ILM’s visual effects on the 2009 Star Trek movie has garnered BAFTA, Visual Effects Society and Oscar nominations. In a new interview, some of the nominees talk about how they went about bringing realism to the new Star Trek and how it compares to ILM’s Star Wars work. Excerpts below, plus links to some effect shot ‘breakdowns’.
Today is Presidents Day in the USA, a day to celebrate the nation’s past leaders. The world of Star Trek has also given us some ‘Presidents’. Today we celebrate those fictional future presidents, and ask you to pick your favorite.
Over the weekend Star Trek references showed up on a few TV shows. The biggest was yet another Trek gag on last night’s Family Guy, but Trek worked its way into American Dad and Smallville as well. Below we have details, screenshots and links to all the clips.
Today also happens to be the birthday of Simon Pegg. This is a big one for Star Trek’s new Scotty as he is turning the big four-oh, that’s right Simon is now 40. TrekMovie would like wish Simon the very best of birthdays.
It’s Valentine’s Day again. In honor of this day of romance, we are reposting a ‘TrekMovie’ classic from back in 2008, but since the site has so many new readers since the early days, maybe it is new to you. So we present our updated list of Star Trek’s most romantic moments, plus some last minute Valentine’s Day ideas.
The annual MacWorld Expo wrapped up yesterday and the celebration of all things Apple Mac included a couple of interesting Trek connections. We have video below of the Star Trek rock performance by the band Warp 11, plus a surprise guest appearance by LeVar Burton who stood in for ‘Steve Jobs’ in a play.
This weekend there are some fun events for Star Trek fans all over the globe, from a Trek band playing in San Francisco, to the Farpoint Con in MD, to Trek improv comedy in Chicago to a huge Trek cosplay record attempt in London. And next weekend a Trek Murder Mystery kicks off in New Hampshire. See below for all the details.
Three weeks ago it was announced that Roddenberry Productions had entered into a deal with Imagine Entertainment to create a new pilot based on Gene Roddenberry’s "The Questor Tapes." A big question is: who should play the android at the heart of the show? If it were up to Rod Roddenberry, the new Questor would be played by Trek’s favorite android, Brent Spiner.
Last night’s episode of Operation Repo on TruTV had the repossession team on the final frontier. The show portrayed the repossession of a car that was owned by “Spock”, and his girlfriend “Uhura” wasn’t too happy about it. Watch the clip below.
Zachary Quinto may be taking some time off Trek (perhaps to play Gershwin) but he appears to be looking forward to getting back into it. The new Spock talked briefly to Entertainment Weekly about the Trek sequel and how he is as anxious as we all are to find out what writers Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman and Damon Lindelof are up to.
JJ Abrams may or may not have been ‘snubbed’ by the Academy for his work on the 2009 Star Trek movie, but one thing is for sure, the man was paid. According to a new report in Vanity Fair, the producer/director is now on Hollywood’s Top 10 list of moneymakers for his ‘back end’ profits from Star Trek.
There has been an update on progress on that other big Paramount franchise JJ Abrams is working on. Paramount has announced that the Abrams-produced Mission Impossible IV will go into production this summer and Tom Cruise will be back as both producer and star. The goal is for the film to be out by the summer of 2011. Details below.
Today wraps up the first week of Star Trek Online (since the head start began last Friday). Today we have a fan video showing off some cool TOS elements in STO. We also have a map of the galaxy, so you see where you can go in STO. All that and the latest links.
Last week we reported on the updated Pocket Books 2010 schedule for Star Trek books. We now have more details on the two books coming next month, with new synopses for "Star Trek Online: The Needs of the Many" and the Saavik-centric "Star Trek: Unspoken Truth". See below to find out what you can be reading in March.
The 100-page Issue 24 of the official Star Trek magazine is a "Klingon Special" which has a big focus on the Klingons and the new Star Trek Online Game (featuring Klingons back as the enemy of the Federation). TrekMovie has a first look, with excerpts from an interview with DS9’s J.G. Hertzler (Martok) and also excerpts from a feature on story behind Star Trek Online. We also have covers and some inside previews. Check it all out below.
The release week for Star Trek Online continues to be exciting. Today there is a new interview with Zachary Quinto talking about the game and more, plus Cryptic says that they don’t need to take on World of Warcraft to succeed with STO. All that and more in our latest STO update.
Star Trek Online got off to a big start yesterday (see previous article) and already Cryptic is talking about having to expand their server capacity to deal with the load. We have details on that plus info on a contest to make the best character backstory. Finally, we have video demo on using 3rd party voice control software with STO, allowing you to issue orders Star Trek style.
Last night William Shatner kicked some butt appearing on WWE Raw. The Shat smacked down in a number of segments during the show, including doing some new ‘spoken word’ of some of wrestling’s best entrance themes. Watch the videos below.
After years of waiting, the massive multiplayer game allowing you to play in a persistent universe of Trek’s 25th century is online, and according to Cryptic they have already logged in over 1 million registered accounts at the official websites. STO is also the top selling PC game Amazon. Cryptic has also added the first two purchasable in game items: playable Starfleet Klingons and Ferengi. More details below, plus a new ground combat video.
Today is Brent Spiner’s birthday. The actor who entertained us as Star Trek The Next Generation’s Data turns 61 years young today. So today we pay tribute to the man that played the android.
[UPDATED] The rumor over the weekend was that Sir Patrick Stewart may be rejoining his Nemesis pal Tom Hardy for Mad Max 4, but it turns out that it isn’t true. Oh well, Stewart will be appearing in tonight’s Frontline Special "Digital Nation", and you can watch a clip of him below talking technology where he balks at Twitter, but expresses love for his iPhone.
Star Trek’s Spock Prime, Leonard Nimoy, is helping promote the new Star Trek Online game (in which he does some voice work — see previous article). The USA Today has a great interview with the actor where he talks about the game, the enduring popularity of Star Trek, favorite scenes and more, including Star Trek sequel. Excerpts below.
The world is getting ready for the official release of Star Trek Online tomorrow. But Cryptic are already working on what is going to come next (and dealing with issues from their ‘head start’). Details on those below, plus find out how to participate in a STO Costume record attempt in London, Midnight Gamestop events tonight and more.
We have even more Sir Patrick Stewart news for you this weekend. TNG’s Picard was in Australia Saturday and Sunday appearing at OzTrek2, and while there he said he would be interested in appearing in the next Star Trek movie. He also talked X-Men, animated TNG, Doctor Who and more. Details and photos below. Plus there is a new rumor that Stewart may be in the next Mad Max movie.
Last weekend Star Trek The Next Generation’s Patrick Stewart visited San Francisco for a Star Trek con and while there he gave an interview to the SF Chronicle. The actor discussed his knighthood and how Star Trek has influenced his life, noting how grateful he is for the opportunities Trek gave him. Excerpts below.
Zachary Quinto caused a bit of a tempest earlier in the week with his comments in one interview about taking a break from Star Trek. In some new interviews promoting Star Trek Online, the actor goes into more detail on his plans for the near future, and how he plans to return to Trek after doing some of his own projects. Excerpts below.
Star Trek Online has its official launch on Tuesday February 2nd, however the ‘head start’ for the game went live just minutes ago. That means that anyone who pre-ordered the game can start playing today. To help get you started, we are posting a number of tutorial videos made by our friends at the STOked podcast.
When you first launch Star Trek Online you will be treated to an introduction to game narrated by Leonard Nimoy which explains some of the back-story and ties it into the 2009 Star Trek movie. This intro was one of the last elements of the game added to the beta over last weekend, and so a few fans captured it and put it online. Check it out below.
Now the the beta test for Star Trek Online is over (see earlier report) the game is preparing for its official launch next Tuesday (and ‘head start’ this Friday). Today Cryptic posted a new ‘state of the game’, including comments dealing with bugs, some details on new content, and hints for for the first big update of the game. Atari also announced a new promotion with SyFy, including a 2-day Star Trek (TNG & ENT) marathon. Details on all that below.
The extended open beta for Star Trek Online ended Tuesday, but instead of just shutting it down, Cryptic made an event out of it. Early in the day they made an announcement of an end of beta event, then in the final moments for players found themselves facing a massive invasion of the Federation by the Klingons, and then the Borg. Check out a fan video recap below.