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!
- By all accounts (which should hopefully include ours later in the week), Transformers: Age of Extinction is the type of movie that just beats you over the head with its excesses. And soon, you’ll be able to use the movie to beat others over the head as well, as it’s been revealed that the film’s upcoming Limited Edition Blu Ray Gift Set will be shipping with this rather sturdy looking 9-inch long, 2-inch tall statue of Optimus Prime riding Grimlock.
- Despite his frequent claims to the contrary, you will in fact be able to see John Cena, Specifically in The Nest, as the WWE superstar has joined the upcoming Tina Fey/Amy Poehler comedy about two sisters who return to spend one last party weekend in their childhood home before it gets sold. There’s no official confirmation on Cena’s role, but his rumoured to be playing some sort of villainous character. If he F5’s either Fey or Poehler, we’re going to have words.
- Poster of the Day: The Dog (This is first time I’m hearing of this documentary, but based on this poster and the premise, I will definitely keep an eye out for it)
- Looks like the next season of Arrow will be sharper – and no, I’m not referring to improved production values. Devon Aoki (Sin City, 2 Fast 2 Furious) has joined CW’s superhero series in a major role as Tatsu Yamashiro, aka Katana, the possessed-sword wielding masked assassin, who actually made her first comic book appearance in the pages of the Green Arrow comic book. Aoki’s’Katana is being billed as “one of Oliver’s mentors in the flashbacks and a critical influence on his journey to eventually become The Arrow of present day”.
- Speaking of Devon Aoki, here are two new pics from Sin City: A Dame To Kill For, one of which shows Jamie Chung, who replaced Aoki in the role of Miho due to Aoki being pregnant at the time of shooting. The other pic shows Rosario Dawson, who clearly shops at the Janet Jackson Nipple-wear Shop.
- And because we can, here’s a list of the 10 Best Michael Bay Explosions.
- Yo, Joe! After previous helmer Jon M. Chu bailed on a third G.I. Joe pic, we haven’t heard much about it other than Paramount confirming that it’s still on for a 2016 release. But some new developments are finally happening, as the studio has hired Jonathan Lemkin to pen the script for the still untitled G.I. Joe 3. Lemkin is a veteran TV scribe who made his name in the 80’s and 90’s on shows like Hill Street Blues and 21 Jump Street. He does have four rather well known feature film writing credits to his name though in The Devil’s Advocate, Lethal Weapon 4, Shooter and Red Planet, so this bodes well.
- Oh that Darth Vader, always going around force choking people to fulfill their erotic asphyxiation kinks… Wait, WHAT?!
- Warner Bros are set to go on Homer’s Odyssey. No, this is not a quest to find Duff Beer at Springfield’s Kwik-E-Mart. This the other Homer. The helmer of last year’s incredible looking WWII flick Stalingrad, Russian director Fedor Bondarchuk, has been tapped by WB to direct Odysseus, a big budget feature film adaptation of the Ancient Greek poet’s famed epic The Odyssey. The Killing’s Jeremy Doner will be penning the script, which will tell the tale of Odysseus (or Ulysses), a Greek King who has to return home to a family that think him dead after he had spent 10 years fighting in the Trojan war.
The movie is set to be a large-scale production, and it will be interesting to see if Bondarchuk will keep the same filmmaking philosophy he adopted for Stalingrad, which had massive battles and was the first Russian film shot in IMAX 3D, but made use of no green screens and was done all with practical effects.
- The highlight of my week is undoubtedly getting to watch Dawn of the Planet of the Apes on Thursday. It’s predecessor, Rise of the Planet of the Ape, was one of the biggest and best movies surprises I had in years, and according to the first few reviews out, Dawn exceeds it in almost every way. So yeah, much excitement.
Of course, one of the reasons why Rise was such a surprise, was that the Planet of the Apes franchise had not been doing well, specifically after Tim Burton’s attempt at a reboot ended up a King Kong sized turd. So as we’re about to see how the franchise can be done right, let’s take a look back at how it was done wrong.
- BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE! Because for the low, low price of absolutely nothing, we’ll throw in this Honest Trailer for Tim Burton’s Planet of the Apes for free!
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: July 2, 2014
