Posted on 04/21/2006 8:23:26 PM PDT by Panerai
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - More than three years after the last "Star Trek" movie crashed at the box office, the venerable sci-fi franchise is being revived by the director of the upcoming "Mission: Impossible" sequel, Daily Variety reported in its Friday edition.
The as-yet-untitled "Star Trek" feature, the 11th since 1979, is aiming for a fall 2008 release through Paramount Pictures, the Viacom Inc. unit looking to restore its box-office luster under new management, the trade paper said.
The project will be directed by J.J. Abrams, whose Tom Cruise vehicle "Mission: Impossible III" will be released by Paramount on May 5. Abrams, famed for producing the TV shows "Alias" and "Lost," will also help write and produce.
Daily Variety said the action would center on the early days of "Star Trek" characters James T. Kirk and Mr. Spock, including their first meeting at Starfleet Academy and first outer-space mission.
The paper described "Star Trek" as Hollywood's most durable performer after James Bond, spawning 10 features that have grossed more than $1 billion and 726 TV episodes from six series.
The 10th film, "Star Trek: Nemesis," bombed at the box office on its December 2002 release, earning just $43 million in North America. Last year, Viacom-owned broadcast network UPN pulled the plug on the low-rated series "Star Trek: Enterprise" following a four-season run.
ping
I'll bet it tanks.
Sulu still wants to go where no man has gone before.
Oh please no. I love Star Trek but the franchise needs to stay dead for a decade or so. Let generation of writers that grew up watching TNG, DS9, and Voyager come of age before trying to bring it back.
as long as its not the brokenback dreck created by overweight left wing female no life trekie fanatics.
otherwise
Sounds promising.
G4 mucked up a good thing by concocting this insipid new way of showing the original campy Star Trek series with Star Trek 2.0.
trek 2.o is totally unwatchable.
Yeah. That added extra garbage, like the chat room, on the screen is distracting.
I tried to watch the episode with kirk split into two.
They asked who is like wimpy kirk and some idiot said "gw bush". That just ended it for me.
I honestly tried to get into it, but just can't.
What trek needs to do is just fire any left winger, pro-dnc, anti-american wackos off the entire staff.
(anyone who was associated with voyager should be vaporized)
It's dead, Jim
Now that's just spooky.
I agree and said right after Nemesis that the franchise should be shelved for about 20 years before going back to it.
They Just Won't Let It Die PING
It is what they told Lazarus Long at the end of Heinlein's "Time enough for love."
forgot to add
It was "you can't die..."
It's.dead??The.tribles.too?
Filming to commence immediately?
Brannon Braga has taken the brunt of much of the criticism directed at the last movie and "Enterprise" series which ended up a "miserable failure" despite the last two season becoming progressively better. That, with exception of the "Enterprise" finale, which had the distinction of being the only trek episode where fans actively promoted a "death penalty" for the writer. He will most likely not be part of this effort, which could have a major impact on the quality of the production, although, I won't forward if that will be for better or worse until
Anyway, I have no idea if Abrams has actually ever seen an episode of "Star Trek". Let's hope he at least surrounds himself with people who are acquainted with Rodenberry's original vision. Trek is compatible with the "wild frontier where men are men" mentality. Adventure, terror and battle drive the series, not polite negotiations with sap-sucking aliens.
"Enterprise" died for me when they attempted the damnable idiocy of an episode that was basically a political commentary on AIDS. I never tuned into show after that seeing as how the Braga was intent on defining us all as total idiots and insulted our collective intelligence. That may seem like a petty point, but it angered me to think of all the soft brained idiots who wouldn't pick up on the commentary and possibly have their judgment altered by this subtle propaganda. In the end, I didn't care how the vulcan got her disease, so long as they could resolve it by having her rub herself down with decontaminant gel in a 15 minute unedited session in the decon chamber. That should have been it, then they could have wasted some sap-suckers.
But no, they have to embrace the dreaded "political commentary episode. Result: Enterprise died.
Anyways, it deserved it for those dorks attempting to hijack a perfectly good SciFi series as a platform for political protest. Yet the fans deserved better. I suspect that even with this pending movie, a clueless Hollywood that has hit the bottom with Star Trek afficionados will continue to dig.
Especially the tribbles.
[bwahahahahaaaaaaaa!]
*ahem*....:)
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