Extras! Vin Diesel has a Vision (maybe), Paramount gets animated, Robot Justice Chicken League, Bradley Cooper is out for Bad Blood and Trouble, James Franco looks at himself and David Cronenberg doesn't like superhero movies?! 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 a little touch of absurdity, Robot Chicken style! The hilarious Adult Swim series is doing a DC Comics Special next month, and they’ve released a trailer for the TV movie. It’s funny, it’s violent and shockingly it’s done with the full blessing of DC and Warner Bros. It will feature an all-star cast that includes Seth Green as Batman, Robin and Aquaman, Neil Patrick Harris as Two-Face, Alfred Molina as Lex Luthor, Nathan Fillion as Green Lantern, Megan Fox as Lois Lane and Breckin Meyer as Superman.

Talking about superheroes, they’re real big business at the movies lately, and with the smash success of Chris Nolan’s Batman trilogy bringing in a mature comic book film that appeals to film afficionados as much as fanboys, it looks like just about everybody loves them some supes. Well, except David Cronenberg that is. The director recently spoke to NextMovie, where he expressed his disdain for the genre calling the The Dark Knight trilogy “boring”:

 “A superhero movie, by definition, you know, it’s comic book. It’s for kids. It’s adolescent in its core. That has always been its appeal, and I think people who are saying ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ is, you know, supreme cinema art, I don’t think they know what the f*ck they’re talking about.”

“Christopher Nolan’s best movie is ‘Memento,’ and that is an interesting movie. I don’t think his Batman movies are half as interesting, though they’re 20 million times the expense.”

“What he is doing is some very interesting technical stuff, which, you know, he’s shooting IMAX and in 3-D. That’s really tricky and difficult to do. I read about it in ‘American Cinematography Magazine,’ and technically, that’s all very interesting. The movies, to me, they’re mostly boring.”

Keeping things superheroic… Vin Diesel is such a tease. The bald-headed actor went and got all the fanboys in a tailspin when he mysteriously changed his Facebook profile pic to none other the Vision, the robotic Avenger that many are hoping/expecting to see in Joss Whedon’s Avengers sequel. Now granted, it’s just a profile pic, but the last time Diesel started mysteriously posting pics on Facebook it ended in a new Riddick movie. He has since changed the pic again, with the just the following message: “Note to self… Ha ha… Thanks for the positive energy.”

Oh wait. We’re not quite done with the capes and tights crowd yet, as Marvel has revealed The Avengers 2‘s release date. The film will be Hulk smashing it’s way into theatres on May 1, 2015.

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has tweeted the first pic from the set of the Fast and The Furious 6, featuring him lounging with MMA-turned-movie star Gina Carano:

@TheRock “Beast & the Beauty.. Me & my FAST 6 partner in ass kickins (and fun) @ginacarano#BadAssChick“

Jose Padilha’s Robocop – or as we like to call it, “Ooh, right in the childhood!” – is getting another cast member in the form of ‘Without A Trace’ star Marianne Jean-Baptiste.

Paramount Pictures’ Animation division may not quite be on the same level as Pixar or Dreamworks, but that may all be changing as the studio has lined up several high profile animated projects, including a mysterious project (what else?) from JJ Abrams, as well as a Gary Whitta (Book of Eli) scripted adaptation of Penny Arcade comic “The New Kid”.

Taken director Pierre Morel is in talks to direct the thriller The Hitman’s Bodyguard. I’m really hoping it’s a movie about Kevin Costner protecting a bald and bar-coded Timothy Olyphant.

In honour of the film’s release today, JoBlo has a great little interview with Expendables 2 star and general asskicker supreme, Jason Statham, who tells us how scripts aren’t quite as important as some may think.

Bradley Cooper may still be nursing a third Hangover, but he’s already eyeballing his next project which will likely be the crime thriller Bad Blood and Trouble. He’ll be up for the role of a Miami detective who’s in love with a married woman, the husband of whom has been targeted by a group of criminals.

James Franco is going to make a movie about James Franco. Also Lindsay Lohan. I kid you not.

This series of Spaghetti western inspired Star Wars posters by artist Tim Anderson is about as cool as you can get.

Despite being more than month late, the official statement that George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road has begun filming (on July 9 already) has finally come out. While the statement’s tardiness is a point of interest, what’s even more interesting is the sort of plot synopsis buried amongst all the promo gibberish:

“Mad Max: Fury Road”–the fourth in the franchise’s history–stars Tom Hardy (“The Dark Knight Rises”) in the title role of Max Rockatansky, alongside Oscar(R) winner Charlize Theron (“Monster”, “Prometheus”) as Imperator Furiosa.

According to Miller, “Mad Max is caught up with a group of people fleeing across the Wasteland in a War Rig driven by the Imperator Furiosa. This movie is an account of the Road War which follows. It is based on the Word Burgers of the History Men and eyewitness accounts of those who survived.”

Word Burgers of the History Men? Oh snap, it looks like we’re in for all kinds crazy on this one!

I’ve often posted all kinds of fake trailers or parody videos around here, so I need to be upfront about this next one. This is not – I repeat NOT! – a fake video. This is a real life trailer for a real life movie that’s getting released in real life theatres to apparently be seen by real life people. On lots and lots of real life drugs apparently.

There’s a chance that that film travesty may get a wider cinematic release in the USA that The Raid did. Kill me now.

Last Updated: August 17, 2012