Content Update

New banners (look at top of page) and a widget have been released (top right hand corner of page). In additon It has been confirmed that Star Trek will be digitally remastered for release in IMAX theatres. The press release from Paramount can be read below.

LOS ANGELES, CA, December 12, 2008 Paramount Pictures and IMAX Corporation (NASDAQ: IMAX; TSX: IMX) today announced that Star Trek, directed by J.J. Abrams (Mission: Impossible III, “Lost” and “Alias), will be simultaneously released to both IMAX and conventional theatres worldwide on May 8, 2009. Star Trek, which chronicles the early days of James T. Kirk and his fellow USS Enterprise crew members, will be digitally re-mastered into the unparalleled image and sound quality of The IMAX Experience with proprietary IMAX DMR (Digital Re-mastering) technology. Paramount Pictures will be the exclusive distributor of the film to IMAX theatres worldwide.


Star Trek is one of the worlds most successful science fiction entertainment series and media franchises. Created by Gene Roddenberry, the Star Trek phenomenon has lead to six television series, ten feature films, dozens of computer and video games, hundreds of novels and fan stories, as well as a themed attraction in Las Vegas. Star Trek has also inspired a following of millions of Trekkies of all ages that span across the globe.


Were excited to share the enhanced IMAX version of this film with the millions of dedicated fans who have been anticipating this release since production began, said Rob Moore, Vice Chairman, Paramount Pictures. The IMAX Experience adds that extra level of excitement to an already action-packed film, giving moviegoers a premium event at the multiplex.


Added J.J. Abrams, Im thrilled that audiences will be able to experience this new, epic world of Star Trek with an incredible cast and mind-blowing visual effects on what is, obviously, the most remarkable film format in the world.


Star Trek combines top Hollywood story-telling talent with space exploration, and each is very conducive to The IMAX Experience, said IMAX Co-Chairmen and Co-CEOs Richard L. Gelfond and Bradley J. Wechsler. Expanding our relationship with Paramount Pictures to include this film strengthens our 2009 slate, and with the continuing rollout of digital IMAX theatre systems, we will be able to offer the fan-base more locations to experience the epic first journey of the USS Enterprise in the most immersive way.


Both Star Trek and IMAX have taken audiences to far away places they would normally not be able to go, and in this case, its space the final frontier, added Greg Foster, Chairman and President of IMAX Filmed Entertainment. J.J. Abrams has created a powerful movie that has fans worldwide feverishly anticipating its release. We are thrilled to partner with Paramount Pictures to bring J.J.S exciting vision of this incredible space adventure to IMAX screens.


From director J.J. Abrams and screenwriters Alex Kurtzman & Roberto Orci (“Transformers,” “MI: III”) comes a new vision of the greatest space adventure of all time, “Star Trek,” featuring a young, new crew venturing boldly where no man has gone before. Star Trek explores the early Starfleet careers of future Enterprise officers Kirk (Chris Pine), Spock (Zachary Quinto), Scotty (Simon Pegg), Amanda Grayson (Winona Ryder), Uhura (Zoe Saldana), McCoy (Karl Urban), Sulu (John Cho), and Chekhov (Anton Yelchin). A Romulan, Nero (Eric Bana), and a much older Spock (Leonard Nimoy) are influences, as well as Captain Pike (Bruce Greenwood), the first captain of the USS Enterprise.


About IMAX Corporation
IMAX Corporation is one of the worlds leading entertainment technology companies, specializing in immersive motion picture technologies. The worldwide IMAX network is among the most important and successful theatrical distribution platforms for major event Hollywood films around the globe, with IMAX theatres delivering the worlds best movie presentations using proprietary IMAX, IMAX 3D, and IMAX DMR, technology. IMAX DMR is the Companys groundbreaking digital re-mastering technology that allows it to digitally transform virtually any conventional motion picture into the unparalleled image and sound quality of The IMAX Experience. IMAXs renowned projectors display crystal-clear images on the worlds biggest screens, and the IMAX brand is recognized throughout the world for extraordinary and immersive entertainment experiences for consumers. As of September 30, 2008, there were 320 IMAX theatres operating in 42 countries.


IMAX, IMAX 3D, IMAX DMR, IMAX, MPX, and The IMAX Experience are trademarks of IMAX Corporation. More information on the Company can be found at www.imax.com.

Star Trek vs. Star Wars

Live Long and Prosper

An updated version of the theatrical trailer for Star Trek features Leonard Nimoy reprising his role as Spock.

Watch it below.

Star Trek in IMAX

The new Star Trek film will apparently be converted to IMAX format to be shown in IMAX theaters.  Although no scenes were originally filmed in IMAX format it is possible to convert the film to be compatible with IMAX screens.  This will be the first Star Trek movie to be offered in IMAX but the idea isn't a new one.  

Star Trek IMAX was a film first proposed in 1997, it was to be a crossover film featuring characters from all four of the series up to that time.  The budget was reported to be between ten and twelve million dollars, with a running time of approximately 40 minutes.  Colm Meaney and David Warner were two of the actors reported to be reprising their role in this movie that never got off the ground.  

Star Trek Countdown

IDW will be releasing a comic in January to bridge the gap between the Star Trek Nemesis and the new Star Trek prequel.  This comic will be titled Star Trek Countdown and will apparently focus on Spock and Nero, but will also feature characters from the TNG era, most obviously Picard and Data judging from the cover art below.

    

Scene Summaries

Scene One

James Kirk enters a bar where he tries to pick up Uhura, who quickly shuts him down.  After getting the crap kicked out of him by four guys he was antagonizing, Captain Pike walks in and lectures Kirk about how he is wasting his life.  Pike seems to know Kirk, presumably through his Kirks father who Pike said was a hero.

Scene Two

Fast Forward three years later, Kirk is a cadet at Starfleet Academy and is apparently a bit of a hellraiser.  He is currently under review pending an incident involving the Kobayashi Maru Test.  Meanwhile an emergency is taking place on planet Vulcan and many cadets are re assigned to ships to help with a possible evacuation of Vulcan.  Kirk isn't invited along, but is smuggled aboard by his friend Leonard McCoy who is apparently already the ships doctor.  Somewhere along the line Kirk discovers that the emergency on Vulcan is actually a Romulan trap and convinces Captain Pike and his first Officer Spock.

Scene Three

Captain Pike transports to somewhere and leaves Spock in command, with Kirk as his first officer.  At some point near here, Kirk, Sulu and engineer Olsen transport to an orbital platform to fight some Romulans, but apparently Olsen doesn't survive the curse of the Star Trek red shirts, his flight suit is red and he is killed.  Kirk and Sulu seem to fail their mission somehow and it looks like Vulcan is going to be annihilated so Spock leaves Chekov in command of the Enterprise while he beams to the surface to rescue his parents and the Vulcan council.

Scene Four

Spock kicks Kirks ass off the Enterprise to an ice planet where Kirk meets old Spock (Nimoy).  Nimoy gives Kirk some futuristic transporter formula that will help him get off the planet.  Scotty is introduced as being assigned to a shitty position on an outpost on this ice planet because of an accident involving Admiral Archers* prized pet Beagle.

Canon Error

From what I understand of Star Trek history, if it is to be believed that Admiral Archer is the same Jonathon Archer from STENT he would then be pushing nearly one hundred years old if not that old already.  In addition, For the biographical display seen in "In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II", writer Mike Sussman wrote a final section of text that didn't end up being visible on screen, stating that Archer "...died at his home in upstate New York in the year 2245, exactly one day after attending the christening ceremony of the first Federation starship Enterprise, NCC-1701".  

Uhura does a strip tease and Kirk climbs into bed with an Orion

Apparently Zoe Saldana, who plays Uhura in next summers Star Trek flick has an unforgettable scene in which she performs some sort of strip tease. Chris Pine told E! in a recent interview that “It’ll become famous, [The film is] trying to be sexed up for a new generation that really isn’t used to seeing ‘Star Trek’. It’s a whole new beast.” In addition to Uhura sexing up the final frontier, Pine, who plays Kirk was in a sex scene with an Orion slave girl who is being played by Rachel Nichols.