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!
- “Live long and prosper”. A term you probably heard often recently as the world mourned the passing of the great Leonard Nimoy, who popularized the phrase as a Vulcan greeting used by his character Spock on Star Trek. But where did it come from? Let the legendary man himself explain.
- Recent rumours may have suggested that Chris Pine could be the next Green Lantern, but the guy who was already cast in the role may have something to say about that. Rapper/actor Common was of course all set to play Green Lantern John Stewart in George Miller’s failed Justice League: Mortal movie, which fell apart at the 11th hour back in 2007, and it’s a role he still wants to big to the big screen.
“I would love to be John Stewart and play Green Lantern. That was one of those things where I was so excited because we rarely see African-American superheroes or people of color as a superhero. I think it would be great for the world to see, and for people to see, and for Hollywood to put that out there, too. But just for the world to see, just for kids to be able to see, for all nationalities to see a person of color as a superhero, too.
Plus, it’s just for the fun. Even the pre-production of getting the ‘go’ and studying Green Lantern. John Stewart is from Detroit, so he was this guy that was really for the community, and I really related to that. He used his powers to help people in the community. I was like, ‘Man, I’m going to be John Stewart, the Green Lantern!’ Unfortunately, it didn’t happen at that time. But maybe the possibility is that it could. I would love to.”
- Poster of the day: Avengers: Age of Ultron AMC variant
- Dear, fledgeling screenwriters. You can stop what you’re doing, as it’s all for nothing. Somebody has already pitched the greatest movie of all time over on Reddit.
- It looks like Johnny Depp has pulled a Harrison Ford (that’s an actor, not a muscle group), as he has injured himself on-set while shooting the next Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Depp’s injury is unconfirmed, but he had to be flown from Australia, where the film was shooting, back to the United States for surgery. It is believed though that despite the medical procedure, the injury was not too severe and the production will not be halted as scenes not including Depp’s character of Jack Sparrow will just be shot for the next few weeks until he is recovered.
- People change (unless you’re Nick, who still looks like a wrinkly newborn baby, just with more orange hair). This axiom is never more true than in Cracked’s list of 16 Famous People Who Seemingly Turned Into Different Humans.
- I’m a sucker for models. No, not kind… Actually, yes, very much that kind, but right now I’m talking about the scale models that used to be part and parcel of movie making magic, but which has since mostly been replaced by CGI. That’s why I loved watching this really cool doccie on the practical effects used to bring the original Robocop to life.
- We’ve been hearing about another The Ring movie for so long that I would have forgotten all about it if I hadn’t watched this creepy video tape the other night. I have no idea what the tape was about, just that I had a sudden urge to cancel all my plans for next weekend. Anyway, Bloody Disgusting have finally managed to unearth some details about the new movie, which will be titled Rings and reportedly will be a prequel “takes place before the 2002 remake that starred Naomi Watts as a woman uncovering the mystery behind a haunted VHS tape. Rings will take place years before the creation of said tape and tell the origin of Samara’s reign of terror.”
- When Game of Thrones returns for a fifth season next week, don’t be surprised if you do a double take when you see Maisey Williams’ fan-favourite character Arya Stark. It would seem the young character has had a bit of a makeover, and no longer looks like a dirty little boy.
- Looks like Jake McDorman just loves living in Bradley Cooper’s shadow. McDorman can currently be seen on the big screen co-starring with Cooper in American Sniper, and now he’s gone and landed the lead role in Limitless, the TV adaptation of the movie of the same name that Cooper starred in 2011. McDorman won’t be playing the same character though, but rather a different person named Brian Sinclair who “discovers the power of the mysterious drug NZT and is coerced into using his newfound drug-enhanced abilities to solve weekly cases for the FBI”. Because every single show nowadays has to have the lead helping the authorities solve cases (even when he’s the Devil!!).
- With a new live-action take on Cinderella about to hit cinemas, it’s time to take a reverential look back at Disney’s 1950’s classic original. Honestly.
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, 2015