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
While JJ Abrams is out doing promotional interviews for the upcoming DVD release of Cloverfield (which he produced) some Trek talk is slipping through. Even though last week Abrams touted the respect for Roddenberry’s vision, in some new interviews the Star Trek director made it clear that his new Trek is going to be ‘realer’ than ever before and targeting a whole new audience.
Deep Space Nine’s Nana Visitor is headed into horror movie history. In a ScreenGeeks interview conducted at StarFest in Denver over the weekend, Visitor revealed that she will be playing Pamela Voorhees, the mother of Jason the hockey-mask wearing serial killer in the 2009 remake of Friday the 13th. Visitor also talked about her upcoming guest spot on Battlestar Galactica.
We are a year away from seeing JJ Abrams Star Trek origin story, and so this week the Library Computer journeys back to 1986 to look at how the books tackled this moment in (non canon) Trek history with "Enterprise: The First Adventure," by Vonda McIntyre. Also this week we look forward with news on 2009 Trek books coming out of New York Comic Con.
Zachary Quinto (the new Spock) and Nichelle Nichols (the original Uhura) took a trip to StarFest over the weekend to give Colorado fans a Trek treat. Quinto stuck with his code of silence but impressed the crowd with his respect for the role of Spock. And Nichols provided more details on her visit to the new Star Trek set. Nana Visitor also attended and and gave the ‘Niners’ and singing treat.
If you have HBO or Showtime and were hoping to see JJ Abrams Star Trek film on either, you are out of luck. Today Viacom (parent company of Paramount Pictures) announced a joint venture with MGM, UA and Lionsgate forming a new premium cable channel with exclusive rights for all four studios. The not-yet-named channel launches in the Fall of 2009 and the official press release names the new Trek movie as one of the ‘exclusives.’
As reported before, John Cho (Sulu in the new Star Trek) is out promoting his new Harold and Kumar comedy, and usually saying the same stuff about Trek, but he did drop a new factoid in an interview with Canda’s Jam Movies. Apparently Jonathan Frakes (TNG’s Riker and director of two TNG films) came by the set for a visit.
Summer movie season is soon upon us and this week’s SciFi Saturday has lots to talk about, even if Steven Spielberg says you shouldn’t believe everything you read in the Internets. In addition to Indy 4 news we got stuff on X-Files plot, Dark Knight’s Viral, Incredible Hulk critiques plus pics and vid from Iron Man, Speed Racer and more…and TV news too.
At the New York Comic Con this weekend, Diamond Select Toys has revealed their (previously announced) Original Series era Tricorder toy, the final piece of DST’s TOS ‘landing party’ set. They also announced their seventh retro action figures set to be of Sulu and the Gorn, both of which are new designs (but in the MEGO style). Images, details and pre-order info below.
Director JJ Abrams is now starting the long process of post-production for his Star Trek feature film and he talked to the LA Daily News about project. Abrams noted that “there hadn’t been this kind of action in a `Star Trek’ movie before” but he also went out of his way to talk about how (even though the film is totally ‘new’) it honors Trek’s past…
CBS has updated their syndication schedule for the next two weekend’s of Star Trek Remastered. “Mudd’s Women” which was to air this weekend, now air’s next weekend and this weekend will be a repeat of “Conscience of the King.” “The Cage” (the unaired TOS pilot), originally scheduled for next weekend, is now off the schedule entirely, but it may get back on the schedule in the future.
Today we dive into another edition of Science Friday with a look at steps towards a positronic emotion chip, a walk through virtual worlds, the progress of NASA’s not-so-warp-capable Phoenix mission, and another look at solar wind powered space travel. Also check out our new gadget of the week, OLED wallpaper.
By your command – things are heating up with the centurions of the Cylon fleet in tonight’s episode of Battlestar Galactica, “Ties That Bind”..and you don’t have to wait until tonight to see it. Plus BSG creator (and Trek vet) Ron Moore has inked yet another deal, this time to write some sci-fi movies.
Trek Celebs are all over the place this week. Colm Meaney is getting tough, Kurtzman and Orci are going underwater, and Quinto is hanging with C-3PO. And in captain news we got Patrick Stewart taking the subway, Avery Brooks in mass, and William Shatner flipping off motorists. Plus lots of Trek celebs are headed to Germany this weekend for the big FedCon.
Dominic Keating (Lt. Malcom Reed on Star Trek Enterprise) reveals in a new interview with the official Star Trek Magazine, that he had an audition for JJ Abrams new Star Trek feature film. Keating also drew a sharp contrast between Enterprise’s 4th season showrunner Manny Coto and show creators Rick Berman and Brannon Braga.
At last weekend’s Grand Slam Sci-Fi Summit, Zachary Quinto and Leonard Nimoy (the Spocks for JJ Abrams’ Star Trek) gave an interview to E! where they talked about Spock’s arc, old school fans, new fans, set designs and more. Excerpts and video below
This week’s Library Computer looks at "Night of the Wolves" a personal journey into the heart of the Cardassian occupation of Bajor and the second book in the ‘Terok Nor DS9 prequel trilogy.’ Plus William Shatner talks about his new autobiography, "Up Til Now".
The recently announced 2nd Season DVD set of the digitally remastered Star Trek: The Original Series now has box art and more details. The set includes similar bonus features as Season One, plus 2 special ‘bonus episodes’ and has a retail price of $99.00. UPDATE: Amazon have it available Pre-Order for $58.99. More details below.
FanMade has lots of exclusive news and images from the world of fan films. Firstly, the Starship Farragut team are announcing new animated episodes which will be very much like TAS and feature some celebrity voices. Also Phase II have announced a release date for their ‘To Serve All My Days’ special edition and updated their shooting schedule. Lastly the Hidden Frontier team have announced details on a new mini-series.
John Cho is having a good week. He is out promoting his new movie, Harold and Kumar Go to Guantanamo Bay (which looks hilarious) and he and his wife are expecting their first child. All the while he keeps getting Star Trek questions. The new Sulu isn’t giving plot details (beyond joking “the deathstar blows up at the end”), but talks about the shoot, the director and his approach to Sulu.