The latest X-Men First Class featurette takes a fascinating look at the countless hours a team of makeup artists spent making Jennifer Lawrence look like Mystique. It shines a spotlight on some of the unsung heroes of the production crew, who’ve dedicated their lives to bringing fantasy to life, and don’t always get the credit they heh heh heh heh heheheheheheh hee hee hee hee ho ho ho ho hahaha hahahaha hehehehehehe heh heh hmm hee hee hee LOOK AT ‘EM! IT’S A TEAM OF BRITISH AND ASIAN CHICKS LOVINGLY TICKLING JENNIFER LAWRENCE’S BOOBS AND VAGINA WITH HORSE FUR! Oh jeez, I think I just blue my load. (EH OH, MORE LIKE X-MEN FIRST ASS, GNOME SAYIN? OH!)

So much personality, and without even Andy Serkis to help animate them. I’m telling you, Jennifer Lawrence’s boobs should warrant serious awards consideration. “What? No, leave me alone, mom! I’m doing important work!”

[via Collider]

Unbeknownst to the rest of the crew, Michael Bay had personally rigged the sixth skydiver with 30 pounds of C4

Although Michael Bay might be a total cheesedick when it comes to things like “dialog” and “storytelling,” he practically has a Ph.D in demanding that his movies include things that are awesome. In this new video, awesome means stuntmen wingsuit BASE jumping off the Sears Tower (which, to be fair, is reeeeally awesome).  Just released by Moviefone, the Transformers 3 featurette focuses on the making of my favorite scene, the scene where Lieutenant Josh Duhamel of the 101st Xtreme Sports Division, Wingsuit Platoon leads his men on a dangerous BASE jumping mission.  In addition to the wingsuit footage, it shows Michael Bay’s writing process to be just the way I’d always imagined it:

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I don’t usually post featurettes (making-of segments) because they’re usually boring as hell, but if you fast-forward to about the 1:40 mark of this one, you can hear the Scott Pilgrim sound editors and mixers talk about creating the effects for the film.  Before that, it’s mostly your standard, asinine press-tour fluff. “Working with Edgar Wright is like joining the army.”  “It’s a film about how far you’re willing to go to win the heart of a girl you truly love.”

What?  That’s not what it’s about at all.  Why do the non-writer crewmembers always get asked that?  You don’t ask the screenwriter how the microphones work.  Anyway, it’s a fairly interesting video about one of the most well-edited, well-executed movies I’ve seen in a while.  Though I must point out there weren’t nearly enough (*SPROING*) sound effects.  You can never have too many of those, I always say.  In related news, the voices in Gary Busey’s head are created by recording the sound of a dead wildebeest being dragged across gravel, which is then processed and replayed through an old Peter Frampton talk-box while an old man plays the fiddle.  They help get him pumped up to shadowbox.

[via InContention]

I normally don’t post behind-the-scenes featurettes, but since Inception is my most (possibly only) anticipated film this summer, I’ll make an exception.  They shot it in six different countries on an estimated budget of $200 million, using as little CGI as possible.  The two-minute video gives us just a small taste of the functioning, 360-vertical-degree-rotating hallway they used to shoot some of the surrealist, anti-gravity action sequences.  Oh God, why can’t it be a bigger taste?!  I NEED it, man!  (*rubs Inception featurette on gums*)  YAHTZEE!

The dream world in this makes the dream world in the Nightmare on Elm Street remake (snow… inside!) look like the local carnival haunted house that’s just a hobo in a mask whose pants keep falling down.  I’ll say again: Eternal Sunshine meets Dark City as a heist film.

Opens July 16th. [-via ThePlaylist]

This new featurette from Disney shows some of the finished effects from Alice in Wonderland alongside the same shots being filmed with a green screen (what I’d like to see: the production meeting where they decided on Johnny Depp’s retarded dance at the end).  It’s pretty cool to see stuff stripped of its FX magic, but also brings back some emotional memories from childhood, when I found out fairies weren’t real and my step dad made me bury my wand and leotard in the back yard.  F*cker.

After the jump, check out some more behind the scenes video of Wes Anderson scrutinizing the set of Fantastic Mr. Fox — something the DP had earlier criticized him for not doing — from the DVD extras.  And in case you were wondering whether he gently strokes his chin while supporting his elbow with the other hand like a finishing school headmistress, hell to the mothereffin yeah he does.  And yet, that movie was awesome.  So congratulations, Wes, you cartoonishly foppish dandy boy you.  This guy grew up in Texas?  He must know karate or something.

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