Extras! 11 August 2014

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!

• You know that guy? That guy that was in that thing? No, not him. The other guy from the other thing. Well, he and some other guys have a very important message for you.

• Look you can call Zack Snyder all kinds of names, but when you pick on Aquaman, you cross the line. A radio show was discussing the upcoming Batman v Superman and Justice League, and were dissing on Aquaman (who has been rumoured over and over again to be played by Jason Momoa), questioning why he is even in the movies. Now, as any bona fide comic book geek knows, Aquaman is so much more awesome a character than just being the lame fish whisperer on Super Friends. It’s just so happens that Snyder is a bona fide comic book geek, and when he heard the talk on the radio, he promptly phoned in to defend the Atlantean King (while still not confirming the character’s appearance in the movie though).

“You guys were disparaging, a little bit, Aquaman… I don’t want to give anything away about the movie or anything like that, but Aquaman has some cool abilities. People are like, ‘Oh what? Does he talk to animals? Because that seems like what he does. Or fish?’ The cool thing with Aquaman is he has his trident. You have to realize that could cut the flesh of Superman if they came in contact. That’s a thing that’s in the canon. He’s super strong because, of course, he can exist at these super deep depths. So when he comes up here, he’s crazy strong. Anyway, not to say he’s in my movie or anything like that, but he has the potential to be bad ass, that’s all I’m saying.”

• Poster of the day: The Goonies by John Alvin

•  As was mentioned in the video above, before Chris Pratt became the internet’s boyfriend/best bro with the release of Guardians of the Galaxy, he used to just be that schlubby guy from Parks  & Rec. But writer-director James Gunn knew that underneath all that schlubbiness there was a proper Hollywood leading man, who has arguably become this generation’s first big sci-fi icon. Unfortunately for many a director/producer in Hollywood, they never had the same insight.

• We don’t normally cover book releases on here, unless they’re attached to some film adaptation, but this new cover for the latest edition of Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (which has been adapted several time, so yeah), is creepier than any horror movie I’ve seen in years.

• Universal Pictures is about to suck. The studio, along with Imagine Entertainment, has acquired the film rights to author Anne Rice’s “Vampire Chronicles” series for Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman and Brian Grazer to produce. Can anybody say “Interview With the Vampire reboot?”

• I normally don’t really pay much attention to news bits about Hollywood actors joining leaving their agents, but when Deadline reported on Star Wars: Episode VII star Daisy Ridley now being repped by UTA, something caught my eye:

“She is the female lead in the J.J Abrams-directed resuscitation of Star Wars, and the plan is for her carry through to the second and third films that will be directed by Looper helmer Rian Johnson. Ridley was hired for Star Wars: Episode VII after a worldwide casting search.”

• Dear BBC, please look at this fan-made opening for what a Dcotor Who animated show could look like, and then start doing some deep soul searching, pondering on how this is not a real official thing yet.

• Good news, guys. We can finally sleep peacefully, as the burning question that has been keeping us up at night for the last decade has finally been answered: Steven Spielberg still has an adaptation of West Side Story on his mind.

“Well, you know something, West Side Story is one of my favorite Broadway musicals and one of the greatest pieces of musical literature, my goodness, and one of the greatest scores and some of the greatest lyrics ever written for a musical, so let me just put it this way, it’s on my mind.”

• If you think that documentaries are just boring true stories where people gorge themselves on McDonalds, then clearly you haven’t checked out Caveman Circus’ list of 11 Documentaries For People Who Don’t Like Documentaries.

• And now for something completely different. And random. A video of The Matrix Reloaded where all the sound FX have replaced by those from 8-bit video games. Because it’s the internet, that’s why.

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: August 11, 2014