George Takei has talked before about how he has met with Star Trek director JJ Abrams before the film was cast and that he enthusiastically approves of the new Sulu, John Cho. But in a new interview with CinemaSpy, the original Sulu says that he helped Abrams overcome concerns over fan reaction of casting Sulu with a non-Japanese actor.
Looks like we can add another superstar name to the list of celeb visitors to the set of JJ Abrams Star Trek. An insider tells TrekMovie.com that none other than Harrison Ford dropped by during the last week of shooting. Apparently he wasn’t there long (and no he does not have a cameo), but did have lunch with Abrams. Ford’s visit was at a different time than that of Steven Spielberg (who recently directed Ford in Indy 4).
Over two months after being the last studio to announce support for Blu-ray, Paramount has finally announced titles, but so far no Trek. The initial five Blu-ray releases (coming out between May 20th and June 3rd) are catching up on previous films released on DVD like There Will Be Blood, and Cloverfield. Then, starting on June 24th Paramount will issue its first Blu-ray title on the same day as the DVD, “The Spiderwick Chronicles” with ‘more to follow.’
On Sunday, April 28th, I was fortunate enough to attend the memorial for composer Leonard Rosenman (who passed away in March). It’s no secret that Rosenman was one of the composers of the Star Trek movies but this event proved to be even more Star Trek-centric than I’d anticipated.
In a pair of new interviews, the original and new Uhuras are talking about Nichelle Nichol’s suprise visit to the Star Trek set. Nichols talked about what it was an honor for her and how she surprised the cast with her visit (and possibly gave a spoiler), while Zoe Saldana talked about how ‘humbled’ she was to meet Nichols and may also have dropped a spoiler.
Volkswagen has a new ad campaign based around a mock talk show featuring an early 60s VW Bug (named Max) as a show host. Each commercial features a celebrity guest, including model Heidi Klum, basketball coach Bobby Knight, astronaut Richard Searfoss, actor/singer David Hasselhoff, and Star Trek’s Leonard Nimoy. Nimoy’s commercial just started airing this week. VIDEO below…
Carolyn Porco is still hard at work as the leader of the Imaging Science team on NASA’S Cassini mission at Saturn, but readying for her role as a consultant on planetary science and imagery for JJ Abrams Star Trek. In a new interview with CinemaSpy, Porco says she is “imagining a lot of fun brainstorming sessions with J.J Abrams and [special effects supervisor] Roger Guyett.” She also talked about how she sees her role on the film.
Faran Tahir, first revealed to be playing a captain in the new Star Trek on TrekMovie.com is out promoting his role in Iron Man and is also fielding Trek questions. The Pakistani actor, who recently has played a lot of villains (including one in Iron Man), tells SciFi Wire he welcomed the opportunity of playing a role where his ethnicity is actually not an issue at all…
The Great links has found a lot Trekerific items from the interweb in the last couple of weeks. Firstly, it appears that Spock is inspiring an artistic renaissance. Plus Bruce Campbell is keeping it Original, while Rock band is going for the Next Gen, all the while a small town in Nebraska is getting an enterprising new subdivision….check it all out below.
Dream On Spiner Fans — Brent Spiner’s newest CD, Dreamland, was released on March 11th, to much deserved acclaimed. There are many words that could describe Dreamland, yet, like dreams, the most appropriate is pastiche. Trekmovie.com talks with Spiner about the CD and provides a look at this unique musical journey of the imagination.
You would think after last month’s publicity tour for Run, Fatboy Run we have heard all we can hear from Simon Pegg, but in a new interview with the official Star Trek Magazine, the new Scotty talks about how he would have loved to hear on-set stories from the original Scotty and he also talks about the production design as well how the film will play with the fans.
This week of Sci-Fi has lot of returns and come-backs from Ferrigno, to Schwarzenegger to Tony Stark and Sarah Connor and more. Also Del Toro finally makes it official, the Lost producers start spilling some beans, Sansweet talks Star Wars TV. Plus we got pics and vids from Iron Man, Indy, Speed Racer, Spirit, Wall-E and so much more.
If you haven’t seen it, the CBS sitcom “Big Bang Theory” is a show about four nerdy scientists that is rife with references to comic books, sci-fi and especially “Star Trek.” The official show synopsis on CBS.com even refers to ‘Klingon Boggle.’ This week’s episode opened with a discussion of the new Star Trek movie. See video of that and more below.
This week’s Science Friday is full of goodies from a new Cassini exhibit, how the full moon just got stranger, a rough ride on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft, regenerative medicine, and a very interesting gadget of the week: Keyboard infused pants. Yes, you read that correctly. More after the break.
Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay opened today and star John Cho, who plays Sulu in the new Star Trek film, has been busy promoting the film’s release. To that end, numerous interviews with Cho have popped up on the web, a few of which have Cho talking a little Trek. Here are some quotes (read below).
Just before this Passover week began, a new Shatner CD called “Exodus: An Oratorio in Three Parts” hit the stores. The recording is from a live performance of Shatner, accompanied by The Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, dramatically reading the story of the Hebrew Exodus both from the Haggadah (text used on Passover) and the bible.
Another video interview with Star Trek director JJ Abrams is online (part of his Cloverfield DVD release promotion). Abrams contrasts Cloverfield and Trek with AP, saying that Trek, unlike the ‘found video’ style of Cloverfield, is ‘massive’ and ‘epic.’ The director also talks about what the experience of shooting Trek has been like and the beginning of the editing process.
Tonight’s episode of Battlestar has Baltar buying his own BS and stirring up the fleet. In this weeks BSG column, we got video previews, a new video Q&A with Adama himself, NY Comic Con panel video, BSG girls in bikinis! Plus a Star Trek reference from last week’s episode, in case you missed it.
This week, the Watch brings you news on even more nominations for Patrick Stewart, disappointing news for Walter Koenig, Trek alumni participating in an Asian film retrospective, and DS9 stars discussing projects past and present, including Colm Meaney defending suicide? But the brunt of this week’s CelebWatch focuses on supporting actors from the various Star Trek films.
Star Trek composer Michael Giacchino was the guest speaker at a recent ‘Zocalo Lecture’ at the LA County Museum of Art, where he talked of his path from a kid creating his own soundtracks to working with Spielberg on video game scores. Giacchino said that it was JJ Abrams who took him from games to TV and movies. He also talked a bit out how daunting it is for him to be taking on the Trek score.
May to September is traditionally "summer convention" time and this year there are many events for Star Trek fans. Convention panels, collectibles, celebrity Q&As, and news help fans bide the experience of waiting for May 2009. See below for Trekmovie.com’s guide this year’s summer conventions.
Star Trek director JJ Abrams was interviewed on G4’s Attack of the Show yesterday to promote the new Cloverfield DVD release. Abrams talked about viral marketing, Cloverfield sequels, Lost and a bit about the beginnings of post-production for Star Trek. See the video interview below.
While at Starfest in Denver last weekend (see report), Star Trek’s new Spock, Zachary Quinto, gave an interview to Screen Geeks Radio where he talks about his Star Trek experience, working with Leonard Nimoy and director JJ Abrams…and what it was like the first time he put on those pointy ears. Details below.
In addition to the the female lead, Zoe Saldana (Uhura), JJ Abrams’ new Star Trek film has quite the bevy of beauties. Two of the women headed to the 23rd century we haven’t heard much from are Jennifer Morrison (best known as Dr. Allison Cameron on House) and Rachel Nichols (aka Rachel Gibson on Alias). Both play key roles in the life of Kirk and both talked a little Trek in recent interviews.
FedCon, Europe’s biggest Star Trek and Sci Fi convention took place over the last weekend in Bonn, Germany and over 5000 EuroFans came out to see the sci-fi stars. Among the many guests were TNG stars Brent Spiner, LeVar Burton, Marina Sirtis and John de Lancie. Of particular interest were comments from Burton about hopes for another TNG move.
Colm Meaney (TNG and DS9’s Miles O’Brien) continues to enjoy success in his post-Trek acting career with regular film roles including a new movie coming out this week (Three and Out) and a new series coming up on ABC (Life on Mars). In a new interview with Rotten Tomatoes the actor talks about life on and after Star Trek, and how he doesn’t regret never doing a DS9 film.
Twenty one months after they began their work digitally remastering Star Trek The Original Series, CBS Digital has wrapped production on the project. With the final new effects shots for the last episode (“The Cage” ), CBS D has now completely brought Star Trek into the digital age. The TOS-R producers have sent TrekMovie.com a statement about the end of the project:
“Judging by the pollution content of the atmosphere, I believe we have arrived at the late 20th century” – Spock, STIV On this Earth Day, TrekMovie.com takes a look at Star Trek’s best environmentally-themed episodes and films.
Following closely on the heels of the classic Original Series episode "The Enterprise Incident" comes "Star Trek: The Enterprise Experiment," a comic book sequel by the same writer, D.C. Fontana. This week we review the first of the five issue mini-series telling the story of the experiment with the Romulan cloaking device stolen "The Enterprise Incident." Plus we have news and previews on upcoming comics