December 2007

Hemsworth Wraps Production on Star Trek

Chris Hemsworth has wrapped up his production work playing George Kirk on the new Star Trek. Kirk’s new dad is now back in his home country of Australia where he attended the AFIs eariler this week (and where Star Trek co-star Eric Bana picked up a couple of awards). Hemsworth tells news.com.au that he had to pinch himself the whole time he was in Hollywood. But the star of the soap Home and Away isn’t letting it go to his head, saying “I don’t know what to say. I got lucky, I guess – right place, right time.”





3rd ‘Trek To The Troops’ Coming This Tuesday

Trek to the Troops, an organization that uses science fiction as a means to celebrate to the US Armed Forces, will be holding their 3rd Annual Meet-and-Greet on December 11th. Special guests at the event will include Tim Russ (VOY: Tuvok), Chase Masterson (DS9: Leeta), Natalija Nogulich (TNG: Adm. Nechayev) and Chris Doohan (son of James Doohan). Music will be performed by perennial Trek guest star Vaughn Armstrong’s Enterprise Blues Band. Organizers also promise “lovely models.” The event will be held at the Bob Hope Hollywood USO at LAX in Los Angeles, California from 1pm to about 8pm. More information at the Trek to the Troops website.






Pegg Wins Brit Comedy Award – Talks A Little Trek

Last night the new Scotty, Simon Pegg, picked up the Ronnie Barker Writers’ Guild Award at the British Comedy Awards (but his cop movie parody Hot Fuzz lost out to The Simpsons Movie for Best Comedy Film). Sky Showbiz also got the actor to talk a bit about the new Star Trek film. Apparently he hasn’t started shooting yet and doesn’t even have his own copy of the script.




Paramount Updates Star Trek Credits & Official Synopsis + Adds Production Partner

Today Paramount issued their 2008 preview to the press and it includes a very brief entry for Star Trek. Unfortunately the only artwork included was the same poster released at Comic-Con. The biggest news is in relation to some new producer names and a new production partner. Plus there is an official (yet very generic) synopsis as well.


WGA Organizing Star Trek Strike Day At Paramount

As the WGA strike goes on, the guild is regularly doing “themed” rallies and pickets, such as the ‘Horror writers exorcism’ last week. For next Monday they are staging a Star Trek themed event at Paramount. The strike captain is currently rounding up Star Trek writers, producers and actors and already has confirmations from a number of them including Scott Bakula, Brent Spiner, Judy and Gar Reeves-Stevens, Harlan Ellison and many others. They also hope people working on the new Star Trek film will join them. There will even be a band (The Intergallactic Blues Band). Fans are also welcome to come and show their support.


‘Star Trek: The Tour’ Starts January

It was announced long ago, but details have finally been released for ‘Star Trek: The Tour.’ The Tour is a 50,000 square foot traveling interactive exhibit of Star Trek sets, props, models, motion-simulator rides and more from all five Trek series and all ten Trek films. The tour will visit 40 cities around the country, kicking off in Long Beach California on January 18th, 2008.



Stewart, Shatner & Trek On Hand At Jules Verne Festival This Week

On Thursday the annual Jules Verne Film Festival kicks off in Los Angeles and Star Trek is very much a part of this year’s event. Presiding will be Captain Picard himself, Patrick Stewart, who is the festival’s “President of the Jury.” Malcolm McDowell, William Shatner and other Trek celebrities will also be showing up. Details below




Strike Changes Quinto’s Future On Heroes

[Heroes Spoilers] When the WGA strike first started it was reported that the Heroes production reshot a new final scene for their ‘chapter finale’ which aired Monday night. This new scene featured Zachary Quinto’s Sylar getting his powers back. Originally the Heroes team had planned to write Quinto out of the show while he was shooting Star Trek. In a new interview with TV Guide, Heroes creator Tim Kring explains how the strike gave them a chance to keep Quinto around…


Nimoy Readying His Return As Spock

Over the weekend Leonard Nimoy made a surprise appearance at Lightspeed Fine Art’s 8th Annual Celebrity Charity Benefit in Orange County, CA. According to a report at StarTrek.com Nimoy joined Trek alums Robert Picardo, Nana Visitor, Garrett Wang, and Connor Trinneer signing autographs and helping with the auction. The actor also told the crowd that he will soon be donning the pointy ears for the new Star Trek feature currently in production.


Striking Sci-Fi Showrunners Offer Fan Prizes For Support

Well the WGA strike continues, and it looks like some of the initial optimism from last weeks renewed talks has turned to pessimism. As reported before, one of the things writers are doing to ask for fan support is join in the Pencils2MediaMoguls campaign where you buy $1 boxes of pencils and send them to studio executives in the name of your favorite show. Now showrunners from Battlestar Galactica, Eureka, Lost, and Smallville are offering up prizes to fans who send in the boxes.