before you do. Probably because you just googled her before you even finished reading this sentence, but mainly because she is an insanely talented actress who arrived on the scene with multiple bangs when she played seven completely different clone versions of herself in BBC America’s insanely good Orphan Black earlier this year.

Fans, including me, have been waiting eagerly to find out when the adventures of Sarah/Cosima/Allison/etc will continue, and BBC America have now announced that the show will be returning for another 10-episode season on April 19, 2014. Along with the date announcement, they’ve also released this new teaser trailer and poster for the second season.

“No animals were harmed during the making of this film”. We’ve all probably seen that line in some movie credits before, and known that its presence meant that the American Humane Association was on hand to ensure that all animals used in a film were not mistreated, right? Sigh. Unfortunately, that’s actually wrong. Due to some great investigative journalism over on THR, it’s been discovered the that AHA is actually a bit of a joke. Well, it would be if what they were doing wasn’t so damn tragic.

Not only has the organization been found to be grossly inept in their duties and filled with conflict of interest, but they appear to be intentionally covering up animal abuse and deaths (27 animals apparently died during the filming of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey), so to maintain beneficial relationships with certain Hollywood bigwigs. This is really a terrible story that is just going to blow up.

And now for something to lighten the mood. Leonardo Dicaprio is an acclaimed actor, but an acclaimed actor who has unbelievably never won an Oscar. This is a truly grievous oversight that the internet has appeared to have noticed. And as usual, when the internet notices something grievous, they make lots and lots of jokes about it.

Here’s a new TV spot for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug that goes to show that some orcs and goblins were indeed harmed during the making of this film. Mainly thanks to Evangeline Lily’s elven warrior Tauriel.

If you were hoping that the news that they were remaking George Romero’s Day of the Dead – again – was just a bad dream, then I got some bad news for you. Not only is it real, but they’ve already found a director in Mark Tonderai (The House at the End of the Street), with the new film reported to take place  “years after the zombie plague has wiped out most of Earth’s population, [when] a group of scientists and survivors attempt to find a cure, and instead open Pandora’s box.”

Haters gonna hate. Remakers gonna remake.

You may have heard that a sequel to Christmas classic It’s A Wonderful Life is on the way. For the most part, people responded to this news with much tut-tutting and poo pooing (Yes, those are real things) as they felt that any sequel would just be a blatant cash-in. But what if the sequel reins were handed over to some truly talented director, somebody who could take that classic tale starring Jimmy Stewart and turn it on it’s head? Somebody like Martin Scorsese?

Acclaimed veteran comic book writer Alan Moore is not known for taking kindly to his books being made into movies (read: He wants them all to burn in hell). And it seems that Mr Moore is an equal opportunity hater as he has some stern words to say about other comic book movies which he never even wrote.

“Now, see. I haven’t read any superhero comics since I finished with Watchmen. I hate superheroes. I think they’re abominations. They don’t mean what they used to mean. They were originally in the hands of writers who would actively expand the imagination of their nine- to 13-year-old audience. That was completely what they were meant to do and they were doing it excellently. These days, superhero comics think the audience is certainly not nine to 13, it’s nothing to do with them. It’s an audience largely of 30-, 40-, 50-, 60-year old men, usually men. Someone came up with the term graphic novel. These readers latched on to it; they were simply interested in a way that could validate their continued love of Green Lantern or Spider-Man without appearing in some way emotionally subnormal. This is a significant rump of the superhero-addicted, mainstream-addicted audience. I don’t think the superhero stands for anything good. I think it’s a rather alarming sign if we’ve got audiences of adults going to see the Avengers movie and delighting in concepts and characters meant to entertain the 12-year-old boys of the 1950s.

…My main point about films is that I don’t like the adaptation process, and I particularly don’t like the modern way of comic book-film adaptations, where, essentially, the central characters are just franchises that can be worked endlessly to no apparent point. In most cases, the original comic books were far superior to the film.”

I’d like to think that I did a fairly decent job reviewing The Hunger Games: Catching Fire – at least that’s what my momma says – but I am a big enough person to admit when I’m outclassed. And my vanquisher this time, is this hilarious review of the film from the funny folks over at The Onion, who clearly have a better grasp on what I should have focused on in my review.

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 26, 2013