Oct 9 2009 'Hawaii Five-O' Is Coming Back For Real

Remember all that talk of a Hawaii Five-O reboot from a year ago (a project that was then going by the unfortunate name of "Hawaii Five-O 2.0")? Well, turns out that's still happening, and Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman--the Star Trek and Transformers writers that give Hollywood executives dollar boners--are developing the project. Variety adds that at their side will be Peter Lenkov, executive producer on CSI: NY, who will be writing the pilot under the watchful eyes of Fringe's Kutzman and Orci.

I'm skeptical, but if nothing else, at least now someone will be patrolling one of the few major cities not protected by CSI or NCIS forces.

May 12 2009 'Star Trek' Almost Had a Little Holo-Shatner

If you haven't seen the Star Trek, look away, because here's a spoiler: William Shatner is not in it. While Leonard Nimoy was given the privilege of donning his prosthetic ears one last time, Shatner was conspicuously absent from the film's symbolic passing of the tricorder. But, as writers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci explained in an interview with io9, that wasn't always the case. In one draft of the script, there was apparently a Bill Shatner "Happy Birthday, I'm almost certainly dead" scene:

Orci: We wrote [a Shatner scene], it was in the script.

Kurtzman: The very last scene when Spock and Spock meet each other, finally. And elder Spock is convincing young Spock that he couldn't interfere, because it would have diverted [Kirk and Spock] away from their friendship. And that their friendship is the key to the whole sort of shebang.

Orci: He gave him a recorded message from Kirk.

Kurtzman: He [elder Spock] said, "Don't take my word for it." And he handed him [younger Spock] a little holographic device and it projected Shatner. It was basically a Happy Birthday wish knowing that Spock was going to go off to Romulus, and Kirk would probably be dead by the time...

That would have been something, but I'm personally glad they ended the film the way they did:

Did you not stick around for this after the credits?

Mar 31 2009 Will Youthful Spock Die... Again???

Paramount is putting the tractor-beamed shuttle craft before the starship! (Or whatever the appropriate cart-before-the-horse Star Trek reference is.) Variety is reporting the studio is so confident about the success of their fresh-faced relaunch of the science fiction franchise that they're already preparing its sequel:

As Paramount Pictures readies the May 8 release of its "Star Trek" franchise relaunch, the studio is moving forward with a sequel, and has hired Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman and Damon Lindelof to pen the screenplay.

J.J. Abrams, who directed and produced the latest chapter, is onboard to produce the follow-up alongside his Bad Robot partner Bryan Burk. No decision has been made yet on whether Abrams will return behind the camera for the sequel.

Story is still in the embryonic stage, but the trio are aiming to deliver their script to the Melrose studio by Christmas for what would likely be a summer 2011 release.

As for potential storylines, Kurtzman stressed that the writing team will wait to take a cue from fan reaction about which direction to go.

"Obviously we discussed ideas, but we are waiting to see how audiences respond next month," he said. "With a franchise rebirth, the first movie has to be about origin. But with a second, you have the opportunity to explore incredibly exciting things. We'll be ambitious about what we'll do."

Seems a little premature, but following the Star Trek Curse even/odd=bad/good philosophy, a hypothetical second film is probably already better than Final Frontier. I'll only start worrying once I hear Paramount is looking for a young Latino with a sculpted chest.

Dec 12 2008 'Star Trek' Returns with Classic Plot Device

There's nothing Star Trek can't solve with time travel. Need a few 1980s whales in the 23rd century? Not a problem. Hop back in time, cover Spock's conspicuously pointed ears with a headband, pack some whales in some transparent aluminum, call it a day. It will work out. Don't worry about it.

In a recent interview with TrekMovie.com, Star Trek co-writer Robert Orci has revealed that the trend is not over (spoilers, I guess):

TrekMovie: From the trailer, and certainly from the four scene preview, there is no doubt that things are different. Pike and Kirk are hanging out in a bar. The ship looks different. Kirk is on the Enterprise and not headed to the Farragut. People are seeing Romulans…things are different. Now it has been revealed in the Entertainment Weekly article that Nero goes back in time and attacks the Kelvin, and JJ also talked about this during his previews. So the big question is: Is the destruction of the Kelvin, the canon reason why everything is different?

Orci: It is the reason why some things are different, but not everything is different. Not everything is inconsistent with what might have actually happened, in canon. Some of the things that seem that they are totally different, I will argue, once the film comes out, fall well within what could have been the non-time travel version of this move.

TrekMovie: So, for example, Kirk is different, because his back story has totally changed, in that his parents…and all that. But you are saying that maybe Scotty or Spock’s back story would not be affected by that change?

Orci: Right.

TrekMovie: Does the time travel explain why the Enterprise looks different and why it is being built in Riverside Iowa?

Bob: Yes, and yes.

Time travel is like hot glue. It can hold together almost anything, even disjointed canon, and you never notice because it's clear. Ignore that the clearness is often lumpy and has some stringy bits coming off. It works, OK? For all you know, our current timeline is only the result of Q allowing Picard to go back in time to change a 20th century event that would later destroy the Enterprise. You have no room to talk when you may well be the product of Star Trek time travel.

Much longer interview that involves science here.