Public Enemies - What Did You Think?
Which Path Will Orci, Kurtzman and Lindelof Choose For Star Trek 2?
Posted on Tuesday, June 16th, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
In a previous video blog, we discussed the possibilities for the future of the Star Trek film franchise. One thing both Steve and I agreed on was that we’d like to see something completely new and different in the sequel, and not just a remake or reinvention of past storylines or events from the films/tv shows. Screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman haven’t yet started writing the sequel (they will be joined by Damon Lindelof, and have to hand in a draft by year’s end), but that won’t stop them from talking about the possibilities.
Lost Season 5 Sneak Peeks; Don’t Expect To See Jack and Kate on the Big Screen
Posted on Tuesday, May 12th, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
For years now, there have been rumors and speculation about a possible LOST movie which would cap the end of the series. Series co-creator Damon Lindelof assures fans that while a Lost movie is possible, the sixth season finale will ultimately end the story of the group of characters we have been following. Watch the full interview after the jump.
Also, yesterday we teased and speculated about what might happen in the fifth season finale of the series. After the jump we have four sneak peeks at the last remaining episode of the season.
Steve from Collider is a good friend of mine. At least a few times a week we talk about upcoming movies, TV shows, what gossip each of us have heard, and anything else we might find exciting. Since a number of our conversations cover things you also might find interesting, we’ve decided to start recording certain conversations as video blogs. Past video blogs have included The Future of the Batman Film Franchise, The Box Office Prospects of Watchmen, thoughts on the first 46 Minutes of Pixar’s Up, and a four part preview of the Summer 2009 movie season.
Star Trek came out this weekend and beat all the box office expectations, which got us talking about what could possibly come next. But the new video blog is more than that, we also discuss the Star Trek Premiere, Pixar’s Up, how one of the stars of Terminator Salvation watched our video blogs, and a shocking fact: how more people paid to see the original 1979 Star Trek film in theaters than will likely pay to see this new film on the big screen.
Discuss: Please, leave your thoughts on what you’d like to see happen in Star Trek 2 in the comments below.
What’s In The Box? Lindelof Comments, Mystery Revealed and the Future of Spec Viral Campaigns?
Posted on Tuesday, April 21st, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
Last month we posted a 9-minute first-person short film which appeared on YouTube titled “What’s In The Box?” The special effects-infused short gained traction online, with many of the impressed viewers trying to unlock the mystery. Could this be a viral marketing campaign for a movie? a television show? a video game? a cell phone? Many speculated that the film might to promote the video game Half-Life, as it featured some imagery from the series.
The use of Michael Giacchino’s Lost score lead others to believe that the short might be connected to the JJ Abrams-produced television show. Websites connected with the video (or possibly fan created add-ons to the experience) also featured Lost-related Easter eggs like a pass code using the famous numbers 4 8 15 16 23 42 and a link to The Hanso Foundation website, the company which finances the Dharma Initiative.
Lost producer Damon Lindelof has finally gone on record to confirm the the video is NOT connected in any official capacity to the popular sci-fi television series.
Paramount Pictures is moving forward with development on a Star Trek sequel, hiring Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman and Damon Lindelof to pen the screenplay. Lindelof produced the first film but has been brought on to reteam with Kurtzman and Orci, with whom he is currently co-scripting DreamWorks’ Cowboys and Aliens. Kurtzman told Variety that they will wait to see what fan reaction is to the first film, which hits theaters on May 8th, before proceeding.
Esurance has added a short Star Trek featurette featuring director JJ Abrams, producer Damon Lindelof, stars Chris Pine, Zoe Saldana, and Zachary Quinto, and writers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci talking about reinventing Trek. Unfourtunately the featurette features no new footage from the actual film, and only a few blink-and-you-missed-it seconds of behind the scenes filming. All the usual soundbites that you might expect, and nothing more. Click on the image above to check it out.
A year and a half ago, Stephen King optioned The Dark Tower series to JJ Abrams and Damon Lindelof for $19. But since then we haven’t really heard any updates on the project. Recently AMC got a chance to chat with Lindelof, who admitted that he won’t have time to tackle the adaptation until Lost is finished. He also revealed that he would like to adapt the seven books into a seven film series. Here is the quote:
“The Dark Tower is to me every bit as daunting an adaptation as the Lord of the Rings trilogy must have been for Peter Jackson, except we’ve got seven books we’re looking at. And the idea of doing that at the same time Carlton and I are bringing Lost to a close is simply not viable. There are always Dark Tower conversations, but the figuring out of what this will look like as a movie has not begun. If The Dark Tower were in the right hands, I would love to see seven movies executed just right. But you have to get people to see the first one to get them to come and see the second one.”
I’m not sure the adaptation could sustain a big enough audience for seven feature film. The Dark Tower is a epic series of seven books written by King from 1982 to 2004. The story follows Roland Deschain’s quest for the Dark Tower, which is often described as a real structure, and also as a metaphor.
The Writers Strike’s Impact on JJ Abrams’ Star Trek
Posted on Friday, November 23rd, 2007 by Peter Sciretta
Screenwriter John August has been doing an incredible job blogging about the WGA strike, and his encounters on the picket line. In one of his latest blog entries, August talks about a conversation he has on day 10 of the strike, meeting and chatting with Damon Lindelof and J.J. Abrams. The Star Trek director expressed his frustrations of being in production on a movie during the strike, and what problems it creates. Here is an excerpt:
“Damon is producing the new Star Trek movie, which J.J. is directing. Which is shooting on the Paramount lot. Which we are currently picketing.”
“Star Trek is the biggest movie shooting at Paramount. It’s directed and produced by WGA members, who are following the spirit and letter of the Guild’s rules. They’re walking the line while being forced to cross it.”
“‘Forced’ isn’t quite right, because there’s an alternative: J.J., Damon, and the other WGA producers could refuse to cross the picket line. They’d get fired, sued, and replaced by a less-conflicted director and producing team - all probably within a week’s time. What’s tougher to figure out is whether it would make a damn bit of difference.”
“Neither J.J. nor Damon are writers on the movie. But they are writers, and WGA members. During a WGA strike, you’re not allowed to write on movies or television shows, period. So they can’t change a word of the script, nor can anyone else. The script they had at 11:59 p.m. November 5th is the script they have to shoot.”
“To a screenwriter, that might seem kind of awesome. For once, the director can’t change things. But when its your own movie, it’s maddening. J.J. was describing a scene he was shooting the day before. Midway through it, he got a great idea for a new line. Which he couldn’t write. Couldn’t shoot. Couldn’t be in his movie.
“Damon described it like having one of your superpowers taken away.”
“You can absolutely make a movie without changing the script. Big Fish and Charlie were shot just like they were written. But to not even have the option of changing something is a bizarre restriction, like making a Dogme 95 film with a $100 million budget….”
Indeed.
Lost showrunner and co-creator Damon Lindelof has a great editorial in today’s New York Times about the Writers Strike.
 ”I am angry because I am accused of being greedy by studios that are being greedy. I am angry because my greed is fair and reasonable: if money is made off of my product through the Internet, then I am entitled to a small piece. The studios’ greed, on the other hand, is hidden behind cynical, disingenuous claims that they make nothing on the Web - that the streaming and downloading of our shows is purely promotional. Seriously?”
In the op-ed piece titled Mourning TV, Lindelof makes it clear that “TELEVISION is dying” and brilliantly compares our current situation to the stages of grief.
“I should have realized this four years ago when I first got my TiVo box, but denial is always the first stage of grief,” Lindelof writes. “Twenty percent of American homes now contain hard drives that store movies and television shows indefinitely and allows you to fast-forward through commercials. These devices will probably proliferate at a significant rate and soon, almost everyone will have them. They’ll also get smaller and smaller, rendering the box that holds them obsolete, and the rectangular screen in your living room won’t really be a television anymore, it’ll be a computer. And running into the back of that computer, the wire that delivers unto you everything you watch? It won’t be cable; it will be the Internet.”
To people in the Industry, this prospect is not exciting, but instead scary. Lindelof compares the feeling to how “vaudevillians must have felt the first time they saw a silent movie; sitting there, suddenly realizing they just became extinct”. And this brings us to fear.
“Change always provokes fear, but I’d once believed that the death of our beloved television would unify all those affected, talent and studios, creators and suits. We’re all afraid and we’d all be afraid together. Instead we find ourselves so deeply divided.”
Lindelof explains the reason for the strike in very simple terms, “for more than 50 years, writers have been entitled to a small cut of the studios’ profits from the reuse of our shows or movies; whenever something we created ends up in syndication or is sold on DVD, we receive royalties. But the studios refuse to apply the same rules to the Internet.”
And he has a great point. I don’t see how anyone could think otherwise. Lindelof’s show Lost has been streamed “streamed hundreds of millions of times” with commercial advertisements on the web, and sold god knows how many episodes for $1.99 a pop on iTunes, yet the writers get NOTHING for it. As more people convert to the on demand lifestyle, less will be watching commercials or even watching a program on television. So not only will the writers be refused access to royalties from the internet, but the royalties from television will grow smaller and smaller as the audience moves to online. And this strike could effect your television viewing habits until 2009.
“If this strike lasts longer than three months, an entire season of television will end this December. No dramas. No comedies. No Daily Show. The strike will also prevent any pilots from being shot in the spring, so even if the strike is settled by then, you won’t see any new shows until the following January.”
“Most of all, I’m angry that I’m not working. Not working means not getting paid. My weekly salary is considerably more than the small percentage of Internet gains we are hoping to make in this negotiation and if I’m on the picket line for just three months, I will never recoup those losses, no matter what deal gets made. I am willing to hold firm for considerably longer than three months because this is a fight for the livelihoods of a future generation of writers, whose work will never “air,” but instead be streamed, beamed or zapped onto a tiny chip. “
“Perhaps it’s not too late, though, for both sides to rally around the one thing we still have in common: our mourning for the way things used to be. Instead of fighting each other, maybe we should be throwing a wake for our beloved TV. Because the third stage of grief is bargaining. And bargain we must, because when television finally passes on, there will still be entertainment…” “And we’ll still be writing every word.”
I hope the studios come to the table and settle this thing sooner rather than later. The writers aren’t going to back down, and threats of lawsuits and mass firings of below the line staff won’t get them to budge. They are here to fight for 4 cents, and the sooner the studios understand this is the only road, the sooner this will end.
Read the whole article on NYTimes.com.
Yes, more Star Trek XI news. Paramount sent out a press release that now OFFICIALLY officially announces the project. But there are a few meaty tidbits to be discovered. Let’s take a look.
Read More »
Remember last week when we told you that JJ Abrams might be directing an adaptation of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower series? Well it looks like this rumor is true.
Read More »
JJ Abrams to direct movie version of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower?
Posted on Tuesday, February 13th, 2007 by Peter Sciretta
Almost confirmed: Lost co-creator J.J. Abrams will direct a big screen adaptation of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower series.
Read More »
