Home Entertainment Extras! 10 March 2014

Extras! 10 March 2014

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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!

Big time Hollywood directors aren’t stupid. Well, most of them aren’t (the verdict is still out on Friedberg and Seltzer). So it should come as no surprise that The Amazing Spider-Man 2 director Marc Webb is fully aware that there are some major concerns about his film’s villain overkill, one of the oft cited criticisms for universally slammed Spider-Man 3. While speaking at this week’s SXSW Festival (via The Playlist), he explained that it’s not as bad as people think:

“It’s about writing. We’re aware of those movies and the complaints people had. The main villain is Electro. Every other villain emerges around that. We were careful to make sure the stories intertwined. You had to make sure to create obstacles that were difficult to overcome. We wanted to make the physical and emotional obstacles difficult. Rhino is in it for four minutes so it’s a legitimate comparison, but when you see the movie, I’m confident.”

Four minutes?! I got a feeling that outside of Electro, these other villains are just headed to cameo city. Check out the full transcript, including how Webb initially didn’t want to do The Amazing Spider-Man, and how he was a lot more hesitant in the first film but now is totally embracing the spectacle.

Have you seen the latest breaking bad-ish trailer for Godzilla? Pretty chilling, right? You know what would make it more chilling? Combining that foreboding audio  with grainy black and white footage of a man in a rubber lizard suit!

Previous Doctor Who star and current Guy With Bird Poop Running Down The Side of His Face in The Hobbit, Sylvester McCoy, seems to have got a little too gabby on Twitter this weekend, as it appears that he’s just given away a rather big spoiler about the return of a classic Doctor Who character in the upcoming season.

Will Smith, through his production company Overbrook Entertainment, and Sony will be looking to adapt upcoming graphic novel The Harlem Hellfighters for a feature film. The graphic novel, penned by World War Z author Max Brooks, covers the exploits of the 369th Infantry Regiment of the United States Army aka the Harlem Hellfighters, the first African American unit who went into battle with with the American Expeditionary Force during World War I, fought proudly and admirably for their country, but then had to return home to racial discrimination.

Outside of a few movies here and there, this is a story that comparatively hasn’t really been told that often, and it’s a good thing that Smith and co are tackling it. The only question is how Smith will convince Sony to make the soldiers even younger (and maybe female) so that he can cast his kids in the lead roles.

Poster of the day:

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Looks like Grand Budapest Hotel is the grandest. Of hotels. In Budapest. Okay, so maybe that metaphor wasn’t well thought out, but one thing is for certain: Writer/director Wes Anderson’s latest film is quite popular. The film, which has been picking up really strong reviews, has officially had the biggest live-action limited release ever. The film opened in just four theatres in New York and Los Angeles this weekend and still pulled in $800 000 for an average of $200 000 per cinema, beating out previous record holder, Paul Thomas Andersen’s The Master, which averaged just $147 000.

Did you know that once upon a time, Liam Neeson was one of EON Production’s top choices to play James Bond? Unfortunately, their plans got shaken and stirred when Neeson, who had just come off an Oscar nomination for Schindler’s List, turned them down. But up until now, we’ve never known the reasons for his denial. Turns out that as with so many major decisions in many men’s lives, it had to do with a lady, specifically Neeson’s then girlfriend, now late wife Natasha Richardson.

“I was heavily courted, let’s put it that way, and I’m sure some other actors were too. It was about 18 or 19 years ago and my wife-to-be said, ‘If you play James Bond we’re not getting married!’ And I had to take that on board, because I did want to marry her.”

Over the weekend Marvel held a Guardians of the Galaxy video Q&A featuring star Chris Pratt, director James Gunn and producer and Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige. They covered a whole lot of ground like casting Chris Pratt (who Gunn actually refused to see at first), Pratt having to get in shape for the role, why Marvel chose Gunn to direct and more. My personal favourite being the little tidbit where Gunn was asked about whether another fan-favourite talking animal character from the comics, Cosmo the telepathic Russian astronaut dog (what other movie can boast that?!), and he replied that “fans of Cosmo will have to wait and see the movie.”

The 36-minute Q&A video is down below, but if you prefer just reading the individual points, then Collider has a great write-up on it.

So last night saw the finale of current greatest show on TV, True Detective, airing in the States (airing in two weeks locally). I’ve been avoiding certain parts of the internet all day for fear of spoilers (and also unsavoury pics of Darryn – don’t ask!), but it’s been made increasingly difficult by an extraordinarily vocal response to the episode. And no, I’m not talking about people praising the show (which there are a whole hell of a lot of), but rather some very disgruntled HBO Go users. It seems that the show was so popular, that its demand effectively crippled HBO’s streaming service, leaving some considerably unhappy customers unable to enjoy the resolution of the mystery of the Yellow King.

This series of Muppets Most Wanted action/spy movies parody posters is the best. Of everything.

You’ve probably seen those trailers of film’s filled with comments from critics praising the film, but really, who listens to film critics? (Other than us, obviously). No, what we really want to see are trailers filled with Youtube commenters, like this one for 300: Rise of an Empire.

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: March 10, 2014

4 Comments

  1. Not sure if you were a fan Kervyn, but Bill Guarnere (Wild Bill, Gonorrhea) a member of Easy Company (depicted in the series Band of Brothers), died yesterday. He was 90.

    Reply

    • Kervyn Cloete

      March 10, 2014 at 18:35

      I am BoB fan indeed. Those guys are legends.

      Reply

  2. Skyblue

    March 11, 2014 at 00:59

    Just finished True Detective, loved it. I reckon it’s a head to head Woody vs Mathew EMMY next year for Best Actor in a Drama.

    Reply

    • Kervyn Cloete

      March 11, 2014 at 01:39

      Agreed. They were both outstanding.

      Reply

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