Star Trek: TNG - Next Level Out Now; Season Sets Comings

Today is the release of Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Next Level Blu-ray sampler that shows off the HD improvements made to TNG. The disc is four episodes used to test what is now the plan to release all 7 seasons in HD over the next three years. The season one set is expected to be out later this year but the cost is likely to be high if the DVD sets are any indication. CBS Home Entertainment GM Ken Ross spoke with StarTrek.com about the project and the work being done to prep the season sets.

How massive a project was/is it?
Ross: It was and continues to be an enormous project that will take several years to complete. From a manpower perspective, we have more than 20 people working on this project full time in three shifts 24 hours a day. It’s a huge commitment to transfer all seven seasons to high definition.

Give us a sense of what we’re talking about – how much footage needed to be sorted through? How many effects shots? We’ve heard about salt mines?
Ross: Paramount/CBS did a great job preserving the original film from TNG. For years, it’s been stored in salt mines in Pennsylvania. There were 2,500 cartons with at least 25,000 reels of film in them – and that’s a conservative estimate. Once we decided to go forward with this project, it took months to truck all the boxes out to Los Angeles. The number of VFX shots varies depending on the season, but to give you an idea, the first season had more than 1,700 VFX shots to recreate.

Read more »

Noel Clarke Talks Star Trek Audition

In an interview for London360, new Star Trek sequel castmember spoke about the audition for his Star Trek role of a family man. He also shared his knowledge of Trek through watching Star Trek: The Next Generation. The main cast as started filming but since his role is likely a minor part, he has not yet started filming. I suspect it is being used to drill home an attack occuring on another planet or the like. (via TrekMovie)

Roberto Orci Talks on Sequel Writing Process, Time Jump

The other day Zachary Quinto commented on the Star Trek sequel script saying, "There was a writer's strike the first time so they weren't able to let the script evolve. Now it's really changing...on a regular basis." Apparently that caused some concerns among fans (not entirely sure why since drafts are the norm). Seeing this concern on TrekMovie, Bob Orci wrote their comments about the writing process and revealed that while the sequel will have a time jump; it may not necessarily be the real world gap of four years.

boborci: First, this movie is by no means written by committee. It has been written by ONE team. Me, Alex [Kurtzman], and Damon [Lindelof]. Thanks to the protective umbrella of the success of our first movie and JJ Abrams, we get less studio interference than almost any other production around. This process is the OPPOSITE of script by committee.

Read more »

Zoe Saldana Talks Trek Sequel at Sundance

While at the Sundance Film Festival, Zoe Saldana spoke with various websites about returning to the role of Uhura for the Star Trek sequel. She also briefly spoke about the Uhura and Spock relationship. As usual with anything regarding Trek, the JJ Abrams cone of silence remains in place so no details were provided.

The Vulture Blog:
Let's talk briefly about Star Trek 2. The studio let J.J. Abrams have a little bit more time than most directors would have to prep the sequel, but for a while there, were you like, "C'mon, I want to get back on the Enterprise"?
I kind of was, yeah. The film came out in 2009, we shot it in '07, and now it's 2012. So yeah, around last year, I was like, "Come on, come on already," because I had such a wonderful time working with J.J. and the cast and doing science fiction, which is my biggest passion and my preference as an audience and as a reader, too. But when you're around J.J. and you're around [Avatar director] Jim Cameron, you sense that there's this absolute consciousness that if they don't focus on the quality of what they do, then their formula's not going to work. That's the one thing they have in common; they're amazing storytellers, so J.J. probably would have fought for the time that he needed for the sequel.

Read more »

Star Trek: TNG Cast To Reunite

The Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo has scored quite a coup with the entire first season bridge crew of Star Trek: The Next Generation reuniting. The con is held from April 27-29th in Calgary, Alberta, Canada with the actors appearing in multiple events including panels, autograph sessions, and more. The main event will be TNG EXPOsed on April 28th where the cast will appear together for a moderationed panel. As of now the TNG cast appearing is Sir Patrick Stewart (Captain Jean Luc Picard), Brent Spiner (Data), Marina Sirtis (Counselor Deanna Troi), Jonathan Frakes (Commander Will Riker), Gates McFadden (Dr. Beverly Crusher), Michael Dorn (Worf), LeVar Burton (Geordi La Forge), Denise Crosby (Tasha Yar), and Wil Wheaton (Wesley Crusher). More information about the Calgary Expo can be found here.

Zachary Quito On Star Trek Sequel Script, Stars

While at the Producer's Guild Awards, Zachary Quintoi spoke with E! Online about the Star Trek sequel that recently started production and in typical secrets lock down mode as is typical of a JJ Abrams production. While he didn't provide specifics about the story, he did talk a little script process and the recent additions to the cast.

"My eyebrows are shaved and I do my hair in a way that people don't know I actually have my horrible Spock hair," he told us at the Producers Guild Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

"It's been really great," he added. "We've been shooting for a week and a half, and it's been an incredible return to that world."

"It was the middle of December and finally I had to be like, 'We need to read the script,'" Quinto said, with a smile. "They waited a pretty long time, but that's because they were working on it. There was a writer's strike the first time so they weren't able to let the script evolve. Now it's really changing...on a regular basis."

Benedict Cumberbatch, Peter Weller and Alice Eve are new additions to the cast. "All of them have folded in so beautifully and brought a whole new level of intelligence and sensitivity," Quinto said.

(via TrekMovie)

Lego USS Reliant NCC-1864

The USS Reliant (NCC-1864) recieves a nice homage care of Legomanica Christer Nyberg. The Reliant is the star ship that Khan hijacks in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan in his effort to destroy Kirk and the Enterprise. The ship was built from more than 10 thousand bricks. The full gallery can be found here. More of Christer's creations can be found here. (via Brothers Brick)