William Shatner Tagged Articles at Cinematical

The franchise comeback story of the year, if not the decade, is Star Trek, which arrived in theaters with an amount of buzz that could only be matched by a metric ton of tribbles, and eventually grossed almost $400 million worldwide. This week Trek debuts on Blu-ray in a 3-Disc Special Edition, and the set includes enough extras and special features that one can expect the series to continue on successfully for the foreseeable future – even if it's only because you can't get it out of your head.

Though it's unnecessary to revisit the merits of the movie itself – by now you're either with J.J. Abrams' reinvention of the series mythology or you aren't – it looks absolutely wonderful in high definition, emphasizing every last lens flare and visual flourish injected into its agile, lyrical cinematography. The color quality itself is just positively luminous, but augmented by the sound design, which offers a muscular 5.1 TrueHD mix, you're completely immersed in the film; in fact, so great is the sound on Disc One that even the menu screens rumble with house-shaking bass.

As for the encyclopedia of bonus materials.....

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.

When we rant about remakes and reboots, it's easy to hide in hyperbole. It seems like there are a lot of them, but maybe we're just really sensitive to Hollywood's bouts with unoriginality. But then Peter wrote the piece "Which Remake/Reboot Are You Looking Forward to the Least," and when my eyes hit his list of those announced in only one month, it hit me: No, we're not exaggerating. There's a lot of frakking reboots and remakes out there. And now we've got one more on the way.

Variety reports that T.J. Hooker is going to head to the big screen as an action comedy with Short Circuit scribes Brent Maddock and S.S. Wilson writing it, and Chuck Russell (The Scorpion King and The Mask) negotiating for the directorial spot. Producer Ryan Heppe says: "The series was the poster child for cop TV shows in the 1980s with great stunts, so we think there's a fun movie to be made from it." Hmmm, think they were inspired by Kevin Smith's A Couple of Dicks? It seems a little more than coincidental.

Whatever the case, I'm currently in the "not another Shat-free remake!" phase, but I fully admit that's from watching both his meddling cameo in Fanboys and part of a Star Trek episode with some classic Shatner acting over the weekend. In reality, I imagine that it'll be a non-offensive law-filled diversion. Think Adrian Zmed will pop up?

If you've already seen Star Trek (and don't worry, this really isn't a spoiler), then you remember the part where young Kirk steals his stepdad's car, throws on the Beastie Boys' Sabotage and races down a few dirt roads before launching the car off a cliff. When the song came on, I immediately thought to myself: "Really? He's listening to Beastie Boys that far into the future?" But then I waved it off, thinking The Boys were probably their version of old time, classic rock and roll. And heck, it's an awesome song -- I'd hope folks will still be listening to it hundreds of years from now.

Anyway, according to a post over on Topless Robot, director J.J. Abrams may have used the song not out of complete randomness, but as a nod to the original Kirk, William Shatner. See, Shatner always had a problem pronouncing the word sabotage, and, while on set for Trek, would insist on saying it his way: "sabo-taj." Could this be why Abrams used the song? If so, I think that's pretty awesome. Check out the video below of Shatner trying to pronounce sabotage, and some dude actually attempting to correct him (as if The Shat doesn't know what he's saying) -- it's pretty hilarious. Good on you Abrams ... this little nod to the original Trek is wayyy random; I hope it's true.



[via Ryan Rotten's Twitter]

This week, it feels like Star Trek is everywhere. I've read more about old characters and new characters and new actors playing old characters, whether the new movie counts as even-numbered or odd-numbered, and various other lists and updates and theories.

But Trek references have been all over the place for a very long time, with parodies perpetrated by everyone from Carol Burnett to Miss Piggy to Beavis and Butthead. The Internet has a wealth of home-grown mash-ups and spoofs and fan fiction. I like the bunnies doing Wrath of Khan in 30 seconds, myself, but I just saw Khan for the first time last month so I'm enjoying all the jokes related to that movie more than usual.

Here's a list of seven of the most memorable Star Trek spoofs and parodies from film and TV over the years. I've even included a few video clips. I'm sure there are more out there that I don't know about, so feel free to share them in the comments.

The greatest space captain ever turns 78 today. Oh, sure, some of you will argue for Edward James Olmos as Admiral Adama in Battlestar Galactica, which just concluded its run, but I say that man cried too much. James Tiberius Kirk never cried, at least, not as played by William Shatner. Shatner as Captain Kirk embodied the ideal symbol of authority: strong, decisive, and smart. Yet he also had a delightful sense of humor, valued his longtime friends, and was something of a ladies' man.

Shatner has fielded plenty of criticism for his supposedly stiff manner and his distinctive, rat-a-tat style of delivering dialogue, which has made him an easy target for imitators and detractors. On the other hand, one of his best performances came in Robert Meyer Burnett's Free Enterprise, in which he played himself -- or a fictional variation of "Bill Shatner" -- as a lonely soul, a ladies' man gone to seed, with impossible dreams of mounting a six-hour rap musical version of Shakespeare's Julius Ceasar.

In recent years, I never missed an episode of Shatner as Denny Crane in Boston Legal -- he and James Spader had a chemistry rarely seen on TV -- but I've missed seeing him on the big screen. I've always heard great things about Roger Corman's The Intruder. Are there other hidden gems in his movie career awaiting discovery?

Getting back to Star Trek, what are your favorite Shatner performances as Captain James T. Kirk? I favor the traditional even-numbered ones, but do you think Star Trek V: The Final Frontier is ready for reevaluation? Should Bill have gotten some kind of role in J.J. Abram's upcoming Star Trek?

Doing a six-movie (Kirk-and-Spock) Star Trek marathon in a weekend can shed a lot of light on Stockholm Syndrome. I did a great deal of laughing and scoffing and eye-rolling, which I insist is the proper response for any reasonable person watching these films for the first time today. And yet, as the final credits rolled for Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country -- fashioned in the style of the cast members' signatures -- I found myself wiping back tears.

As I explained in this motivating post last Friday, my goal was to bone up on my Star Trek in anticipation of J.J. Abrams' reboot, due May 8th. I had seen the last four films, plus most of The Next Generation and all of Voyager (which I love, damn you), but virtually nothing from the original series. The Castro Theatre in San Francisco was screening all six of the original-series films over one weekend. This seemed perfect -- if arduous. I committed (publicly, no less) to the full complement.

I think this is the quietest week in the land of the nerdy since I started here at Cinematical. No major casting news from Marvel, no new graphic novels optioned, no reboots announced. It was a pretty crazy summer when it came to superheroes -- maybe everyone is just really tired. Nevertheless, let's look at what has come across the wire, shall we? It's a very verbal day -- Alan Moore still hates Hollywood, William Shatner is still annoyed at JJ Abrams, and M. Night Shyamalan is all wistful. There's plenty to discuss here!

• Geoff Boucher interviewed Alan Moore over on HeroComplex and finds him as intractable as ever when it comes to the upcoming Watchmen movie. He believes it sounds like "more regurgitated worms" as Hollywood is wont to produce. (Not just of his work, mind you, but of films in general.) He even hinted that its recent legal woes (which he finds "wonderfully ironic") might, in fact, originate from his corner of the world. "Perhaps it's been cursed from afar, from England. And I can tell you that I will also be spitting venom all over it for months to come." I'm not surprised, but I do wish he could concede that there are good films just as there are bad comic books. Can we send him something by Darren Aronofsky? Perhaps a gift set of The Fountain and its graphic novel companion?
  

It's time for a paltry Star Trek update -- I think a new tidbit surfaces about once a month. A scan through Cinematical's archives reveals the last one was on August 15th, so we're right on schedule.

This time, J.J. Abrams finally breaks his silence to SciFi Scanner about the original (and to many, the only) Captain Kirk. William Shatner has been pretty vocal about not being asked for so much as a cameo, particularly since Leonard Nimoy got one. Rumors tell us that just about all the surviving cast members might be popping up, too.

Well, it sounds as though Shatner has only himself to blame. According to Abrams, "It was very tricky. We actually had written a scene with him in it that was a flashback kind of thing, but the truth is, it didn't quite feel right. The bigger thing was that he was very vocal that he didn't want to do a cameo. We tried desperately to put him in the movie, but he was making it very clear that he wanted the movie to focus on him significantly, which, frankly, he deserves. The truth is, the story that we were telling required a certain adherence to the Trek canon and consistency of storytelling. It's funny -- a lot of the people who were proclaiming that he must be in this movie were the same people saying it must adhere to canon. Well, his character died on screen. Maybe a smarter group of filmmakers could have figured out how to resolve that."

Now, given the intense secrecy surrounding the film, we may all walk into the theater and find Shatner beaming back at us. Oh, the head shaking and bemusement that would ensue! But I think the rift is pretty real on this one.

I heard Wednesday is the new Tuesday ...

We never thought it would happen, but Hollywood has finally invented a time machine and is using it to resurrect a number of old franchises. From indieWIRE comes news that MGM's Mary Parent and Harry Sloan are interested in finding out whether audiences want Sly Stallone to return for another Rocky installment. The article adds, "Parent asked for a show of hands from the audience who might be in to that. Though there were a few very enthusiastic responses, many kept quiet." Hmm, maybe they were just pretending not to listen.

During the same MGM panel, Parent mentioned the recently-announced Robocop remake and said it "would be great in 3-D, as would something we're hoping to announce soon." Announce soon? What is it? Could it be Rocky vs Robocop: The Future Ends Here ... in 3-D? Fingers crossed. Here's our earlier story on the Robocop remake, which also includes a remake of Red Dawn. God help us. [via Moviehole]

Finally, on the Star Trek front, a few possible spoilers have leaked out over at TrekMovie.com. I won't go into many details here, though I will say the spoilers have to do with the several different ships featured in the film. Speaking of, what's the official title for this flick? Do we have one yet? Is it just Star Trek? Star Trek XI? How about Star Trek New Beginnings: The Future and the Past Together At Last? On a separate note, MTV spoke with William Shatner who -- wait for it -- is still pretty upset about not being included in the new film. His words (not mine): "I'm solidly behind being disappointed that I'm not in it." Next week Shatner re-phrases things and notes: "I'm not not devastated, though I am positive about being negative."