News: Watch ‘Gravity’ tie-in short film, R2-D2’s anticipated comeback and more

The short film Aningaaq from Jonas Cuaron, son of filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron, has found its way online via The Hollywood Reporter, and is a companion piece to his father’s space thriller Gravity. If you’ve seen the feature, you’ll want to see this. If you still haven’t seen Gravity but are planning to, you may get a completely different experience watching the short that might make it worth checking out even more.

Filmed in Iceland, Aningaaq has been submitted for Oscar contention. Who knows – it might even go face-to-face with Show Me Shorts‘ entry Honk If You’re Horny.

Things that will happen

Via Variety, it has been confirmed that R2D2 will appear in J.J. Abrams’ upcoming Star Wars sequel. No word on C-3PO’s return. Poor guy… he was never anyone’s favourite…

Another hero of sci-fi geekdom, Simon Pegg, recently told MTV that he will be returning to the Mission: Impossible franchise for the fifth instalment.

Winona Ryder will return for Beetlejuice 2. And in case you didn’t know, there WILL be a Beetlejuice 2. (Via Badass Digest)

Another sequel announcement that may or may not thrill you is It’s A Wonderful Life: The Rest of the Story, which is set to continue the 1946 Christmas tale that starred Jimmy Stewart. (Via Time Entertainment)

Kickstart a Kiwi webseries

It’s difficult to provide original Kiwi TV content nowadays, which is why many hit ideas have come to life as webseries (Flat 3, Auckland Daze). Tina, an 8-episode NZ spin on Angry Boys and Lars and the Real Girl, wants to provide such content and is turning to crowd-sourcing to fund the promising project.

Tina is a web comedy series shot in Auckland, New Zealand, about a Herpetologist, Tuatara expert, with serious delusions involving his “Love Doll” girlfriend. The other characters – a reptile handler from Queensland, a failed social worker from New York and a mutinous mother from Pitcairn, hinder more than help his recovery.

Check out their amusing 4-minute Kickstarter pitch:

Tatum attempts epic split

While on set for the upcoming comedy sequel 22 Jump Street, Channing Tatum decided to demonstrate the astounding limits of his perfectly engineered body by imitating Jean Claude Van Damme’s impressive viral Volvo video where he performed the splits between two moving trucks.