Star Trek Into Darkness ::: May 17, 2013

I'd like to think a tighter budget would equal a better third movie but I guess it wouldn't. Unless you brought in Meyer/Frakes or God.

Hilly wrote:

I'd like to think a tighter budget would equal a better third movie but I guess it wouldn't. Unless you brought in Meyer/Frakes or God.

By tighter budget, that doesn't necessarily  mean drastic cutbacks TWOK-style.  Both AFTER EARTH and OBLIVION had budgets under $150 million.  I think that's where a modern Trek film needs to stay to be profitable, even with the huge resurgence in popularity it currently enjoys.

I say work on both a movie and TV series at the same time, Berman-style.  That way, Paramount could utilize one budget and get two different revenue streams back.  Assuming any TV network would pick up on a new Star Trek series, of course.

A sound enough plan which doesn't seem likely with this bunch. I imagine any word on a Star Trek XIII would be later in the year...not that I know how these places work.

For Trek completists only, an interview with one of the key deposed figures on the first TREK movie's FX debacle. Not a whole lot of new info, and some perpetuated myths, like the original new E model being 2 to 3 ft when it was more like 5.5, but on page 2 it has a PHOTO of the discarded Magicam model for vger, based on Mike MInor's design. Pretty cool. Also some color pics of the discarded drydock, which has these giant Apollo Service Module thrusters on it that would have had me pissing in the aisle if it had survived intact.

Also, this Taylor guy tried to talk GR out of those silly oval screens all over the bridge. So he had his head in the right place some of the time, at least.
http://beyondthemarquee.com/21244/
http://beyondthemarquee.com/21991/

Well, that only adds to the list of things Roddenberry can be blamed for. I never understood the oval screens, and I suppose they fell out of favor for him by the time TNG was made, thankfully.

On Doug Trumbull's website, the section on TMP includes a fake title for the movie replacing GR that reads "produced by Jeffrey Katzenberg' ... the later vfx guys couldn't say enough good things about him, and yet it seems like the whole effects debacle happened on his watch as well.

You've got a VFX group in place months before the director, but you just keep writing checks for another year -- -- for months after shooting wrapped, with well under a year till the film HAS to be in theaters -- before panicking & canning them all? Katzenberg supposedly went to Lindsley Parsons and/or Eisner during the Abel/Taylor reign and had thrown up his hands saying the whole thing was a joke because they were just doing things their own way and not receptive to feedback ... and right then you'd figure Wise and/or Eisner would have lowered the boom. Yet it didn't happen, even though VFX had caused the production designer to be replaced, had thrown out oodles of finished and semi-completed work by other departments and managed to utterly ruin the original spacewalk by designing it to be utterly prosaic and boring.

I supposed I always compare this with ILM on the first STAR WARS, where it was very nearly the same situation ... after one year, only 3 or 4 shots done out of 365, and then somehow in the next 8 or 9 months they just plowed through it all. But ILM, for all its party folk, was still guys living at the place working insane hours, not the 'drug barn' that much of the Abel facility had become.

Abel's claims about the effects budget sound WAY off here too ... when he says the feature film started with over 10 mil for the vfx budget, that is on a movie costing 15 mil ... utter horsedung. Everybody has said repeatedly the original VFX budget was 4 mil, and that Abel then claimed it would have to go to 16, which is when the panic finally started.

If you figure it was supposed to be 15, but wound up around 44 or 45 mil, that sounds like an overrun approaching HEAVEN'S GATE. But there is probably 7 or 8 mil, maybe more, in charges associated with all TREK development in the previous 5 years, including play or pay deals for all of the phase 2 crew, plus all the original set construction, which no one can find real numbers for, since they were working without a budget when the bridge and other Ent sets were built for phase 2. So 35 mil for a 15 mil movie sounds pretty close to the mark, if you figure an extra 10 or 12 mil for vfx, plus tons of reshoots, and the better part of a year of OT & double-time for all the post work. It's still a disaster, but a progressive disaster, one that could have been nipped & tucked earlier on by an active producer force, even if the script was still being messed with.

With July 4th behind us and INTO DARKNESS slowly wrapping up it's box office run, this is where we stand:

DOMESTIC

1. STAR TREK (2009):  $279,346,750
2. STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE:  $263,464,670
3. STAR TREK IV: THE VOYAGE HOME:  $232,770,740
4. STAR TREK: INTO DARKNESS: $223,065,011
5. STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN:  $190,150,120
6. STAR TREK III: THE SEARCH FOR SPOCK:  $171,144,160
7. STAR TREK: FIRST CONTACT:  $136,387,060
8. STAR TREK VI: THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY:  $127,854,490
9. STAR TREK: GENERATIONS:  $118,730,450
10. STAR TREK: INSURRECTION:  $100,126,710
11. STAR TREK V: THE FINAL FRONTIER:  $97,906,800
12. STAR TREK: NEMESIS:  $55,908,260


INTERNATIONAL

1. STAR TREK: INTO DARKNESS: $220,800,000
2. STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE:  $181,736,110
3. STAR TREK (2009):  $138,681,630
4. STAR TREK: FIRST CONTACT:  $80,029,790
5. STAR TREK: GENERATIONS:  $66,527,090
6. STAR TREK: INSURRECTION:  $60,486,590
7. STAR TREK IV: THE VOYAGE HOME: $49,404,350
8. STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN:  $43,583,300
9. STAR TREK VI: THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY:  $37,560,070
10. STAR TREK V: THE FINAL FRONTIER:  $33,752,620
11. STAR TREK: NEMESIS:  $31,096,340
12. STAR TREK III: THE SEARCH FOR SPOCK:  $23,561,950



WORLDWIDE

1. STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE:  $445,203,980
2. STAR TREK: INTO DARKNESS: $443,865,011
3. STAR TREK (2009):  $418,028,390
4. STAR TREK IV: THE VOYAGE HOME:  $282,177,220
5. STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN:  $233,735,820
6. STAR TREK: FIRST CONTACT:  $216,416,850
7. STAR TREK III: THE SEARCH FOR SPOCK:  $194,708,340
8. STAR TREK: GENERATIONS:  $185,257,540
9. STAR TREK VI: THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY:  $165,414,560
10. STAR TREK: INSURRECTION:  $160,613,300
11. STAR TREK V: THE FINAL FRONTIER:  $131,661,300
12. STAR TREK: NEMESIS:  $87,004,600

INTO DARKNESS will pass TMP worldwide in adjusted dollars and with WORLD WAR Z performing well above expectations, Paramount can be satisfied with a small underperformance in the States. It's held up a lot better in the long run than I thought, especially with a record breaking June and what is so far the biggest summer season in 11 years.

In addition to the usual names bandied about as the next TREK director, they are now rumoring Cuaron according to trekmovie.com

This doesn't sound quite as preposterous as one might think. The guy, for whatever reason, is already linked to a Bad Robot TV production, a fact that started lots of old reliable hairs on my head falling out when I read it awhile back. But if part of that deak involves courting him for TREK ... then I am there (especially if P&W -- sorry, Orci and Kurtzman -- get blown out of an airlock when he boards the ship.)

I would rather have Abrams direct than O&K write. I can only hope O&K will not be involved in a potential third STINO movie.

At this point, a straight-forward adventure movie would be a step up as long as it has a script that makes even the slightest bit of sense. Beyond that it would be nice to have interesting Trekian themes and ideas, but I'd take a middle-of-the-road theme park ride blockbuster with a compotent, non-ground-breaking, standard three-act hero's journey script over the shite we've been shovled.

O&K's problem is a reliance on big set pieces unjustified by intelligent plot. Lindelof's problem is a reliance on WTF bullshittery that treats not explaining anything as a virtue. Put together and that's a bunch of big set pieces strung together by unexplained and unjustified bullshit.

At last, a grand unified theory of megabudget incompetence!

from MTV-UK, no realiable source, via Quinto.

Quote :

Zachary Quinto suggests JJ Abrams will be back to direct next movie...

13:39, Monday, 15 July 2013

Zachary Quinto has suggested that JJ Abrams may return to direct the next Star Trek movie – and that filming could start as soon as next year.

According to BuzzHub, the Spock actor made the comments at the 2013 Galway Film Fleadh.

He said: "Star Trek 3 should be filming, I suppose, next year.

"It's going to be made a lot quicker than the last one. That's the plan, although nothing is confirmed yet."

The actor went on to mention that J.J. Abrams was planning to direct the Star Trek Into Darkness follow-up – but didn’t elaborate on how he would fit this in on top of his existing commitment to Star Wars Episode 7.

faster...and more intense

Why not fuck up two movies with one stone?  

Paging George Zimmerman, JJ Abrams spotted wearing hoodie.

I really don't give a fuck anymore. I'll Redbox the DVD of 2 TREK 2 FURIOUS and make a copy. That will suffice should I wish to view it.

Still haven't seen it yet. Planning on thinking about maybe catching it second run in several weeks or so.

But for now I'm just happy PACIFIC RIM exists, and that is a great example of "big, sci-fi blockbuster entertainment" that while not necessarily highly intellectual or anything, doesn't base it's entire plot around complete idiocies.

Well, STAR TREK XIII is fucked.

http://www.slashfilm.com/alex-kurtzman-and-roberto-orci-will-write-star-trek-3/

I wish these fuckers would just step aside and let someone else do the job, like they got away from MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE. Whatever, this just kills whatever hope I had.

Maybe they'll combine all the good bits from their previous efforts and create some quality work for once?

Nah.

Tubes wrote:

Maybe they'll combine all the good bits from their previous efforts and create some quality work for once?

As Cyrano Jones once said, "Twice nothing is still nothing."

TrekCore review of the blu-ray: http://trekcore.com/blog/2013/08/review-star-trek-into-darkness-retail-blu-ray/

While CBS has been releasing the TV shows on blu with the most impressive special features I've watched in awhile, Paramount seems to believe putting little of anything at all is what the fans want. Whatever. I'm not getting it anyway.

The last film had scant features. So be it.

I don't understand putting an IMAX version out for home video.  What sense does that make?  Or am I missing some kind of technical reason for it?

No commentary on the disc.  Haha.  I don't want to listen to them anyway.  I still plan to just RedBox it and rip a copy.  Or Netflix, so I don't have to directly pay for it.

I got a copy of OF GODS AND MEN from YouTube, just to peruse. It looks dreadful.

Still, some would argue what Of Gods and Men is a better effort than Into Darkness. A half better effort.

The White Tuxedo wrote:

I don't understand putting an IMAX version out for home video.  What sense does that make?  Or am I missing some kind of technical reason for it?

No commentary on the disc.  Haha.  I don't want to listen to them anyway.  I still plan to just RedBox it and rip a copy.  Or Netflix, so I don't have to directly pay for it.

I got a copy of OF GODS AND MEN from YouTube, just to peruse.  It looks dreadful.

I don't get the IMAX thing either, especially since the iTunes copy is at 1:78 ratio, thus it's still cropped (same shit with the Nolan Batman films). True IMAX ratio is closer to academy, which would have been even more jarring to watch a film switching between that and anamorphic 2:40. Either way, I prefer the strict 2:40 ratio since that's at least consistent and is what regular theaters aired anyway, same with THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY business.

Got a copy from Redbox to rip, but Handbrake can't do it. Not even RipIt, on which I have a few free ones left. I'm not buying this piece of shit.

Unless it's a year from now and it's on sale for a dollar at Half Price Books.

http://io9.com/j-j-abrams-apologizes-for-all-those-star-trek-lens-fla-1429457615

Now it's time for Orci, Kurtzman, and Lindelof to apologize for the script.