Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is often cited as the best Star Trek film, yet it ironically had very little merchandising and not a singe action figure. That all changed in 2007 as Diamond Select celebrated the 25th Anniversary of TWOK by starting a line of action figures and toy ships. This week TrekMovie takes a look at the entire line of DST TWOK figures, including the latest figures released in the last month.
Last week on the CBS Late Show with David Letterman they visited the Orange County Chopper team from the Discovery Channel show American Chopper and for no apparent reason they had them recite lines from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. VIDEO BELOW
Even though a couple months ago TrekMovie.com debunked the rumor, apparently some still thought there would be a new trailer for Star Trek with Paramount’s release of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull this week…well there isn’t. However, there may yet be a subtle reference, consciously or unconsciously to Star Trek in the new Indy film. [INDY 4 SPOILERS BELOW]
Trekmovie.com has one question before this article begins: Do you like Italian? This weekend you can get your chance to become the owner of the truck where that famous line from Star Trek IV The Voyage Home was spoken. Over Memorial Day weekend the Chevy truck driven by Dr. Gillian Taylor goes for sale at the Volo Auto Museum in Volo, Illinois.
Wednesday morning William Shatner was the guest on the Howard Stern Show promoting “Up Till Now“. The interview went on for almost and hour and ranged on a number of topics from the book, to problems with the Trek cast, to the Abrams movie, to the death of Kirk and much more. Excerpts and AUDIO below.
On Sunday, April 28th, I was fortunate enough to attend the memorial for composer Leonard Rosenman (who passed away in March). It’s no secret that Rosenman was one of the composers of the Star Trek movies but this event proved to be even more Star Trek-centric than I’d anticipated.
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.’
Four years ago this month, the Museum of Television & Radio held a ‘Tribute to William Shatner’ at their annual Paley Festival. Video for this 2004 event is now online at Fancast, where you can see The Shat on subjects ranging from meeting Spencer Tracy to the death of Kirk. Plus in videos for a separate MTR event for Boston Legal, Shatner declares which role is bigger: Kirk or Crane…see below
Leonard Rosenman, the composer for Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, died today at the age of 83. Rosenman, a two-time Oscar and Emmy winner, died of a heart attack at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, CA. His score for Star Trek IV received an Oscar nomination; the only other Trek music to be nominated was Goldsmith’s TMP score.
The last director to go to the final frontier was Stuart Baird for Star Trek Nemesis. Baird (who is an Oscar nominated editor) only got the Trek gig as payback for help he provided re-cutting Paramount’s M:I:II and Tomb Raider movies. After Nemesis bombed, the TNG cast have made no secret about how they feel about their final director. The latest example is in a new SciFi Pulse interview with LeVar Burton and TOS star Nichelle Nichols.
The guys behind the fan audio production Star Trek The Continuing Mission have put up a very interesting audio interview with Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry from July 1976. Roddenberry discusses the creation of TOS, why changes were made between the pilots, the birth of the Klingons and Romulans plus much more. But it is the discussion of early plans for Star Trek The Motion Picture that stand out as most relevant to today’s Trek.
TrekMovie.com now continues our look back at Trek films past…
The American Film Institute has released their nominations for its “10 Top 10,” in which they will honor what they believe to be the ten greatest films of ten different film genres. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan was among the fifty science fiction films nominated. The winners will be revealed when AFI’s 10 Top 10 TV special airs on CBS this June.
The current Star Trek film is well known for it secrecy. Even Leonard Nimoy has commented here about it, but 22 years ago when he directed Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home it was a whole different world. My parents just happened to be at the Monterey Bay Aquarium while Paramount was on location to shoot STIV and my dad was allowed to videotape the action, including scenes with Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner. Check it out below.
Oscar-winning screenwriter John Logan is looking forward to the Christmas release of his next film Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, but he is still gets questions about being associated with the only bona fide flop of the Trek franchise: Star Trek Nemesis. The Edmonton Sun quotes Logan defending his time on Trek and giving the new Star Trek his endorsement as well:
Happy Star Trek film franchise anniversary day! On December 7th 1979* the epic turn of the Star Trek TV series hit the big screen in the form of Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
The UK’s EnvironmentalGraffiti.com, one of the top 3 environmental sites worldwide, has nominated Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home as one of the Greatest Environmental Movies of All Time. Other nominees include the dystopian Soylent Green and the Al Gore global warming documentary An Inconvenient Truth. The site states that the literal ‘save the whales’ plotline was “the most believable of the Star Trek films.”
After the failure of Star Trek Nemesis and Before JJ Abrams came along, there was a project in development at Paramount called “Star Trek The Beginning.” It was written by Band of Brothers producer/writer Erik Jendresen and was being shepherded through the system by producer Jordon Kerner (although Rick Berman was reportedly involved, he actually had very little to do with the project beyond being contractually attached to any Trek project at the time). The story covered the events of the Romulan War and was set shortly after Star Trek Enterprise, but without using the Enterprise cast. In 2005 the project stalled for a variety of reasons and then Abrams and his team came along and that was that. Now AICN has revealed details of the first draft of the script…CLICK HERE to read a Star Trek that never was.
TrekMovie.com returns to our look back at past Trek films and what can be learned from them. Paramount monitored Leonard Nimoy’s every move as director of Star Trek III, but when it came time for IV, studio president Jeff Katzenberg told him, “the training wheels are off. Give us your vision of Star Trek.” Years later, when I interviewed him in 2004, Nimoy said that Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home was his “Star Trek statement.” So now that Nimoy is conspicuously associated with the next Star Trek movie, as well as being Trek’s most active elder statesman, what did he mean? What makes this movie his Star Trek statement?
Dorothy Fontana (aka D.C. Fontana) was with Star Trek since the beginning as both a writer and Story Editor for Star Trek: The Original Series. She had the same job for The Animated Series and went on to write episodes for both TNG and DS9 (and even for the recent Trek game and New Voyages fan series). Fontana is interviewed in the new ‘Focus on Trek’ from IDW Comics. The interview covers a number of subjects, but her comments on the often debated issues of canon were noteworthy. Regarding TAS and canon Fontana says that Gene Roddenberry never took TAS seriously. She also does not seem happy with the makers of Star Trek V who gave Spock a half brother (details below)
This year marks the 25th anniversary of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. The film is considered by many (including J.J. Abrams) to be the best of the 10 film series and the benchmark by which other films are compared. The film was directed (and written) by Nicholas Meyer, who went on to co-write Star Trek IV and VI (which he also directed. Meyer recently appeared at the screening of the film (part of Geek Magazine’s ‘1982 Geekiest Year Ever’ Series). I had a moment to talk to Mr. Meyer at the event about his views on the film so many years later, if he would make any CGI changes, why he isn’t credited as a writer and his views of the franchise going forward. (Interview below)
For our Friday Night Movie we bring you the lazy man’s version of of ST: TMP…but first a commercial break. …and now for our special feature…ST:TMP in 10 minutes (via the talking book)
A brand new audio commentary for the Star Trek: The Motion Picture Director’s edition is now available at STARTREK.COM. The commentary features the production crew behind the DE: Daren R. Dochterman, David C. Fein and Michael Matessino. The commentary was recorded just last month and covers things not discussed in director Robert Wise’s commentary on the original disks. Go to STARTREK.COM to download it. If you don’t have it you will need to pick up Star Trek – The Motion Picture: The Director’s Cut (Two-Disc Special Collector’s Edition) at Amazon.
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."
videoholic2007 has more golden oldies…first is a PM Magazine feature on ST:TMP and then a two part ET feature from 1986 (before STIV came out).
June 4th 1982 Nicholas Meyer and Harve Bennett saved Star Trek.
The editors of Entertainment Weekly magazine have picked what they consider to be the best 25 sci-fi TV shows and movies of the last 25 years. Two Star Trek items make the top 10: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (#5) and Star Trek: The Next Generation (#8). Topping the list was the 1999 film The Matrix and former TNG/DS9 writer/producer Ron Moore’s Battlestar Galactica got 2nd place. Star Trek XI producers JJ Abrams and Damon Lindelof also made the list via their show Lost coming in at eleventh place. Excerpts and the complete list below.
Before Paramount handed the Trek keys over to JJ Abrams, Rick Berman produced the last 4 Trek films (Generations, First Contact, Insurrection and Nemesis). In the latest issue of Star Trek Magazine, Rick Berman reflects on his time helming the Trek film franchise. Berman’s film tenure certainly hit a high point with the hit film First Contact which he describes as “a delight to work on from beginning to end.” But it all came to an end with Nemesis which is the only real bomb of the Trek franchise. Berman considers Nemesis his “biggest and greatest disappointment,” going on to say “I think Nemesis was a far, far better film than you’d believe from the way it was received.” The former Trek honcho just cannot figure out why it didn’t perform as well as he (and studio tracking) predicted: “I, to this day, don’t quite understand what went wrong.” .
Issue 4 of Titan’s Star Trek Magazine is a 100 page discussion primarily of the 10 Star Trek films. Each feature is discussed, including filmmaker interviews and trivia (such as how Harve Bennett hoped Ron Howard would direct Star Trek II). Bennett also discusses his views regarding Star Trek XI. It is well known that in 1989 Harve Bennet (along with writer David Loughery) wrote a script called Star Trek The Academy Years which, like Star Trek XI, featured younger versions of Kirk and Spock. Bennett seems to feel that if Trek XI is truly an ‘academy movie’ he should be getting a call.
In a recent ShatnerVision, The Shat Talks about how it came to be that Kirk died in Generations. Shatner Responds: The Death Of Captain Kirk