Move out of the way, Iron Man! It’s now time to talk about Star Trek Into Darkness. Actually, for Simon Pegg and J.J. Abrams, it’s time to talk about Star Wars Episode VII. In a new video from Sky Movies, the duo talk about their love for the Star Wars franchise, and, amongst other things, Abrams’ trepidation about tackling a film series that’s meant so much to him.

Let’s roll the tape (via Cinema Blend) and learn which character Pegg (perhaps speciously) would like to see spun-off:

Speaking of the future, and more specifically Star Trek’s future after Into Darkness, co-producer and co-writer Damon Lindelof was asked about it by Hey U Guys (via Comic Book Movie) on the red carpet before the film’s LA premiere. Lindelof seemed to indicate that there’s already been discussions about the direction of Star Trek 3 (or Star Trek XIII), and the important lesson he learned from Lost in regards to planning for the future.

“I think that is a reasonable conclusion. You should always know where you’ve been, you should always know where you are, but most importantly, and I learned this from Lost, you should know where you’re going. [...] You can never see enough Klingons, and I think in this film we’ve given the audience a little taste, but there’s also a promise that there’s a larger conflict on the horizon, and that would be fun to see.”

It might be nice to see a movie dedicated to the Klingons, as they’ve been a part of both rebooted Trek movies (even though those scenes were cut from Star Trek I). They look pretty bad ass in the rebooted universe, at least.

Star Trek Into Darkness is out in theaters on May 17, 2013.

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Star Trek Into Darkness is just a few months away, but people still can’t seem to be able to just wait and see what the movie has in store.  Instead, they constantly hunt down clues and spoilers in an effort to crack all the mystery before they see the film.  One of the biggest mysteries is, naturally, the question of who Benedict Cumberbatch is actually playing.  The most popular rumor is Khan, but it’s still not a positive.  One of the new flick’s writers, Damon Lindelof, had a few things to say in a recent interview regarding his own opinion of spoilers.

He had this to say about the mystery they’ve tried to maintain with the new film:

The audience needs to have the same experience that the crew is having. You’re Kirk, you’re Spock, you’re McCoy, so if they don’t know who the bad guy is going to be in the movie, then you shouldn’t know. It’s not just keeping the secret for secrecy’s sake. It’s not giving the audience information that the characters don’t have.

And this to say about how he generally feels about spoilers:

I’m working on a bunch of different projects, and I even have to keep secrets about one project from the people I’m working with on the other project. They’ll say, ‘So, seriously, who’s Benedict playing?’ I’ll say, ‘Do you really want to know?’ Then they go, ‘No, no, no, I don’t.’ They know that if I said it to them they would have a five-second rush of exhilaration followed by four months of being completely and totally bummed out that they can’t tell anybody else and that when it gets revealed in the movie, it will have been spoiled for them. That’s why they’re called ‘spoilers,’ they’re not called ‘awesomes.’

So there you have it.  We can all just wait until the release and figure out what’s going on the way God intended – by watching the damn thing.

Check out Star Trek Into Darkness come May 17^th.

Thanks to Screenrant for the heads-up.

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Not for the first time, the artist formally known as Geordi LaForge shares some sour grapes about the J.J. Abrams-led reboot of the Star Trek franchise. Last year, LeVar Burton said that there wasn’t enough reverence for Star Trek: The Next Generation in Abrams’ 2009 film, and now Burton thinks that Abrams is trying to mitigate all previous incarnations of the franchise, and he’s against that!

Here’s what Burton told the Toronto Sun:

“(Abrams’ Star Trek) was a great movie, and he brought a whole new generation to Trek. But I’m a little disquieted by things I hear coming out of his camp, things like he would like to be remembered as the only Trek—which would discount everything before he got there.

“There’s ‘breaking the canon,’ which he did (by re-inventing Star Trek‘s timeline). But there’s also honouring the canon. And to pretend to be the only one is really egocentric and immature.

“I just came from a conference in San Francisco with Advanced Micro Devices, and they’re working on technology towards building a holodeck. That was Next Generation. And that’s part of what Star Trek has brought to the culture. So when JJ Abrams says, There should be no Star Trek except the one I make,’ I call bulls—, J.J.”

OH… snap? Hm, I don’t remember any comment from anyone in Abrams’ camp disrespecting the canon. In fact, Star Trek Into Darkness screenwriters Roberto Orci and Damon Lindelof are both avowed Trek fans, the ’09 Star Trek had the usual Easter Eggs for fans, and all the related Star Trek comic books through IDW have been full of references to both the Original Series and Next Gen. Sounds like someone’s trying to make a mountain out of a mole hill, especially since he’ll do anything for gas money and the promise of free food.

Source: Blastr

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Is there a more divisive name in nerdery right now than Damon Lindelof? The Lost co-creator and Prometheus screenwriter has stayed fairly busy lately with a lot of film work, but he made his name on TV, and considering the success of his last show, there would obviously be a lot of interest in his next project if he should have one.

And so he does. Vulture is reporting that HBO has decided to greenlight the pilot for The Leftovers, Lindelof’s next project which is based on the novel of the same name by Tom Perrotta (Little Children). The novel focuses on those left behind after “the Sudden Departure,” a Rapture-like event where millions of people suddenly disappear from the Earth. The novel picks up three years after the Sudden Departure as those that remain struggle with the aftermath.

“The fact that there’s this reaping which occurred, and you don’t make the cut, some of us don’t feel worthy, seemed very ripe territory for a cool character drama,” Lindelof tells Vulture.

Lindelof pitched the project just six months ago, so the project seems to be moving through development rather briskly. When will we see the finished series? Excellent question. My guess would be sometime in the summer or fall 2014. HBO has a pretty full plate right now, so maybe the premium cable channel is looking to the future with a plan to fill a whole in the schedule when one opens up.

The whole concept sounds very Lost-y if you ask me. Perhaps Lindelof is looking to do some penance given the way that series ended up in 2010. Or maybe he saw those awful Kirk Cameron Left Behind movies and saw potential. Anyway, are you anxious to see The Leftovers?

Source: Blastr

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Prometheus was one of this summer’s biggest disappointments for a lot of fans, and a lot of that blame, for better or worse, fell on screenwriter Damon Lindelof. But as development on the sequel gets underway, it seems that it will have to be done without Lindelof. Here’s what the writer had to say in brief…

“The thing about Prometheus was it was a rewrite.  Jon Spaihts wrote a script and I rewrote it.  And still it was a year of my life that I spent on Prometheus, kind of all in.  The idea of building a sequel to it—from the ground up this time—with Ridley is tremendously exciting.  But at the same time, I was like, “Well that’s probably going to be two years of my life.”  I can’t do what J.J. [Abrams] does.   I don’t have the capability.  I’m usually very single-minded creatively.  I can only be working on one thing at a time.  So I said to him, “I really don’t think I could start working on this movie until I do this other stuff.  And I don’t know when the other stuff is going to be done.”  And he was like, “Well, okay, it’s not like I asked you anyways.”  He and I are on excellent terms and it was a dream come true to work with him.  But much to the delight of all the fanboys, I don’t see myself being involved in Prometheus-er.”

So I guess you won’t have Damon Lindelof to push around anymore… Not that I think that the faults of Prometheus are entirely his alone, but Lindelof is such a lightening rod for the fan community maybe it might help the sequel engender some trust if he’s not in the picture.

Here’s the full exchange from the Collider interview:

Collider: I know from people at Fox that they were really happy with the worldwide box office of Prometheus and that they are moving forward on a sequel.  Are you involved at all?

Damon Lindelof:  I am not.  Ridley [Scott] and I talked at great length during the story process of the first movie about what subsequent movies would be if Prometheus were to be successful.  And I think that the movie ended in a very specific way that hinted at, or strongly implied that there were going to be continuing adventures worthy of writing stories.  What those stories would be would not necessarily usurp or transcend the Alien franchise as we saw it because we know that the Nostromo hasn’t come along yet.  So the idea was to set up a universe that… Is it a prequel?  Okay.  If that’s what we want to call it, sure.  But the sequel to this movie is not Alien.  The sequel to this movie is this other thing.

So Ridley and I talked about what that other thing might be, and he was excited about doing it.  But then I think what ended up happening was that the movie came out, and there was a reaction to the movie.  And I got really wrapped up in Trek, and really wrapped up in this movie that I’m producing and writing with Brad Bird.  And I have a TV project that I was really passionate about.  Ridley and I had a meeting after Prometheus came out where we started talking again about where this journey would go.  And in that meeting I said to him, unfortunately, before he could ask me and go through the discomfort of whether he was going to ask me or not… It’s sort of like having a date where you’re letting the other person know, “I’m in another relationship.”  So I can’t tell you that he asked me and I said no.  But I did communicate to him that I was working on these other things.

The thing about Prometheus was it was a rewrite.  Jon Spaihts wrote a script and I rewrote it.  And still it was a year of my life that I spent on Prometheus, kind of all in.  The idea of building a sequel to it—from the ground up this time—with Ridley is tremendously exciting.  But at the same time, I was like, “Well that’s probably going to be two years of my life.”  I can’t do what J.J. [Abrams] does.   I don’t have the capability.  I’m usually very single-minded creatively.  I can only be working on one thing at a time.  So I said to him, “I really don’t think I could start working on this movie until I do this other stuff.  And I don’t know when the other stuff is going to be done.”  And he was like, “Well, okay, it’s not like I asked you anyways.”  He and I are on excellent terms and it was a dream come true to work with him.  But much to the delight of all the fanboys, I don’t see myself being involved in Prometheus-er.

At least he’s self-aware about it. But despite the hate, Lindelof is staying busy, writing and producing Star Trek Into Darkness and Brad Bird’s super-secret 1952. He also did re-writes on Marc Forster’s World War Z.

Source: Collider

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Star Trek Into Darkness has been one of Hollywood’s best keep secrets. Their villain is both known and unknown at the same time, the script is under heavy wraps and J.J. Abrams‘ has managed to get away with showing a measly three frames of footage.

As of next month, fans of J. R. R. Tolkien and Peter Jackson who happen to be watching The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (in IMAX) will be treated to 12,960 times the amount of footage Star Trek then we’ve seen all year.

With Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg, Anton Yelchin, John Cho, and Bruce Greenwood all reprising their roles from the last film alongside newcomers Alice Eve and Benedict Cumberbatch, Paramount Pictures wants to get people in the seats. So what better way then to announce a nine-minute prologue for J.J. Abrams‘ sequel that will air ahead of the Jackson trilogy on approximately 500 IMAX screens?

Check out more in the jump.
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Interested in seeing what Jon Spaihts had in mind for the Alien prequel before Ridley Scott and Damon Linelof came aboard and made Prometheus? Well, now you can satiate your curiosity by reading Spaihts’ original script for yourself by clicking here.

The entire thing was leaked online by the website Prometheus Movie, and Spaihts himself confirmed that it is legit via his Twitter page.

So any big differences? I read the first 30 pages of the draft called Alien: Engineers and it kind of follows the same beats as Prometheus with the introduction of a pair of scientists seeking the origins of life on Earth, the attachment of elderly Weyland to the mission, and the introduction of company woman Vickers and the android David. Others who have hear the script, say that’s a perfectly serviceable monster movie, complete with more throwbacks to Alien including facehuggers and chestbursters.

Give ‘er a read and let us know what you think. Is this the version of Prometheus you rather would have seen? Sound off below.

Source: Blastr

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With today being the 46th year anniversary of Star Trek (*blowing on my kazoo*), I just knew some news regarding J.J. Abram‘s Trek sequel was going to be unleashed. And it has, just not officially. According to Comingsoon.net the sequels title has been revealed. Kirk and crew are going to need some friggin’ flash lights, because the title is -apparently- being named: Star Trek Into Darkness.

This news does not come from Abrams, the cast or anyone at Paramount Studios. Nope, just some good ole’ domain snooping. Comingsoon.net found two domain names that were registered yesterday through Markmonitor. Which is an anonymous domain registry service that has been used by Paramount Pictures in the past for recent URLs like their official G.I. Joe: Retaliation site. Those new Star Trek domain names include www.startrekintodarkness.com and www.startrekintodarknessmovie.

So, again, this is not official. However, Star Trek Into Darkness seems an apt name, considering the dark tones actors Chris Pine had said the film was going to have. He told Total Film in a recent interview:

There’s comedy, which I think J.J. does a great job of, but, like the first one, there’s some serious issues being dealt with. And I’d say the threat is even greater in this one.

The force [the Enterprise crew] are met with is much more frightening. It’s relentlessly action-packed and in terms of character development it goes places you’d never expect. The arc is huge for all the characters. It’s a really big story—I can’t hype it enough!

For me, I just hope all this darkness talk is a hint that the solar or lens flare problem has been corrected. *derp*

Star Trek 2 will star Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, John Cho, Bruce Greenwood, Simon Pegg, Anton Yelchin, Benedict Cumberbatch, Alice Eve and Peter Weller with a screenplay by Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, Damon Lindelof and that it will hit theaters on May 17, 2013 in 2D, 3D theaters and IMAX 3D versions.

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Most movies nowadays are accompanied by months of marketing.  The ease and affordability of using the Internet has given movie companies new and interesting ways to get their film out.  People (geek-site writers in particular) are bombarded every week with new trailers, pictures, interviews and all manner of other things to tease and tantalize.  Some simply choose to reorder trailers and add tiny bits of new footage until what has been released ends up totaling 20% of the movie’s content in the end.  Cleverer marketing, however, can be interesting and fun without giving away too much.

Prometheus is perhaps the king of the viral campaign this year, with all the extra clips they shot exclusively for marketing purposes.  These little things added flavor to the movie, hyped it up and didn’t just replay tons of footage.

As it turns out, although marketing was the key motivation, there was a little more involved in what they were trying to do.  Their goal was to bridge the gap between the old Aliens mythology and the new mythology being introduced by Prometheus.  This was to satisfy fans of the old while still keeping the mystery of whether Prometheus was indeed a prequel to the originals.  As everyone knows by now, the movie was billed as not being connected to the Aliens franchise, but all the denial was nothing more than a smokescreen.

In a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal, Damon Lindelof explained a bit about what they set out to do.

I thought that instead of us answering questions in mainstream media, was there a way to control the story by releasing content before the movie that just isn’t the trailer. They were like “What do you mean?” I said, “We can do some cool viral stuff.” And the best viral content stars the actors, the stars who are actually in the movie. I thought if we could talk Michael Fassbender into doing this, or Guy Pearce, that would be awesome. But we are going to have to have these ideas figured out by the time we are shooting the movie because that’s when we have those actors.

And when asked about the way the marketing campaign interacted with those viewing the content:

Weyland’s TED talk is a talk to an audience, and the audience is a proxy for the audience that’s watching it. The “David 8” spot is a commercial, not for “Prometheus,” but for a robot you can’t actually buy. Sometimes when you put content out there and it’s just a scene from the movie it’s exactly the same experience you’d get in a movie theater. But I do think people, particularly when it comes to viral content, like content that’s talking directly to them, creating that level of interactivity.

The interview is pretty long and fans of Prometheus may find much of what Lindelof had to say pretty interesting.  Head on over to the WSJ to read more.

Thanks to blastr for the info on this one.

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It’s official, FOX is pursuing a sequel to Prometheus and Ridley Scott will still be involved, no handing the franchise off to others who would likely only screw things up this time. Also signed on for a sequel is Noomi Rapace and Michael Fassbender, which is unsurprising seeing as they were the only two – SPOILER – still alive come the end, and it’s very likely they were contracted for a sequel when they agreed to do the first film. Plus, everything about that ending screamed sequel, what with Liz Shaw and the head of David off on some foolish crusade to find the Engineers and destroy them, or something.

Not coming back however is Damon Lindelof. Word is his exclusion is not a reflection of his work on Prometheus‘ script but rather he’ll just be unavailable to work on a sequel. Though, some are suspecting he’s been ousted because of the criticism Prometheus‘ at times confusing as fuck story received, but I’d like to believe FOX and Scott would have worked with him again given the opportunity.

Anyway, as reported by THR we can expect to see a sequel either in 2014 or 2015 which I think sounds awfully soon. What do you think? What do you expect a Prometheus sequel explore?

Source: Bleeding Cool

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