The guys over at Spoiler TV are running THIS scan of a TV Guide mini-story in which J.J. Abrams indicates Tom Cruise has asked him to return to the franchise as a producer on MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE IV (although Abrams hasn’t committed to directing the film yet). Abrams says he and Cruise are developing a “realy cool idea”. – from AICN
The “Sleeker, Faster Response” Theory: If the new “Trek” gives us the Enterprise equivalent of a Blu-Ray disk, then the ship on the original “Trek” looks like a Betamax tape. One fan theory is that the attack on the Kelvin forced the Federation to build sleeker, faster spacecraft in the movie’s new reality.
“Right,” agreed Abrams. “The idea of the story is that at the beginning of the film something happens that changes the course of history. They cross paths with this futuristic ship, and it changes everything that would’ve been the classic series ‘Trek’ fans are familiar with. … One could argue that, based on the readings they got from the [Romulan] ship that showed up, it inspired ideas and technology that wouldn’t have advanced otherwise.” Hence, the huge difference between the old Enterprise and his version. “On the one hand, you could answer the question by saying that history got a boost, an adjustment, from this moment at the beginning of the film,” he grinned. “And if you don’t want to answer the question, you could say it’s just a movie.” – from MTV
I remember we started working with Zachary [Quinto] first and he was terrific and it was clear that he was going to be incredibly affecting and effecting in the role and he was very, very talented and working really hard and we had about a week working with him and I thought “Holy shit, Chris better be good.” I knew he was great in the audition and he’s awesome, but it was a different thing, like “Wait a minute, Zachary is really good. Chris better be great!” Then Chris started working and he was awesome and I thought “Zach better up his game” and it was this fun thing were they were all so good that it was like watching great tennis players where you think “Oh my God, that was such an amazing serve, there’s no way that can be returned” and then you see an amazing return and you think “Oh my God, that’s impossible.”
That really, for me, was the key, which was “Are the characters working?” and “Are the actors doing their job?” and I’ve never been more grateful for a cast of actors than this cast. They not only had the burden of having to make a space adventure feel real and emotional and funny and scary and legitimate, but they had to do it in the shadow of these incredible actors playing iconic roles that were shoes that intellectually I realize how daunting it must have been, more in retrospect than anything do I sort of feel what that challenge was for them and I think that all of them did it not with fear or hesitation or self doubt, but they did it with fun exuberance.
They did it with this kind of excitement and that was a really wonderful thing to see. They were embracing these roles in the only way you can do it and that to me, every day on the set and seeing how wonderful the cast was and what a wonderful job they were doing, that was the thing for me that felt like “It’s going to work,” because I was never worried that the story wasn’t good. I think they wrote a great script. I was never worried about the visual effects or that the action sequences weren’t going to be good, because I knew we were working with amazing stunt people, I knew that ILM is the best in the business, so my insanely long answer is really just to say that the actors were the keys for me even remotely feeling like we had a shot, that what they were doing was so good.
- from AICN
MTV got a chance to grill Star Trek director JJ Abrams about what we could expect in the inevitable sequel. Of course, screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman have not yet started on the announced sequel, so anything at this point is just speculation. But Abrams admits that the alternative universe timeline allows them to deviate from Trek canon. When I polled the slashfilm followers on Twitter a week ago, the three most popular ideas were: The Original Crew vs. The Borg, the return of William Shatner and of course, KHANNNN!!!! The last two pose a big problem. Shatner’s Kirk died on in the climax of the 1994 film Star Trek: Generations. – From SlashFilm
Resistance proved futile: “Star Trek,” the Paramount Pictures prequel, sold an estimated $76.5 million in tickets at North American theaters in its first three and a half days of release, the top draw of the weekend. The opening was propelled by a megawatt marketing campaign and unexpectedly strong critical notices. Going into the weekend, though, Paramount was a bit nervous about how the film, which cost $140 million, would perform. Would the average moviegoer dismiss it as a geek flick? What about older women, an audience that has been tough for science fiction films to crack but is needed for a movie to reach blockbuster status? Historically “Star Trek” movies have performed poorly overseas. Would Paramount’s harder-than-usual sell in Europe pay off? Rob Moore, Paramount’s vice chairman, sounded giddy in an interview on Sunday morning. “A giant new audience came along for this ride,” he said. “It’s a great relaunch to this classic property.” – from NYTimes
Paramount’s “Star Trek” has successfully beamed up, debuting to $76.5 million at the domestic box office, including $4 million in Thursday night runs. Overseas — where the sci-fi franchise has never played well –”Star Trek” likewise posted solid numbers, grossing $35.5 million from 5,000 locations in 54 markets for a worldwide bow of $106 million.
Par insiders said the film’s No. 1 standing in the U.S. and abroad reinforces the decision to go ahead with the sequel (Daily Variety, March 30).
Weekend’s other new wide release was Summit Entertainment’s urban comedy “Next Day Air,” which struggled to find an aud. Pic grossed $4 million from 1,138 runs to place No. 6.
“Star Trek,” directed by J.J. Abrams, grabbed the second-best domestic opening of the year after 20th Century Fox’s “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” which bowed to $85 million last weekend.
- from Variety
Thursday evening previews contributed $4 million to the total and midnight Thursday performances $3 million as the well-reviewed film re-invigorated the studio’s storied franchise with an opening smack in the middle of an unusually broad range of prerelease forecasts. Paramount execs had said they’d be pleased if “Trek” traveled anywhere north of $50 million during its first session. “Trek” made good use of positive word-of-mouth during the weekend to build on a core franchise fan base and tap into more youthful demos. Weekend grosses, fattened by outsized receipts in 138 Imax giant-screen venues, peaked with particularly robust Saturday night business. – from THR
The revamped “Star Trek,” which had never seen significant international traction in its 10 previous incarnations, scored a respectable $7,100 per-location average. Top “Trek” takes came from the U.K. with $8.8 million, Germany with $4.6 million, Australia with $3.4 million, France with $2.8 million, Russia with $2.3 million, South Korea with $2.2 million and Spain with $1.6 million. Paramount noted Sunday the “Trek” results came in 3% ahead of the 2005 re-invention of the Batman franchise, “Batman Begins,” which finished with a $167 million foreign cume. Par also pointed out that the new “Star Trek” is already 47% ahead of the final international cume of the previous franchise entry, “Star Trek: Nemesis.” – from Variety
Long time fans of the Star Trek franchise say JJ Abrams’ enjoyable, engaging prequal betrays what Star Trek is all about.
“Damon Lindelof and I talked to Mr. King,” Abrams told IGN while promoting the upcoming “Star Trek” film. “We got the rights for ['Dark Tower'] as a film. Damon is obviously still on ‘Lost’ and we’ve been working on ‘Star Trek’ together. As soon as ‘Lost’ is done, hopefully we’ll begin tackling that.”
The cast of the new ‘Star Trek’ film reveal whether they were fans of the TV show, while director JJ Abrams explains why William Shatner didn’t make it into the movie.
I’ve seen “Star Trek”. I saw it last night at the great Paramount Theater on the Studio Lot and have to say, the film is really great. If you were nervous about the cast, don’t be. If you thought J.J. Abrams is just a TV director…he’s stepped up his game to the next level. And if you were somehow thinking Paramount was going to nickel and dime the franchise like they’ve done in the past, the special effects in this film are going to shock you. Simply put, “Star Trek” has opened the summer movie season with a huge home run and I don’t know how anyone will be disappointed. – From Collider
CHRIS PINE wrote to his STAR TREK predecessor WILLIAM SHATNER following a reported feud with movie bosses – because the young star was determined to make peace with the Hollywood veteran.
Shatner, who played Captain Kirk in the original TV series and following film franchise, allegedly fell out with studio executives over their refusal to give him a brief appearance in the new prequel film.
Pine, who plays Kirk in J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek, heard about the row – and decided to contact Shatner in a bid to defuse the situation.
He says, “I wrote William Shatner a letter and explained who I was because I heard there was bad blood between him and the studio. I said, ‘I’m just an actor who happened to get a role that happened to be James T. Kirk, and I’m not trying to usurp your status or anything’. He replied, ‘Thank you very much for the letter. I wish you the best of luck.’ I have it on my fridge.” – from Contactmusic
A few nights ago Steven Bevacqua, a postproduction supervisor for the television series “Life,” was flipping through the May issue of Wired magazine when he thought he started seeing secret messages. Yes, he’d just come home from a long day at work, but then again, the issue was guest-edited by J. J. Abrams, a creator of enigmatic television shows like “Lost” and “Fringe.” So, as Mr. Bevacqua wrote on his blog, he spent the next several days following the hidden clues he believed he’d found, using Morse code, alternative computer keyboard layouts and even electrician’s wiring codes to solve the covert brainteasers. Finally he was directed to a hidden Web site, from which he sent an e-mail message to a secret account. A short while later he learned that he was the first Wired reader to solve an extensive hidden puzzle embedded throughout the magazine. It all happened a little faster than the editors of Wired expected, but this was the intent of their new issue, created in collaboration with Mr. Abrams: to immerse their audience in a series of riddles — some announced, others not — that were buried just deep enough for the readers who wanted to dig them up. – from NYtimes
Matt Damon turned down the role of Captain Kirk in the new Star Trek film.
Director J.J. Abrams has revealed that he initially approached Damon for the reboot, but the actor declined his offer.
According to WENN, the Lost creator said that Damon was his first choice for the role, but was glad to give relatively unknown actor Chris Pine the part in the end.
“I actually approached Matt and we had some discussions, but everything happens for a reason,” he told America’s Life magazine. “On the one hand, it would have been great to work with Matt – but at the end of the day, it was such a better move to cast the movie with unknowns.”
- from Digital Spy
However, is this true?! Watch the below video of Matt Damon:
Look at J.J. Abrams using his fancy sci-fi connections. After collaborating on his upcoming Star Trek reboot, Abrams has signed Leonard Nimoy to join the cast of his Fox baby, Fringe. The 78-year-old Trek icon will play William Bell, Walter Bishop’s former lab partner-turned-millionaire founder of Massive Dynamic. – from EW
This will mark Nimoy’s third collaboration with Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman this year, since he’ll also appear in May’s Star Trek (reprising his role as Spock), and as the voice of the villain in this summer’s Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. – from Fringetelevision
Fans were invited to a screening of The Wrath of Khan, but when the film burned in the gate, Leonard Nimoy burst through the doors to save the day with a print of the new Star Trek film.
God Bless JJ Abrams. Seriously… JJ’s STAR TREK has a singular purpose at its heart, to reboot the STAR TREK franchise in such a way that you never have to deal with continuity issues… where you can play with these characters without being beholden to everything that came before… but with the spirit and the love for that Universe clearly entrenched in every frame. The actors are not mimicking the originals, necessarily – so much as becoming those characters. This could very well be the most accomplished REBOOT of any major series I’ve seen. It is confident and sharper than you can imagine. – from Harry Knowles at AICN
In fact, there’s nobody I felt didn’t deliver. Simon Pegg as Scotty is perfection (great job on the accent, dude), Zachary Quinto as Spock is not only visually perfect, but he hits that perfect balance of emotion and logic that is crucial to Spock’s character and Karl Urban seems like he was born to inherit the role of Dr. Leonard McCoy from DeForest Kelley. Urban will be an audience favorite, for sure, and his introduction (and nod to his nickname) is exactly what I wanted to see. Another great surprise is Anton Yelchin as Chekov. He is given a couple of different scenes to shine and didn’t feel like he was just trying to mimic a Russian accent. That goes for everybody… from Zoe Saldana’s Uhura to John Cho’s Sulu nobody feels like they’re locked in to someone else’s performance. Each person seems to capture what we love about the characters from the original series without making us wish we just had the originals back. – from Quint at AICN
MTV is showing off some new images from the upcoming Star Trek film. The images are from new trading cards coming out with the film.
Meanwhile, Paramount has announced they have hired Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman and Damon Lindelof to write the screenplay for a sequel. J.J. Abrams will be on board to produce, but no decision on directing was announced.
“I told my agent and told the people of J.J. Abrams’ team I want to create another ‘Star Trek’ series and have an idea that I’m kicking around,” acclaimed TV writer Bryan Fuller said in an IF Magazine story posted March 2. “I would love to return to the spirit of the old series with the colors and attitude. I loved ‘Voyager’ and ‘Deep Space Nine,’ but they seem to have lost the ‘60s fun and I would love to take it back to its origin.” “I would love to do it in the same era as the J.J. Abrams movie, but on another starship on a completely different adventure,” Fuller tells Ain’t It Cool. “But it really is a dream and there is nothing official about it at all.” – from AICN
Hopefully, it will not star Charly XXX.
During the Star Trek panel at WonderCon, JJ Abrams was asked to give a status update on a sequel to Cloverfield. I’m not going to pretend like some big news was dropped, as Abrams basically said what he always says. He reiterated that if they do a sequel, it won’t just be a business decision, and that they need a good idea before moving forward. Here is where things get a little bit interesting. Abrams says there is an idea. – From SlashFilm
Academy Awards aside, here’s the latest film buzz.
Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes to Jail took in $41.1 million to hog the box office. That’s $10 more than the top estimates for Perry’s film – proving again how well his films are doing. Taken, Coraline, He’s Just Not That Into You and Slumdog Millionaire did well – and all the films will probably top $100 million at the box office (joining the amazing Paul Blart for 2009). Friday the 13th tumbled to $7.8 million, and it will top out around $70 million – enough for a sequel. Fired Up! fizzled – coming in 9th. Taken is turning out to be a surprise hit – nearing $100 million. We love Liam Neeson, so anything that gets him back into the theatres is worth it in our book.
Madea Goes to Jail – $41.1M
Taken – $11.4M
Coraline – $11M
He’s Just Not That Into You – $8.54M
Slumdog Millionaire – $8.05M
Friday the 13th – $7.83M
Confessions of a Shopaholic – $7.02M
Paul Blart: Mall Cop – $7M
Fired Up! – $6M
The International – $4.45M
All sorts of insider info on the new Star Trek film over at aint it cool news.
Also, here’s a new behind-the-scenes Star Trek feature focusing on JJ Abrams. Nothing really new, but still nice to see.
Transformers 2 toy info – Megatron. Yes, the Megatron that Michael Bay said wasn’t in the new film. Liar.
And here’s a new behind-the-scenes feature to enjoy:
Info is out on the next Shrek movie. Honestly, does anyone care anymore?
Latest on JJ’s Star Trek:
GB: Last time I saw you, you mentioned there would be a tribble in the movie. That’s fun.
JAA: Yes! There is a tribble in there. But you have to look for it. And there’s that other surprise I told you about but please don’t write about that one.’
- from Latimes
Other News:
