Friday Report: ‘Angels & Demons’ Unravels, ‘Star Trek’ Survives:
Paramount has released the first photo of the new USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) from JJ Abrams‘ Star Trek. Entertainment Weekly has the first look, and for the most part, the new Enterprise doesn’t look that much different from the old Enterprise. JJ Abrams explains “If you’re going to do Star Trek there are many things you cannot change. The Enterprise is a visual touchstone for so many people. So if you’re going to do the Enterprise, it better look like the Enterprise, because otherwise, what are you doing?”
Makes sense to me, and I think it actually looks pretty cool. But why did Abrams decide to make the inside of the ship look like the Genius Bar at an Apple Store? We’ve included a photo of the old enterprise design below for comparison purposes.
Paramount has now accomplished two very distinct things with the release of this increasingly large batch of photos from Star Trek. First, the images are great and they have everyone excited about the movie. That’s a good thing and if the new trailer which is supposed to debut with Quantum of Solace looks half as good as these stills, then they may really get some serious buzz going for this film. Second… they’ve managed to piss off just about the entire Star Trek fan site community.
Paramount has begun to distribute the first production photos from JJ Abrams‘ Star Trek around the web. Above is a first look at the crew on the Bridge of the USS Enterprise from MTV. Lindelof says that Kirk’s Black shirt is the Captain uniform, and that the red shirt crew member in the background is of no importance (ie Uhura probably replaces her after she dies early on). The bridge looks extremely cool, I can;t wait to see more of it. UGO has the first cast photo of the Enterprise crew (From left to right: Anton Yelchin as Chekov, Chris Pine as James T. Kirk, Simon Pegg as Lt. Montgomery Scott, Karl Urban as Dr. McCoy, John Cho as Sulu and Zoe Saldana as Uhura).
Below is AICN’s photo of Zachary Quinto as Spock (could that be the Vulcan Death Grip? And if so, who is at the other end of it?).
IGN has a photo of Kirk, who appears to have landed in an ice crater on what we assume is an Arctic-like planet.
Below is Eric Bana as the film’s Romulan villain Nero on the bridge of his unnamed rouge vessel from JoBlo.
TrekMovie has a first look at the USS Kelvin, a Federation starship from the generation before the Enterprise. The ship is commanded by Captain Robau (Faran Tahir) with George Kirk (Chris Hemsworth) as first officer. Looks like the ship is under attack and in pretty bad shape.
"The bandwagon, revisionist, retroactive bashing of Superman Returns has flown to new heights of ridiculousness. This time it’s Brendan Fraser running around pretending Superman Returns sucked, and apparently it sucked because it didn’t have him in it. That's right, Brendan Fraser. Star of quality films like The Mummy 3.Via
ComicBookMovie has the partial transcript of an interview in which Fraser claims he was offered the role of Superman before Bryan Singer came in and put together his take on the character. Fraser read the JJ Abrams script that Warner Bros was considering using, and waxes poetic about how much better it was than that terrible Superman Returns movie which everyone lavished with praise until it became fashionable to start hating it and pretend that no one went to see it… even though it didn’t and they did. Welcome to the lynch mob, Mr. Fraser.
Fraser claims the Abrams version was better because it was bigger, spanning galaxies and huge, epic locales. He says, “It was Lord of the Rings. I mean, it was that huge. It was like a 3rd World War on Earth involving different planets and universes, and brotherhoods--sibling rivalry and the collision of enormous powers.” I'm sorry Brendan, maybe you haven't heard. Comparing movies to LOTR is out of style. Now everything is the next Dark Knight.
Regardless, well there’s your answer as to why Warner Brothers never made it. They’d already spent millions and millions of dollars over several years trying to get a new Superman movie made. You think Singer’s movie was expensive? Just imagine how much this galaxy spanning sucker would have cost. Instead, Warner Bros. assumed Superman fans were a cerebral, intelligent bunch and gave them a well thought out, character driven film which fans loved. Or at least they did until a year ago when everyone decided they didn’t want none of that smart guy stuff and all they wanted is to see Superman punch stuff.
Much like Barack Obama, that snob Bryan Singer and his boy toy Brandon Routh are now viewed as a pansy-ass elitists (I heard Bryan Singer may even be gay!), a viewpoint which the notoriously brilliant Brendan Fraser is all for agreeing with, complaining that Singer’s version was “smacking you over the head with a symbolic hammer till you weren't paying attention.” Well, I guess this explains The Mummy 3. Definitely no symbolism in there, and for that matter, probably no need to pay attention at all. The public only wants movies it can watch inebriated, the kind of movies you can catch a good nap in, without feeling like you’ve missed out on any of the plot. Yes, the world would have been a better place if someone had put that hack Bryan Singer out of his misery and cast Brendan Fraser as Superman. I guess I’m an elitist too, because I can’t imagine anything worse."
Terminator Salvation blasted into Comic Con with a life size T-600, and director McG. The panelists talked about how the futuristic world will be bleak, burned up and completely free of race and sex stereotypes (the revolution is multiracial and powered by ladies). But more importantly, they debuted a new trailer for T4 which showed more characters, more Terminators, and a fantastic back and forth between Marcus Wright and John Connor. Click through for a gallery of panel pics, and a recap of the trailer. Beware spoilers.
The trailer begins, and John Connor (Christian Bale) is on the radio looking beat as hell. The radio sparks and asks him how many survivors? Connor rasps into the radio quietly, "One". "What?" cracks the radio with indignation, and Connor screams "One!" and gets up and walks away. Around him is a burnt landscape strewn with Terminator remains. Next, we see a tied-up Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington), face to face with a pissed-as-hell Connor. He leans in towards Marcus and leers as he says, "If I let you go, you'll kill eveyone in this room... You know me, we've been at war. Before I ever existed." Which pretty much seals the deal that Marcus is a Terminator. Next you hear Marcus asking blindly outside what day and year it is? He's met by a young Kyle Reese who leans in and says, "Judgment Day." And then later he yells out "follow me if you want to live." It's amazing how the new Kyle (Anton Yelchin) has captured many of the original Kyle's ticks, including the toothy grin. Then there are a few Mad Max-esque car and motorcycle chase scenes, with Kyle shooting a huge shot gun. Tanks roll over skulls, and then mammoth robot feet crush more skulls. Marcus appears to be escaping with a young boy from the Skynet human research facilities (where humans are kept in pens). Actress Moon Bloodgood (Journeyman) stands topless in the rain and gives the sexy eye to Marcus (Ooh, love connection). John Connor says, "This is not the future my mother told me about." He sounds depressed, then he yells out, "You tried killing my mother, you killed my father, you will not kill me!" Overall, amazing.
So what else does T4 have in store for us. We know that the film takes place after the bombs have dropped in the year 2018. McG won't say what year the big boom takes place, but did tell us in the panel that they took science into consideration, making sure that enough time would have passed for the air to clear so humans could breathe. Sam Worthington concurred, "we studded what flora and fauna would look like in the future after terrible radiation."
Terminator 4 will be a multicultural rainbow of death. Race, sex and religion matter not to John Connor's human resistance, or at least to T4's director. McG told the fans at the comic con Terminator Salvation panel that there won't be a bunch of, "lilly white people running around running things." Which is why rapper Common is helping to lead the resistance.
Sam Worthington also remarked that you couldn't be a pansy to go toe-to-toe with Christian Bale and McG agreed, "You need an actor who can stand up in a two shot and so many actors, that's not for them. You could see the tension in the clip, where Bale says you tried to kill my mother, you tried to kill my father. I won't let you kill me. I think he stands well against him"
The look of the film will be dirty, McG called it "a greasy, grimy and brutal world that we saw earlier from Cameron in Aliens." He also later revealed in round tables that he wouldn't do the film without Cameron's blessing. But was mum about Arnold being back, as it would spoil the movie (which means yes, and it's already been reported that there will be a younger version of Arnold's terminator).
The director seems to be really taken with the fact that we are all doomed. And stated, "Science fiction is over. We live in a world where we can clone sheep. Be careful when you create life because the life you create may kick you in the ass."
Source: io9
Stargate SG-1 fans in the United Kingdom won't have to wait quite as long to see Stargate: The Ark of Truth, the DVD movie that promises to wrap up the Ori storyline from the past two seasons of the television series.
Star Trek XI will be released on May 8, 2009, depriving Star Trek fans of a Christmas Day movie present.
Joshua "joshed" Shear
