Extras! 28 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!

So you’ve seen The Matrix a bajillion times, and walk around in sunglasses and a leather coat all day (also bandages on your head, as a result of all the times you tried to run up walls). You’re an uber-fan, is what I’m saying. If that is true, then you should get a kick out of these newly unveiled missing scenes from The Matrix. Kinda.

Ever wondered what the Simpsons would look like in real life? Well, you shouldn’t, because it’s pure, high-octane nightmare fuel.

All those myths and legends had it wrong. The most magical thing about Merlin is actually just how many damn films and TV series about him that studios can pull out of their… hats. The latest comes from Disney who are developing a new Young Merlin movie, not to be confused with BBC’s TV series about a young Merlin (See?!). This is an adaptation of T.A. Barron’s YA novel “Merlin: The Lost Years”, which will be penned by Patrick Massett and John Zinman, two of the guys behind the original Tomb Raider movie.

Poster of the day: Bad Johnson. Yes, this is a real movie about a womanizer whose penis is magically transformed into a tiny man. Really.

Are you currently a highly paid attorney, plastic surgeon, chartered accountant, etc Well you need to quit your job right now, and start learning how to cut hair, as that’s where all the real money is at! Just ask Ice Cube, who’s been offered a mid 7 figure deal to reprise his role for Barbershop 3. Daaaaaaayyyyuum!

Chris Nolan has been talking about Interstellar, but in typical Chris Nolan fashion, he doesn’t really reveal anything about Interstellar. What he does talk about are things like why he chose to shoot film over digital, what his feelings on 3D are, etc. Pretty much the only details about the film the uber secretive director divulged is his inspiration for the tone of the film.

“I grew up in an era that was a golden age of the blockbuster, when something we might call a family film could have universal appeal. That’s something I want to see again. In terms of the tone of the film, it looks at where we are as a people and has a universality about human experience.”

There are a lot of mutants in X-Men: Days of Future Past. Like, a lot.  So to help you to remember the only ones that will probably have more than 10 lines of dialogue, Fox has released this new “Roll Call” TV spot that also gives a few small snippets of new footage.

Sticking with X-Men: Days of Future Past, were you one of those X-Men purists who were upset that the original story was changed so that now it’s Wolverine and not Kitty Pryde who goes back in time? Well, then there may just be some good news for you (if you don’t mind a mild spoiler or two), as Fox showed off some footage from the film at CinemaCon and according to this write-up from THR, who were in the audience, there may be a lot more to the time travel shenanigans than just old Logan pulling a Marty McFly.

I’ve always maintained that cats are evil. I just didn’t know that they could be the type of evil that breaks your spine.

The first reviews for Darren Aronofsky’s Noah have been (ahem) flooding in this week, and you can probably trust the opinion of the people who wrote them, since they probably have actually seen the movie. Those people who were breaking out the pitchforks and torches over the film’s controversial religious content, before the film was actually seen by anybody though? Well, star Russell Crowe has a message for you: You’re stupid.

“We’ve had probably over a year now of very harsh criticism from a bunch of people who have put their name and stamp on an opinion that’s not even based on the movie or seeing the movie, just an assumption of what it could be or how bad it could be or how wrong it could be in their eyes, which I think quite frankly is bordering on absolute stupidity. Because now, I think, people are seeing the movie and they’re realising how respectful it is and how potent it is.”

“You come out of this movie and you want to talk … about our stewardship of the earth, our relationship to animals, what is spirituality, who am I in this world – all these fantastic subjects for conversation,” he said. “Art that can do that for people is a wonderful thing.”

For the record, the film is actually getting decent reviews, with many saying it’s the rare blockbuster that combines insanely ambitious spectacle, with hard moral questions and very complex characters.

And from a movie about a natural disaster being picked on by stupid people, to movie about a natural disaster filled with stupid people. Roland Emmerich’s 2012, as flashy as it is, is not exactly a good movie. Which is why you can probably expect this latest edition of Everything Wrong With… to have a field day with this one.

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 28, 2014