Extras! Elysium is 'max'ed out, Captain America is a tease, Some Superman secrets shared, Halle Berry is getting maternal, A hobbit feels the strain, and Happy belated birthday, Tom Hanks! 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!

I watched World War Z last night. I’ll give you a minute to be jealous……………………… There, better now? You can expect my full review on Monday morning, but here’s a slight spoiler: zombies be loco in this movie. And by loco I mean really well rendered CGI waves of death. This new featurette explains exactly how a combination of motion capture and some clever AI produced the “zombie swarm” effect seen in the movie.

If you’re one of the unfortunate few who watched the absurdly crass and unfunny Movie 43, you could be forgiven for assuming that any of the stars involved in it were a) blackmailed into doing it and b) probably want nothing to do with “comedy” ever again. It seems that Halle Berry will not be deterred though. She’s revealed that she’s once again going to try her hand at making people laugh with Mother, an indie comedy she’s developing to star in next year.

The comedy will see her as a mob bride-to-be, who leaves her gangster husband at the altar and goes on the run to get away from his matrimonial revenge. While hiding out though, she meets a young boy and pretends to be his mother to give her a better cover, but wacky hijinx ensues. We hope.

If I’ve learnt anything from this newly released teaser poster for Captain America: The Winter Soldier, it’s that maintaining a star-spangled vibranium shield is apparently quite the nightmare.

Don’t worry, Steve. That will buff right out.

Keeping things with the capes and tights crowd. There’s been a whole lot of discussion around Man of Steel recently. Zack Snyder, David S. Goyer and Chris Nolan’s take on Superman deviates from what came before in a number of ways, those ways being either good or bad, depending on who you’re speak to. But while we debate the merits/demerits of these changes, another question should be asked: Why were they made in the first place?

Well, Snyder and Goyer have released this enlightening new podcast addressing a number of these issues, and revealing a number of the film’s “secrets”, including details of the original (even more) extended Kryptonian battle, why the film’s battle for Metropolis happened the way it did, and why Lois Lane is no longer the world’s most unobservant reporter. If you’re not into listening to things, then head over to Empire where they’ve got all the info in an easy to read bulleted format.

After rounding up one hell of a cast, it’s all been pretty quiet on the Out of the Furnace front, but the first few images for the latest from Scott “Crazy Heart” Cooper have finally been released, as well as what could be a slight tweak to the film’s previously accepted synopsis. Previously it was said to be about an ex-con (Christian Bale) who upon release from jail discovers that his younger brother (Casey Affleck) has been brutally murdered, and goes looking for justice. USAToday, who also brought us these pics, describes it differently though, citing its about a steelworker who “confronts a local criminal (Woody Harrelson) while searching for his missing brother, an Iraq War veteran.”

Cooper’s claim that while being a crime drama, the film is also about the hardships of blue collar workers, also seems to align with this new description.

“This is the story of this man who works in a blast furnace but with themes of justice, retribution and courage.”

Whatever the hell this movie is actually about though, there’s no denying that with Cooper at the helm and a cast that also includes Sam Shepard, Zoe Saldana, Willem Dafoe, and Forest Whitaker, this is one to keep an eye on.

In typical Kervyn fashion, I forgot a birthday yesterday. And this was a rather important one, as one of my favourite actors, Tom Hanks, turned 57 yesterday. And since I missed the boat, I’m just going to link to this article on Geeks of Doom celebrating the man’s life and career.

Sean Astin, better known as that other Hobbit who totally didn’t have a thing for Frodo Baggins, totally, has joined the cast of Guillermo Del Toro and Carlton Cuse’s upcoming vampiric FX series, The Strain. Astin will play Jim Kent, a character in the drama series’ pilot episode, who is best friends with the lead, CDC doctor Ephraim Goodweather (Corey Stoll), and who inadvertently releases a vampiric viral plague when he is coerced into removing a cabinet from quarantine.

Yesterday we showed you the first almost 80’s pop-rock album cover-like poster for Spike Lee’s English language remake of Oldboy, and now we have the first three images from the film. And they’re kind of weird.

Please add this to the already mountainous pile of reasons to rage about us no longer having IMAX in South Africa: Neil Blomkamp’s Elysium is being digitally remastered for release on the ultra-large format on 9 August.

Sticking with Blomkamp’s latest, here’s a Guide To a Better Life on Elysium, a new piece of viral marketing telling us all about life on the fictitious space station. I have to admit, it does sound rather lovely. Now if only I had $250 million to get me a sweet pad there.

Like many of you, I’m sure, I hate doing laundry. Please note: I said “hate” not “scared of”. You may feel the same way, but that may all just change after watching this rather cool Evil Dead inspired short film from director Peter Bradley of Trilobite Pictures, called Laundry Night.

A routine trip down to the basement, a frightening place we all know well. The all too familiar feeling of being watched, and the things that can happen when we’re alone. These are all elements of our newest short film, Laundry Night. It is a simple story inspired by an Alfred Hitchcock quote: “If it’s a good movie, the sound could go off and the audience would still have a perfectly clear idea of what was going on.” There is a real misconception that making something natural for the screen is easy. It’s not. And in this case, cinematic naturalism is made all the more difficult by the removal of dialogue. In a way though, this challenge is what makes Laundry Night all the more fun and scary. After all, what’s more frightening than the eerily familiar?

Last Updated: July 10, 2013