Star Trek Movie Blog

Star Trek Online Dated

2009-11-09T21:31:00.002-05:00

Cryptic has announced the official release date for Star Trek Online as February 2, 2010. The game takes place in 2409, a few years after the destruction of Romulus and Remus in the most recent Star Trek movie. The press release is below. No details on how much it will cost, if a special edition is going to be released or how much the monthly payments will be.

NEW YORK, Nov. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Atari, Inc., one of the world's most recognized videogame publishers, and Cryptic Studios(TM), creators of the acclaimed Champions Online, City of Heroes and City of Villains, announced today the highly anticipated Star Trek Online for PC is set to release on February 2, 2010 in North America and February 5, 2010 across Europe and Australia. This first-of-a-kind massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) will offer space and ground gameplay to fans and players.

"Star Trek Online is poised to become the ultimate Star Trek gaming experience," said Jim Wilson, CEO of Atari, Inc. "Throughout the last four decades, Star Trek has been a mainstay in pop culture, influencing legions of fans through television, film, and more. Star Trek Online opens a whole new chapter and expands upon this incredible universe in 2010."

Taking place in the year 2409, continuing the story of the latest film installment, Star Trek Online boasts extraordinary features and lets fans both new and old experience unparalleled adventures. Players will have the opportunity to become a high ranking Starfleet officer and will participate in missions that will take them into the depths of space, across exotic planets and even inside other starships. Star Trek Online offers total customization, where every ship players command can be customized, from color to construction. Additionally, anyone can create their own species in Star Trek Online, as well as customize the look of their avatar's uniform.

Wil Wheaton's Trek Cameo

2009-11-08T14:07:00.000-05:00

It turns out that Wil Wheaton did have a cameo in the recent Star Trek film, just not in a way expected. Rather then having an onscreen role, Star Trek: The Next Generation's Wesley Crusher provided voice work for the various Romulan crew members on Nero's ship.

From Wheaton's blog:

I met JJ at an ADR stage a few days later, where he told me the entire plot of the movie (and, for the record, hearing JJ Freakin' Abrams tell you the plot of his Star Trek is even more awesome than you'd expect) and showed me some of the scenes that I'd be dubbing. I ended up providing voices for all the Romulans on Nero's ship, including the guy who tells him that "it's time" at the very beginning of the movie. (Yeah, how cool is that?)

Greenwood Up For Star Trek 12

2009-11-08T02:04:00.001-05:00

Bruce Greenwood, Christopher Pike in Abrams' Star Trek, has indicated he is up for reprising the role in the sequel according to Trek Today.

“I can hardly wait,” said Greenwood, talking about the sequel to J.J. Abrams’s Star Trek reboot. Greenwood has spoken to Abrams about Star Trek XII, and Greenwood’s participation in the film. “…there are no guarantees,” said Greenwood. “J.J., one of the nicest guys on the planet, has indicated there will be a place in the project for me.”

Star Trek Online History Lesson Part Two

2009-11-04T18:01:00.000-05:00

Cryptic has release part two (part one) of their history of Star Trek to catch people up on events that occur between the end of Star Trek: Nemesis and the universe that Star Trek Online will live in about 25 years later. For those that read the novels, it seems some recent developments are are not really a part of the game such as the Borg, after a massive invasion that killed trillions, has been eliminated as a race. The video gives a good look at the games graphics and many of the aliens that will be part of the online universe.

More Star Trek Online Battle Footage

2009-11-04T16:52:00.001-05:00

Cryptic has released a new video for the upcoming MMORPG Star Trek Online that provides a glimpse of space and planet side fighting the game will offer. The graphics still need work but the game is showing potential.

Star Trek Deleted Scene, Casting Spock Videos

2009-11-04T04:32:00.003-05:00

Two new videos have popped up online to help promote the upcoming release of Star Trek on DVD and Blu-ray. The first video is a deleted scene with Kirk (Chris Pine) as he apoligizes to the wrong Orion woman. I think he meant to apoligize to Rachel Nichols's character from the awkward scene in Uhura's (Zoe Saldana) bedroom. The second video from TrekMovie.com is from a casting featurette that gets into the casting of Spock and why they chose Zachary Quinto.

Wrong Orion Deleted Scene

Casting Spock

Abrams Talks Khan

2009-11-03T00:27:00.003-05:00

In a new interview with MTV, Star Trek director JJ Abrams spoke about sequel possibilities and the potential of using Khan in the movie. A video of the interview is below.

"I think one of the byproducts of doing this movie was we were able to dispel the obvious and understandable concerns—how can 'Star Trek' possibly exist without those original cast members?" the director explained during a recent interview with MTV's Josh Horowitz. "Now that we are in a parallel existence with what fans of the original series love so much, we could introduce any number of characters, settings, references and situations that the original series introduced. Dealing with Khan would certainly be a challenge, but we had an equal challenge in finding our crew of the Enterprise."

"While I don’t want to approach the second film as a remake of episodes we’ve seen in the past... nothing is off limits in terms of what we’re discussing," he said. "When Bob Orci and the others who know 'Trek' so well, the fun of working with them is they know this universe so deeply they’re the ones who are always considering what it means to deal with the stuff in the past, so it’ll be exciting."

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

Star Trek XBox 360 Bundle Announced

2009-10-29T09:42:00.000-04:00

According to Videogamer.com, a new XBox 360 bundles are being prepared for Star Trek.

The Star Trek bundle includes an Xbox 360 Elite plus Star Trek the movie on a Star Trek USB stick, 800 MS Points to download "Star Trek PDLC" and an additional black Wireless Controller.

There's no indication of pricing or if the Xbox 360 Elite features the standard 120GB hard drive or the larger 250GB variety.

As the images indicate, the bundle will be in Transformers specific packaging. Also, besides price, it is also unknown what regions the bundle will be released for or when but I assume in time for Christmas sales.

Star Trek Klingon Deleted Scene

2009-10-29T00:19:00.002-04:00

Below is a deleted scene that will be included in the upcoming home video release of Star Trek. The scene is part of a cut subplot that explains what Nero was up to in the 25 years he waited for Spock to appear after they hopped dimensions together after the destruction of Romulus. Nero and his crew were prisoners on Rura Penthe, the Klingon's prison world that was scene in Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country and this scene is part of their escape. This is also the same scene shown during the Spike TV's Scream Awards on Tuesday night.

Star Trek - DVD Bonus Footage

Nimoy Retiring Again?

2009-10-28T00:38:00.003-04:00

Hero Complex is reporting that Star Trek's Leonard Nimoy may retire (again) after making a third and likely final appearance on Fringe as William Bell. Nimoy had retired before but took a break to film Abrams' Star Trek movie.

"I have such a great life," the 78-year-old actor said at his home last week. "I'm not looking for work."

"As an actor you're always wondering when you're going to work again, who you're going to work with, what it will be. I don't have that consuming drive," he said. Then he nodded toward an image that will be on display at [his photography] exhibit. "This is my creative outlet. This is what I do."

Nimoy was fresh from a trip to the Vancouver set of "Fringe," where he had shot an upcoming episode. He made it sound as if it might have been his final one in the role of Bell, a rarely seen character on the show but one that is, by all appearances, at the very core of the series' mythology.

"I've done three appearances for them. I don't know if I will do a fourth... "They've asked me to do more, but we have to talk about where the character is going. So far my character, William Bell, and my appearances have been used to lay in information about this alternate universe and the experience of being in this other world. And that's OK, but I don't know yet what plans they have for really developing a dramatic story for the character. I'm waiting for a conversation about that."

"I think they're talking amongst themselves now so they can present some kind of plan, a story arc of some kind."

It sounds like if we want more Nimoy on TV, we need to pray to the writing gods that Abrams, Orci and Kurtzman can come up with something compelling enough to keep Nimoy's interest to keep reprising the role.

Abrams on Sequel Challenges

2009-10-26T20:21:00.002-04:00

In an interview with MTV, Star Trek director JJ Abrams discusses some of the challenges they are facing in trying to develop for the sequel to the hit movie.

"The second one has an obligation to go deeper and maintain the fun and adventure in the sense of optimism and scale that ['Trek' originator Gene] Roddenberry created," Abrams said. "But I do think it has to evolve and not become some polemic over-the-top, on-the-nose allegory. It needs to be something that is not just about the characters meeting each other and having their first adventure; it needs to be about having their most meaningful one."

These are the wide-ranging concepts that Abrams and writers Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci and Damon Lindelof are starting to explore. "We're literally just beginning discussions about the story and where we want to go," Abrams said. "We have some very broad stroke ideas that are very exciting. We're obviously going to do the best we can in terms of rewarding an audience."

One thing they likely won't do, according to Abrams, is call the sequel "Star Trek 2." Not even the second film in the original franchise — 1982's "Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan" — slapped a number onto its title.

"I think we can't really do that, right?" Abrams laughed. "I don't know what you'd call it. It's a good question. I'm not sure."

Star Trek Online Cinematic War Trailer

2009-10-25T19:19:00.002-04:00

A new trailer for Star Trek Online is out that shows off some of the graphics and the battle aspects of the game with an emphasis on battle as in this game there is essentially war all over the place between the Borg, Federation, Romulans, Klingons and more.

Star Trek Writers Talk Trek, Career

2009-10-23T10:00:00.000-04:00

In a new interview from IGN, Star Trek writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman talk aobut their long writing careers that began back in the Xena and Hercules days all the way to their curent projects such as Fringe and the sequel to Star Trek. Below are the Trek relevant portions, click here to read the entire interview.

IGN: I have to throw in the requisite pulling teeth Trek sequel question. You mentioned that you ended up with more time to write it then you first expected. Has that allowed you to take a step back and not have to rush anything?
Orci: Yeah. We want it to come like the first one, which came organically.
Kurtzman: Because we weren't rushed.
Orci: We weren't rushed, so I think the time we got to spend on it is reflected in the work. We feel the pressure a little bit coming on, but we're easing into it slowly.

IGN: Kirk and Spock have always been the stars of the series. Is it a difficult to make sure all those characters get their time to shine?
Kurtzman: For sure. In a sequel, you have even more of that burden, because the first movie is about introducing characters, but the second movie is about digging deeper into them. So you've got to make sure your story is giving everyone a moment… More than a moment. An arc.
Orci: We've always thought of the bridge crew as a family, so it's not just, "What are we gonna find for them?" It's part of the DNA of doing Star Trek right, I think - to make sure all the characters represent a significant part of the family.

IGN: How did you decide to make Spock and Uhura a couple?
Kurtzman: It actually came from the original series…
Orci: There was a little flirtation in the original series. But we thought that since we were doing a harmony on some of the things that were happening before, well, what happened in the original series? The first interracial kiss was with Kirk. So we thought what can we do that's different, but that still pays homage to that? Spock!

Star Trek Online Beta Begins

2009-10-22T21:58:00.000-04:00

Star Trek Online reports that Close Beta has officially begun today.

We're happy to announce that we've entered Close Beta as of today, October 22!

If you've signed up, keep an eye on your email, as we'll periodically be inviting people to join in and share their feedback. Additionally, if you look to the right of the page, the "Closed Beta" application graphic will change to indicate you've been accepted, if you've in fact been accepted. (It'll read "ACCEPTED" in big, bold letters.)

If you haven't signed up yet, head on over to the preview application, create an account if you haven't and sign up!

If your interested in trying to join Beta testing for the game click here.

Star Trek Alternate Episode Coming?

2009-10-21T00:56:00.000-04:00

In time for Christmas, the third and final season of remastered Star Trek: The Original Series on Blu-ray will be released and a new special feature has been leaked according to TrekWeb.

The new feature will be an extended version of the second pilot of the series, "Where No Man Has Gone Before" that will show Gene Roddenberry's cut of the episode before it was tweaked by NBC. The video below shows the additional footage not included in the broadcast (and home video) versions of the episode. The differences include the opening credits, the one we know now with an "Enterprise log" voice over rather than Captain's log, identified act breaks, and additional cut lines and scenes.

Star Trek Sequel in 2012?

2009-10-19T12:27:00.000-04:00

While at the 2009 Screenwriting Expo in Los Angeles, Star Trek writers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci spoke with Coming Soon about the target date for the sequel to the film being set for 2012, indicating a long way for Trek fans.

"We're rereading some of our favorite 'Star Trek' novels now and watching the original series again. The honest answer is we don't know yet," Orci said. "We think it's going to be a 2012 release, but I'm not sure," he continued.

"Originally we thought we were going to have to have the script in by Christmas, but the release changed so certainly within the next eight months I'd say," Kurtzman told us.

We tried to find out where the two writers would like to see the story go and Orci said: "They're established now in the second movie and they're finally a crew so it will resemble what you see in terms of they are already who they are."

On the bright side, its sounds like the 2012 date is just an educated guess and it is possible that the film get come sooner. Then again, Abrams and the writers are hot properties right now with projects in the pipeline that include Fringe, Mission Impossible 4, Cowboys and Aliens, and more so really no telling how things will shake down until official announcements are made.

I wonder what Trek novels they are reading? Personally I recommend pretty much any of the novels written by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens if your thinking of giving the novels a go to get a Trek fix between films.

Star Trek Wins Six Scream Awards

2009-10-19T00:04:00.001-04:00

Saturday Night, the Spike TV Scream Awards ceremony was held at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles, CA and Star Trek took home six awards including the top award of "Ultimate Scream". Star Trek had 17 nominations in 15 categories.

Th wins:
Ultimate Scream
Best Science Fiction Movie
Best Director (JJ Abrams)
Best Science Fiction Actor (Chris Pine)
Best Cameo (Winona Ryder)
Best Fight Scene (Kirk Spock bridge fight)

Probably the highlight of the night for Trek fans was Shatner accepting the Ultimate Scream trophy:

Morgan Freeman presented the Ultimate Scream award (essentially best in show) to "Star Trek" — and William Shatner shocked fans when he stepped on stage to accept the trophy.

"J.J., I'll handle this," Shatner said to J.J. Abrams, seated in the audience, who also won best director and best sci-fi movie for "Star Trek." (via Trekmovie)

"This movie was big," Shatner said. "Imagine how big it could have been with me in it? ... I'll be waiting for your call."

The full list of winners can be found here. The telecast of the award ceremony will air on Spike TV on Tuesday, October 27th from 10:00pm to midnight ET/PT.

Star Trek Online History Lesson Part One

2009-10-18T03:18:00.003-04:00

As a primer to bring potential new gamers up to date on the history of the Star Trek Universe for the upcoming MMORPG Star Trek Online is a new video (below). It gives you an idea of the state of the various factions since the game takes place about 20 years after Star Trek: Nemesis. No idea on when the second game will come up but the first part lets you know that death and war is alive and well in the future settings the stage for lots of game action. Note that the footage is on a pre-beta design which has likely gone under many revisions since then.

Chris Pine New Jack Ryan?

2009-10-14T21:47:00.002-04:00

According to various online movie sites including Dark Horizons, Star Trek's Chris Pine has been tapped to revive the Jack Ryan franchise. The series already has four films to its credit with The Hunt for Red October (with Alec Baldwin as Ryan), moved to Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger (Harrison Ford taking over the role), and tried a revival with critically panned reboot attempt with The Sum of All Fears (Ben Affleck as younger Ryan). The movies were based on the Jack Ryan series of books written by Tom Clancy but largely ignored Ryan’s rise to the Presidency due mostly to its probably controversial method of having a plane kill most of Congress (written pre-9/11). The new series would be another reboot that would ignore the previous films AND the books.

What impact this could have on filming the Star Trek sequel is unknown but considering both franchises are owned by Paramount, I am sure money will be no object in making it work out.

Star Trek Gag Reel

2009-10-13T06:27:00.002-04:00

Below is the gag reel for JJ Abrams' Star Trek that is a special feature on the DVD and Blu-ray edition that hits store shelves in November. This is a prime example of why smart directors, actors and studios should include these whenever possible. The feeling, other than amusement, is an appreciation for the sense of humor of participants. Some feel it takes away from "the craft" but what it really does is show a "human" side of actors and just makes for excellent and easy fan friendly moments that are pure public relations gold. It’s the ultimate win-win situation.

Trek Writers Update on Sequel Status

2009-10-11T09:29:00.001-04:00

The other day Paramount Home Video held a press event to promote their upcoming slate of releases including Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and Star Trek. As part of that they participated in a Q&A answering questions about the Trek sequel and other projects they are working on. Below are a few snippets, the full interview is here.

Question: For the Star Trek sequel, is it more interesting to you to come up with a brand new adventure for this characters, or to reinterpret and revisit a previous episode or a previous situation? What would be more rewarding for you?
Alex Kurtzman: Every franchise has a different need, so you have to look at them differently, based on whatever the mandate is there. In the case of Transformers it was very important for us to have a sequel idea that stood on its own. You need to be able to not have seen the first movie to appreciate the second one. But, I think for us, it’s always about going back to the sequels that we loved as kids and asking ourselves why we loved them. So, Empire Strikes Back, Superman 2, Aliens, Terminator 2, Star Trek 2. What do all those movies have in common? Well, they’re amazing stories, all on their own. You didn’t have to see the first movie, and there was some incredible, emotional test of character in all of those movies. Superman has to give up his powers for love. The Spock and Kirk relationship being tested by Khan. Ripley finding a daughter. All of those things are such big ideas in and of themselves, and you really can’t tell those stories in
movie one, because movie one is very much about establishing a world.

Question: Is there anything from Enterprise or Next Generation or Deep Space or elements, like the Borg, Cardassians, Bajorans, anything on the top of your list that you might want to throw in to the next movie?
Bob: I think we’d think about it, just because we do love The Next Generation…I think our instinct would be to first look at The Original Series, before we considered that. But, all that is on the table.

Question: It has been reported that there is an idea of doing the 2 and 3 Star Trek movies back-to-back? Is there any possibility of that?
Alex: It’s very, very important to us to make sure that each movie is good, not “Hey, let’s do as many as possible,” but make sure they’re good. We feel like we’ve inherited this incredible honor and this mantle of Star Trek, and the most important thing is to make sure that we’re protecting that first. So, if the studio wants more than one, great. But, our thinking is going to be very much about the story and whether the story prescribes that there will be more than one. Part of what is great about Star Trek is that it’s a continuing adventure, so you naturally think that there will be many, hopefully, but we only focus on what comes next, and then build off of that. Right now, we’re not thinking specifically about making 2 and 3. It may come up, but it’s not where our heads are at right now.

Question: And can you give a status update on where you are with the story and the script, etc.
Bob: We’re still just brainstorming, internally and are going to get together soon and bust our riffs out and see what happens, and start putting it together.

Question: Have you guys decided how much time will have passed between the first Star Trek film and the sequel? Are they still going to be new on the job, or will they have some experience?
Bob: We’re actually debating that.

Abrams Talks Trek Sequel, More

2009-10-09T21:19:00.003-04:00

As part of Paramount Pictures press event to promote their upcoming slate of home video releases including Star Trek, director JJ Abrams was on hand to help promote the release. Trekmovie.com spoke with the man were he discussed the sequel, Nimoy, and more. Below are snippets, the full interview is here.

Question: With the prequel, you have a chance to wipe the slate clean with maybe Romulans and Klingons. [In the next film] Do you have any intention of using the pre-existing monsters or characters, or bringing in a whole new mythology?
JJ Abrams: In going forward, the fun of this movie series is that we will have the opportunity, given its alternate timeline, to cross paths with any of the experiences, places, characters that existed in The Original Series. . We have to be really careful, doing that. I don’t want to do something that is so inside that, once again, only die-hard fans will appreciate. But I guarantee you , and we are just now working on the script and just now beginning the process of story breaking, whatever the story is and whatever the final movie ends up being, I know it will be something that the intent is that it will work on its own terms and be something that you don’t need to know and study Star Trek to get, but if you are a fan, there will be, hopefully, gift after gift of connections, references and characters that you, as a fan, hold near and dear.

Question: Any chance of you shooting the next Star Trek film in 3-D?
JJ Abrams: It is funny. Paramount talked to me about doing the first one in 3-D and, having it only be my second film, I was petrified just at the addition–I thought it would be another dimension of pain-in-the-ass. I thought I would be like, "oh my god, I just want to make a decent 2-D movie.” I was so worried that, instead of being a decent 2-D movie, it would have been a bad 3-D one. So I’m open to looking at it because now I feel a little bit more comfortable and, if I, in fact, direct the sequel to our Star Trek film, 3-D could be really fun, so I’m open to it. What I’ve seen of Avatar makes me want to do it, because it’s so crazy-cool looking.

Question: You have said the hardest decision for you with Star Trek was not including William Shatner in the movie, can you talk about the possibility of him being in the next one?
JJ Abrams: I am open to anything. I would love to figure out something. Given the challenge of introducing these new characters, given the burden of cast these new people, I feel like the first did some of the heavy lifting that needed to be done in order to free us going forward, maybe there is less of a burden and more of an opportunity to work with him again. We speak, we actually have a lunch date planned. I am fan, I am a friend of his, or he is at least a friend of mine–he may say otherwise on his blog today, I have no idea. I really couldn’t like him more and would love to work with him.

New Star Trek Online Gallery

2009-10-01T20:39:00.003-04:00

Click here to view new images from Star Trek Online, the upcoming MMORPG that is aiming to come out by end of the year. At least that seems to be the goal as the Star Trek: TOS Season 3 Blu-ray edition will come packed with the ability to unlock an admiral uniform (what that means in the game isn't indicated).

Star Trek Designing the Future

2009-09-29T21:40:00.004-04:00

Sunday, September 27th, the Art Directors Guild honored four of the designers for Star Trek. The guild held their event called "Star Trek: 45 Years of Designing the Future" at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood to honor John Jeffries (for Original Series), Joseph R. Jennings (Wrath of Khan), Herman Zimmerman (Deep Space 9), and Scott Chambliss (Abrams' Star Trek). This group is credited with designing much of the look and feel that we associate with the Star Trek Universe today including the starships, the planets, phasers and more. Designs that seem to now influence much of the tech created today. Below are snippets, but click here to read the full article from Hero Complex.

In the original “Trek,” other planets looked like the soundstages they were, but back in the day, the show was state-of-the-art. The papier-mache "rocks" weren’t even painted – "Paint was too expensive," Zimmerman said – they were lit with different colored lights, so the same boulders could double as other planets.

Said Zimmerman of graduating from “Deep Space 9,” set in the mid-23rd century, to “Star Trek: Enterprise,” set in the mid 22nd, he was relieved “to be designing a show only 90 years in the future.”

Jennings joked about developing five designs for a phaser, and the powers that be choosing one element from each of the five they wanted incorporated. By the way, in "Star Trek" parlance, when a rock or wall has “GNDN” painted on it, it merely means “Goes nowhere, does nothing."

Chambliss, the youngest and most restrained on the panel, commented briefly about conceptualizing the look of the 2009 “Trek” film. He was thinking about Nero’s ship one evening while chopping ingredients for dinner in his kitchen. Looking at the knife, he said, “That’s scary.” Then pointing the imaginary knife at his face, he said, “That’s really scary.” Hence the idea for the Romulan’s ship.

Star Trek Season 2 Remastered Blu-ray Now Out

2009-09-22T19:19:00.003-04:00

Star Trek: The Original Series Season Two Remastered for Blu-ray is now available for purchase. The remastered set was released a few years ago for DVD but this is the first time it was available for Blu-ray. The set includes both the original look and the new special effects enhanced versions that started airing on local televisions in the last few years.

AICN provides a detailed description of the set, so click here to learn more.