Public Enemies - What Did You Think?
JJ Abrams and Tom Cruise To Co-Produce Mission: Impossible 4 for 2011 Release
Posted on Wednesday, June 17th, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
Update: The Hollywood trades have confirmed that a fourth Mission Impossible film is being co-produced by JJ Abrams and Tom Cruise at Paramount (which if you know the Abrams history, is a mission: impossible in itself). Paramount is hoping to have the film ready for theaters for 2011 (most likely May, considering the first three films were released during that month). No word on if this will be a reboot or sequel, and no writer has been officially hired for the project. Our original story from June 10th follows.
I didn’t watch the 2009 MTV Movie Awards, so I’ve only just now caught wind of Andy Samberg’s homage to slow motion explosion shots. The MTV Movie Awards Digital Short “Explosions” is a music video featuring Samberg, Will Ferrell as Neil Diamond and an awesome cameo appearance by a director of one of this summer’s blockbusters. If you haven’t seen it, watch the video after the jump.
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Artist James Clyne has posted a lot of the concept art he created for JJ Abrams‘ Star Trek. The art includes a lot of different views of the inside and outside of Nero’s Romulan spaceship, some darker views of the planet Vulcan, and a early grittier design of the bridge labeled “Iowa Bridge”, which we assume might be the Starfleet Academy test bridge where Kirk cheats on the Kobayashi Maru. Unless that is the USS Kelvin? All this incredible art makes me wonder why Paramount didn’t release an “Art of Star Trek” book. I’ve included a bunch of my favorites after the jump.
JJ Abrams Says Shatner and Khan Are Possible in Star Trek Sequel
Posted on Saturday, May 16th, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
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.
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How William Shatner Would Have Appeared in Star Trek
Posted on Monday, May 11th, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
You might recall that JJ Abrams originally approached William Shatner to make an appearance in Star Trek, but the actor declined because he felt like it was nothing more than a tiny cameo.
“We actually had written a scene with him in it that was a flashback kind of thing,” Abrams told AMCtv. “But the truth is, it didn’t quite feel right. The bigger thing was that he was very vocal that he didn’t want to do a cameo.”
I suggested a way that Shatner could still be involved in the inevitable sequel in our latest video blog. But now that people have seen Star Trek, it seems like the interest in Shatner’s involvement has almost completely disappeared. But I’ve wondered how was Shatner going to be involved in the original plan? IO9 talked to Trek screenwriters Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, and discovered the details. Warning: possible spoiler if you haven’t yet seen the film.
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.
JJ Abrams’ Star Trek has been released and I want to know what you thought! Leave your mini reviews in the comments below! What did you like? What did you hate? I’ll keep this comment thread sticky’d to the top of the site for the remainder of the weekend. Spoilers are open.
Box Office: Star Trek Thursday Night Previews Deliver a Possible $6.5M-$7.5M!
Posted on Friday, May 8th, 2009 by Steve Mason
Several sources at competing studios have told me that J.J. Abrams’ all-new reboot of Star Trek (Paramount), which debuted last night at 7pm at many of its 3,849 locations, may have grossed as much as $6.5M-$7.5M. Studio honchos are “locked down tight” about actual numbers, but that is in the same ballpark as Transformers (Dreamworks/Paramount), which grabbed $8.8M in its previews starting at 8pm on Monday, July 2 during the summer of 2007. (What portion of ticket sales fall into Thursday and what percentage fall into Friday will likely be an open question even after final numbers are in.)
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This Is Not Your Father’s Star Trek - Reflections On The Series And On JJ Abrams’ New Film
Posted on Thursday, May 7th, 2009 by David Chen
[While this review is spoiler-free, assume the comment section is not]
For me, the release of a new Star Trek film is an emotional event. As a longtime fan of the show, I still remember my theatergoing experience in 2002, when I saw Stuart Baird’s Star Trek: Nemesis during its initial release. Trek, as a theatrical franchise, had been flagging; while First Contact (the 8th Star Trek film) had raked in almost $100 million domestically, its follow-up, Insurrection, had barely mustered $70 million and many thought of the latter as merely a 90-minute Trek TV episode.
Nemesis, the 10th and last Star Trek film until Abrams’ reboot, was a failure both artistically and financially; not only did it completely lack any of the drama, suspense, and sci-fi elements that made Trek great (Baird was a disastrous choice), the film only managed to crawl its way to a tepid $43 million domestic take. Baird had essentially killed off Trek as a viable film franchise, forcing Trek fans like myself to subsist off the scraps of television’s Star Trek: Enterprise. It was a difficult torch to carry, and let’s be honest, that show did it poorly. Enterprise flamed out of existence in May 2005 and Star Trek has barely been heard from since.
Until now.
In popular culture, Trek is probably best known for helping to spawn the image of the modern geek. Star Trek fans were the ones who dressed up in elaborate costumes when they went to conventions, who had philosophical conversations in the Klingon language, who argued about whether or not Kirk or Picard was a superior captain, who debated endlessly on newsgroups about whether episode #27, which took place on Stardate 3087.6, violated the show’s continuity. But setting aside the idiosyncrasies of this crowd, which epitomized the very concept of “nerd” (and a crowd with which I proudly associate myself), I still am convinced that Star Trek, at its best, didn’t simply unite a group of disparate, lonely geeks. In our culture, where fictional depictions of the future are often still rife with post-apocalyptic, dystopian overtones, Star Trek was far more optimistic, giving us a version of the future that saw humanity coalesce under a common vision. Despite its flaws, the fictional United Federation of Planets was always depicted as a welcoming body, open to people of all races, creeds, and even species. Humanity, the series seemed to say, could transcend its ephemeral squabbles and latch onto more noble ideals. And while these ideas were rarely made explicit, they were always lurking in the background.
This is why to see the series go out back in 2002, not with a spectacular bang, but with a disappointing whimper in the atrocity that was Star Trek Nemesis, was doubly disappointing: Not only were we witnessing the death of the beloved characters and sci-fi concepts we had once cherished, but in some way, we were also witnessing the death of Roddenberry’s ideals, which had grounded the series for so long. For awhile it seemed that all that Star Trek stood for was going to be consigned only to our memories forever. That is why it gives me great pleasure to tell you that JJ Abrams’ new Star Trek film is not only a thrilling sci-fi actioner, but also a film that gives the series the shot in the arm it needs to re-enter the mainstream consciousness. Perhaps most importantly, it shows hints of the moral complexity and the geeky intellectualism that once made Star Trek great.
Charlie Rose had a good 30-minute interview with Star Trek director JJ Abrams.
Abrams talks about he got involved in Star Trek, the challenges he faced in creating a reboot, the influence of Richard Donner’s Superman, making a movie for non-Star Trek fans, how Sequels usually rip off “the wrong thing”, and redeveloping the iconic characters. Abrams also discusses how he became interested in film and filmmaking, meeting his idol Steven Spielberg, how technology has changed storytelling, how spectacle can only work to serve the humanity of the story, the importance of the mystery box, how the audience fills in the blanks, and his writing process.
I’ve embedded the interview after the jump thanks to Google Video.
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TrekMovie has gotten their hands on the full credits for JJ Abrams‘ Star Trek, and have uncovered a bunch of casting and cameo easter eggs. I have included some of the more interesting ones below:
- J.J. Abrams’ “good luck charm” and best friend since childhood Greg Grunberg appears in the film as Jim Kirk’s stepdad (voice only).
- Producer and Academy Award-winning screenwriter Akiva Goldsman (A Beautiful Mind) appears as a Vulcan council member.
- Tyler Perry plays Starfleet Academy president Admiral Richard Barnett.
- The Beastie Boys song “Sabotage” is listed as one of the songs used in the film.
Check out the full list at TrekMovie.
Star Trek London Press Conference: Part Three
Posted on Thursday, April 23rd, 2009 by Brendon Connelly
Here’s the third and final part of /Film’s Star Trek press conference coverage from Smoky Old Londinium. As I sat listening to JJ Abrams and his lead cast chew over just how to hype the film to the assembled Brits, outside stalked Jack the Ripper through a real pea souper off in search of jellied eels. Or maybe not. Maybe London’s not like that at all and its all mods and miniskirts. I forget now.
Why not read part one or part two, or both parts, of my conference transcript in preparation for this epic finale? Reading is good for you.
After the break, the last marathon run of questions and answers. This is where you’ll get to read the inevitable discussions of the next Trek film and plenty more besides.
