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Star Trek (2009 film) | June 28, 2007 | By: Anthony Pascale 39 comments so far

[UPDATE] Iceland Production Companies Fighting Over ‘Star Trek’ – Production Said To Be ‘Big’

It appears that there is more to the recent story that the new ‘Star Trek’ film will be doing some shooting in Iceland. Today in an article titled ‘Two Production Companies fight over Star Trek‘ the Reykjavik newspaper Frettabladid is reporting that a company called called Pegasus is competing with the previously reported firm (Saga Film) to work with Paramount on ‘Star Trek.’ Both companies are currently scouting multiple locations in Iceland along with people from the studio. Neither film would provide a comment and Frettabladid noted "the Hollywood men are very cautious and want the staff at the production companies to keep this quiet and so the travel plans are top secret." It also looks like there might be a substantial amount of shooting in Iceland. The article states it could be ‘bigger than Flags of our Fathers,’ the recent Clint Eastwood film that did much of its shooting in Iceland. The black sand beaches (pictured right) of Iceland stood in for Iwo Jima (Japan would not allow the shooting of battle scenes on the island).

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1-18-08/Cloverfield, Abrams | June 28, 2007 | By: Anthony Pascale 20 comments so far

There Is NOT A ‘Star Trek’ Teaser Showing With Transformers

There is another one of those rumors on the internets that there is a ‘Star Trek’ teaser trailer attached to the Transformers film, premiering next week. I can categorically say that this is 100% not true. There is however a possible kernal of JJ Abrams truth to the rumor. Apparently there is a teaser trailer for the JJ Abrams produced horror movie ‘Cloverfield’ that is out there and apparently will be shown with Transformers [see previous story]. Although it has been confirmed by sources that Cloverfield is a real JJ Abrams project, Paramount are still not even acknowledging that the film exists and apparently this whole hubbub is all by design (it is still not even certain if ‘Cloverfield’ is a real titled). It seems they are trying to build some sort of buzz for this ‘secret’ project. Anyway…no more need to send in any more tips about this ‘JJ Abrams’ trailer…mystery solved. Once the film is officially released next week we will hopefully have more information on the trailer and the project. The first ‘Star Trek’ teaser’ is a long way off.   MORE: Click for ALL Cloverfield coverage

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Orci/Kurtzman, Shatner, ST09 Cast | June 28, 2007 | By: Anthony Pascale 59 comments so far

‘Star Trek’ Writers Talk Shatner, Kirk, Spock & Terrorism

In a new interview with MTV, ‘Star Trek’ writers (and executive producers) Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman respond to the recent rumors that William Shatner is upset that he will not appear in the film. "We were very surprised about that" said Kurtzman. Orci followed up saying "We’re certainly hoping to include him in the shoot, because we have nothing but reverence and awe for the man." If true and if ‘in the shoot’ means ‘in front of the camera,’ then it could be inferred that the final draft of the script has a part for Shatner (although that does not mean it would be playing Kirk necessarily). With regards to the casting of the new Kirk and if he should….speak….like…..Shatner, Orci replied: It’s tough, because so many of the people that portrayed the characters in ‘Star Trek’ were distinctive. A lot of the writing created Shakespearean-type characters, such that you could imagine it going both ways. You could imagine it being open to interpretation, or you can imagine it being really faithful. We’re trying to figure out how to do it.

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Comics, Review, TOS | June 26, 2007 | By: Mark Martinez 5 comments so far

Review: Star Trek: Klingons — Blood Will Tell #3

Klingon High Council member Kahnrah and his granddaughter, K’Ahlynn, continue their discussion of Klingon experiences with the Federation. When espionage fails miserably as a tool for expanding the Empire (Blood Will Tell #2), the Klingons begin a campaign of conquest by subterfuge on the planet Neural (TOS, A Private Little War). Kinsman Krell, commander of the IKS Korthos, visits Neural on a regular basis and plants the seeds of conquest firmly in the hearts and minds of the village people after selecting Apella, a hapless villager, to be his liasion. In spite of Earther interference with the hill people, Krell is successful. K’Ahlynn finds little to admire in the Federation’s response to Krell’s efforts, but Kahnrah needs to know if humans can be trusted, and still hasn’t made a decision about Gorkon’s plan. Stardate: After 9521.6, following the explosion of Praxis, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country with a flashback to 4211.4, Commander Krell’s Log Entry #3854, IKS Korthos

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Star Trek (2009 film) | June 26, 2007 | By: Anthony Pascale 50 comments so far

‘Star Trek’ Scouting Iceland For Location Shooting

According to the Reykavik-based newspaper DV (via Trek Today), Paramount are scouting locations in Iceland for their upcoming new ‘Star Trek’ movie. No further details on what kind of location they are looking for, but it is reasonable to assume it would be some kind of alien landscape. Iceland is often used for commercials and films (such as Batman Begins pictured right) for it’s desolation and beautiful vistas.  Apparently Paramount are using a company called Sagafilm to assist them, check out their ‘showreels’ to get an idea of what Iceland offers. TrekMovie.com has already reported that the producers plan on using a large stage at Universal for alien planet shots so it is possible that the location shooting would be ‘2nd unit’ establishing shots (like the Alaskan glacier standing in for Rura Penthe shots in Star Trek VI). If it isn’t second unit, then JJ Abrams is already familiar with location shooting. Lost is shot almost entirely on location (especially the pilot which Abrams directed). On Mission: Impossible III Abrams shot all around the world, including China and Italy.

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Orci/Kurtzman, Star Trek (2009 film) | June 25, 2007 | By: Anthony Pascale 56 comments so far

Kurtzman Talks About His Respect For Trek’s Past – ‘Star Trek’ Not a BSG-style Reboot

In the last week we have heard a lot from Star Trek co-writer Roberto Orci, but now in a new audio interview at Voices From Krypton we hear from Orci’s other half Alex Kurtzman. Kurtzman noted that over the years many writers have contributed to the character of Trek but that the show was "very much Roddenberry’s and it always has maintained a optimistic and hopeful universe about exploration and ultimately also about friendship and family." He spoke about how much he and Roberto have been influenced by the many people involved in Trek’s past… It is an honor to be part of it now and to inherit that mantle, but I feel like we couldn’t have really been doing that without the instruction that everyone else has given us and the road map that has been laid out for us.

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Orci/Kurtzman, STXI Plot | June 24, 2007 | By: Anthony Pascale 52 comments so far

Orci & Kurtzman: Balancing geekery and nongeekery

Yes…even more on Orci and Kurtzman. Today the pair of Star Trek (2008) writers are profiled in the New York Times in an article titled ‘Character-Driven Films (but Keep the Kaboom).’ The piece covers their biography and discusses how they are just a couple of fanboys who made it big (interesting fact…Orci had a phone shaped like the USS Enterprise). Orci talks about what it is like balancing fandom with business: You can never be just a fanboy in the eyes of other fanboys, because you’re also, in a way, the establishment. You’re like, ‘No, but I’m you.’ But you’re accountable for all your decisions, and inevitably you can’t please everybody.

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Orci/Kurtzman | June 22, 2007 | By: Anthony Pascale 66 comments so far

Writers Talk About Process for ‘Star Trek’ Screenplay

At a writer’s workshop in Santa Monica on Thursday, Star Trek co-writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman talked about the craft of writing. Most of the discussion and Q&A topics were very ‘inside Hollywood’ discussions about making pitches, drawing characters, doing research, etc. However the subject of Trek came up every once in a while while describing how things work for them. For example they said while making the Star Trek script there came a point when they were falling behind and the studio was saying ‘we need the script – we need the script’…so Kurtzman says "we locked ourselves away for a good two months actually and didn’t take calls and finished it. And they got the script and it was greenlit the next day…which was most satisfying."

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1-18-08/Cloverfield, Abrams, Orci/Kurtzman | June 22, 2007 | By: Anthony Pascale 22 comments so far

Orci & Kurtzman Working On New TV Pilot w/ Abrams + ‘Cowboys & Aliens’ Movie + New Info on Abrams ‘Cloverfield’

At a writers workshop held in Santa Monica on Thursday, Star Trek co-writer Alex Kurtzman said that he and writing partner Roberto Orci are writing on a new TV pilot with JJ Abrams. The three worked together in TV before on the show Alias and it would be the writers first time back on TV since that show ended. Abrams has a multi-million dollar TV production deal with Warner Brothers, but so far has only announced one show for HBO (a medical drama). After the event Roberto Orci told TrekMovie that it was not a Star Trek show and that they still don’t know if the show is for network TV, HBO or cable. He did say it will probably have some sci-fi/genre elements (kind of like Lost and Alias have some genre elements but are not ‘spaceship scifi’), but they are still working out the details. If the show follows the usual pilot season schedule then it wouldn’t really kick into production until Spring of 2008, which would be after Star Trek enters its post production phase.

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Nimoy, Shatner, ST09 Cast | June 21, 2007 | By: Anthony Pascale 103 comments so far

Rumor: Shatner Jealous Over Nimoy?

There is a new rumor from the Gossip page of the NY Post stating that William Shatner is upset that Leonard Nimoy has been offered a cameo in the the new Star Trek film and he has not. Last week we reported on the Shatnervision segment where the Shat said he had not heard anything from Paramount and ‘it made him sad’. It is possible the NYP has convoluted that into Shatner being ‘furious.’ The report is denied by Shatner’s manager Larry Thompson and his office tells TrekMovie.com they have nothing else to say on it. No comment is available from Paramount either. The notion that Shatner has not been cast or even contacted but they are casting Nimoy cannot be confirmed. It is also worth noting that both actors have said they were not interested in unsubstantial ‘cameos.’ For now it is just another one of those rumors (remember the one about Tom Cruise playing Spock). If we hear anything more we will provide an update. 

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TOS Remastered | June 21, 2007 | By: Anthony Pascale 50 comments so far

Rossi Talks Upcoming TOS-R Episodes

In the latest issue of Star Trek Magazine (out now in the UK and elsewhere, in the US next week) TOS-R producer Dave Rossi talks about progress on the project. He says that the team are ‘really proud’ of the work and jokes that ‘the mini skirts look really good’ in HD. Rossi acknowledged that the biggest challenge is time, but noted that now that they have a ‘cache’ of 90 new shots of the Enterprise they can re-use (more than the 17 TOS used), they can focus on episode specific shots. Regarding those he talked about a number of episodes (some of which have already aired), but also gave some hints at what we can expect in four unaired episodes…detail below.

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Fan Fiction | June 20, 2007 | By: Anthony Pascale 11 comments so far

Guardian Premise Selected for Kirk v Picard ‘Fanisode’ Contest

The votes are in and the ‘Guardian of Forever’ premise is the clear winner and will be the jumping off point for the Star Trek Kirk vs Picard fan fiction contest (I am sure it was the endorsement from TrekMovie.com). Now that they have the device that brings Kirk and Picard together in conflict, mission director Andre Bormanis has set up the first ‘scene mission’ for the writers. The scene starts on the Guardian planet with Kirk and crew dealing with a freaking out Guardian causing serious problems in the space time continuum…and soon enough Picard and the Enterprise D show up. On the official blog for the event, Bormanis explains why he chose to have it start with Kirk. I sincerely hope there are some TrekMovie.com readers who are participating in this event as writers, and even as reviewers (either way you can win some prizes). I should note that after I covered the event in my previous article and interview with Bormans, I got to talking to the FanLib people they asked me to build and run the official blog for the event.

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Review, TOS Remastered | June 20, 2007 | By: Kevin Ganster 46 comments so far

Review – “Plato’s Stepchildren” Remastered

It’s one thing for television producers to torture their fictional characters, but it’s quite another when they torture their hapless viewers. Unfortunately, that’s the result of this pointless, turgid, plodding episode. “Plato’s Stepchildren” is among the “bitter dregs” of the third season, if not the entire series. Here’s the plot: The intrepid Enterprise crew responds to a distress call from a small society of aliens with psycho-kinetic powers who torture Kirk and Spock to force McCoy to make a permanent house call. The crew discovers the chemical source of the aliens’ power, juices themselves up with a super high dose, and beats them at their own game. The end.

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Orci/Kurtzman, Star Trek (2009 film), Trek Franchise | June 19, 2007 | By: Anthony Pascale 87 comments so far

Orci: New ‘Star Trek’ Film To Bring In New Generation – May Lead to New Trek on TV

Yet even more on Star Trek from Mr. Orci’s press tour for Transformers. In the second part of the IESB interview with Orci there is one Trek question related to the future of the franchise and if it will ‘re-establish’ the universe. Orci replied: Absolutely, it’s gotta bring in a whole new generation, it’s gotta bring in people who don’t know Trek so it absolutely trying to re-establish what this universe should be…

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Orci/Kurtzman, Trek Franchise | June 19, 2007 | By: Anthony Pascale 27 comments so far

Star Trek Reference/Cameo in Tranformers

[MINOR SPOLIERS]Transformers is sure to be one of the big blockbusters of this summer. The mainstream action movie is full of pop culture references including one nod to Star Trek.  The reference comes from the character of Bumblebee (pictured right). Bumblebee is probably the most realized Transformer in the film and certainly gets the most screen time. He befriends the movie’s hero Sam Witwicky (played by Shia LaBeouf). One of the running gags is that the radio in Sam’s Camaro (aka Bumblebee) tunes into all sorts of things all on its own.

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Orci/Kurtzman, Star Trek (2009 film) | June 18, 2007 | By: Anthony Pascale 72 comments so far

Orci: Big Budget – Maybe Not Big Stars [UPDATED]

In addition to talking to TrekMovie.com, Roberto Orci also talked to other members of the geekosphere at the Transformers event. The Star Trek co-writer opened up on Trek a bit more to IESB saying that he and writing partner Alex Kurtzman were ready to write the film because they "been researching that [Trek] all our lives…we read the novels, we just had it down cold." Regarding which series were favorites he said that he was partial to TNG and that Kurtzman favored TOS. The co-writer and executive producer also said that they wrote the script with a ‘big’ budget in mind. However Orci said they are not yet set on having big named stars and felt that you do not need them…: I don’t think so, because the star of the movie is Star Trek, you know,so another way to think of it is we feel confident in what the material is and what the paradigm of the movie is that we’re not trying to shove an Academy Award winner down your throat to sell it. Which doesn’t mean that we might not end up there but its not our first place to go there with that. more excerpts from IESB, IGN and SciFi Wire below…

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Orci/Kurtzman, Star Trek (2009 film) | June 16, 2007 | By: Anthony Pascale 88 comments so far

Roberto Orci Talks ‘Star Trek’ and Fandom with TrekMovie.com

TrekMovie.com had a chance to sit down with the co-writer of the new Star Trek film Robert Orci at a promotional event for his latest film Transformers. The event was mainly for Transformers, but I was able to ask some Trek questions. Regarding his and (writing partner) Alex Kurtzman being fans of the franchise Orci stated “obviously we have been fans of Trek forever." The writer said he couldn’t really talk about the plot for the new Trek film, except to joke “we trek through the stars…and it’s in the future.” (I guess that rules out another Star Trek IV style time travel plot). He did mention that the character of Kirk is in the film (which was already announced by Abrams last month). When asked if Kirk had a big part in the film he wryly smiled and said "maybe." Orci (who also shares an Executive producer credit) did offer a status report saying that they are currently in pre-production and casting with shooting planned for November (which is a month later than previously reported). He also confirmed that the working title for the film is just ‘Star Trek’ and that he is "pretty sure" the simple title will end up to be the final title, saying "how do you deny it?…they might pretend it is not the official title but what else is it going to be?” 

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Conventions/Events/Attractions, Feature Films (TMP-NEM), Star Trek (2009 film), TNG | June 15, 2007 | By: Anthony Pascale 87 comments so far

Frakes Skewers Paramount – Praises Abrams

At last weekend’s FedCon 16 in Germany Jonathan Frakes let loose on Paramount and the last Trek movie, but then had some nice things to say about JJ Abrams and the next movie. Regarding the box office failure Star Trek Nemesis, the director of two previous films joked "there was a perfectly good director available." He then used a couple empty seats reserved for Paramount to poke some fun at the studio. Holding up the chair signs he yelled out "this is a perfect example, see who is not here…Paramount…need I say more? That speaks volumes." To cheers from the audience he continued, "Paramount doesn’t show up. Paramount doesn’t know what to do with the franchise."

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Comics, Review, TOS | June 14, 2007 | By: Mark Martinez 14 comments so far

Review: Star Trek: Klingons — Blood Will Tell #1 and #2

As part of his valiant efforts to keep the Trek community informed, Anthony has foolishly graciously invited me to contribute reviews of Star Trek comics to the Trek Movie Report. What was he thinking? We’ll get started by catching up with IDW Publishing‘s second mini-series, Star Trek: Klingons — Blood Will Tell. The first two issues of this five-issue mini-series are already in comic shops. Blood Will Tell is scripted by brothers Scott Tipton and David Tipton. Interior artwork is by David Messina. Cover art is provided by Messina and Joe Corroney.

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Fan Fiction | June 13, 2007 | By: Anthony Pascale 31 comments so far

Premise Choices for Kirk v Picard Revealed – Include Khan and Guardian of Forever

The official site for the ‘fanisode’ writing contest ‘Kirk v Picard’ when live this afternoon. ‘Mission Director’ Andre Bormanis has laid out four choices as a possible premise for what has brought Captains Kirk and Picard together. One has Kirk appearing in cryongenic chamber in Picard’s time, another has Kirk and Picard both meet in present day Earth, another has Picard discover Khan (from Star Trek II) has destroyed the UFP in an altered timeline. The most intriguing (and the one leading the polls) involves the Guardian of Forever (from TOS "City on the Edge of Forever") malfuctioning/going crazy and sending out time quakes that bring Kirk and Picard together. The conflict rises from Kirk wanting to destroy the Guardian before it causes more damage and Picard defending it because it is a sentient life form. This set up is clearly made to show character differences between the action oriented Kirk against the cerebral Picard. For more details and voting check out the official site, or watch the premise videos with Wil Wheaton and George Takei. The winning premise will be chosen by June 19th, leading to the first ‘mission’ for potential writers.