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!
The Oscars are just around the corner, so what better way to kick off proceedings today than with this great new supercut video showing a collection of all the Best Picture winners for the previous 84 years.
Now you may have noticed that in the previous link I didn’t use the full official name of the “85th Annual Academy Awards”, that’s because it no longer is. Official, I mean. In an attempt to seem all hip and young, the old starched shirts that make up the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science have decided to ditch the full title in favour of it’s more colloquial name (which is technically incorrect, since Oscar is the name of the actual award statue). Here’s the Oscars show co-producer, Neil Meron, trying to sell it:
“We’re not calling it ‘the 85th annual Academy Awards. It’s called ‘the Oscars’. It’ll be like the Grammys. The Grammys don’t get a number, and neither will the Oscars.”
Fox’s official twitter account for The Wolverine tweeted the following new still from James Mangold’s upcoming superheroic sorta-sequel, along with the message “The past is always behind you, but the memories still remain”. And while that’s all nice and touchy feely and stuff, I can’t help to think that looking at that pic, Wolvie’s not getting very philosophical. My caption would’ve read “The f@#$ you say to me?”
It’s sort of well known that if you’re looking for honesty, then Hollywood is not the place to get it (high class Venezeulan prostitues covered in cocaine though…. Well, so I’ve heard) which is why one unnamed Hollywood director’s candor has come as such a big suprise. The mystery director is one of the folks that will be voting on this year’s Oscars, and he decided to call in a reporter from THR to witness as he completed his Oscars ballot, complete with some brutally honest running commentary. Here’s a sample of his open-faced brilliance, as he speaks about having to pick a Best Picture.
“This is a preferential system. I’m putting Amour at No. 9 because I’m just pissed off at that film. Beasts of the Southern Wild is a movie that I just didn’t understand, so that’s my No. 8. Les Miserables goes in seventh place — it’s not just the most disappointing film of the year but the most disappointing film in many years. Above that I’m putting Silver Linings Playbook, which is just a “blah” film. Django Unchained will go into my fifth slot — it’s a fun movie, but it’s basically just Quentin Tarantino masturbating for almost three hours. Next up is Life of Pi because of how unique it is and for holding my attention up until its irritating ending. Argo is gonna go in third place, but I don’t want it to win because I don’t think it deserves to win and am annoyed that it is on track to win for the wrong reasons. Actually, come to think of it, do we have to put a film in every slot? Because what I want is for my best picture choice to have the best possible shot, so why even give any support to the others? [He has his assistant call the Oscar voting helpline, finds out that voters can leave slots blank and promptly removes all of the aforementioned selections.] I’m basically OK with one of two films winning. Lincoln is going in my second slot; it’s a bore, but it’s Spielberg, it’s well-meaning, and it’s important. Zero Dark Thirty is my No 1.”
If you’re a child of the 80’s then the name Bobcat Goldthwaite probably means nothing to you. That’s because except for the first one, the Police Academy films were so horrible, that your brain spontaneously erased the memory of them to avoid any emotional scarring. Goldthwaite famously played the screechy voiced loony, Zed, in those films, but in later years has reinvented himself as a fairly respected indie film director. And for his next film, Willow Creek, he’s going big. Bigfoot that is.
The film is going to be a found footage film following different characters who claim to have seen the mythical Sasquatch. It won’t be a documentary styled film though, nor will it be cheesy horror either. The film is said to be a mixture of satire and suspense that will be “exploring the idea of bearing witness,” by using the bigfoot phenomenon to highlight people’s personal beliefs. Oh and it will also have some kind of musical number.
Speaking of, if you’re not a fan of musical numbers, then your patience is going to be sorely tested with this year’s Oscars. The show’s producers, Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, who both have a string of stage musical credentials, will be turning the event into one giant tribute to the Hollywood musical.
Dreamgirls’ Jennifer Hudson and Chicago’s Catherine Zeta-Jones will be reprising their roles for a number each, while several key cast members for this year’s Best Picture nominee Les Miserables, including Hugh Jackman, Anne Hathaway, Russell Crowe, Eddie Redmayne, Aaron Tevit, Samantha Barks, and Helena Bonham Carter, will be belting out the hits.
A new clip and featurette have popped up for original The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo director Niels Arden Oplev’s English language debut, Dead Man Down. Both the clip and featurette serve as an introduction of sorts to Noomi Rapace and her character, who blackmails Collin Farrell’s hitman into getting revenge on his crime lord boss, played by Terrence Howard.
Earlier today we learnt about Universal’s plans to go all Mama-riffic, but those folks ain’t stopping with just some creepy mommy movies. Speaking to THR, Universal chairman Adam Fogelson revealed their plans for more Bourne and Snow White, rebooting Van Helsing and also when they want to get their Fifty Shades of Grey kinkiness on.
“Universal monsters are probably the thing people most equate with our library. But monsters are not superheroes. Virtually every monster story is by definition a tragic story. We are developing another Mummy. We are looking at rebooting Van Helsing because I think the idea for the Van Helsing story was a great way of solving the question of, “How do you make a blockbuster out of monsters?”
“We’re actively developing [a Snow White and the Huntsman sequel] right now with Kristen’s character central, as well as the Huntsman role. We think that for a first movie out of the gate to do basically $400 million worldwide, there is a lot of opportunity. I don’t think Rupert [Wyatt] is pursuing the next Snow White as a directing opportunity.”
“The point of [The Bourne Legacy] was to create a universe, a world and characters that give us a lot of freedom and flexibility in how we go forward. Yeah, the movie didn’t perform the way the last one did. It also didn’t cost what the last one did. It performed more along the lines of how the first one did. I absolutely see us doing more Bourne, 100 percent yes. Matt has talked about the possibility of coming back, and we totally respect that and are excited if and when he wants to have conversations. But I think the last movie gave us a big bunch of options to pursue a next chapter.]
And then finally, he also addressed the criticisms of all those pervy moms fans that they are taking too long with the big screen adaptation of Fifty Shades of Grey.
“I certainly understand why some people might take that point of view. But I don’t believe that [author EL James] had any interest in going to a studio where rushing it into production was the vision. I don’t believe that the second or third film would have benefited from that strategy. And I think that there are totally legitimate questions about what this book is as a movie. I will tell you that it is an absolute priority for us. It’s conceivable that we could be ready to release it as early as next summer.”
Henry Cavill has been chatting to Total Film about Man of Steel, specifically what it was like donning the red and blue kevlar onesie, as well as what it is about ol’ Supes that makes this version of the iconic character distinct.
“I loved wearing the suit! You put it on every morning and you feel fantastic. I mean, you’re wearing a Superman suit, for goodness sake!”
“This is not a movie about Zack Snyder directing something, or Henry Cavill playing a character… it’s a selfless movie about a character who is going through what he is going through. He wants to do the right thing, but he’s fallible, like the rest of us. He messes up, and that makes us love him more.”
Director Marc Webb has been up to his teasing ways again, as he’s tweeted another image related to The Amazing Spider-Man 2, and this one is a complete headscratcher. It was easy to figure out the eye goggles on Spidey’s new mask, and the pic of the locker had fans foaming at the mouth about the villainous implications, but a collage of 32nd American President Franklin Delano Roosevelt with the hashtag #thepassage? Yeah, I got nothing.
We haven’t heard much from Shane Acker since 9, his 2009 feature adaptation of his own dark post-apocalyptic ragdoll adventure (now there’s a niche market, if I’ve ever heard of one) short film of the same name. There’s been some talk of him helming a new Thomas the Tank Engine feature film (Ringo Starr fans rejoice!), and now Reel FX brings word that Acker has signed on to direct a CG-animated adaptation of popular Dark Horse Comics series, Beasts of Burden. Strangely enough, they list the film as still unnamed. Now this may a bit out of left field, but might I suggest “Beasts of Burden” as a possible title? Crazy, I know.
The screenplay is being penned by Turbo and Shrek Forever After scribe Darren Lemke, and will focus on “the baffling behavior (tail chasing, barking at ‘nothing’ at all) of our favorite four-legged friends. In the charming town of Burden Hill, there might be more to these animal antics than meets the eye. The town is inhabited by the supernatural, and when its paranormal activity becomes even more abnormal than usual, it’s up to a group of fearless canines called the Watch Dogs to protect its citizens – and humanity – from the mysterious things that go ‘bump’ in the night.”
So… doggy ghostbusters? Sign me up!
So you might say that I was not a fan of A Good Day To Die Hard. What upset me most about John McClane’s latest horrible bombastic adventure, was that the recipe for how to make a good Die Hard movie is not exactly a secret. You don’t need Tom Cruise and his sweaty forehead doing Cirque de Soleil impersonations to crack this code. Hell, even sometimes funnyman Ben Stiller knew what he was doing when he made this parody spoof, titled Die Hard 12, back on the short-lived Ben Stiller Show.
Last Updated: February 21, 2013
Sir Captain Rincethis
February 21, 2013 at 16:22
Another sterling read, cheers!
mornelithe
February 21, 2013 at 21:17
Hey Kervyn,
Have you watched the Golthwaite directed ‘God Bless America’…it’s like Heather’s but without the high school kid focus. It’s a really amusing film (though, in a dark way). The lead actor is Joel Murray (who joined Golthwaite in One Crazy Summer, back in the day). Highly recommend that movie, and no, it’s not some American propaganda tripe.