You want to know when the next “Star Trek” will start shooting? Look out for paparazzi shots of co-star Zoe Saldana wearing some sweaty workout gear as she leaves the gym. Why? Because, as the woman who played alien linguistics expert Uhura explained to MTV’s Josh Horowitz at Comic-Con, when “Star Trek” ramps up, she’ll be forced to hit the weights again.
So has she renewed the gym membership yet? Saldana revealed that producers have indeed been in touch, making sure the actress is clearing out space on her 2010 calendar.
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by Michael Avila
One of the more interesting panels at Comic-Con this year not specifically geared to plug an upcoming movie was Entertainment Weekly’s forum discussing the role of female heroes in modern pop culture. Sigourney Weaver, Eliza Dushku, Zoe Saldana and Elizabeth Mitchell were seated on the dais before an enthusiastic standing room only crowd. It took about 20 minutes for someone onstage to realize Saldana's and Mitchell’s nameplates were misplaced.
Before Buffy slayed, Lara Croft raided and Starbuck, er… drank, Weaver was bitch-slapping Paul Reiser and basically inventing the archetype for ass-kicking women as Ridley in James Cameron's 1986 sci-fi action flick “Aliens.” Five years later, Cameron would release “T2: Judgment Day” featuring another female action hero. Sarah Connor, played by Linda Hamilton, paved the way for the modern-day heroine who can balance motherhood with her need to pound skulls and work out. Read more...
J.J. Abrams' fresh take on "Star Trek" is looking like it's gonna be huge, taking in as much as $75 million at the box office through the weekend. The film features a whole new cast of predominantly little-known actors taking over the iconic roles of James T. Kirk, Spock and the rest of the Enterprise crew. So which of these up-and-comers will be the movie's breakout star? Who will everyone be talking about on Monday? Will it be Chris Pine as the young and cocky Kirk? Maybe "Heroes" villain and brand-new Spock Zachary Quinto? Perhaps Zoe Saldana’s sultry Uhura, Anton Yelchin’s navigator Chekov, Karl Urban’s doc Bones, or Simon Pegg’s beam-me-up engineer Scotty.
A case can be made for any of them. But MTV News wanted to know what you had to say, so we sent our own Tim Kash into the heart of Times Square to get your take on who will be "Trek"'s breakout star.
Zoe Saldana is sci-fi’s newest leading lady, having scored herself the lead role in two of the most highly-anticipated, big-budget sci-fi flicks of 2009. After taking on the space frontier as Uhura in J.J. Abrams’s remake of “Star Trek,” and playing Neytiri in James Cameron’s ten-years-in-development vision “Avatar,” Saldana recently dished about what is was like to work with two of Hollywood’s most innovative filmmakers – as well as two upcoming movies that seem certain to be out of this world.
“It’s amazing for an actor to work with J.J. and Jim,” Saldana gushed. “They are similar in that they are exquisite at what they do, and they are young at heart.”
When comparing the two A-list directors, Saldana said: “J.J. has made a very important place for himself in Hollywood by being an exquisite writer. And Jim has done the same by being an amazing voyager and visionary, and a great filmmaker.” Read more...
Kevin Smith is just about the luckiest guy on the planet and I'm pretty sure he's aware of it. His filmmaker buddies have always seemed more than willing to share their upcoming works well in advance of their release dates. He saw "MI:III" early as well as "The Dark Knight," and here in mid-September of '08 he's already seen two must-sees for '09! That would be "Watchmen" AND "Star Trek."
When I met up with Kevin in Toronto this week to chat about "Zack and Miri Make a Porno," (a mature flick that's actually most reminiscent of "Chasing Amy" despite what you may assume) I just had to pick his brain about "Star Trek" and he told me quite a bit.
"It's really strong," said Smith. "[J.J. Abrams] was rejiggering the opening few scenes. It's one of those things where you first heard about it and were like no they're not going to redo 'Star Trek'! And then you see the movie and you think, wow he did pull it off! He turned it into a viable renewed franchise." Read more...
