Articles by Anthony Pascale

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Orci/Kurtzman | December 20, 2006 | By: Anthony Pascale 16 comments so far

Transformers Movie Trailer Premieres

Today Paramount has released the first full trailer for next summer’s Transformers. The film is written by Trek XI scribes Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman. Transformers is a big test for them and Paramount to see if they can take a geeky franchise with a rabid fan base and make it palatable to mainstream movie goers. If Trek XI ends up being Paramount’s big summer movie for 2008, then perhaps a year from now we will be seeing the trailer for Trek XI itself. click to go to Yahoo Movies site to see the trailer Orci and Kurtzman have also picked the winners of their ‘Write a Line For Optimus Prime’ contest, details at the official site 

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ST09 Creative | December 19, 2006 | By: Anthony Pascale 95 comments so far

Abrams Picks Chambliss as Production Designer for Star Trek XI

Studio sources have told TrekMovie.com that JJ Abrams has selected long-time collaborator Scott Chambliss to head up the design team for Star Trek XI. The award-winning designer has worked with Abrams on the TV shows Felicity and Alias as well as Abrams directorial debut film Mission – Impossible III. Although Chambliss has been repsonsible for defining the look on over a dozen TV and film projects, this will be his first time in science fiction (unless you count the few genre touches to Alias). For his work on Alias he received 4 Art Directors Guild ‘Excellence In Production Design’ nominations and 3 Emmy nominations (winning one of each). It is no surprise that Chambliss was chosen, and it highlights how Abrams is putting his mark onto Trek. This hire makes Star Trek XI the first Trek film without Herman Zimmerman as the Production Designer since Star Trek V in 1989. So far every single person associated with Star Trek XI is both new to the franchise and has worked with Abrams before (most on M:I:III).

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TOS Remastered | December 18, 2006 | By: Anthony Pascale 27 comments so far

Video Of Trek Remastered In Widescreen

As we have reported, CBS is future-proofing The Original Series by creating all the new effects for Trek Remastered in 16:9 widescreen and HD. Although CBS affiliates are broadcasting only in SD (where all effects shots are cropped to a 4:3 aspect ratio), many episodes are now showing up in HD on the XBox Live download service.  Due to a fluke of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing at CBS, these XBox Live episodes include the widescreen effects shots mixed in with regular 4:3 live action shots. I have been told this is not how the TOS-R team want it to be shown, but it does give us a glimpse of what Trek can look like in widescreen. So for your enjoyment here are some clips of TOS-R WS. Opening Title (mov | avi)  

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Trek Franchise, Uncategorized | December 17, 2006 | By: Anthony Pascale 49 comments so far

Longest Period Without A Trek Film Since 1979

Since the relase of Star Trek: The Motion Picture on  December 7th, 1979 there had been a steady stream of Star Trek films. Over the next 23 years Paramount released new Trek films every 2-3 years. The longest gap of 4 years and 2 days was between Star Trek Insurrection and the last film Star Trek: Nemesis, which was released on December 13, 2002. As of this weekend that record has been broken and every day between now and the release of Star Trek XI will be a Trek franchise record. So if you were wondering why you were especially jonesing it isn’t just that this weekend is a Trek Remastered repeat. In honor of the occasion, TrekMovie.com decided to take a quantitative look back on the Trek franchise…see chart below 

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Shatner | December 16, 2006 | By: Anthony Pascale 14 comments so far

Shatner’s ‘Show Me The Money’ Shown The Door

ABC’s latest experiment in  cheesertainment is coming to an end. The network has announced that it is scrapping its order for more episodes of the Shat’s game show Show Me The Money. The network had ordered some additional episodes for the game show to be its sacrificial lamb against Fox’s American Idol, but the latest ratings dip convinced them it wasn’t even worthy of that. ABC will however air the remaining 7 episodes they have already bought. So does losing one of his jobs mean his price for Trek XI just went down or up?

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Memorabilia, Trek Franchise | December 15, 2006 | By: Anthony Pascale 19 comments so far

New Star Trek Sale Starts Today

If you are kicking yourself for not picking up a piece of Trek history during the Christies auction then today is your lucky day. CBS and Paramount are unloading thousands of more items from the Trek attic. The sales is being conducted by It’s A Wrap Hollywood, a memorabilia seller is handling the sale of items from all 5 series and all 10 films. The available pieces include props, wardrobe, set pieces and even a few models (but of course all the major ones were sold by Christies). "Its amazing how much cool stuff there is, stuff that they didn’t even know was there, we are finding new things all the time," Its A Wrap owner Tiara Nappi tells TrekMovie.com. Nappi says there will even be items from the Original Series (actually from the 60s and not just replicas made by ENT or DS9). Due to the enormous volume of items, the sale will be conducted over the next 6 months with new items regularly becoming available. details below

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Games | December 14, 2006 | By: Anthony Pascale 20 comments so far

Company Behind Trek MMORPG In Trouble? [Update: Perpetual President Responds]

Perpetual Entertainment, the company developing Trek’s MMORPG Star Trek Online, appears to be having some financial problems. Gaming site Gamasutra is reporting that the company has fired 35 employees including at least 8 who were working on Star Trek Online. The problems seem to be stemming from delays related to their premiere game Gods and Heroes: Rome Rising. Perpetual is just 2 years old and has yet to release any games. It would be a shame to see their problems result in more delays or even the shelving of the exciting new Trek MMORPG. UPDATE: Perpetual Founder/President Spins the layoffs 

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Trek on TV | December 13, 2006 | By: Anthony Pascale 528 comments so far

CBS Considering New Animated Trek Series For The Web

Star Trek may be set for a comeback into yet another arena, this time in the 2nd dimension. TrekMovie.com has learned that there is a new animated Trek project under consideration at CBS, but it has yet to get the green light. The series would most likely be broadcast on the web and be made up of ‘Clone Wars’ like 6-minute mini episodes. The yet-to-be-named project was originally pitched by long-time Trek producer David Rossi (well known to TrekMovie.com readers as a producer on Trek Remastered) along with his producer/writer partners Doug Mirabello and José Muñoz. Rossi sat down with TrekMovie.com for an exclusive look at how he and his partners hope to create a different kind of Trek set in the 26th century.

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STXI Status | December 13, 2006 | By: Anthony Pascale 17 comments so far

Abrams Confirms Trek XI Is Targetting 2008

Looks like Paramount don’t need to change their teaser posters with the prominent ‘2008’ emblazoned on them. Although TrekMovie.com didn’t buy into it, last week Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman’s comments made many question Trek XI’s 2008 target. Dauman had stated that Star Trek XI was for ’08 or 09′ release, however Abrams confirms in today’s Variety that 2008 is indeed the target for Trek XI. From the article: "He (Abrams) said work is on track to release the new "Star Trek" pic, which Abrams is overseeing for Par, in 2008." TrekMovie.com can also confirm that sources inside the studio seem very confident that Trek XI will be released in 2008, however (as we mentioned in a recent article) winter is looking more likely than summer. When TrekMovie.com interviewed Abrams last month he did mention that he would prefer winter because that would give him more time, so it is possible he has convinced Paramount to give him the additional time. For more see the Variety article

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Rumor, STXI Status | December 12, 2006 | By: Anthony Pascale 123 comments so far

Trek XI Adds Additional Producer – Continues To Head Towards Greenlight

TrekMovie.com has learned that J.J. Abrams and Paramount have added Stratton Leopold to the growing list of Executive Producers for Star Trek XI. Leopold has a career that dates back to the 70s and worked with Abrams on Mission Impossible III. His other recent Paramount projects include The Sum of All Fears and Paycheck. Like with MI:III, Leopold will also function as the Unit Production Manager, who has the primary task of overseeing the budget. Leopold was not available for comment, but a studio source indicates he is expected to start working in January and his first task will be to help put together the budget. Budgeting is the last step before the official green light and usually requires a finalized script. TrekMovie.com has learned that the script is still not complete but apparently the first draft has been finished. Production is still believed to be going ahead in 2007 with a 2008 release, but it is possible that it will not be in Summer.

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TOS Remastered | December 11, 2006 | By: Anthony Pascale 42 comments so far

No New Trek Remastered Until January [Update]

Just a quick reminder that Trek Remastered is entering a hiatus until January. The next three weekends will have reruns. Originally the remastered ‘Friday’s Child’ was to air December 23rd, but that has now been moved to January 6th and replaced with a rerun of ‘Devil in the Dark’. See our Trek Remastered Episode Guide for the full list. During the hiatus TrekMovie plans some stuff to keep you all entertained while we wait for 2007. UPDATE: For those that were wondering, the repeats of  ‘Balance of Terror’ and ‘Devil In The Dark’ will not have the new Enterprise model. Any replacement for those shows would be done down the line for DVDs and is still not definitely decided. However, in cases where a new show comes up and there is a shot that repeats a shot previously done with the old model CBS will redo the shot (for the new show) with the new model.

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ST09 Cast, Uncategorized | December 11, 2006 | By: Anthony Pascale 100 comments so far

Damon Says He Would Play Kirk

SciFi Wire is reporting that even though Matt Damon has not been officially approached to be the new James T. Kirk, he is open to the idea. Damon is quoted as saying: If the script was good, I’d do it, but, yeah, I heard that [rumor]. I think J.J. Abrams or somebody said that at press junket or something, and it got picked up. So there is still a chance Damon may be the new Kirk. We know that Abrams is interested and now it appears that Damon is interested as well. It makes sense that Paramount would want a big star with all the talk about Trek XI being a ‘tentpole’ movie for them. 

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TOS Remastered | December 9, 2006 | By: Anthony Pascale 41 comments so far

Remastered Corbomite Maneuver Airs Today

The Enterprise heads to uncharted territory and encounters a powerful force..and Kirk plays some poker with it.PreviewLocal Station & ShowtimesMore at Memory Alpha After two pilots, this is Star Trek’s first produced show and  was the first to feature glowing nacelle caps as well as Uhura, Rand and McCoy. This week the effects will likely be limited to space effects, including: cool zoom in shot on Enterprise (w/ the right nacelles) new ‘bouy’ cube in various shots new Fesarius and pilot ship maybe a new chronometer (seen before in Naked Time) expect TrekMovie.com’s screenshots and videos later tonight  So what did you think of the remastered Tranya?

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Shatner, Trek Franchise | December 8, 2006 | By: Anthony Pascale 39 comments so far

3 Trek Catchphrases On TV Land’s Top 100

TV Land, the nursing home of reruns, has searched far and wide to come up with its list of the best 100 catchphrases of all time…and of course Star Trek makes an appearance (or 3). The full list, which runs the gamut from "You look mahvelous!" to "Here’s Johnny" will be presented in a  5-night special series called ‘Greatest TV Quotes & Catchphrases’. The three Trek catchphrases (and their rankings) to be covered are: 93  "Resistance is futile." (TNG) 22  "Live long and prosper." (TOS)14  "Space, the final frontier …" (TOS)

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Feature Films (TMP-NEM) | December 6, 2006 | By: Anthony Pascale 59 comments so far

Happy Star Trek VI Day

Today is the 15th anniversary of the release of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. STVI is in my top 3, and some days is my favorite Trek film. At a recent event I attended, director Nicholas Meyer said of the three Trek films he worked on (II, IV and VI) Star Trek VI was also his favorite. The site with the best Trek artwork, TrekCore.com has put up a nice gallery of rare images to honor the last film for the original crew.   Click here to see the TrekCore STVI Gallery  If you don’t own Star Trek VI…BUY IT!!

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Abrams, STXI Status | December 6, 2006 | By: Anthony Pascale 25 comments so far

Abrams Still Not Confirmed To Direct

In the recent story about comments from Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman we noted that Variety had stated that JJ Abrams was ‘slated to direct’ Star Trek XI. This of course would be newsworthy if it were true because just recently Abrams told TrekMovie he had not yet decided and would not decide until the script was complete. Some other sites have taken the Variety article as confirmation from Dauman that Abrams has made that decision, but it appears that this is a bit premature. TrekMovie has a transcript of Dauman’s comments to the CSFB conference and he made no mention of Abrams at all. The ‘Abrams directing’ line was added by Variety, something which they have done before and to which Abrams has noted they were wrong on. TrekMovie has also checked with a source inside Paramount who attributes it to ‘lazy journalism’. Although everyone assumes Abrams will be the director, it is still officially undecided.

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Games | December 5, 2006 | By: Anthony Pascale 36 comments so far

Star Trek Legacy Ships

After being delayed, the much anticipated new game ‘Star Trek Legacy’ has shipped. Bethesda Softworks has announced that the PC version has just been sent out to retailers and the XBox 360 version should ship next week. Legacy is the biggest thing in Star Trek gaming in years and sports a story written by DC Fontana as well as voice acting by all 5 Trek captains. The buzz on the game is quite good and TrekMovie awaits its review copy with anticipation.

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TrekMovie.com | December 5, 2006 | By: Anthony Pascale 30 comments so far

TrekMovie.com is Excellentia

The venerable Trek site Ex Astris Scientia has named TrekMovie.com it’s ‘Ex Astris Excellentia‘ award winner of the month. The Trek Movie Report was launched just a couple of months ago as a hub for announcements and rumors about the upcoming feature film "Star Trek XI", as well as for news and reviews regarding remastered TOS episodes, DVD and game releases. Webmaster Anthony Pascale has created a cutting-edge Trek news site of a new kind. Aww shucks guys…you are making me blush. Bernd Schnieder’s EAS site is definately an essential site for any Trekkie. On behalf of myself, Matt and all the other contributors, we are honored.

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CBS/Paramount, STXI Status | December 4, 2006 | By: Anthony Pascale 29 comments so far

Viacom Chief Trumpets ‘Revitalized’ Trek [UPDATED]

In speech to investors, Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman named Star Trek in his list of key components of Paramount’s future. Apparently JJ Abrams really sold the new cheif of Viacom on  Trek when he spoke to him last month (story). Specifically on Trek the executive said "we’re revitalizing it in a new and interesting way." This shows how Trek has again moved to the front burner for Viacom and Paramount. Also of note is how the article states a Trek XI release date as ‘2008 or 2009’. It also claimed that Abrams would be directing the film. Abrams recently told TrekMovie that he still was not sure if he would direct and that they will start shooting in Spring 2007 to meet a Summer 2008 release date. TrekMovie will try and clarify these two issues, but it is good to see that Trek has support all the way to the top.Full story in Variety UPDATE: Abrams still not Confirmed To Direct

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TNG | December 4, 2006 | By: Anthony Pascale 29 comments so far

TNG to get the G4 2.0 Treatment

In April G4 TV created a new way to watch the Original Series called ‘Star Trek 2.0’. The new format presented the show in a ‘window’ surrounded by ‘interactive content’ in the form of chat, trivia, stats and a stock market type ticker called a ‘Spock Market’. Trek purists consider it butchery, but apparently it has been their top rated show amongst the key young male demographic. Now G4 is announcing that they will do the same for TNG with the launch of the somewhat redundantly titled ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation 2.0’ in January. More info at G4.    

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ST09 Cast | December 3, 2006 | By: Anthony Pascale 103 comments so far

Grunberg Co-Star Quinto Wants To Be New Spock

Zachary Quinto, who plays the villain Sylar on the hit show ‘Heroes’ wants to be the new Spock. In an interview with the Pittsburg Post Gazette Quinto says "I missed the ‘Superman Returns’ boat, so I’m angling for ‘Star Trek.’ People are constantly telling me I bear some resemblance to Leonard Nimoy." He also joked about how he would get Heroes co-star (and Abrams best friend) Greg Grunberg to get him an in with the producer of Trek XI: "Maybe Sylar should tell Greg, ‘I promise I won’t kill you if you get me an audition,’ …We’ll see what happens." So add his name to the long list of those who want to be in Trek XI. If Abrams doesn’t opt for big name stars for Kirk and Spock he could do worse than Quinto. (thanks to Steve M. for sending in a Quinto/Spock photoshop image) 

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TNG | December 2, 2006 | By: Anthony Pascale 52 comments so far

Frakes Available To Play Riker Again…Thinks It Could Happen

Jonathan Frakes (TNG: Riker) seems to be one of the only ‘Next Gen’ actors who is ok with JJ Abrams plans to go back to the TOS era for the next Trek film. But in a new interview with IF Magazine he still thinks that we will eventually see some of the familiar faces from the recent Trek shows, and makes it clear he is ready as well. iF: Do you think there will ever be a return of NEXT GENERATION crew in one form or another?FRAKES: I think probably, they’ll use STAR TREK actors from different crews, based on whom they can get and whom they’ll want to use for a story. I think the audience really likes to see people again whom they have identified with. I could be wrong, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they tried to use some of us in something.  iF: Sort of like you coming onto ENTERPRISE for the final episode?FRAKES: Yeah. Marina [Sirtis] and I are always available.

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TOS Remastered | December 2, 2006 | By: Anthony Pascale 34 comments so far

Remastered Menagerie Part II Airs Today

Spock tries to talk his way out of the death penalty with a AV presentation of Captain Pike’s strange adventure on Talos IV(sorry no video preview this week…maybe the preview guy got fired) / Local Station & Showtimes / More at Memory Alpha Trek’s only two parter comes to a close. Part I had most of the new effects but you can expect a few things: new Rigel VII matte new Mojave City backdrop matte for Pike’s picnic more shots of Talos IV and Enterprise maybe some new effects around the (Dr Evil voice) Giant Laser …and an Orion Slave girl looking greener than ever  

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Rumor, Star Trek (2009 film), Trek Franchise | December 1, 2006 | By: Anthony Pascale 37 comments so far

Is There An Agreement For No Trek On TV Until After Trek XI?

Many have wondered when (or if) Star Trek will return the the small screen after an 18-year run ended with the cancellation of ‘Star Trek Enterprise’ in 2005. According to TrekMovie.com sources it certainly will not be until after 2008 and the release of Star Trek XI. Sources tell TrekMovie that there is some kind of deal between CBS and Paramount Pictures where no new TV projects will be developed now that Paramount is developing a feature film. Apparently this deal was part of the convoluted license sharing deal struck when Viacom split-up and separated the TV and film elements of Trek between the two companies. Although there is no indication that there was a new TV series in development, TrekMovie has learned that there may have been one or more smaller scale projects being considered. It appears that after Trek XI was announced any Trek on TV work at CBS was ‘frozen’. "It is in a holding pattern now" said a source inside CBS regarding Trek TV projects. Obviously this agreement does not effect the remastered Star Trek series project because it is not actually ‘new’ but a  restoration of the original series. None of this is really a big surprise, as another insider put it "it makes sense, Paramount is about to pump a lot of money into the brand so CBS is better off waiting for that." When asked about the deal CBS’s official spokesperson only replied ‘no comment’ so for now file this under rumor, but TrekMovie will continue to look into it.  

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Games | November 30, 2006 | By: Anthony Pascale 24 comments so far

New Trek Game To Be ‘A Whole New Series’ – But With Some Cameos

If you haven’t heard of it yet, ‘Star Trek Online’ is a new MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) being built by Perpetual Entertainment. The game allows players to create characters and ‘live’ in the Trek Universe. One of the big decisions was regarding where exactly to set the game in the centuries-long Trek timeline, and the designers decided on 25 years after ‘Star Trek Nemesis’. This is a different approach than other licensed games, for example the  ‘Star Wars Galaxies’ MMORPG is set between episodes IV and V of the saga. In an interview with STO Galaxy the executive producer for the game, Daron Stinnett, explains that they chose the post Nemesis era to allow themselves artistic freedom to create new Trek stories.

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TOS Remastered | November 29, 2006 | By: Anthony Pascale 31 comments so far

Some HD Remastered Trek Showing Up On XBox Live

We reported a few weeks ago that Microsoft was touting ‘remastered Star Trek episodes’ as part of the offering for their new TV download service with XBox Live. Now that the service has gone live we can report that there are a total of 2 HD versions of the remastered Original Series available: ‘Miri’ and ‘The Naked Time’. These two remastered HD episodes are mixed in with the 27 other non-remastered SD versions of the entire first season of the Original Series. All episodes are uncut and cost $2 with the HD versions taking up a signficant 2.5 gigabytes of the 20 GB hard drive (the SD versions take up half a gig).  To make things even stranger, the two HD TOSR episodes have the expected ‘pillar box’ for all live action shots, but all the new effects (including the opening credits) are presented in 16:9. This means that the black bars on the left and right appear and disappear as you watch.  Sources in CBS seem to be just as confused about all this as we are, and it is unclear if this is the way they want it to be shown and if more episodes will become available. So far only two Star Trek films are available (in SD): ‘The Wrath of Khan’ and ‘Generations.’ Regardless this still makes XBox Live the only way to get TOSR in HD for now, but due to the storage and availability limitations it is hard to recommend buying an XBox 360 just to watch Star Trek.TrekMovie.com will continue to keep track of XBox Live and will report any changes.