Extras! 08 January 2015

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!

• If there was ever any doubt about the unprecedented love for Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, then allow me to settle it now. While several of Marvel’s movies receive huge critical praise and they all bring in truckloads of cash at the box office, when it comes to awards, they tend to only get noticed for the technical stuff like visual effects and make-up. But proving that it’s kind of better than the rest, Guardians of the Galaxy has now been nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay at the Writer’s Guild Awards. Just to put that into perspective, it’s rubbing shoulders with the likes of Gone Girl, Imitation Game and American Sniper. Ooga chaka indeed.

• Is must have tough being a lactose intolerant geek in the 1980’s. Not because medical treatments were inferior three decades ago, but because sci-fi/fantasy TV shows back then were just especially drenched in cheese. Don’t remember all that prime time gorgonzola? Then allow this supercut of 11 cheesy intros to remind you.

• Yes, I know that these Spectre set pics showing off stars Daniel Craig, Lea Seydoux and Dave Bautista don’t exactly reveal anything about the upcoming James Bond sequel, but goshdarnit it’s 007 back on a snowy mountaintop in the Alps! That’s enough to get this Bond fanboy excited!

• “I’m Spartacus Weather Wizard!” Looks like Barry Allen is in for another storm, as Spartacus star Liam McIntyre is set to join The Flash as Mark Mardon aka Weather Wizard. Now you may remember that we already saw a Weather Wizard-like character Clyde Mardon played by Chad Rook in the show’s pilot episode. McIntyre would be playing that character’s older brother, also gifted with weather controlling abilities, who returns to Central City to exact some vengeance on Det. Joe West over his bro’s death.

• Michael Keaton has already battled a penguin and a cat in his career, so I guess you can just add giant ape to the list as well. The greatest Batman ever (Ever!) is apparently in talks to join Kong: Skull Island, Legendary’s planned King Kong prequel that’s already nabbed Tom Hiddleston and JK Simmons in starring roles. Jordan Vogt-Roberts (Kings of Summer) directs off a script by John Gatins (Flight) and Max Borenstein (Godzilla).

• Poster of the Day: Yojimbo

• There’s a lot to love in The LEGO Movie (and we loved it all), but one of my personal favourite things was the actual animation style, which didn’t just make sure everything was made out of LEGO pieces, but also boasted a very clever homemade, stop-motion feel to it. Lots of people may not have noticed this little detail, but Warner Bros want to make sure that you – and by “you” I mean all the movie awards panels – just how much effort they put into it.

• If you’re just now regaining your mental faculties after a hellacious New Year’s Eve party, then you’ll be happy to know that it is in fact 2015. And as I’m sure the Internet will be very eager to remind you, this is actually the “future” year that Marty McFly time-travelled to in Back To the Future II. AND WE STILL DON’T HAVE HOVERBOARDS! But what we will have though, are those Nike MAG sneakers with the Power Laces which the shoe giant have now confirmed that they’re working on getting out to customers soon.

• Hulk may be “the strongest there is” but in Avengers: Age of Ultron he definitely won’t be the biggest. No, as some new promo artwork for the highly anticipated blockbuster reveals, its actually Tony Stark’s Hulkbuster armour that towers over everybody else. Click the image for a larger version.

• Hold onto your whips and chains things are about to get sexual. The trailers for the upcoming Fifty Shades of Grey adaptation have been relatively tame thus far, causing some to worry that the studios may have chickened out from showing off the best selling book’s more explicit material. Apparently, that won’t be the case as the film has now officially been given an R rating by the MPAA for “strong sexual content including dialogue, some unusual behavior and graphic nudity, and for language.”

Unusual behaviour? Well, I guess that’s one way to describe butt plugs and “Christian Grey-flavoured popsicles”. Fifty Shades of Grey stars Jamie Dornan as the titular Christian grey and Dakota Johnson as Annastasia Steele, the sexually innocent young woman he introduces to the world of BDSM.

• Chris Pratt may be taking his second big step into superstardom in 2015 when he leads Jurassic World, but he will also be saying goodbye to Parks and Recreation, which will air its final season. And with that bittersweet realization there’s only one thing to be done: Mashup!

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 8, 2015