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!
- And in today’s episode of “Of Course They Are”, Lionsgate are apparently considering making more Hunger Games movies, despite there being no more books left for them to adapt. According to CEO Jon Feltheimer they are “actively looking at some development and thinking about prequel and sequel possibilities”. Sigh.
- Congratulations, Japan! You win the internet for today with this incredible and enormous Star Wars snow sculpture that served as the centrepiece for the this year’s annual Sapporo Snow Festival. The sculpture stands a gigantic 15 meters tall, 22 meters across and took approximately 2000 people to complete! More pics at the link.
- Sorry, Keanu Reeves. You may be The One, but you’re apparently not the right one for upcoming sci-fi romance Passengers. The film, about a man on a generation-spanning, intergalactic voyage who accidentally gets woken from cryo sleep to early and has to spend the rest of the journey alone until he decides to wake another female passenger, was originally supposed to star Reeves and Rachel McAdams. But after being stuck in development hell for ages, it finally got a shot in the arm when Oscar nominated Imitation Game director Morten Tyldum recently came on board.
And with a new director comes new stars, as being reported that Reeves and McAdams are out and that the currently red-hot pairing of Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence are now in early talks to replace them. With Pratt and Lawrence being as insanely popular as they are right now, scheduling could be a problem though.
- Poster of the day: Dirty Harry
- I don’t know if I am out of the loop or what, but apparently there’s a fan theory for Arrow that’s been making the rounds for a while now John Diggle, played by David Ramsey, is actually Jon Stewart, one of the Green Lanterns of Earth in the comics. Ramsey was recently asked about this and decided to add some serious fuel to the emerald fire.
“Is John Diggle John Stewart? I cannot say ‘yes,’ and cannot say, ‘no.’… We’re working on some stuff [but it’s top secret]”.
“If that’s the case, it’s gonna be huge. This is the stuff they want to avoid. I think they don’t want anybody to know yet and they haven’t even told me. They have told me that they are thinking about it and they are considering it. [Producer] Greg Berlanti told me that. [Producers] Andrew [Kreisberg] and Marc [Guggenheim] have told me that. I haven’t spoken to [DC Chief Creative Office] Geoff Johns about it, yet. But that’s the word from people directly involved in Arrow – that they’re working on something.”
Personally, while I don’t think that Jon Stewart would necessarily be the best fit for the show (the Green Lantern mythos is way more far-fetched than the very grounded Arrow-verse), they do kind of need to do something with Diggle. He’s become the guy that sort of just hangs out with these other costumed heroes. And when he does go into battle, he doesn’t even wear a mask! Great job keeping those secret identities secret, Oliver Queen’s bodyguard who was always seen with him for ages!
- Irrespective of how you feel about the first trailer for the new Fantastic Four reboot, I think we’re all in agreement that what director Josh Trank is putting out already looks miles better than the two crappy and cheesy FF movies we got in the early 2000’s. And to prove just how different they are from each other, here’s a mashup trailer for that original movie with the more sombre audio of the latest film.
- Did you know that Big Trouble In Little China was originally supposed to be a Western? You didn’t?! Well, then clearly you haven’t read GeekTyrant’s 11 Fun Facts About Big Trouble In Little China.
- And just to serve as a reminder that no, you’re not dreaming and yes, the Deadpool movie is finally actually being made, here’s some new casting news. Deadline is reporting that six young actresses are apparently being tested by Fox to star opposite Ryan Reynolds in the upcoming comic book movie. The half-dozen young ladies are Morena Baccarin (Homeland, Firefly), Jessica De Gouw (Arrow), Sarah Green (Vikings), Crystal Reed (Teen Wolf), Rebecca Rittenhouse (Red Band Society), and Taylor Schilling (Orange is the New Black). Since the Merc With the Mouth never exactly had a traditional female foil, it’s anybody’s guess right as to exactly which role these ladies would be up for.
- Sex sells. Freaky sex sells even more! This is something that Universal Pictures are apparently quite confident about when it comes to this weekend’s release of Fifty Shades of Grey. So confident, in fact, that it’s already been all but officially confirmed that the studio will be developing sequels based on the follow-up books “Fifty Shades Darker” and “Fifty Shades Freed”. With record breaking ticket sales, the studio may just be right about this.
- Britain’s version of the Oscars, the BAFTA’s happened over the weekend. Unlike their Hollywood cousins’ baffling snub though, the Brits decided to not just nominate but also award universally loved The LEGO Movie for Best Animated Film. This of course prompted co-directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller to get in a couple of good natured jabs at the Oscars’ Academy for giving them the cold shoulder when they took to the stage to claim their award.
“You are our favorite Academy by far. You guys win the award for best Academy. This is the end of the awards road for us, so we can say whatever we want. There’s no one left to impress.”
- The 80’s was a wonderful time of far too many neon colours and bad taste! And nothing perfectly encapsulated those elements quite like pop album covers. Throw in some iconic 1980’s villains, and you end up with this incredible series of album covers that I wish were a real thing.
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: February 9, 2015
