Just when you thought it was safe…there is even more Trek talk from Simon Pegg’s Run Fatboy Run publicity tour. Believe it or not there have been many interviews we haven’t reported on due to repetition, but there are a couple of new interesting ones. First there is a video clip from MTV with Star Trek’s new Scotty talking about how everyone is ‘a fan.’ Plus Pegg talks to Moviehole about Comic-con.
On Saturday in Beverly Hills, the team behind the fan series Star Trek Phase II (formerly New Voyages) premiered the ‘Night in 1969 Edition’ for “To Serve All My Days” featuring Walter Koenig. The original Chekov was there, along with PII star/exec producer James Cawley and much of his cast and crew. TrekMovie.com was there as well…see below for a report along with pictures from the event.
The latest museum quality prop replicas from Master Replicas (which were announced at last month’s ToyFair) are now available for pre-order. This year MR are offering the Starfleet Assault Phaser (from Star Trek V and Star Trek VI) and the Mark IX Science Tricorder (from DS9, VOY and TNG feature films). Both ship in October, but often MR products sell out with pre-orders. More info below.
James Cawley is not the only veteran of the fan film Star Trek New Voyages (now Phase II) who is headed to the big screen in JJ Abrams’ new Star Trek. Jeff Quinn, New Voyages’ first Spock, has also landed a small Trek role. At the Saturday night screening for the Phase II episode “To Serve all My Days – 1969 edition,” Quinn talked to TrekMovie about his Star Trek movie experience.
This week in Sci-Fi we got McKellen talking Gandalf, Lucas downplaying Indy 4, Yelchin talking up Terminator (and Trek), Hirsch on Speed Racer, Keanu playing up the environmental Earth Stood Still, Wolfman getting real, Weinsteins doubling up on Fanboys and tons of new movie trailers and images. For TV we got news on Jericho, BSG, Smallville and much more
Simon Pegg’s Run, Fatboy, Run opened yesterday and the final interviews with the actor are now online. Showing the media’s interest in the new Star Trek, Pegg continues to be asked about his role as Scotty. He remains careful not to give out any spoilers, but offers insights into the role and the film. A few interesting excerpts below, including a testy exchange with the LA Times.
It is easy to lose count on the “Tom Cruise will be in Star Trek” rumors, but they are back again. On Thursday MSNBC reported Tom Cruise visited the set of Star Trek (something we reported in January). Even though the article noted it was “just a social call” the headline “Tom Cruise joining ‘Star Trek’ cast?” was very misleading (they also refered to Nimoy as ‘Dr. Spock’…geez).
TrekMovie has previously reported that Paramount originally planned on putting out the first full trailer for Star Trek this summer (most likely with one of the May releases of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull or Iron Man). The change of the Trek release date to next May put that plan into question, but a new report states there still will be a trailer with Indy 4. UPDATE: TrekMovie has been told no trailer with Indy.
This week in Science Friday, we bring you a new Cassini Watch with intriguing results from the March 12th Enceladus flyby, ask the question, "Where’s all the anti-matter?", consider taking a final trip to the Moon, debate AI ethics, and present a very special Gadget of the Week: The Aptera! Intrigued? Read on!
This week, the Watch brings you news on George Takei’s singing lessons, James Cromwell getting presidential, Visitor’s role on Battlestar, Wheatong geeking out on gaming, Eric Bana’s concerns regarding his image, TV appearances for Scott Bakula and Ethan Phillips, a birthday wish for Marina Sirtis, and more!
141 days after he declared ‘action’ for the first time, JJ Abrams has wrapped principal photography for his Star Trek movie. This comes in pretty much on the original schedule (although a couple of weeks earlier than the revised schedule). The 20-week shoot is long, but actually comes in 2nd place for the franchise behind the 24 week shoot of the last ‘epic’ scale Trek film, Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
In January we ran early excerpts from an unpublished interview with Leonard Nimoy, and now the full interview is available. In the interesting discussion, the original Spock talks about aging, photography, his long career and politics. He also talked a bit about the character of Spock and how it has influenced his life, excerpts below.
Out promoting Run Fatboy Run, Simon Pegg continues taking Star Trek questions. Regarding the size of his role in the film, the actor tells AICN he worked on the film for five weeks and “the rough and tumble chirpy engineer from Linlithgow is very much in the film.” He also talked to AICN about Abrams approach to Trek and to EW about fan reaction to his casting.
Strip-mining a planet to the bone has to begin somewhere. This week the Library Computer reviews "Day of the Vipers", the opening salvo of the Deep Space Nine prequel "Terok Nor" trilogy, from which any would-be planetary overlord might learn a thing or two. We also have a mini-interview with the book’s author and some thoughts on the works of Arthur C. Clarke.
Is it 2009 yet? While the next feature film is 408 days away, Trek fans can get ready to start checking off those days with the new 2009 Star Trek Wall Calendars which are now available for pre-order. Just like 2008, there will be a Kirk era calendar and another in the popular CGI art "Ships of the Line" series. TrekMovie.com has got some details and sneak peeks of the two new calenders.
There are some new shots available at Aint it Cool from yesterday’s Star Trek location shooting Lebec, CA. [UPDATED: AICN removed images at request of Paramount]
It has already been reported that members of the new Star Trek crew have had a chance to meet their predecessors (Quinto and Nimoy, Saldana and Nichols, Yelchin and Koenig, plus Pegg has met James Doohan’s son, Chris). Now, finally, William Shatner reveals on a new ShatnerVision video that he has met the new Kirk, Chris Pine (and Quinto as well).
Today is Leonard Nimoy’s 77th birthday. Words cannot express the admiration and respect that we have for the the man and the artist. So instead we offer only this tribute…in black and white
Simon Pegg attended the premiere of his new movie, Run, Fat Boy, Run, in Los Angeles last night and the actor continued to discuss his role as the new Scotty with a variety of news outlets. He describes the difficulty he had in accepting of the role of Scotty, Trek fandom, fan reaction to his casting, and his approach to the role.
New Feature: The latest column to evolve out of the old ‘This Week In Trek’ column is one for ‘Trek Links on the web’ that aren’t related to Trek Celebs, merchandise or other areas covered in our regular columns. For this week’s ‘Great Links’ we have a magazine honoring the importance of Trek in TV history and another honor for ‘space smack talk’ plus some lighthearted ‘photo challenges.’
In a series of recent interviews promoting his latest film, Run Fatboy Run, Simon Pegg also talked more about his (now complete) time on Star Trek. The new Scotty again expressed his intent to honor (but not imitate) James Doohan. Pegg also revealed who visited him on set, what he was not able to pinch from the set and who is doing his Scottish accent coaching. He also again showed off his inner geek.
Last weekend the latest in the line of leaked Star Trek movie footage hoaxes showed up at io9, bringing out Senator Vreenak once again to pass judgment. The folks at io9 decided to turn this lemon into lemonade and due to the lack of real footage, start a contest for fake footage. They have asked TrekMovie.com to joined in as well. So are you a faker?
Last week Ron Moore talked about his visit to the new Star Trek set and today there is more at Sci-Fi Wire. The TNG/DS9 vet writer/producer says after seeing Trek at Paramount again, “all that kind of really hardcore, Trekkie geek stuff came flying back.” Moore (who has not read the Trek script, but has experience rebooting the Battlestar franchise) opined on Abrams’ plan to bring Trek back.
TrekInk this week breaks into a "New Frontier" with the first issue of Peter David’s "Turnaround" mini-series (due out this week). This story introduces an action-packed tale of Edward Jellico, Mackenzie Calhoun, and a stolen ship with a fancy new propulsion system. A must-have for fans of the New Frontier novels, but what about those new to the storyline?
While attending the San Francisco Asian American Film Festival last week (where we reported he arrived with a ‘Star Trek wrist injury’) John Cho did a couple of interviews. The actor joked he got injured “going for the almond dispenser” at craft services, but also talked about fight training and also gave his thoughts on being a Korean American playing Sulu.
This week in SciFi brings news on possible comebacks and sequels for Dune, V, Friday the 13th, Dark Knight, Fantastic Four, Green Lantern and more. Plus new images and videos, including Indy 4, Speed Racer and a scary new Wolf Man. In TV news there a few obituaries as well as some birth announcements, including a Star Trek-themed comedy! Plus there are Hugo nominations, including one for some fan-made Trek.
io9 are running an article titled “First Clip of New Enterprise?”…is it?
Today is William Shatner’s 77th birthday. The original Captain Kirk is still going strong both acting as well as with all his other myriad of activities (as pitchman, writer, philanthropist, entrepreneur, etc.). He is an endless source of inspiration and entertainment and so we thought we would honor him with a list of the 77 reasons why we think he is awesome.