Your browser does not support inline frames or is currently configured not to display inline frames. The Remastered "What Are Little Girls Made Of" airs this weekend Preview courtesy STARTREK.COM (note updated station/air time guide)
A little birdy has tipped me off to fightingthedead.com, a new teaser site for a sci-fi/genre TV project for 2008. Not sure what network or what it is called (possibly ‘Fighting the Dead’?), but apparently it involves many Star Trek veterans from in front and behind the camera. Once at the site you may even be able to distinguish one of their voices.
This seems to be a week for Star Trek casting rumors and news. TrekMovie.com has confirmed that Karl Urban (Eomer of Lord of the Rings) is being considered for an unnamed role in the new Star Trek movie. IESB.net is reporting the Kiwi actor has been made an offer to play the villain in the film, but a source close to the production tells TrekMovie.com that Urban is not up for the film’s villain (nor is he being considered for Kirk). The source would not go further when pressed, but based on the Actor’s age (35) either Scotty, Bones may be a good guess (or possibly Captain Garrovick?). Regarding the casting of the villain a studio insider recently told TrekMovie.com that they are looking for well known brand name actor (especially one who will help the film play in foreign markets). This fits with the report that there is interest in Russell Crowe for the part.
CBS just sent over this new matte painting for the opening scene of the remastered "The Man Trap" (click to super size)
The new Star Trek film may be a return to TOS, but the creative team behind the film are also fans of Star Trek: The Next Generation. TrekMovie.com asked the producer and the writers of the film to each share a quick thought on the show. Damon Lindelof – producer We aspire to do for Trek what Next Generation did twenty years ago — reinvigorate a timeless franchise for a brand new audience. See below for what Orci and Kurtzman had to say about TNG.
On Sept 28, 1987 many people turned on their television sets and saw something like this …Trek was back in the form of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Creation Entertainment has announced that Zachary Quinto (Spock in the 2008 Star Trek film) has agreed to appear at the next ‘Grand Slam’ being held April 11th 2008 in Burbank, CA. Quinto will be the headliner for the event and will be available for photo ops and autographs. The film will be in post production by that time and hopefully the actor will have much to say about it. Roxann Dawson will also be attending with more names sure to be added soon. This will be Quinto’s first time at a Creation event and he is the first (new) Star Trek actor to have signed on to any Trek related convention. The honor for the first actor to talk about the film at a convention (after the Comic-Con announcements) goes to Quinto’s co-star and Vulcan tutor Leonard Nimoy at the Vegas Trek in August. Tickets available at the Creation Website.
A new name is now linked to be in the running for Kirk. IESB.net reports that 28-year-old actor Mike Vogel (Poseidon) is " the front runner" to take on the role of James T. Kirk in J.J. Abrams new Star Trek film. IESB cites ‘two studio insiders,’ but acknowledge no confirmation. TrekMovie.com cannot confirm or deny anything except that has no Kirk deal has been done. Sources have recently told TrekMovie.com that Abrams and his casting team have found the task of picking a new Kirk quite challenging. Vogel does have a connection to the Trek team as one of the stars of next January’s untitled monster movie (aka ‘Cloverfield’, aka ‘1-18-08’) being produced by J.J. Abrams and fellow Trek producer Bryan Burk.
One of the big rumors earlier this year (well before Quinto was cast) was that The Pianist star Adrian Brody was ‘in talks’ to play Spock in the new Star Trek film. It appears that there is truth to the rumor, although the ‘talks’ may have just been one ‘talk’ with director J.J. Abrams. Brody lamented to MTV about not being Spock…
The search for (a) Scot continues and now a new name can be added to the list of potential Enterprise engineers. TrekMovie.com has confirmed that Stargate Atlantis actor Paul McGillion has auditioned for the role of Montgomery Scott in the new Star Trek movie. The 38 year-old actor is well known to sci-fi fans for his portrayal of the Scottish doctor Carson Beckett on the popular Stargate spin-off and his name often comes up in fan discussions regarding potential ‘Scotty’ actors. Like the original Scotty (James Doohan) McGillion is from Canada, but he was born in Scotland and clearly does a ‘flawless’ Scottish accent. Unlike previously reported Scottish competition, McGillion held his recent Trek audition in Los Angeles instead of London. The actor tells TrekMovie.com "Obviously it would be a great honour to follow in James Doohan’s footsteps."
Star Trek The Next Generation’s Patrick Stewart may be ‘done with Hollywood’ but he is still open to doing some sci-fi. Stewart tells This Is North Scotland that not only is he a fan of the BBC’s Doctor Who, but he is "deeply dismayed" that he has not yet been asked to guest star on the show. Stewart has kept busy as a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company since his time playing TNG’s Picard and X-Men’s Professor Xavier and is currently playing the title role in MacBeth on the London stage. Even if Stewart doesn’t end up on Doctor Who he will get a chance to act with Doctor Who. It was recently reported that David Tennant will be playing the title role in Hamlet along with Stewart in an upcoming production.
George Takei is still hoping for one more go at big screen Star Trek. Takei tells Entertainment Weekly "I wouldn’t be too surprised if I am" when asked if he might appear in J.J. Abrams new Star Trek feature. EW added the editor’s note "[To be clear, Takei means this in a”You never know what the future may hold”-kinda way, not in a coy,”I may or may not be dead”-kinda way."’]" The original Sulu was also very complimentary of his Heroes co-star Zachary Quinto saying "I’m very happy for him. The physical resemblance he shares with Leonard Nimoy is uncanny. I told him, ”Now you know what you’re going to look like in 40 years.”" Takei appeared in last night’s season premiere of Heroes and will appear in next week’s episode as well. Whether or not Star Trek New Voyages’ "World Enough and Time" will be the last we see of Takei’s Sulu remains to be seen. Read the full interview at EW.com
There is a great feature article at EW today called "Star Trek: TNG: An oral history." It covers the development of the series and the pilot and has quotes from Robert Justman, Rick Berman, DC Fontana, Herman Zimmerman, Andrew Probert, Mike Okuda, Denise Crosby, LeVar Burton, and John DeLancie. There is too much in the article to just pull out the good stuff, so just go read the whole thing.
Zachary Quinto (Star Trek’s new Spock) has been doing some more interviews promoting the premiere for the second season of Heroes (Tonight NBC 9pm). Not much about Trek, but he did tell the New York Post: The experience that I expect to have with Star Trek and, hopefully, many other films down the line is that you really get to immerse yourself more fully and take a lot more time in the exploration of the characters in the film, since the shooting structure is so different-the time you have to spend on each scene, and so on. What you lack in longevity you more than make up for in depth of exploration.
Your browser does not support inline frames or is currently configured not to display inline frames. The Remastered "The Man Trap" airs this weekend (note updated station/air time guide)Preview courtesy STARTREK.COM
In a red carpet interview before last week’s Emmy’s Zachary Quinto talked about getting fitted for his new ears plus about juggling his Trek and Heroes work.
Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens have been writing science fiction books and TV for decades. They have written a number of Trek novels on their own and in collaboration with William Shatner (including "Star Trek: The Academy–Collision Course" coming out next month). They were also brought in for Star Trek Enterprise’s final (and most consider best) season. But the couple are also aficionados of science fact (see picture of pair on an actual Space Shuttle). They have written a number of non fiction books including one about real missions to Mars. Their most recent television project (the Race to Mars mini-series airing on the Discovery Channel in Canada this Sunday) brings fact and fiction together. Judy and Gar spoke to TrekMovie.com about their Mars project and also about their time on board Enterprise.
Last week Toshiba announced a deal to get a free phaser remote control if you purchase Star Trek: The Original Series – The Complete First Season [HD DVD] and any Toshiba HD-DVD player. Toshiba has now provided us with some more details on the promotion. Toshiba Director of Business Development Louis Masses tells TrekMovie.com that they are "very excited and very proud to be associated with Star Trek." Details below…
Tonight (starting at sundown) is the beginning of Yom Kippur – the Jewish day of atonement. Although Star Trek was never overtly religious, there are many links between Judaism and Trek (including Shatner and Nimoy themselves). Below is a video of Leonard Nimoy talking about Trek and Jewish tradition (click to see video at YouTube). For more check out TrekJews.com.
Our friends at VoicesFromKrypton have an audio clip from a 1987 John DeLancie (Q) interview discussing the differences between the new Star Trek and the original. DeLancie said that when they were shooting the pilot there was no mention of the Original Series and that he felt that Patrick Stewart brought a ‘weight’ to TNG that the Original did not have. (Listen to the rest at VOK)
The first ever article on this site was about the announcement that Star Trek producer/director J.J. Abrams had inked two major deals after his contract with Disney ended. One deal was with Paramount for multiple pictures and the other was with Warner Brothers for TV. Since then Abrams has been juggling his TV and film duties, but according to Slate.com Paramount is now getting the better part of the deal. Abrams reportedly got $10 million a year from Warner but has only announced a single project (a medical drama for HBO) in the 14 months since the deal was struck. Slate notes that another TV project will soon be forthcoming, but that the new Star Trek film at Paramount "is going to become [Abrams] life" for the next 15 months. Slate quotes a studio exec saying of the dueling deals, "somebody had to get hurt" and that somebody appears to be Warner Brothers. Another development may make Abrams even more important to Paramount soon….
The Star Trek: The Next Generation – Complete Series Box Set comes out on October 2nd. Today STARTREK.COM put up a video preview of some of the special features. Your browser does not support inline frames or is currently configured not to display inline frames. Box Set Details and Images Below…
Your browser does not support inline frames or is currently configured not to display inline frames. The Remastered "Conscience of the King" airs this weekend…preview courtesy of STARTREK.COM (Also note the updated station/air time guide)
In another case of you heard it here first, both Variety and The Hollywood Reporter just confirmed the TrekMovie.com scoop that Zoe Saldana has been picked to be the new Uhura for the new Star Trek movie. THR notes that Saldana is in ‘final negotiations,’ but Variety reports that Saldana has indeed ‘signed on’ as the Enterprise’s communications officer originally portrayed by Nichelle Nichols. As reported here earlier, Saldana is also the star of James Cameron’s sci-fi epic Avatar which which is currently filming and TrekMovie.com sources indicate that dealing with conflicting schedules was the focus of negotiations. Saldana joins Anton Yelchin (Chekov), Zachary Quinto (Spock) and Leonard Nimoy (older Spock). Still no word on Scotty, Sulu, McCoy and of course…..Kirk!
Daron Stinnett, Executive Producer for the MMORPG Star Trek Online, has revealed a few more details for the exciting project in a new interview with WarCry Network. Although the game is not slated for release until early 2009, Stinnet said that they have completed work making ‘prototype regions’ for both the space and the ground components of the game and they are now focusing on getting the two to work together ‘as a single game.’ [good to see it have both: Star Wars Galaxies was released with only ground gameplay and charged extra for a space expansion kit a year later]. Perpetual seem to be taking the right approach to the space component, recognizing that Star Trek handles space in a unique way…
Star Trek is headed to the final frontier…and I mean final. Eternal Image, a Michigan-based funerary products company, today announced a deal to make products for Star Trek-themed funerals. Trek now has you covered from the cradle to the grave. This can be you!
Anton Yelchin (the new Chekov) is still busy promoting his two fall films Fierce People and Charlie Bartlett – which is a good thing since it appears he still doesn’t have a script for Star Trek. The young actor tells ReelzChannel I guess they’re withholding that until they get casting done or whatever. I plan on… becoming as much of a Trekkie as a I can in the couple weeks before we start shooting — just renting all the box sets, not going outside, not seeing the sun rise, just having the shades drawn.
William Shatner’s video home on the web, the LiveVideo channel ShatnerVision, will ‘come to an end’ this Saturday after only 8 months in operation. The announcement was made on the forums of WilliamShatner.com. Details are sketchy, but apparently LiveVideo are changing strategy and moving away from many of the produced shows they were sponsoring. LiveVideo itself only launched last October and Shatnervision has been one of the more popular channels. The channel ranks second in LiveVideo subscribers (currently 2,712) and has over a million ‘views’ since launching in January. ShatnerVision has a new video almost every day and is a regular feature here on TrekMovie.com – as the source of some great nuggets of both news and just Shatnerrificness.