Star Trek

TrekCore recently caught up with Morgan Gendel - the scribe behind one of Star Trek: The Next Generation's finest episodes, "The Inner Light". In the first part of our exclusive interview, we discuss Morgan's introduction to Star Trek, flutes, Hugos, graphic novels and audio commentaries!

Publishers Weekly didn’t think much of Wool, but the author’s already made millions selling it online. http://t.co/t88eSXYucz Related posts: Publishers Weekly lists its best #scifi, fantasy and horror books for 2011. Predictably, I have read none of them. http://t.co/M9LHKcLR I was pleasantly surprised at how good Wool… This list of #scifi authors who never wrote sequels or trilogies not coincidentally lists authors who wrote decades ago http://t.co/Csf2foRa

Kim Stanley Robinson’s 2312 has won the Nebula. I’m actually reading it right now. I’m waiting for it to get better. http://t.co/OW4Gu6u2yE Related posts: Kim Stanley Robinson’s new book, 2312, sounds great, but so did his Mars trilogy which I found to be beyond turgid. http://t.co/shtKzzCw Check out this timely interview with Kim Stanley Robinson about his writing and his Hugo-nominated book 2312. http://t.co/LXC70j2NTe If it weren’t for Stanley Unwin’s son liking The Hobbit, it might never have been published. Listen to this BBC report. http://t.co/C5m0MS4P

Alejandro Jodorowsky’s Dune never happened, but there’s a new documentary that tells us what we missed. tp://ow.ly/ldQ7s Related posts: The Dune cash cow keeps rolling on with news of the release of Sisterhood of Dune. http://t.co/eEET1c44 Missed the Philip K. Dickfest? Here’s a report from the trenches. http://t.co/x1dz4T1W #scifi films you may have missed from the Soviets and Eastern Bloc. http://ow.ly/5vVqt

The final weekend results are in and Star Trek Into Darkness now has a global gross of over $164M. Analysts mostly agree the film had a solid domestic performance (but behind expectations) and impressive overseas sales. More details and analysis of the analysis below. Star Trek off to a ‘solid’ performance domestically + ‘strong’ internationally After the softer sales on Friday, Star Trek Into Darkness rallied with stronger domestic sales on Saturday and Sunday to end the 3-day weekend with $70.2M and a cumulative total of around $84M. Paramount’s view is that the film is outperforming the sequel by 6% domestically, but they are comparing the 2009′s 3 1/4 day’s returns with Into Darkness’ 4 day returns (+ IMAX previews, so there is a bit of apples to oranges. STAR TREK VS. INTO DARKNESS Domestic $M Star Trek 2009 Into Darkness (actual) Wednesday - $2.0* Thursday $4.0* $11.5 Friday $26.9 $21.6 Saturday $27.2 $26.9 Sunday $21.0 $21.6 Open Wkd Total. $75.2 $70.2 Cumulative $79.2 $83.7 *limited release Source: BoxOffice.com While it ended the weekend a bit ahead of where the 2009 Star Trek movie, it didn’t meet the $100M projections from Paramount. However the film did meet the $85M projection that Paramount was talking about three weeks ago (before they moved the release date). It is hard to predict where the film will go from here but domestically it looks like Into Darkness is not going to break into the top 5 for 2013, could still get into the top 10. On the international front, Into Darkness brought in an estimated $40M over the weekend, opening in over two dozen new territories. This brings the overseas total to 80.5M. The film continues to significantly outperform the 2009 Star Trek film in each marketing, sometimes by many times. For example in Russia it opened with an $8M weekend, compared to just $1.9M for Star Trek in 2009. We don’t have the final country-by-country data yet so we can’t do a full Into Darkness vs Star Trek breakdown, but Paramount is projecting that in the end Into Darkness could as much double Star Trek’s $128M total international take. So it looks like any potential shortfall (vs Star Trek) domestically could bebe more than made up for internationally so that in the end Into Darkness will likely outpace the $386M global gross of the 2009 film. Of course with a bigger budget, 3D tickets and inflation it was expected to perform better, so the big question now is how much better will it do? As of May 19th, Star Trek Into Darkness global cumulative gross was $164.2M. Analysts: Sales "Solid" but Paramount over-predicted domestic Analysts seem to agree that Into Darkness was a solid performer domestically but that Paramount was over-zealous in their predictions. There is also agreement that the studio is hitting their target internationally. Here is some of the commentary… …a truly solid number for [Into Darkness]. It’s only perhaps Paramount was a little too eager for a hit, setting its Stateside expectations too high at $100 million-plus. - Variety The iconic space tentpole grossed a lot of money worldwide…But came nowhere near the $80M weekend and $100M total predicted. - Deadline Star Trek Into Darkness topped the box office chart — even if it didn’t engage warp speed and hit $100 million. - Hollywood Reporter "Star Trek Into Darkness" opened atop the U.S. box office, though its debut didn’t quite make the jump to warp speed that Paramount Pictures executives expected. - LA Times The Enterprise encountered some choppy air in North America over the weekend — namely strong holdover ticket sales for “Iron Man 3” and “The Great Gatsby” — but hit warp speed in foreign markets… - NY Times Fans leading the way Analysis also shows that fans – such as readers of TrekMovie.com – are leading the way and a key part of the Paramount

Vote and chat about Star Trek Into Darkness all week in sticky open thread. Sticky 4: Into Darkness Opening USA/Canada Weekend Opening weekend is behind us and Star Trek Into Darkness is now entering its first week (domestically). Fans continue to buzz about the movie so once again we have a special sticky open thread for opening week. TrekMovie.com has already posted a review and now it is your chance. TrekMovie has created a new fan reviews page for Into Darkness. Previous Into Darkness Spoiler Discussion Threads May 17 – Open Weekend May 15 – Domestic Fan Sneak Open Day May 8 – Early Countries Open Day POLLS Here are our current polls for those who have seen Into Darkness, including a new one on what the movie needed more of (if anything). Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll. Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll. Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll. Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll. DISCUSS STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS (WITH ANY SPOILERS) Below chat about the movie, including discussing any spoilers. WARNING: This open thread is for people who have seen the movie. If you haven’t seen the movie you really shouldn’t be reading this as you are sure to get spoiled.

Trivie, the leading trivia app for mobile has launched a new category of games, Spotlight, that features officially licensed trivia games, with one of the new games being a Star Trek-themed trivia game app. The Star Trek game will feature “tens of thousands of exclusive trivia questions.” Trivie is a multi-player, turn-based game. “Each game includes three rounds of trivia that increase in difficulty with each round. The questions are timed, so the faster one answer, the higher the score, and the more tokens are awarded. The last round is Final Trivie, with just one question that could change it all. Each player can place a bid to select the category and increase his or her chance of winning.” “Trivie is free to play, but players can purchase tokens to get cool upgrades — like new question packs, and more points for each answer.” The Star Trek question pack will cost ninety-nine cents. The Star Trek Trivie game app is compatible with the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPod touch (3rd generation), iPod touch (4th generation), iPod touch (5th generation) and the iPad. The game requires iOS 5.0 or later. This app is optimized for iPhone 5 or later. Trivie and the Star Trek game app can be downloaded from the iTunes store.

Some interesting interviews from Star Trek actors and people associated with the show can now be seen at the Archive of American Television website. The interviews, other than one with LeVar Burton, are from the original series. Included are regulars Leonard Nimoy, William Shatner, LeVar Burton, Nichelle Nichols, and George Takei; as well as guest actors Elinor Donahue (Metamorphosis), Ricardo Montalban, Diana Muldaur, William Schallert (The Trouble with Tribbles), and Jane Wyatt (Journey to Babel). Some topics include: Shatner on why Star Trek had such a strong following, Nimoy on Spock’s make-up, Burton on getting cast for Star Trek: The Next Generation, Takei on Star Trek going off the air, and Montalban on Khan. Others associated with the franchise; including writers, composers, directors and special effects people include: Joseph M. Wilcots, Fred Steiner, Herbert F. Solow, Ralph Senensky, Hank Rieger, Richard Matheson, Robert Justman, Gerald Fried, Dorothy Fontana, George Clayton Johnson, Robert Butler, Leo Chaloukian, Alexander Courage, Elinor Donahue, and Gerald Perry Finnerman. The interviews can be found here. Specific Trek-related parts of the discussion are highlighted, but fans can go back to the beginning of the interviews (which are usually several parts long) and watch the entire interview, which will include non-Star Trek work.

ILM Visual Effects Supervisor Roger Guyett explained how ILM wanted to improve the special effects for Star Trek into Darkness. “We wanted to find that number eleven on the dial,” he said. “It gave us a great opportunity to revisit these pieces—keeping them very familiar but to reinvent them every so slightly and give them a new level of energy.” Set extensions and virtual environments were used to make things seem bigger and more complex. For the red forest seen in the beginning of the film, “the budget for the forest got smaller as the jungle got more complicated,” said Guyett. “J.J. is very good at using small sets and making them feel big.” On the Enterprise, set extensions brought scale to the Enterprise interior. “This time, we decided to built a much more complex series of corridors, which allowed [the audience] to travel with the crew around the ship a little bit more,” said Guyett. “There’s large atrium that allows you to see down to the multilevels of the ship and it gives you an understanding of the scale of the ship.” Guyett took advantage of the 3D filming to bring warp to the audience. “We added a dimensional element to warp,” he said. “When the ship goes into warp we do a camera movement, which is a play on the concept of the Hitchcockian dolly zoom. [Just before] the ship goes into warp you get this lens distortion; In 3D we were able to pull the ship off the screen and into the audience and when it is released we created these trails left behind and [the audience] travels through it.”

Star Trek into Darkness did well this weekend, dethroning Iron Man 3 from the top spot. However, the movie fell short of Paramount Pictures’ expectations for the domestic opening. Star Trek into Darkness took in $84.4 million since it opened on Thursday, finishing ahead of Iron Man 3 ($35 million), The Great Gatsby ($23 million), Pain and Gain ($3.1 million), and The Croods ($2.7 million). Paramount had been expecting larger numbers though, hoping for figures in the $100 million range. Star Trek into Darkness had cost $190 million to make. The figures for Star Trek into Darkness are higher than those from Star Trek (2009), by six percent. Ratings are decent too, with 87% at Rotten Tomatoes (compare this to 78% for Iron Man 3), and an average grade of “A” according to CinemaScore, a market research firm. Star Trek into Darkness is doing very well abroad too, with $80.5 earned this weekend, for a total of $164.6 million earned thus far abroad. “That’s where we put the emphasis, educating the international market on what Star Trek is today,” said Paramount Pictures Vice Chairman Rob Moore.