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!
As you may have noticed, we’ve been pushing a lot more TV news lately. There are two reasons for this: 1) We are unashamed gluttons for page hits, and 2) TV is no longer cinema’s inferior (in fact, in same cases it’s superior), with plenty of shows attracting A-list Hollywood talent. One such show is The Knick, an upcoming, turn-of-the-century medical drama set in the real-life Knickerbocker Hospital, created by Oscar winning director Steven Soderbergh and starring Clive Owen. And a new teaser for the series has just dropped online.
Ex-Doctor Who alum Karen Gillan will soon be getting her bald villainess thing on (Lex Luthor would be so proud) as Nebula in Guardians of the Galaxy, and as can be seen hinted at in the film’s trailer, she’ll be throwing down with Zoe Saldana’s Gamora. Which is properly an exact duplicate of some geek fantasies out there. But there will be nothing nice and girly about this fight, as Gillan explained to MTV.
“Yeah, there’s a big girlie fight sequence, but it’s not that girlie. They made sure there weren’t any nice pirouettes or anything like that.”
“[Zoe Saldana’s] really experienced in the physical stuff, she was a ballerina. She’s really amazing at all of that stuff. She barely required any rehearsal, she was like, ‘I can do this.’ I required two months of rehearsals every day that I wasn’t shooting, because I looked like spaghetti when I started.”
“This is the integral one for my character, because it’s not just a physical battle. Their relationship goes very deep, and there’s a huge history between them. So there’s a lot more to it than just the physical.”
But the physical helps.
Jamie Foxx will be teaming up with Kevin Hart for Black Phantom, and no, it’s not another superhero reboot where the originally white lead character has been made black, you racists. Originally announced back in 2009, Black Phantom tells the story of a hitman who gets double crossed, and then has to seek help from an unlikely source: the hitman that’s been sent to kill him, known as the Black Phantom.
The action comedy will reteam Hart with his respective Ride Along director and producer Tim Story and Will Packer.
I watched Need for Speed yesterday. Unfortunately, some burly men in black suits also had me sign a piece of paper saying that I can’t talk about what I saw until next week Monday, so instead you’ll have to just be happy with these 8 new character posters.
If you’re allergic to grizzled men with intimidating jawlines, then it would probably be best if you avoid this story over at Empire, where they compile a list of 10 Actors Who Could Play Joel in the Last of Us Movie.
Last night, at the SXSW Film Fest, a screening of the classic 1954 Godzilla was held by Gareth Edwards, director of the new movie about the King of Monsters. And at the end of the screening, Edwards had a surprise for the audience as he then proceeded to screen a 7-minute clip from the upcoming movie. Quint from AICN was in attendance, and has written up a breakdown of the entire clip, and I have to tell you, it sounds real good. There’s one monster-related spoiler that has been hinted at several times in the past, but which some folks may still want to keep as a surprise, so click with caution.
No, I’m not surprised that a True Detective/Star Wars mashup exists. I’m surprised that it’s taken this long to be made.
(Just a warning: If you haven’t seen up to True Detective‘s seventh episode yet, then you may want to skip this one for now)
As was started in The Avengers and continued in Thor: The Dark World, Captain America: The Winter Soldier will be boasting two post-credits scenes (well, one post-credit and one mid-credit). That’s not really much of a surprise, but what is is the revelation that one of those scenes was actually directed by Joss Whedon, while Winter Soldier directors Joe and Anthony Russo directed the other. And based on reports from those people that have seen the movie, Whedon’s scene will be a major Avengers: Age of Ultron teaser, so make sure you keep your butts in your seats when the movie is over.
If there was any kind of criticism that you could level at The Raid, it was that it didn’t quite have a story as it did a simple excuse for Iko Uwais to beat seven shades of hell out of people. The same criticism cannot be made about The Raid 2: Berandal which is a sprawling crime epic, spread over years, that has been compared to The Godfather. And a new 10-minute long behind the scenes featurette has been released where they talk about what has inspired this change in story scope.
Remember that short list of directors for Marvel’s Doctor Strange? Well, it has apparently just got shorter. And then longer again. According to THR’s Boris Kit, some directors have been chopped but Marvel are still interested in Mark Andrews (Brave) and Jonathan Levine (Warm Bodies, 50/50). And now joining them on that list is Scott Derrickson (Sinister, The Exorcism of Emily Rose).
Marvel is yet to confirm any of these though, so it could be that these three have nothing to with Doctor Strange at all. If they did though, my money would be on Derrickson. He can handle the spooky elements with aplomb and knows how to stretch a budget like a boss
Zach Galifianakis’ regular Funny or Die webseries, “Between Two Ferns”, is easily the funniest thing he has ever done. One of the appeals of it, is that no matter loony he gets, his guests are always willing to play along with it. Lets hope that is the case again for this week’s edition, and he doesn’t end up getting taken out by guys in black suits and sunglasses who talk into their sleeves, as he’s netted the biggest guest he’s ever had: Barack Obama, community leader.
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 12, 2014
