Extras! 26 March 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!

When Jimmy Fallon recently banned dancing on his show, there was only one man with feet loose enough to stand up to his tyrannical ways: Kevin Bacon!

Earlier today, we heard all about the geriatric T-800’s in Terminator: Genesis, so here’s a little something to balance out the age scale. THR’s Borys Kit is reporting that the young Attack the Block star John Boyega is being eyed to also join the cast as the son of Miles Dyson (played by Joe Morton in Terminator 2), who is essentially the inventor of the Terminator technology. If you recall, in T2 Arnie and Sarah Conner visit Dyson’s house, and his son is present there and sees the Terminator in action. Many of years of therapy for his fear of Austrian bodybuilders would soon follow. I presume.

I watched Divergent yesterday, and while you will have to wait until Monday for my full review, I will say this about it: The film, much like The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, has made the laudable decision to downplay the unrealistic schmaltziness of their source material’s romance angle, in favour of just crafting stronger heroines. The guys at Film School Reject also noticed this, and would like to talk about it for a bit.

We’ve previously had a peek behind the curtain of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug’s thrilling barrel chase scene, but that scene – and most of the movie – couldn’t have been possible without those techno-wizards over at WETA Digital, who have released behind the scenes look at the movie’s impressive VFX.

Apparently Kevin Spacey has developed a taste for playing badass politicians. The House of Cards star has signed on to play erstwhile UK prime minister Winston Churchill in Captain of the Gate. Serving two terms as Prime Minister, both during WWII and then again from 1951-55, Churchill is considered by many as one of greatest wartime leaders of the 20th century, and this will be looking at just how he rose to that position, including his battles with the British parliament and co-ordinating the defence of Britain against Adolf Hitler’s forces.

I’m hoping that the writers play a bit loose and fast with the script though and that right at the end, Hitler and Heinrich Himmler captures Churchill, only for the Prime Minister to have a very suspicious box delivered to them. “VAT IZ IN ZE BOX?! VAT IZ IN ZE BOX!!!”

Variety have done a very entertaining Q&A with Robert Downey Jr. (as all Q&A’s with RDJ tend to be), where discusses everything from the scope of The Avengers: Age of Ultron, him being replaced as Tony Stark one day, and how Captain America invited him and his wife to join them in a hot tub.

Poster of the day:

Serial Oscar collector Meryl Streep will be teaming up with a couple of other Oscar nabbers, as she’s signed on to star in Ricky and the Flash, a new film directed by Jonathan Demme (Silence of the Lambs) and written by Diablo Cody (Juno). Alas, Ricky and the Flash is about a team-up between Ricky-O and a certain scarlet speedster.

In the film, “Streep would play a woman who abandoned her family when she was younger to find fame and fortune as a rock star. Decades later, she decides to be a mother again to her estranged children, one of whom is going through a rough divorce.”

Here’s a new behind the scenes pic from Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, showing off Toby Kebbell’s alpha Ape, Koba, getting a bit antsy in the Ape Village. Well, it would show that if you use your imagination to replace all those guys in mo-cap suits with 800-pound gorillas. Hell, maybe even throw in a Scarlett Johannson or two. The power of imagination!

In anticipation of Captain America: The Winter Soldier (which, by the time you read this, I’ll be on my way to see) I rewatched Captain America: The First Avenger last week. I’m always surprised at how much I love the charming, pulpy retro first half, and how bland, and by-the-numbers I find the second half. But apparently, the film has some much more prevalent problems that I appeared to have missed. Like just how many levers get pulled. If you want to know what I’m talking about, then watch this utterly hilarious Honest Trailer for Captain America: The First Avenger.

If you don’t want to know anything about the origin story for the Michael Bay produced, Jonathan Liebesman directed Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, then I would say that this is the end of the line for you for today. Maybe go back and laugh your ass off that that funny video up above again, if you feel you haven’t med your Extras quota. For the rest of you, who don’t care too much about MINOR SPOILERS, carry on.

CinemaCon is currently happening over in the States, and attendees at yesterday’s presentation were treated to unreleased trailers from upcoming movies, including TMNT. The guys from BadAssDigest were in attendance, and gave a brief description of what they saw.

At first the trailer hides the turtles – there’s voice over from William Fichtner’s Shredder explaining the city has gone to shit. We see criminals with automatic weapons and buildings exploding and maybe – just maybe! – it seems like this could be a Hobo With A Shotgun version of a city in decline. It turns out that this version of Shredder hates that crime and violence, and so he started a program to create heroes. That’s juxtaposed with TCRI ooze canisters and experiments. You know, the ooze that created the turtles. The ooze that Shredder made… with April’s dad. Yes, the VO is Shredder telling April he and her dad made the turtles.

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 26, 2014