J.J.Abrams

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, MTV News has decided that two of the entertainers they are most grateful for are J.J. Abrams and Chris Pine for Rebooting Star Trek.

The piece asks some basic questions about the Star Trek (2009) casting and production, as well as the silly questions, including whether or not Pine has practiced his "Khan" scream. I get the feeling Pine is a fun interview. It'll be a hard read if you're on one particular side of the Trekkie/Trekker controversy, . They even go so far as to say Star Trek is now cooler than Star Wars. As much as I liked the original Star Wars trilogy, I have to say that forced to choose between the two, I'd choose Star Trek.

The thanks also include a list of other films, filmmakers, and actors MTV News is grateful for, including Sam Rockwell for Moon. It would be nice if they thanked Duncan Jones as well, but I guess we can't have everything.

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.....

Hasbro continues their steamrolling of Hollywood with the announcement that J.J. Abrams (Star Trek) is in negotiations to produce a film based on their Micronauts property. The Japanese science-fiction action figure line from Takara was brought to the States in the 1970's by Mego (with some items replicated for the collector's market in 2002 by Palisades), but has kept a pretty low profile since the line's cancellation in 1980.

Most fans are familiar with The Micronauts from the officially licensed Marvel Comic series, which ran throughout the 1980's, long after the toys had vanished from shelves. Image Comics and Devil's Due Publishing both tried their hand at a Micronauts comic book revival during the last decade, but were met with little success.

The original Micronauts figures were an odd-looking assortment of strange heroes and bizarre aliens, and many of the toys featured interchangeable parts. While no over-arching story was created for the toys upon release (marking it as one of the few action figure assortments at the time with no built-in storyline), the comic versions of the Micronauts have positioned the characters as defenders of a microscopic universe, attempting to overthrow the evil Baron Karza.

If a full-on Micronauts revival is just around the corner, I'm hoping Hasbro keeps a lot of the funky character design intact. I had a good amount of Micronauts growing up, and they still stand out to me as being some of the weirdest looking (and most fun) toys from my early childhood.

(via Wall Street Journal)

When J.J. Abrams' first Star Trek film came about, it was hand-in-hand with a lot of flack from the William Shatner camp. The original Captain Kirk was not thrilled about being excluded while Leonard Nemoy's Spock held a pretty important role in the film. But while his insistence was considered inconceivable for the first installment, now there's word that Kirk, and possibly Spock, will reunite in #2. And we're not talking about Chris Pine's Kirk. During a press day for the DVD and Blu-ray release of Star Trek, Cinematical talked with Abrams about the whole Kirk kerfuffle and what could happen in the sequel.

On Kirk's Absence
"As someone who was a William Shatner fan... it was a foregone conclusion that we wanted Shatner in the movie. The problem was that his character died, on screen, in one of the Trek films, and because we decided, very early on, that we wanted to adhere to Trek canon as best we could. [That] was a huge challenge, because even the original series, in many ways, didn't always adhere to Trek canon, [so] the required machinations to get Shatner into the movie would have been very difficult to do, given the story we wanted to tell, and also to give him the kind of part that he would be happy with. It was this thing where it would have felt like a gimmick in order to get Shatner in the movie, which would have honestly, to me, been distracting. [But] how do you put him in the movie when you want him in it so badly, and yet the story actually seems in counter purposes with the story you want to tell?"

But something cleared up because ...

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?

By William Goss

Man, does it feel like ages since this summer season got off to a proper start. The blockbuster season was surprisingly front-loaded (and May was pretty great for it), so while I don't mind all the solid indies that have come around the bend recently -- Away We Go, Humpday, The Hurt Locker, In the Loop, Moon, (500) Days of Summer, etc. -- I'm still waiting for something big and blockbuster-y to surprise me quite like J.J. Abrams' exciting Star Trek reboot did.

Unfortunately, Paramount's putting off the DVD release for the prime holiday season (November 17th -- hey, whatever happened to that ever-shrinking theatrical video window?!), but the two-disc DVD and three-disc Blu-ray releases will both be packed with extras, not the least of which are a feature commentary by Abrams and company and several deleted scenes that keen eyes spotted in the trailers, but never made it to the screen.

We've included the full press release after the jump...

Like most fans of Lost, I was terribly disappointed when the smoke monster apparently killed Mr. Eko in season three. Eko was a great character who helped the equally great John Locke discover the possibilities of a life led by faith. Lost is still an amazing show, but I've really missed Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje's presence.

Adewale, who will guest star in the Aug 7 episode of Monk and appears in the potential blockbuster G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, now says he wants to go back to the island. The actor says he left the show after his parents passed away in 2006, but he'd like to return to give Eko some real closure. Read more at TV Squad.

Discuss: Out of all the characters who've died on Lost, which one would you most like to see return for the final season?

Ah, gotta love those rumors. As folks slowly begin to stop geeking out about the Star Trek film that's still in theaters and start geeking out about the next Star Trek movie (already being planned), you're going to see a whole bunch of characters from the Trek universe pop up alongside different actors and actresses. The latest character to go through rumorville is Harry Mudd, who was a villain in the original series played by the late Roger C. Cormel in episodes "Mudd's Women" and "I, Mudd". Random? Yes. And since the guy kinda looks a little like Jack Black, the rumor that Black might play Mudd in the sequel was born out of thin air.

Well, Trek director J.J. Abrams recently sent an email to AICN to address all the Mudd/Black issues, as well as to give a status update on where they are in terms of planning the much-anticipated sequel that writers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci have already signed on to write. He says, "Yes, talking to Jack Black about doing something -- but not Mudd. Bryan, Damon, Alex and Bob and I have not had MEETING ONE about a sequel. Brief, casual, blue-sky conversations, of course. But "okay, what's next for The Crew?" Not a meeting. So any character decisions, let alone actor discussions, feel like a ways away. I can tell you one thing. For the sequel? I think we should have a shitload more lens flares."

So there you have it. But I wonder ... what is Abrams working on with Jack Black?

Discuss: So then who would you want to play villain in the next Star Trek film if not Jack Black?