Extras! Batman and Superman want a phoenix, Hugh Jackman grows an evil beard, Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise could go like hell together, The Kurgan goes to war, and Mandela lied about jobs?! Plus much more!

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!

We kick off today with this trailer for a new Tomb Raider fan film titled Croft. As you can see from the trailer, the film has already picked up a few accolades. This is not the only reason we’re featuring it though. See Noelle is kind of Tomb Raider obsessed and I’m afraid that if I don’t give it some airtime, she’s going to use her superior Brazilian jiu jitsu to cripple me from the eyebrows down. Do you know how tough it is to “talk” through your eyebrows?

While the world is still reflecting on Nelson Mandela and all he did for the South African people, it turns out that the movie about Nelson Mandela didn’t do as much for the South African people as they claimed. According to the South African National Empowerment fund, Mandela: The Long Walk to Freedom sustained 12000 much needed local jobs over the course of two years, during which the $35 million movie (the most expensive local production ever) was being made.

But according to a recent report from non-profit, non-partisan fact-checking organization Africa Check, “nearly 11 000 of those employed were employed for just two days each and paid around R439.”

Clearly whoever designed this first poster for video-game adaptation Need for Speed is a student of the school of blue and orange posters.

Thanks to his many years as Wolverine, Hugh Jackman’s facial hair growing credentials are definitely not in question. And he is going to need all his face follicles to be on fine form as he has landed the role of the villainous Blackbeard in director Joe Wright’s Pan. The film is set to be a new vision of the well known Peter Pan tale, and will supposedly show a newly reworked origin story for the titular hero of Neverland that will see him and Captain Hook start out as friends battling the pirate Blackbeard before some event drives them apart.

Apparently the role of Blackbeard was first offered to Javier Bardem who turned it down, giving Jackman the opportunity to play his first real on-screen villain.

In what may be the most obvious casting in the history of everything if it should happen, stuntwoman and grindhouse film star Zoe Bell is apparently close to getting the nod to join The Expendabelles (get it? Bell and Belles?), the all female version of Sylvester Stallone’s Expendables.

“No, I have not yet [been offered] but we should print that they should. I’ve been in and I’ve met [them]. Yes, I’ve had meetings with people but they haven’t got a director attached yet so that’s the next thing. I would obviously love to be involved in it.”

Yay! Between Two Ferns is back, and it’s a special holiday edition!

The last time Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt shared a screen together, they totally sucked. All the blood out of the necks of pretty girls, that is. Now the Interview With a Vampire co-stars may just be reteaming for Go Like Hell, the true story of “the competition between the Ford Motor Company and Italian sports car designer Enzo Ferrari, which culminated at the 1966 Le Mans race.” Cruise is currently set to star as car designer Carroll Shelby while his Oblivion helmer, Joseph Kosinski, directs. What’s interesting about Pitt’s possible involvement though, is that back in 2009, when Michael Mann was still supposed to direct, it was Pitt that was attached to star in the project.

And the drums of war keep sounding. And by drums of war I actually just mean casting calls, as the Duncan Jones directed World of Warcraft has just added Clancy Brown and Daniel Wu to its cast. “Wu?,” you ask. “Clancy Brown and Daniel Wu,” I repeat. And now that we’ve got that lame joke out of the way, we can move on. Wu is an award winning Hong Kong actor, while Brown has been around on screen for ages, with his most well known performances probably being that of the Kurgan in Highlander and providing the voice of Lex Luthor for many years in the Superman animated show.

They will be joining the previously announced cast of Travis Fimmel, Ben Foster, Paula Patton, Rob Kazinsky, Toby Kebbell and Dominic Cooper in the video-game adaptation.

Here’s a new poster for I, Frankenstein that is either using some really moody lighting or star Aaron Eckhart really needs to stay out of the tanning booths.

Back in 2000’s Gladiator, Joaquin Phoenix got completely pimp slapped by Russell Crowe despite him trying to cheat his way to victory, but 15 years later (or should that be 1835 years later?) he may just get an opportunity to get some revenge… On Crowe’s son! According to reports, WB are seriously looking to cast Phoenix in a villainous role in the upcoming Batman vs Superman. Which role? Well, the Lex Luthor rumour force is strong with this one. Phoenix plays a superb bad guy, and if he accepts the offer it could just be a piece of unexpected but really inspired casting.

Sources apparently indicate that while previously attached names like Jason Momoa and Callan Mulvey are still in the mix, they would be looking to play some smaller, background villains.

In other BvS news, Argo‘s Chris Terrio has apparently been tapped to take another crack at polishing the film’s script, and based on how well it turned out the last time he wrote something for Ben Affleck, I’m kind of excited.

Die Hard is one of the most perfect action movies ever made, but that doesn’t mean that they didn’t goof off/mess up while filming though. And now somebody has had the bright idea of cutting a new trailer for the film using these bloopers. So with that, ladies and gentlemen, I give you DERP HARD!

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: December 19, 2013