The Sly Oyster | culture & entertainment on the sly

AICN head honcho Harry Knowles got an early peek at J.J. Abrams Star Trek. The few shots he saw were without proper CG or color timing. Basically, what he saw was put together raw footage. It also goes without saying that it is impossible to take anything Knowles says without a Grand Canyon-sized piece of salt.

It’s widely known that whatever he writes usually ends with some sort of childish enthusiasm (good or bad?) and verbal diarrhea of praise. Regardless, he’s the one who gets access and has James Cameron on his speed dial and he’s the one who’s seen some scenes.

It all ended with characters arriving on the bridge, under the command of Captain Pike. Sulu was at the helm – and the bridge. And the uniforms… Classic Trek. Nice. Then for the first time in the history of Star Trek, it looked amazingly functional. It echoes that classic Trek look – but imagine if you handed that design to the folks at APPLE and said… Make it really work. I instantly believed in the functionality of everything. That’s hard to quantify, but it is true. Remember when you saw the war room underground on Hoth in EMPIRE STRIKES BACK? How it just felt functional – that’s what this looked. And it looked Star Trek, without looking as cheap as Star Trek. It was a tech-fetishists wet dream.

I will say this – I’ve no idea of what this is going to be, but I got a sense of what JJ is up to. He’s very much reinventing it – the way Robert Wise did – and at the same time – he’s directing the actors with an energy and an aliveness that we haven’t seen. This was exciting, yet strange and it felt somehow… real.

He saw about seven minutes in all and came away, I guess, impressed. No surprise there. But if anyone could reboot the Star Trek universe if would have to be Abrams. Some minor spoilery scenes after the jump. MORE »

I got a chance to watch the new J.J. Abrams pilot Fringe last night. It’s pretty good in the vein of Alias, albeit without all the kick ass action. But it’s sort of similar with shadowy agents and organizations with big conspiracies and what not.

The plot centers around an FBI agent, a mad scientist and his vagabond genius child (Joshua Jackson) trying to piece together a mysterious infection or incident aboard a flight from Hamburg, Germany to Boston’s Logan Airport.

Yes, it’s cool it takes place in Boston, but it’s not cool that it’s so obviously not taking place in Boston or that the show’s writers didn’t do their homework about Boston. There is absolutely no way there is a giant storage facility in Boston’s Back Bay. Sorry. If you take the time to visit the Back Bay you would know this.

Gripes aside, this is an intriguing procedural with enough paranormal mystery and interesting characters to keep me coming back in the fall. It’s a J.J. Abrams show via The X-Files. Need I say more.

Fringe is scheduled to air in September. The leak is here. DC Comics will publish a comic-book prequel to Fringe Aug. 27 and the show already has a few fan sites, including this one.

I’ll be offering more thoughts on the show and doing a full review, but I just wanted to quickly let you know the show is out there to watch. Now anyone know if Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse has leaked yet?

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We’ve been concentrating a lot on the new Joss Whedon and Eliza Dushku project at FOX, Dollhouse. But FOX also has a new show in the works from god J.J. Abrams. It’s called Fringe and is sort of an FBI investigation show, revolving around mystery and science.

Hercules at AICN put it best: “What if somebody at ABC said, “Y’know, David Lynch is a fucking genius. Maybe we should give his show a year in a decent timeslot and see what happens.”

What if someone at Fox said, “Y’know, what would happen if Scully started remembering all the crazy shit she saw in the previous episode every week?”

What if somebody at ABC said, “Y’know, J.J., instead of exploring Sydney’s relationship with her boring fucking half-sister for two seasons, how about digging a little deeper into this Milo Rambaldi business?”

Press Release: From J.J. Abrams (”Lost”), Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, the team behind “Star Trek,” “Mission: Impossible III” and “Alias,” comes a new drama that will thrill, terrify and explore the blurring line between science fiction and reality.

When an international flight lands at Boston’s Logan Airport and the passengers and crew have all died grisly deaths, FBI Special Agent Olivia Dunham (newcomer Anna Torv) is called in to investigate. After her partner, Special Agent John Scott (Mark Valley, “Boston Legal”), is nearly killed during the investigation, a desperate Olivia searches frantically for someone to help, leading her to DR. Walter Bishop (John Noble, “Lord of the Rings”), our generation’s Einstein. There’s only one catch: he’s been institutionalized for the last 20 years, and the only way to question him requires pulling his estranged son Peter (Joshua Jackson, “Dawson’s Creek”) in to help.

When Olivia’s investigation leads her to manipulative corporate executive Nina Sharp (Blair Brown, “Altered States”), our unlikely trio along with fellow FBI Agents Phillip Broyles (Lance Reddick, “The Wire”), Charlie Francis (Kirk Acevedo, “Oz”) and Astrid Farnsworth (Jasika Nicole, “Law & Order: Criminal Intent”) will discover that what happened on Flight 627 is only a small piece of a larger, more shocking truth.

Zap2It has script reviews for two highly anticipated television projects. The first is for Fringe by JJ Abrams, starring Joshua Jackson (Pacey) and the second is Dollhouse by Joss Whedon, starring Eliza Dushku (whom I attended high school with when she was there and not filming some movie or whatnot).

Both series will air on FOX in the fall season.

Fringe is “going to be sold as FOX’s attempt to reclaim the X-Files demo that the network has jeopardized with the swift cancellation of too many shows from folks like Whedon and Tim Minear. The script lends itself to a large-scale pilot and it should leave viewers knowing exactly what to expect in the episodes to come, which is more than can be said for.” Also, getting into the JJ Abrams business is a good thing. His track record is fairly spotless and his following is very loyal.

The same thing can be said about Joss Whedon. His following is not so much loyal as it is messianic. But his track record with FOX is horrible. They’ve canceled every good show he’s done and not just his shows, but shows from Whedon’s acolytes like Tim Minear.

“While recognizably Whedonesque, Dollhouse finds Joss going in different direction, one that may be less quippy and less plot-driven than some might expect. The fans will still love it, I suspect, but will Dollhouse be able to find an audience beyond the Whedonverse? I’m not sure. So this could be one of those “Enjoy it while you’ve got it” gems.” That doesn’t sound good. Well it does, it just sounds like it will get canceled too soon.

In case you’re wondering how these could potentially play out as pilots, the article goes on to expound on what makes a compelling pilot.

A good pilot should do one of two things: It should either lay out the blueprint for the rest of the series or it should intrigue you so much that you can’t wait for the second episode. Fringe falls into the first category. It leaves almost nothing to the imagination in terms of what’s coming next. Dollhouse falls into the second category.

Collider has gotten their hands on the pilot script for JJ Abrams next television show Fringe. The show has lined up Pacey Whitter, er actor Joshua Jackson and Mark Valley (Keen Eddie) to star.

So what’s the show about? Apparantly it’s a 25/25/50 mix of House/Bones/X-Files. Full caveat, the reviewer got his hands on an early draft.

The fringe the title refers to is fringe science. The weird stuff. The stuff that will make X-Files-philes blush with anticipation. This pilot goes into how three people – a Federal Agent, an institutionalized scientist and his genius son – come together to address the problems this field’s work births into the world.

Ultimately, the script reads like a 25/25/50 mix of House, Bones and X-Files and I say that as a person who enjoys/enjoyed all three of those shows. The conspiracy seems to stem from a company called Prometheus founded by none other than William Bell – Walter Bishop’s old lab partner. Yes, I know those familiar with mythology may think the company name a bit heavy-handed but I dig it.

So, we’ve got JJ Abrams with a mysterious group , conspiracy and an acerbic, socially inept main character? Sounds good to us. No word on when this is going into production or when you can expect the show on your cathode ray tube.

There was a bootlegged version of the new JJ Abrams Star Trek floating around, no doubt pirated off of this weekend’s showing of Cloverfield.  However, the quality was pretty awful.  Now it’s up at Yahoo and I think I like it.  Never been much a fan of the series, but I like that they are connecting this reboot to JFK and man’s early quest to explore outer space.

Only time will tell if the cast put together for this one will be inspired or just a trainwreck.

Also: I am more willing to give Abrams the benefit of the doubt, not because of his past track record (which is just about spotless in my eyes) but because of what he did for one dying trekkie, Randy Pausch.  AICN has the scoop on it and um, I think that was a tear in my eye you just saw.

Pausch is a Carnegie-Mellon professor who will die from pancreatic cancer.  He gave a much emotional “last lecture,” which Abrams caught wind of and then offered him a role in the movie.  That’s pretty cool thing to do.  His lecture after the jump. MORE »

Just a few things to start your day with.  Let’s get it kicked off.

- Rachel Ray and her annoying mouse voice are rumored to not like Dunkin’ Donuts coffee.  You know, the coffee she gets paid to endorse.  Alls I can say is why don’t they fire her.  I’ll gladly take her paycheck and shoot the commercials and drink the coffee.  Yeah I know it tastes really watery (much in the same way Starbucks always taste burnt and dirty) but the last sip of Dunkin’s when it’s all sugar at the bottom is a great way to start the morning.

- Rodrigo over at the always excellent The Playlist is reporting that Karen O, she of Yeah Yeah Yeahs fame, is penning the soundtrack for the delayed Spike Jonze-directed/Dave Eggers-written Where the Wild Things Are.  This is one of our most anticpated movies of 2008 and adding Karen O to the mix brings it up a notch.   Glad to see that ex-lovers can still work together.

- Daniel Day-Lewis’s iconic role as Daniel Plainview (is it too early to call this one a historically good performance yet?) in the best reviewed movie this year, There Will Be Blood, even has a catch phrase.  Not bad.  If you haven’t seen the movie he screams the line “I drank your milkshake!” and for one reason or another people have latched onto it.  It didn’t take long for someone to introduce Plainview to Kelis.

- Scottish rockers Franz Ferdinand spoke with Billboard about recording their third album and they are calling it a “dirty pop album.”  Whatever that means.  So long as they aren’t going the Britney Xtina approach.

- According to Brooklyn Vegan, the Smithsonian is opening an exhibit dedicated to hip-hop that will run from Feb. 8 until Oct. 26.

- Chantreuse Neko Case, excellent solo or doing duty with New Pornographers, is now getting immortalized in cartoon form on Aqua Teen Hunger Force and then on a new Adult Swim Show.   That new show is titled Cheyenne Cinnamon and the Fantabulous Unicorn of Sugar Town Candy Fudge, so of course Neko is the voice of Cheyenne.  God once asked Neko to be his voice for human ears.  True story.

- New Sex and the City poster is out.  Carrie is so super-duper glamorous.  Oh my god!

- It’s not just athletes using HGH and Steroids.  It’s also the rappers like 50 Cent.  Well rumored anyway.  Also mentioned were Mary J. Blige and uber-producer Timbaland.  Huh?

- A bit of sad news, but Brit pop-tart Lily Allen has suffered a miscarriage with her boyfriend, The Chemical Brothers Ed Simons.  We wish her all the best in recovering and dealing with this unfortunate news.

- J.J. Abrams is casting for his next television series and it sorta sounds like a rip off of The X-Files, but not as good.  But it is J.J. Abrams right?  So we have to give him the benefit of the doubt.  He’s earned that much.

I’ll get this off my chest. I am not a Star Trek fan. For whatever reason the show just does nothing for me. I wish I could like it, but I much prefer other sci-fi. I like my sci-fi dirty and on the outskirks. Star Trek has always seemed so nice to me. Maybe that will change with J.J. Abrams take on the Trekverse.

If you’re going to see Cloverfield this weekend, and seriously how could you not be?, the official teaser trailer will be attached to the movie. Moviefone got the first glimpse of the famed USS Enterprise and what’s nice about the picture is that they’ve managed to adhere to canon by building the Enterprise in orbit.

The details are just wonderful and make this feel so epic and legendary. Is it too late to become a Trekkie?

Well, JJ Abrams super duper secret movie monster project has tricked us all.  It’s official title is Cloverfield and it will be released on Jan. 18, 2008.

We held off on posting this trailer because it first hit the internet last week in a crappy bootlegged version and that’s no way to watch a trailer.  An HD version should probably hit Apple’s trailer section sometime today or tomorrow, but we’ll keep you posted when it does.

Looks pretty rad, no?

And the title pretty much says it all.  The guys over at Chud have gotten a look at the J.J. Abrams mysterious monster movie that will hit theaters on January 18, 2008.  We’ve been following this since seeing the jawdropping first trailer which pretty much kicked off all the hype and viral marketing.

But since that initial excitement seems that people have stopped caring.  Seems like the promotional people were going for the 100 yard sprint instead of the marathon.  We’ll have to see if they can generate some buzz again after the new trailer.

Turns out all the speculation over what the movie might be called, there’s a good chance the movie will still be called Cloverfield upon it’s release.

We’ll keep you posted when the new trailer hits the web, probably around Nov. 16 when the mo-cap Beowulf hits theaters.

None other than Chris Pine. He’s had some decent roles in a Lindsay Lohan rom-com Just My Luck and as one of the freaky Tremor Brothers in Joe Carnahan’s Smokin’ Aces. Very different roles, but it’s not a leap to say this will be his most high profile role to date, stepping into the shoes of The Shatner as Captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise James T. Kirk.

J.J. Abrams has put together an impressive cast so far for this reboot, reimagining, possible time-travelling alternate universe. One thing for sure is that Star Trek has never had this much creative energy behind it for the film franchise. Doesn’t mean it will necessarily be great, or even equal to The Wrath of Khan but it does mean this is a project all geeks can get behind. Which is exactly what studio Paramount was hoping for.

Now, Chris Pine was also attached to director Joe Carnahan’s adaptation of White Jazz, but late last night he posted this message on his blog:

Kids:

The young man playing Junior Stemmons has opted to ‘boldly go where no man has gone before’ and thus, had to bow out of WHITE JAZZ. I’ve been talking to him this past week and knew how tough the decision had to be for him. I don’t envy ever being in that spot but I gave him my full support, even if it meant he didn’t do JAZZ. I get it. You don’t get opportunities like that often and I told him as long as he could control as much of that process as possible and not get sucked into doing lesser sequels as a result of taking this gig, then good luck and God bless.

We’re sure to do something down the road. I’ve already slotted him in for KILLING PABLO.

JC

So that’s that. Must’ve been a tough decision for the actor, but it’s pretty obvious you don’t pass up the opportunity to portray Captain Kirk, even if that might mean you spend the rest of your life attending Star Trek conventions.