Will Tasker

Chris Lennertz's music to the Quantum Of Solace video game.

The best look I've seen of (what I'm assuming is) Johnny's private on-lot office.

Hey, don't pick apart my well-thought out conspiracy theories!

I suspected this from the get-go. I am left to wonder how his attention span allows him to get through a story, nevermind start an entire arc that goes nowhere... ...oh wait, there was Lost

I take it your avatar is an ironic statement? I shall leave that up to each individual to decide!

Sure it does. Johnny comes from the world of jazz! Not to mention, wheres that video of him conducting the USMC band and saying they're "one hot band". Its the lingo of the era he grew up in. I deplore Abrams in every way imaginable but am inordinately pleased of the amount of praise he heaps on Giacc--- I mean, Williams.

I never cared much for ET until I was much older. I entirely blame the fact that I asked for Ghostbusters on VHS when I was six or so and got ET instead. So I sort of know where you're coming from.

You and I are of one mind on this subject.

Truth be told, when they announced Star Wars prequels in 1997, the first thing I said was "This will not end well". Not because I didn't have faith in Lucas or the property - but because by and large, most people are pretty damn stupid and there is no way of making something that will appeal to everyone like the originals did.

"Well, if theres a bright center of originality in the universe, you're looking at the director that its farthest from."

I laugh at some of the people who praise him as a "visionary director". He's never directed any movie that isnt a sequel, or homage to some existing franchise. But he's technically proficient, generally casts well, gets good performances from that cast and values film music. Aside from David Lynch, hes probably the best casting director working today. As to the rest of his "talents", um, well...

I'm not sure anyone can say that after the two John Carpenter movies Sam made

Sorry, but theres an actor even better suited for the role...

I agree completely but for some reason still can't stand the lady who plays Uhura this time around? Maybe its me...

A good question. I'd say they're all guilty to some extent. though JJ Abrams is likely the bandleader here. STID suffers badly from Orci's personal slant: he's a hardcore (I mean HARDCORE) Truther / Conspiracy person and the film was written as a "post-9/11 America" analogy. At some point, rewrites softened the film a bit: originally it was that Starfleet as an entity was evil, but then they put the onus on the Admiral played by Peter Weller.

Its always about money. But its about getting money for a while, not just one windfall. CBS wants your money for years, so they're going to try to appeal to old fans as much as new ones.

Before we clamor onto the bandwagon - one usually steered by me because I love ragging on things - there are a few things we should be thankful of about this announcement. First off, and perhaps the most obvious one, is that we got Kurtzman instead of Orci. For those not in the know, Orci is basically a homeless crazy person. If his nutjob reactions to people's internet posts wasn't evidence enough, the fact that his original draft of Star Trek Into Darkness was even *worse* than what the film turned out as should speak volumes to the person he is. Then, he got fired from two major movie franchises (Star Trek 3 and the Amazing Spider-Man series when it was still developing a third film) and then Kurtzman made a public announcement that he and Orci have split ways professionally. To me, that guy burned a series of bridges and will likely end up in the lucrative if unpopular job of script doctor (ala Carrie Fisher). So that, right there, is something to be happy about. Secondly, this is for CBS. That may not seem like anything to you but I have some backstory to go with it because its important. After the 2009 Star Trek movie came out, JJ Abrams tried to put the franchise in a choke hold. For lack of a better term, he asked Paramount to can all prior iterations of the franchise (TOS, TNG, etc) in all its multimedia versions and push his new timeline as the one and only. This is because, since the 2009 film was by his production company (Bad Robot), a huge chunk of Star Trek money would go straight into his hip pocket. I'm not sure if Paramount was on board completely (his reluctance to direct Into Darkness seems like a shrewd ploy for him to get more sway) but CBS - who owns Star Trek on a "TV level" - told him to go jump in the coldest, deepest river he could find. Word even filtered down that the reason that there was no television tie-in to the 2009 film reboot was because CBS is *very* aware of how much money the franchise has given them and treats it with silk gloves and they didn't like the Abrams "pew pew pew" version of the characters. So without CBS's backing, Abrams couldn't get his mits any further into the pockets of Trek. (Since we're soundtrack fans here, let me point out a nice bit of evidence to that story: GNP put out a lovely expanded CD of Goldsmith's Star Trek Insurrection. It was delayed for about a year because Paramount didn't want that album AND Giacchino's Into Darkness debuting on the market at the same time. If Abrams's wishes had gone through, that Goldsmith album would've been canceled or "put on hiatus" for legal reasons but obviously Paramount wants money from old fans and new fans alike...) So, if anything, CBS making Trek is way better than Paramount. I am not sure how *not* having Rick Berman will change things (after Enterprise was canned, Berman was escorted off the Paramount lot by security, according to the actor who played Harry Kim on Voyager) but I'm willing to give it a go. I actually like Berman *most* of the time, though some of his choices are very arbitrary.

GotG is basically what would happen if Star Wars was written by Joss Whedon. Take that as you may.

I don't like the new films at all (despite a really good cast), but I'm holding off on a little bit of hope in that Kurtzman is the *least* of offenders from the Abrams stable. If you told me it was Damon Lindelof, I'd probably be on a private plane to LA right now. Yes, and subsequently removed by studio security in most amusing fashion. I assure you, on such an errand, only the hand of God himself would stop me in such a task

This. Sony spent something like $400 million on the PS Now service. They're not gonna abandon it for backwards compatibility. The PS3s cell architecture doesn't make it any easier, either.Anyway, backwards compatibility is only a selling point for mothers buying consoles for their kids. I reckon no more than 2% of gamers would actually use the feature. I actually used the backwards compatibility on my PS3 more than anything else. I had maybe a dozen games for it (tops) but I loved throwing my PS1 games into it for a playthrough. Truth be told, the reason the PS4 doesn't have it is the most obvious reason: they want you to have to buy those games all over again. Which I won't, because I kept all of mine from the PS1 era and on. Its a bit of a pain to have to unplug the composite cables every time I want to play something different but, eh, first world problems.

Ugh. Crap like that really sticks in my craw and I cannot tell you why. Watching pop culture reference its self is like watching two college aged dudes make a crappy in-joke that no one else will understand.

Did Struzan even do the theatrical poster or are you referring to that weird one they only handed out at Disneyland? Eh, take your pick. Truthfully, the Struzan picture is so nice and uncluttered, nice use of symmetry.

I don't like the new films at all (despite a really good cast), but I'm holding off on a little bit of hope in that Kurtzman is the *least* of offenders from the Abrams stable. If you told me it was Damon Lindelof, I'd probably be on a private plane to LA right now.

I dislike JJ pretty hard - harder than most people - but he said in an interview he was pretty hands off with the music, which is good to hear. I love the prequel scores but the temptracking obviousness in them grates on me. I'm hoping Abrams didn't ask Johnny to crib anything too obviously. (Or insert awful modern techno music like he did in the last Star Trek)