Saldana, Pegg Interviews, Movie Stills and Featurette

Star Trek Into Darkness is now less then a day away from release in the US. The marketing campaign continues. Collider has posted their Zoe Saldana interview from the London premiere here. She spoke about the set jokers, that learning Klingon was harder then Na'vi (from Avatar), and few other things.

Simon Pegg was interview by i09.com and as seem to be the case with him, the interviews seem more details (and somewhat spoilerish) and open then with the other actors. Its like his inner geek causes the interviews to geek out more instead of the often generic nothing questions the others get. In his interview he goes from talking about his "futuristic leisure suit", to talking about some of the Trek nods in the film, the motivation of Scotty pushing Kirk, how movie explores Kirk's too quick promotion, the utopian future of Trek, and Scotty's friend Keenser. That interview can be found here.

Star Trek Into Darkness' USS Vengeance Images

The Star Trek App latest mission has revealed the name and look of the mysterious and very large black ship that is shown dwarfing and blasting the Enterprise in the trailers. The USS Vengeance is a Dreadnought-class ship that apparently was built for war with a name to prove it. This also explains why the Russian name of the movie is Star Trek: Vengeance. While I think the name seems more appropriate for a Klingon ship, TrekMovie points out it has been used before in two Trek video games for Starfleet ships.

New Star Trek International Poster and Images

Today Paramount has released a new poster (below) for the international release of the movie and once again the focus is all on Benedict Cumberbatch's character. It is very similar to last year's poster, only instead of his back to the audience with a destroyed city in the background, now its him walking towards the audience. In addition, click here for 12 hi-res images from the movie. They are images that had first been published in various magazines over the last few weeks.

More Big Bad Talk, New Images for Star Trek Into Darkness

Yep, more Khan talk. Now Shockya.com is saying they have sources confirming that the Star Trek Into Darkness big bad is really Khan, the real name of the John Harrison character that Benedict Cumberbatch is playing. This joins multiple other website having reported the same thing over the last year. At this point the trailers make it clear that this movie is so different from any previous Trek flick that the name of the villain no longer matters as there is no relationship between the two even if had identical names. Which is fine and probably a key goal when writing the film but it also means the continued "is he or isn't he Khan" really just isn't worth talking about anymore.

EW Star Trek Into Darkness Cover Story and Images

Entertainment Weekly has released images from their feature article that will hit newsstands on Friday (and available via Apple's Newsstand App now) to go with their covers. As usual with a JJ Abrams production nothing specific is revealed but below are the images and highlights from their cover story. One thing of note that has captured the attention of the blogosphere is EW's title to promote the issue as "Voyage Into The New Star Trek Kirk & Khan" that has since been changed to "Kirk and Spock". Some are seeing it as an accidental reveal of a key story point that Benedict Cumberbatch's real character name is Khan Noonian Singh. While I am on the bandwagon that this a true story point in the film, it has not been officially confirmed by anyone associated with Star Trek Into Darkness and I don't believe EW knows either. It was just an easy title to promote the issue and nothing more.

Highlights:

New Star Trek Into Darkness Images

As a bit of a Christmas gift, Empire Magazine has posted the covers and images from their Feburary issue that will hit UK newsstands on December 27th. The cover story is Star Trek Into Darkness so we get a cool new image of Benedict Cumberbatch and the Enterprise crew (Pike is ex-Enterprise but still counts). The article contains a few story details so spoiler warnings.

Highlights:
- John Harrison is ex-Starfleet who attacks London and a US state who is privy to some of Starfleet's secrets that motivates his quest for revenge.
- Pine: "[Harrison] is Kirk’s shadow of death, his Achilles’ heel. He is just a big mirror reflecting all of Kirk’s insecurities back at him. He is just as intelligent and logical as Spock, but is also one very bad motherf—er."
- Cumberbatch: "He’s sort of superhuman, pretty much unbeatable. Brainy and brawny. He manipulates situations. He’s incarcerated when Kirk is talking to him and yet he still gets Kirk to do his work for him. He pushes him into a corner where the only route to salvation is cooperation. There is a real Hannibal Lecter quality to him."
- Kirk's attempt to capture Harrison is to fix a mistake that may cost him his captain's chair.
- Lots of new locations including Kirk's apartment (maybe the Pike, Kirk conversation)
- plot:

...with Earth under terrorist attack from Benedict Cumberbatch’s ex-Starfleet employee John Harrison, Kirk is this time forced into a rash decision that breaks a critical Starfleet command, puts his crew in danger & costs him his captain’s chair. Now out of uniform and dressed down in space civvies of black leather jackets and boots, our three heroes have separated from the Enterprise and headed off on a mission to try and rectify his mistake…

Ryan Church's Trek Concept Art

Ryan Church, concept artist for Star Trek and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, has posted two images he did for Trek that are just stunning to behold. The first is a gorgeous and sleek image of the Enterprise and the second is Spock's Jellyfish that helped him go back in time to stop Nero. Even more art from his other projects can be found here.

Star Trek News of Note

Star Trek enters its final marketing push with cast appearing on the airwaves for both TV and radio, along with new videos and other attempts to get those seats filled this weekend as Wolverine, suffering from lackluster word of mouth, is not going to be the competition everyone thought it might be but it did set the high mark that Trek wants to vaunt over with a $87 million opening weekend.
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Radio Happy Hour (9PM EST on Tuesdays) is in the middle of its three week Star Trek event where they interview a few of the supporting cast from the upcoming movie. Here is their breakdown:

April 28: Actress Sonita Henry plays the Starfleet Doctor that helps deliver James T. Kirk, the future Captain of the Starship Enterprise
Link to listen: Sonita-Henry-of-Star-Trek
May 5: Actor Greg Ellis plays Chief Engineer Olsen AND special guest Adam Nimoy co hosting for the night.
Link to listen: Son-of-Spock-Adam-Nimoy
(May 7: movie releases)
May 12: Faran Tahir plays Captain Robeau
Link to listen: Faran-Tahir-of-Star-Trek

More info here and subscribe via iTunes here.
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Here is the list of scheduled Star Trek related appearances for this week.

Monday 5/4: “Live with Regis & Kelly” (Syndicated) - Zachary Quinto
Monday 5/4: "The Late Show" (CBS) - Chris Pine
Monday 5/4: "Charlie Rose" (PBS) - JJ Abrams
Monday 5/4: "Colbert Report" (Comedy Central) - JJ Abrams
Tuesday 5/5: "Jimmy Kimmel Live" (ABC) - Zachary Quinto
Tuesday 5/5 “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” (Syndicated) - Zachary Quinto
Tuesday 5/5 “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” (NBC) - J.J. Abrams
Wednesday 5/6: “Bonnie Hunt Show” (Syndicated) - Zachary Quinto
Wednesday 5/6: “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” (Syndicated) - Chris Pine
Wednesday 5/6: "Jimmy Kimmel Live" (ABC) - Zoe Saldana
Wednesday 5/6: “The Tonight Show” (NBC) John Cho
Thursday 5/7: "Jimmy Kimmel Live" (ABC) - John Cho
Friday 5/8: "Jimmy Kimmel Live" (ABC) - Chris Pine
Friday 5/8: "Tavis Smiley" (PBS) - JJ Abrams
Friday 5/8: "The View" (ABC) - Leonard Nimoy
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New movie stills, Entertainment Weekly covers and behind the scene photos can be found here.
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JJ Abrams wants you to watch Star Trek on the IMAX. Personally, since no special footage I just don't want to cough up to 2x ticket price. Course after watching the movie, may change my mind on that (and therefore buying a ticket twice which I doubt Paramount will mind).

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From TrekMovie, this cool CGI render from Tobias Richter (of The Light Works) that shows off the USS Kelvin and the USS Enterprise as they fight off a Romulan attack.

Fedcon 2009 Opening Ceremony Animation from Tobias Richter on Vimeo.

New Big Red Clip and Movie Stills

Yesterday's episode of Lost had an interesting extra when the Lost logo went to space and had the Enterprise fly through the "O" to start a clip of the movie with Kirk on Delta Vega getting chased by Big Red, the name of the ugly red creature. Sadly no embed but you can find the clip here.

In addition IO9.com has a sizable gallery of picture still from the movie including a few behind the scenes pictures. That can be found here.

More Reviews, Icons and Stills

IO9.com has posted a new gallery of movie stills that mostly highlights the handsome (or pretty) faces of the Star Trek cast. The full gallery can be found here.

IconFactory has created bunch of new icons for the MAC and PC that are free to download. The image to the top left is what they look like. Makes for a nice change of pace from the normal folder icons at least. Click here to download.

More reviews, pretty much glowing (almost literally as lens flares was a common note), continue to pop up on various websites. Here are three more for your enjoyment.

SyFy Australia

Trek is a big-screen adventure that will thrill and delight old and new fans alike. To be fair to all the previous Trek movies, its budget far outstrips its predecessors, so the special effects, and in particular, sound effects are a class apart (Oscar-winning class). Seeing the film in a brand new digital projection theatre with a decent sound system makes this a truly immersive experience. The dialogue doesn't allow too much subtext - it would be hard to underneath all that action, but it is the absence of the non-verbal complexity that robs this film of a glowing spine to cling to for fans looking for more than just action and adventure. That said, the action and adventure is undeniably top shelf, be it for Trek fans or any other kind of fans. The tone of the film is consistent, if somewhat larger than life. The theme music, which seems to be neither here nor there, is stuck between a martial theme and the original Star Trek theme, and without enough of a singular phrase to create an iconic theme to match the epic pop culture status of the film.

CNet "Star Trek Virgin" Review

The new "Star Trek" film is less an homage to a legendary science fiction franchise than to storytelling in general, back through decades of cinema and television and beyond. "Star Trek" is just plain fun. And I came to appreciate the fact that I was sitting in that theater without prejudice. I was concerned less about whether the cast would live up to the actors who originated their roles, and more about holy whoa, that spaceship just blew up!. There is, however, a flip side to the universality of the new "Star Trek" that Paramount might not love: The fact that it stands so well on its own might mean that it doesn't mint a new generation of Trekkies. Like me, for one. As much as I enjoyed the prequel, I can't see myself Netflixing all the DVDs of the past "Star Trek" TV series and movies.

Gizmodo

Star Trek will disappoint no one. Think of it like Casino Royale was to the James Bond franchise: fewer gadgets, more action and an incredibly pugilistic lead. And lens flares. Lots, and lots, and lots of lens flares. These guys took the original ship, combined it with some designs of the Enterprise-B, then mashed it up with Picard's Enterprise-E and then added a dash of '60s non-Trek Sci Fi. The set design, however, is almost all touchscreen (like TNG), but with a tremendously updated UI. Star Trek is now gritty—it's just more...modern. And more sexy. With this film as the base, I cannot wait to see where the franchise goes from here.

Star Trek IMAX Poster and New Photos

Via Slashfilm, below is the poster for Star Trek: The IMAX Experience which is really just an oversized print of the theatrical movie (no special scenes like Dark Knight). Personally I can't decide if the extra cost is worth it or not. As for the poster, it’s just an inverted version of the one sheet from a few weeks ago. In addition there are seven new stills that reveal absolutely nothing. Those can be found here.

New Star Trek Clip and Still Gallery

Omelete, a French website I think, has posted a huge 73 picture gallery of stills from Star Trek. In addition is a new clip from the movie that has Kirk attempting to bait Spock into a fight.

Abrams Talks Trek In Australia

TrekMovie.com has found an interview with Star Trek Director JJ Abrams and some of the cast. The segment is from Today Tonight, a TV program in Australia and provides a brief summary of the Star Trek franchise, includes clips from the trailers and a few seconds of new footage.

Star Trek Clip - Shot of Love

Yahoo has posted a clip and now so has MTV. This time the clip is is Kirk attempting to pick up Uhura before getting into a bar fight.

Star Trek Clip - Disease and Danger

Yahoo Movies has posted a clip from Star Trek that shows off Karl Urban as Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy. It’s pretty good and captures that "it can get worse" mentality of the good doctor.

Star Trek Official Rating and IMAX Presentation

If you check out StarTrekMovie.com, it appears that the MPAA has finally stamped the movie with the official rating of PG-13. Not really a surprise since that is the sweet spot the studios aim for mass appeal.

In addition, as part of ShoWest last week in Las Vegas, there was a series of trailers to sell the IMAX Experience for this summer including just a touch from Star Trek at the 40 second mark.

New Movies Still and TV Spot #5 - Kirk in Action

A new TV spot (HD here) is up, this one is focused on Kirk and is pure action.


In addition, TrekMovie.com has 3 new movies pictures, one that includes a The Next Generation Easter egg (no not a story beat). They show Nero on the bridge of the Narada, Kirk and Spock having a meaningful stare and Kirk climbing out of an ice hole on Delta Vega. Last is a close up his bag that says "EVAC KIT-ARCTIC and NCC-1701-D". The D is a reference to the Enterprise D from Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Whee A New Star Trek Screenshot

In a sign that JJ Abrams might just be taken the secrecy regarding Star Trek a little too far, below is a single new still from the film from Total Film for their Magazine issue. The picture shows off the Enterprise view screen and Nero's ugly mug. Nero is the main villain of the movie, whose motivations is to destroy Vulcan and all things related to the Enterprise because in the post Next Generation future, the planet Romulus (and his family) was killed when the star went nova and Vulcan refused to provide secret technology to prevent it. The full gallery is here but the rest of the images are nothing new.

New Images of Enterprise's Interior

The official website has updated with a "Panorama" feature that allows you a 360 degree view of portions of the new USS Enterprise. The features include a zoom in feature so you can get a close look at control panels and other details. For now it is just "Corridor A" and "Corridor B" but more will be added later.

Empire Magazine Star Trek Images

Empire Magazine has scored a few new pictures to go with the previously released images for an interview with JJ Abrams in the upcoming issue.

The groups of images include three new stills from the movie. One provides the first good look at Zoe Saldana as Uhura, another provides a look at the Enterprise's larger and better looking viewscreen and the last seems to be a shot that takes place on a shuttlecraft (but that is just a guess).

In addition the cover of the magazine is the recreation of a classic Spock and Kirk image (from TV Guide I think) only with Zachary Quinto and Chris Pine. The text of the article isn't currently online but at least the pictures are.