Club Jade

Artist Martin Firrell has begun developing a series of art videos about heroism and has changed his focus from real-life soldiers to sci-fi heroes.  It’s a mix of artistic video and interview. 

Some very interesting comments from Joe Flanigan, Kate Mulgrew and Nathan Fillion.

I’m not sure what the female fan’s reaction will be to Joe Flanigan’s opinion on what attracts women to the hero (second video in).  He raises an interesting point, though.  And Kate Mulgrew has some interesting comments about the difference between the male and female Starship captains.  Worth checking out.

Leonard Nimoy (do I need to remind you he played Spock in Star Trek?) recently announced his retirement.  The LA Times is posting video from one of his last appearances over the next few days.

Having heard him speak at Dragon*Con, I’m sure it’ll be… fascinating.  (Sorry.  I had to go there.)

Here’s hoping he’ll still get a kick out of going to cons….

Let’s hear it for the gang at Vulcan Con in Florida for surpassing those Brits for the most Star Trek costumes in one place.  Way to break the space-time continuum, gang!

The Hurt Locker beat out Avatar for Best Picture (and director – Kathryn Bigelow is the first woman to win) but the sci-fi extravaganza did take statues for visual effects, cinematography, and art direction. I don’t find this particularly heartbreaking: Avatar might have been a fun movie to watch, but Best Picture? Ehh.

Best Picture was really the only uncertain prize going in, so there weren’t many surprises for the genre winners: Pixar’s Up took Animated feature and Music, while Star Trek got Makeup. (District 9 will always have this, I suppose.)

Star Trek writers Robert Orci and Alex Kurtman appeared at a screening of Star Trek for the Writer’s Guild of America.  Amazingly, most in the room hadn’t seen it.  (Really?  Catch up, people!)

Some interesting analysis of why they chose to go the way they did.  And maybe some insight into how they’ll be tackling the next one. (via)

While talking to MTV News, Harrsion Ford dished up a little talk about the fifth Indiana Jones film, but doesn’t elaborate much on George Lucas’ “crazy but good” idea for a new adventure, and concedes that his Extraordinary Measures co-star Brendan Fraser would probably have his Rick O’Connell character from The Mummy franchise beat Indiana Jones to the treasure nowadays.

Variety reports that Paramount released that the next Star Trek film will have its release on June 29, 2012. While J. J. Abrams will be producing, no word yet on whether he will be directing, or just adding lens flare effects. John Cho reports to IGN Movies that he’s hoping for some Khaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan in the sequel, which could either be Star Trek 2, or Star Trek 12 depending on how you count. Meanwhile SciFiWire finds some Trek fans in Seattle use body paint to make Trek uniforms (warning: NSFW). Maybe they could wear some Star Trek wetsuits.

Baby, why you gotta be so sparkly? There’s actual, serious talk about splitting the fourth Twilight book into two movies. After all, Harry Potter is doing it, and just think of all that squeeful allowance cash beckoning. At this rate, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn: Part I: The Pillowing will be out next Christmas. All signs point to beige, and a possible endorsement deal with the old-timey Gap.

On a more positive Twilight note (Not so! I lie!) there’s Cleolinda’s New Moon in Fifteen Minutes. And for proof that Bella Swan follows a well-worn path, five terrible male role models in guy-centric blockbusters. You’ll never guess who takes the first spot. (Okay, you totally will.) Though alas, Edward is still rather creepy, what with fufilling all those signs of an abusive relationship… By any chance does Breaking Dawn end with him getting pan-fried in lava? That I’d watch.

Moving on… First images from Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Oh baby. (Please don’t suck, movie.)

It is RDJ, after all. The first official poster for Iron Man 2 has arrived, and it looks kind of familiar…. Oh my god. Entertainment Weekly has kindly provided a primer on War Machine for the soon-to-be eager slash fangirls.

Speaking of… A (rather boring) first look at Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Naturally. Harlan Ellison wants in on Abrams’ Star Trek sequel; The Hobbit script is still a work in progress.

Poor JJ Abrams.  They finally release the latest Star Trek on DVD (which totally rocks, by the way) and people are already pestering him about the next one.

Bottom line, no decisions have been made as to what will be pulled upon next.  So let’s not anticipate Khan before his time.  And JJ won’t commit to directing (sometime in 2012) until he sees a script.  Way too long to wait, people.

Gizmodo has nabbed an unmistakable screengrab Artoo’s cameo in Star Trek. Same scene, as before, but a different frame.