StarTrek Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Their engines whine; their walls creak. These spaceships may look like antiques from the future, but many pack more punch under the hood than they let on. Never judge a book by its cover, and never judge a spaceship by its rust-holes and sputtering warp drive. What space-faring rattletraps make the cut in our top five list of "hunk of junk" spaceships?


5. EAGLE V from Spaceballs

The most impressive thing about the Eagle V is its amazingly pristine (and retro-hideous) 1973 Winnebago chassis. Piloted by Captain Lone Starr and his Mawg co-pilot, Barf, the Eagle V is a ship-for-hire last seen crash landing on the surface of MoonaVega. I would say it was last seen on the recent Spaceballs cartoon series, but that would imply that people actually watched it.

FEATURES: Interior shag carpeting, perfect for camping.

DRAWBACKS: Screen door, chemical toilet, small fuel tank.


4. THUNDER ROAD from The Explorers


The only ship on this list named after a Bruce Springsteen song, this is the vessel that carried Ethan Hawke, River Phoenix, and Jason Presson into outer space where they made first contact with a rubbery alien who could lip-sync to "Yakety Yak". Higher forms of intelligence, indeed. This bold trio built a craptacular capsule out of a rusty tilt-a-whirl, a garbage can, a busted TV, and Charles Foster Kane's sled, and somehow, not only managed to get it into space without imminent death, but impressed Dick Miller in the process. The vast loneliness of space caused so much psychological damage amongst the children that Phoenix OD'ed years later, Presson went off-the-grid, and Ethan Hawke married Uma Thurman.

FEATURES: Bubble-based technology provides the ship with its own oxygen supply.

DRAWBACKS: Bubble-based technology does not prevent the ship from sinking into the ocean at the end of the film.


Read the rest over at SciFi Squad

At the press day for the DVD and Blu-ray release of the 2009 Star Trek, director J.J. Abrams talked briefly about the possibility of putting the series' original Kirk, William Shatner, in the forthcoming sequel. "The Shatner thing comes up quite a bit," Abrams said in a news conference Thursday morning. "Would it have been fun to have him in the movie? Of course. Would it be great to work with him? No doubt."

Abrams spoke to reporters about the DVD and Blu-ray release of Star Trek, which is due on November 17, 2009, but fielded a few questions about the next Trek film, including how and why Shatner didn't fit into the design of the previous one.

J.J Abrams seems like the busiest man in Hollywood. Thursday morning during a promotional appearance for the release of his franchise relaunch for Star Trek, he updated reporters on what's next for him. "Jeff Pinkner and Joel Wyman are running Fringe very well. We're still very involved in that, but they're running that," he said of the popular sci-fi series. "We have a new series that we just sold to NBC that we're going to be producing. It's a pilot. And, there's a movie that I'm writing that I would love to direct, early next year, so we'll see if that comes to fruition."

In addition to his television work, Abrams highlighted a few of the projects he's working on in the next several months both as a producer and director.

At a press day for the release of Star Trek and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen on DVD and Blu-ray, screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman discussed the futures of those respective franchises, and offered a few highlights from their upcoming slate of screenplays and producing projects. When asked about their process for developing sequels, Kurtzman said, "Every franchise has a different need, so you have to look at them differently, based on whatever the mandate is. You need to be able to not have seen the first movie to appreciate the second one. But, for us, it's always about going back to the sequels that we loved as kids and asking ourselves why we loved them."

Offering a list of their favorite follow-ups, Kurtzman continued, "there's Empire Strikes Back, Superman II, 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 is tested by Khan. Ripley finds a daughter. All of those things are such big ideas, in and of themselves, and you really can't tell those stories in movie number one because movie number one is very much about establishing a world."

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen debuts on DVD and Blu-ray October 20, 2009, and Star Trek follows on November 17. The following is an edited version of a news conference featuring Orci and Kurtzman.

In terms of Star Trek's expanded universe, are there any elements from the later series that you might want to throw into the next film?

J.J Abrams, director of this summer's blockbuster relaunch of the Star Trek film series, told reporters that the forthcoming follow-up will, like its predecessor, both appeal to nonfans and reward those familiar with the long-running franchise. "Whatever the story is and whatever the final movie ends up being, I know it will be something that will work on its own terms and be something that you don't need to know and study Star Trek to get," Abrams said in a press conference Thursday afternoon. "But if you are a fan, there will hopefully be gift after gift of connections, references, characters that you hold near and dear. At least, that's the intent."

Cinematical spoke to Abrams at a press day for the DVD and Blu-ray release of Star Trek, which is due November 17, 2009. The following is an edited version of Abrams' comments to the press about the sequel, which is currently being developed by the director and his original screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman.

Since you were able to wipe the slate clean with your prequel, do you plan to come up with something completely original, or is there a possibility you will reference some of the existing creatures or races in the next installment?

After an advance screening of Drew Barrymore's rollicking, entertaining, and heartfelt Whip It, which opens tomorrow, some real-life roller derby players were asked about the movie's realism. (Ellen Page plays a teenage beauty pageant contestant who gets involved in the sport.) They all chimed in: "We don't get to give anyone bloody noses!"

Yes, sports movies based loosely on real life and set in the modern era tend to take liberties with the levels of violence involved in their sport. But sci-fi movies tend to ratchet up the bloody-nosed action to incredible levels, taking murder for granted. Life is cheap in the future, I suppose. With images of Ellen Page in roller skates and a faux-Girl Scout uniform in mind, not to mention the thought of Drew Barrymore herself with a bloody nose, I set off in search of the very best future sports movies -- and discovered that relatively few of any quality have been made. Thus, consider this list a sketchy compendium of what's out there. What am I missing? What future sports are not properly represented?

1. Rollerball in Rollerball
An easy choice, featuring James Caan at the height of his hard-bitten, rueful stardom in the 1970s. Norman Jewison's film is a self-righteous sermon about the dangers of thrill seeking, and a broadside against sports and popular entertainment in general. But when you have such exciting action in a sport that combines a hopped-up version of roller derby with football, chaos, and murder, who's complaining?

Read the rest over at SciFi Squad

Whenever J.J. Abrams, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman are pinned down, the talk inevitabley turns to the Star Trek sequel. They're only just beginning to toss around story ideas, but Hero Complex managed to pry a little more news out of Abrams & Crew, who hinted that Trek might start tackling contemporary issues.

"In many ways a sequel will have a very different mission. It needs to do what [Gene] Roddenberry did so well, which is allegory," says Abrams. "It needs to tell a story that has connection to what is familiar and what is relevant. It also needs to tell it in a spectacular way that hides the machinery and in a primarily entertaining and hopefully moving story. There needs to be relevance, yes, and that doesn't mean it should be pretentious."

Orci echoed Abrams, noting that it had been one of the biggest criticisms of the new Trek. "One of the things we heard was, 'Make sure the next one deals with modern-day issues.' We're trying to keep it as up-to-date and as reflective of what's going on today as possible. So that's one thing, to make it reflect the things that we are all dealing with today." When asked if "modern day issues" meant war, terrorism, and torture, Orci agreed that was "an approach" they were taking.

Continued below the jump

The lovely Zoe Saldana is quickly becoming a name to contend with after managing to land plum parts in not one, but two of the biggest sci-fi films of the decade: Star Trek and Avatar. One is a bonafide hit, the other remains shrouded in a lot of mystery, but it's a mark of Saldana's star power that she's making a name outside of their huge hype. Plus, she's becoming an action heroine in her own right, and just might be our generation's Sigourney Weaver or Linda Hamilton.

We had the chance to catch up with Saldana this week, and she was game to talk about both projects. Of course with the Star Trek sequel still in a misty writing stage, she didn't have any big secrets to spill, but she shared the opinion of a lot of female Trek fans in hoping Uhura gets to do a little butt-kicking later on. "In Star Trek, I had so much fun, but the boys got all the action! J.J. [Abrams] promised me that I'm going to -- [that] in the sequel, she will have at least one little fight. I mean, just [let me] kick a guy in the groin or something!" Laughing, she revealed that there was an enormous ongoing e-mail list among the cast, Abrams, and the Trek producers where they regularly chat and joke back and forth. From the sound of it, that's also where the groin-kicking requests are made.

Go below the jump for Saldana talking all about Avatar!

In the late summer of 1993, all serious movie geeks had their eyes on two movies. The first one was Hard Target, which marked the American debut of the great Hong Kong action director John Woo (whose great Hard-Boiled had recently been in theaters), and the second was True Romance, which was the second screenplay by Quentin Tarantino, whose Reservoir Dogs had been out the year before. I enjoyed both of the new movies just fine, but I kept thinking: what if these two productions had simply switched directors? Tony Scott could have directed the latest Jean-Claude Van Damme snoozer (and hence I wouldn't have bothered to pay money to see it) and then John Woo could have taken over the Tarantino screenplay! How cool would that have been? True Romance would have been the greatest movie, ever!

Something vaguely similar happened this summer, but to a much lesser degree. I'm talking J.J. Abrams directing Star Trek (218 screens), and McG directing Terminator Salvation (81 screens). What if they had switched places? Neither one of them is any great shakes as a director, but I'd put my money on McG as the more interesting of the two. OK. Hear me out. Star Trek had a terrific script, with a really unique idea; it's perhaps the smartest series reboot I've yet seen, but Abrams' clunky direction drove the action to a dead halt at least half a dozen times. On the other hand, the screenplay for Terminator Salvation was pretty much unsalvageable, but McG put together some truly dazzling set pieces, using clean, fast gliding cameras to catch the movement and space of the action scenes.

If the unofficial end of summer arrives with Labor Day Weekend, then all we've got left are a few more days to discuss the summer that was before she rides off into the sunset with her billions in box office dollars and a few more sequels already green-lit. But how does she compare to the summers of the past? A quick glance shows us that, unlike 2008, this summer we didn't get a Dark Knight or an Iron Man ... though we did get a Star Trek and a Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. We didn't get a Wanted, a Hellboy 2 or an Incredible Hulk, but we did get some smaller, smarter sci-fi films like Moon and District 9.

Pixar came through yet again, but the rest of this summer's animation slate seemed pretty weak. Same goes for comedies, with the exception of The Hangover, which kinda made up for the disappointing Land of the Lost, Funny People, I Love You, Beth Cooper, I Hate Valentine's Day, The Ugly Truth and The Goods. Sam Raimi returned with a pretty awesome horror flick in Drag Me to Hell, though, and Harry Potter rolled in with what was perhaps his most entertaining installment of the franchise. G.I.: The Rise of Cobra surprised some with its fun, cheesy vibe, and Wolverine did just enough to score himself another go-round in Japan.