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The next Star Trek movie is under development, reports Robert Hyde from ComicCon.
 As more and more revelations come out of this years Comic-Con here’s some news that we all wanted to know was true as the rumours have been flying around for ages, Star Trek XI will be with us in 2008 and here’s the poster to prove it.
JJ Abrams who has had a hit this year with the Tom Cruise vehicle Mission:Impossible III is on board as producer and writer, although it’s not been revealed yet if he will direct or allow someone else that honour. Recent internet rumblings have suggested that he will write a story that goes back to Kirk and Spocks academy days, but these have been denied in the past.
Whatever happens is good to see that Paramount have handed the series over to some capable hands, and that they are not going to rush release a film to the market next year, a 2008 release date means that a lot of thought can go into the production and hopefully bring the flagging series back to a place where it sat in the 80′s and 90′s.
It sounds promising.
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Below The Beltway linked with Fire Up The Enterprise One More Time
Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan look 20 years younger in the opening sequence of X-Men 3, thanks to some new movie magic.
What a pair those dashing young mutants Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart make in “X-Men: The Last Stand.” The two 60-something actors had 20 years shaved off their features for the opening sequence in the comic-book franchise’s latest flick, the filmmakers using digital technology to match current features to those in old photos. In the scene, McKellen, 67, and Stewart, 65, look like fair approximations of themselves in their mid-40s, a time when McKellen was busy doing Shakespeare on the British stage and Stewart had just taken over the starship Enterprise on TV’s “Star Trek: The Next Generation.”
“It’s as brilliantly done as airbrushing in a magazine. You cannot tell the difference,” McKellen said. “You can grow hair, you can shrink eyebrows, you can change cheekbones, you can magnify bosoms, shrink waists. You can do anything you want. It looks like a younger person. Patrick looks sensational.”
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The opening sequence of “X-Men: The Last Stand” features Xavier and Lehnsherr 20 years earlier, still allies as they make first contact with super-mutant Jean Grey as a teenager, who grows into a powerful telepath played by Famke Janssen.
Wrinkles and sagging jowls have been magically wiped clean from Stewart and McKellen’s faces. “I’m scared for Hollywood, because A-list movie stars are going to be putting that in their contract. `I want 10 years taken off me.’ This technology is unbelievable,” said “X-Men: The Last Stand” director Brett Ratner. “It’s like painting the lines out of your face. Why do people have to have plastic surgery, anymore? Just be in a movie and look flawless and perfect.”
Stewart said he and McKellen had fun with the process even before the digital effects were applied, toying around with their carriage and body language to re-create the bearing of men 20 years younger. The technology could come in handy if plans for “X-Men” prequels ever materialize, Stewart said. “Ian was saying the other day there has been talk of a prequel with a younger Magneto and Xavier,” Stewart said. “Well, here we are, Ian and I. Wheel us out and spend the money on the technology.”
That’s be rather expensive. Still, it’s amazing what they can do these days.
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A new Star Trek movie is reportedly in the works, featuring the characters from the original series but set years earlier.
More than three years after the last “Star Trek” movie crashed at the box office, the venerable sci-fi franchise is being revived by the director of the upcoming “Mission: Impossible” sequel, Daily Variety reported in its Friday edition. The as-yet-untitled “Star Trek” feature, the 11th since 1979, is aiming for a fall 2008 release through Paramount Pictures, the Viacom Inc. unit looking to restore its box-office luster under new management, the trade paper said.
The project will be directed by J.J. Abrams, whose Tom Cruise vehicle “Mission: Impossible III” will be released by Paramount on May 5. Abrams, famed for producing the TV shows “Alias” and “Lost,” will also help write and produce.
Daily Variety said the action would center on the early days of “Star Trek” characters James T. Kirk and Mr. Spock, including their first meeting at Starfleet Academy and first outer-space mission.
The paper described “Star Trek” as Hollywood’s most durable performer after James Bond, spawning 10 features that have grossed more than $1 billion and 726 TV episodes from six series. The 10th film, “Star Trek: Nemesis,” bombed at the box office on its December 2002 release, earning just $43 million in North America. Last year, Viacom-owned broadcast network UPN pulled the plug on the low-rated series “Star Trek: Enterprise” following a four-season run.
After the “Enterprise” debacle, I am highly dubious of Trek prequels. The problem is that the original series debuted in 1966, long before the modern special effects era, and had a modest budget. As with the Star Wars prequels, then, the result is a distant past that looks much more advanced and futuristic than the original. Plus, since we already know the “future” most of the suspense is left out of the plot, which will instead rely on cheesy references to the old shows aimed at the geeks.
Crosspost OTB
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