Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 6, 2009 in Star Trek
FIRE EVERYTHING!It’s hard to go wrong with a line like that? This latest trailer starts to flesh out the story — clearly it’s a coming of age tale ala the first Star Wars movie which would be an ironic but a good reboot for one of my favorite space opera franchises. This new trailer has all sorts of new footage that looks cool like bar fights (this brings me back to what made the original series cool — no drinking Earl Gray tea!) and some cooling looking Starfleet cadet training exercises that involve doing space jumps in orbit above Mars. But I’d say the most interesting thing is that we see Kirk taking the helm of the Enterprise. Read more…
The new Star Trek film will be hitting theaters in May, but early signs of merchandising are already appearing. Playmates has just introduced a line of toys which will be hitting the streets this month. So far we’ve only seen a trailer for this film, but these toys give us a first real glimpse into the look-and-feel of the film. It’s important to remember that the original Star Trek series was a real breakthrough in terms of production art — a spacecraft no longer had to look like a rocket or a flying saucer, so there’s a real tradition that’s at stake here. That and frankly if Paramount wants to reinvent the franchise they’ll have to top the amazing work Lucas has been doing these past couple of years with Star Wars. Read more…
Update: We also had the trailers for Star Trek and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen but the legal department at Paramount had the trailers yanked from our YouTube source. In our humble opinion this was a dumb marketing move as many fanboys (and fangurls) might not want to watch an annual jock ritual.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 12, 2008 in Star Trek
You know even if he doesn’t have an overpaid one minute cameo in Star Trek XI William Shatner is doing a brilliant job of promoting himself lately while pushing his talk show into the spotlight in the process. The above video is an example of this Shatnermnaia in the wild from thinkhero.com. And you want to know something? Oprah look out because the real Captain James T. Kirk is no slacker!
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 11, 2008 in Star Trek
According to Variety it looks like Majel Barrett-Roddenberry will be returning to Star Trek XI to resume her role as the voice of the Enterprise computer system! Although I wish they gave her an on screen cameo relating to her original role as Nurse Chapel, however to me this is a sign that J.J. Abrams is getting things right.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 4, 2008 in Star Trek, Tech
So the other day I was going on how the USS Kelvin had just started following me on Twitter to promote their trivia contest for Star Trek XI (which is sponsored by Intel and Lenovo) and of course I had to lament that while the contest was cool and all — what was really needed was a Trek themed laptop. So it was with much pleasure today that I found out that not only is this the case, but the sweet folks at contest just sent me a sneak preview photo of the laptop itself. For now my guess is for now that this goodie is just a sweepstakes prize, but man would I love to see something like this for sale in the stores…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 3, 2008 in Star Trek
There was a time not so long ago where I seemed to be doing nothing but covering every marketing scheme and merchandisable goodie that the George Lucas empire would produce — and looking back on it to my amazement I actually lamented Paramount’s inability to do anything with Star Trek. But then J.J. Abrams came along and changed all that in no time!
The evidence of this came face-to-face to me today as I suddenly noticed that one of my new followers on Twitter was the USS Kelvin: My first reaction was that this was just a fanboy with a cool icon, but them upon checking out the tweets it turns out to be a Star Trek XI trivia contest sponsored by Intel and Lenovo. Needless to say the contest looks pretty cool, but I’d wish they’d take even a step further and customize those IdeaPad laptops with a Star Trek theme.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Nov 25, 2008 in Star Trek
Yes it’s the very same Star Trek XI trailer that you’ve been watching again and again for a week now — but this time J.J. Abrams added some extra special secret sauce: Leonard Nimoy as Spock!
Posted by Michael Pinto on Nov 24, 2008 in Star Trek
I can’t guarantee that this film is going to be any good, but one thing is for certain: J.J. Abrams is a marketing genius! And being a Star Trek fanboy that’s a good thing because one does worry how long you can make the series last. There was a time a few months ago where I would bemoan the fact that Lucas was so much better at pushing Star Wars than Paramount was with Star Trek, but with J.J. on the case I no longer have to worry about that: Read more…
Posted by Guest Author on Nov 24, 2008 in Star Trek
Editor’s Note: Today we have a special treat for all Star Trek fanboys (which includes myself). Our good friend Joe Strike gives us a behind scenes report of the recent Star Trek XI preview:
Paramount sneaks us a peek at… ‘Slash Trek’!
I put on the freebie Star Trek t-shirt I picked up at Comicon ‘07, the one that says ‘12-26-08′ on the back and went to see Paramount shake their big sci-fi moneymaker – the return, after a blessed multi-year respite, Star Trek. The lure (apart from free popcorn, soda and a big bag of candy): a quartet of scenes from its May ‘09 guaranteed blockbuster or, as the studio exec introduced it, “a great re-invention of a classic American franchise.” (Well, at least he didn’t call it a brand.)
Director/producer J.J. Abrams, he of Cloverfield and Mission: Impossible 3 ‘fame,’ intro’d the quartet of clips. (Cloverfield sucked, by the way, but you probably figured that out on your own.) “I’ve never been a Star Trek fan,’ JJA all but boasted. (Evidently he’s been doing this at every press opportunity.) “I never got it,” sez he, because as a grade-schooler he couldn’t figure out whether he identified with Spock or Kirk (Me, I was always more of a ‘David Vincent’ fan, Roy Thinnes’ character on the contemporaneous Larry Cohen sci-fi/paranoia series The Invaders.) Now however, and just in the nick of time, he’s “become a Trekker,” just to let everyone know he’s hip enough not to say ‘Trekkie.’ Read more…
