Extras! Happy 50th birthday Nicolas Cage, DJ Caruso is selling time, Joe Johnston is headed to extinction, Kellan Lutz finds his passion, Clone Wars finally getting a finale and Tupac Shakur could have been a Jedi Master?! 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!

Yes, that headline does indeed not lie. Nicolas Kim Coppola, or as most of you know him “That crazy guy with the crazy eyes who keeps making crazy movies”, is celebrating his 50th birthday today. Well, yesterday. Or something, such are the tribulations of time zone differences. And to commemorate the un-Cage’d one’s half-century, here is a collection of all his most embarassing looniest unforgettable for all the wrong reasons best moments on screen.

Looks like Fox is bringing in a guy who knows a thing or two about bespectacled policemen, as Danny Cannon, who executive produced and directed the pilot episodes of all the CSI shows, has been tapped to executive produce and direct the pilot of Gotham, their upcoming drama that follows a young Jim Gordon of Batman fame before he became police commissioner and was just a plain detective.

You can’t even mention Star Wars: The Clone Wars around Darryn without him crying snot en trane about the fact that the popular animated show was cancelled without any resolution to its storyline despite the last episodes having already been produced (Not that it will be easy to differentiate from all the times he’s crying snot en trane about something. He’s a crybaby, is what I’m saying).

But cry no more – or just slightly less – little man, as the story will finally be getting the finale fans have been waiting for, but it just won’t be happening on their TV screens. Starting in May, Dark Horse Comics will be publishing a four-part limited series comic book adaptation of the show’s planned finale titled “Darth Maul: Son of Dathomir” which will be penned by Star Wars comics regular Jeremy Barlow. Click the link for a nice interview with Barlow on what the series plans to to touch on.

Dear creator of this new poster for Spike Jonze’s Her, we get it. Lots of people like this movie.

Speaking of posters (Again), here’s a rather cool gallery of fan created posters for 2013 movies that simply blow their official counterparts out of the water.

Director Joe Johnston has already dealt with magical boardgames, genetically engineered dinosaurs, jetpack seeking Nazis and a thawed out super soldier who has to battle a guy with the worst sun burn ever, so I guess it’s time to throw aliens into that mix as well. The Captain America: The First Avenger director has signed on for Extinction, a new alien invasion movie that will see a man trying to protect his family while some ET’s try to turn our planet into their latest time-share vacation spot.

We’re always giving out award to men and women for their contributions to film, but we always forget about the unsung heroes of movies, those things that actors just couldn’t do without. Yes, I said things. Welcome to Pajiba’s list of the The 10 Best Performances by Inanimate Objects in 2013.

So you’re planning on going to the movies this weekend and was thinking of asking that special lady you’ve had your eye on to join you. Problem is, when it comes to chatting with pretty girls, you have the social graces of shower mildew. No worries! Just play them this catchy jingle!

Let it never be said that those Jedi Masters are an elitist group. Well, except that one time they totally wanted to turn that one kid that ended up wiping them all out, just because he a couple years too old. But other than that, they let pretty much anybody into their group. Even hip hop artists.

According to Death Row Records chief recording engineer Rick Clifford, deceased rap superstar Tupac Shakur was close to getting a role as a Jedi Master in Star Wars: Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace before he was gunned down in 1996. And which Jedi Master role, you ask? None other than the one eventually claimed by a certain badass motherf@#ker.

“We always talked about [Tupac’s] film career and stuff. He was telling me that he was supposed to read for George Lucas and them. They wanted him to be a Jedi … I’m serious. Samuel L [Jackson] got Tupac’s part … He said, ‘Old man, keep your fingers crossed.’ He said, ‘I’ve got three movies coming up. One of em, I gotta read for George Lucas.'”

In case you were wondering, yes it is indeed still necessary to tell people that Notting Hill was just a movie and Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant don’t actually live there.

According to The Legend of Hercules Star and professional oak table impersonator Kellan Lutz, to prepare for a particularly emotional scene in the movie, he relied on Mel Gibson’s controversial Passion of Christ for his inspiration.

“There’s a scene halfway through the movie that’s the crucifixion, where I ask my father Zeus for help. I’m a man of faith, so I would just religiously watch ‘The Passion of the Christ,’ and I’d use that.”

Right, that’s his faith taken care of. To prepare his body though, he relied on some more traditional methods.

“Riding a horse is a great workout for your legs, and for your core. And wielding the sword — I’m topless most of the time, so I’m able to do push-ups in between takes without sweating through the costume.”

Here’s the first look at look at Channing Tatum’s Caine, a super soldier in the Wachowski siblings’ Jupiter Ascending, looking like the bleach-blond love child of Mr. Spock and Neo. Click to enlarge.

Director DJ Caruso (Eagle Eye, Disturbia) has signed on to direct Selling Time, a new supernatural thriller penned by Dan McDermott, which Will Smith’s name has been attached to since last year. Well, reattached to may be a bit strong. Smith has long shown some interest in the film’s lead, “a man who sells chunks of his life in an attempt to relive the worst day of his life so that he can change a tragedy”, but has yet to actually commit to being involved with it.

Caruso has thus been tapped to also pen a new draft of McDermott’s script, in an attempt to reel Smith in fully.

I am now entirely convinced that Shia LaBeouf is just trolling us all. Nobody can be this intentionally grating. Just when you thought this whole plagiarism mess was over and done with – I mean he had somebody sky-write an apology! –  he goes and craps in his own bed all over again.

We’re only 8 days into 2014, and already we have a major frontrunner for the coolest thing you will see all year. Just the thought of typing the next portion of this sentence gets me inappropriately excited, but here is a video of two duelling tesla coils accompanied by a percussion playing robot with a plasma ball brain, recreating the kickass theme song from Pacific Rim. ROCKET PUNCH!

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: January 8, 2014