Word broke at WonderCon today that some or all of the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation may show up in the new prequel movie being done by JJ Abrams. LR reports that they should appear in the first few, opening minutes of the movie.

If what we've heard up till now about Abrams' new Trek is true, then this is both ironic... and logical. Word is that JJ's movie involves a time travel plot, in which an elderly Spock, living in the time period of Captain Picard and company, travels back in time to save a younger version of James Kirk. It's ironic that the Next Gen cast appears in the movie, because rumor has it that Abrams' movie is a setup to launch the Trek universe into an alternate timeline, and alternate timeline in which the Next Gen cast we're familiar with probably wouldn't exist. By appearing in the movie, it's as if the Next Gen crew is complicit in their own destruction.

Still, if true it'll be great to see them on screen one last time. Any excuse to get Brent Spiner back in his Data makeup is a good one.

UPDATE! It looks like Latino Review may have fudged a few facts in their report, in order to generate hype for their site. The folks at TrekMovie attended the same event and they say LR's report is inaccurate, and that they're absolutely certain no one from Star Trek: TNG will have any sort of appearance in the upcoming Star Trek movie.

We're big fans of Twitter here at GFR, and if you're not already using it then I reccommend trying it out with a quick click over to our Twitter page. Though you may have heard Twitter described as a bunch of boring, useless, one sentence updates from people letting you know they're doing laundry, at its best it's so much better than that. In fact, it's a place where you can hang out with the cast of Star Trek.

Many of the stars of both the original and Next Generation Trek series' are regular Twitter users. Will Wheaton for instance (follow him at @wilw) is one of the most followed users on the entire network. But he's not the only one. The guys over at TrekMovie have put together a complete guide to all the former Star Trek cast members who are tweeting and interacting with their fans on Twitter. Check out the full list of Twittering Trek greats below, and while you're at it don't forget to follow us.

We've uncovered three, rather cool, videos from JJ Abrams' upcoming TV series Fringe. It debuts this fall, and from what we've seen of it the show looks like a more science based version of The X-Files. Apparently the first episode starts with a plane crash. We know Abrams' has a gift for those. Take a look:
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Fringe, the new show from JJ Abrams, figures heavily into Fox's fall television schedule. They're expecting big things from it, and they're already prepping their promotional campaign. We've dug up 5 really cool posters for the television show, which you should start seeing in print ads and on billboards near you soon. Take a look:

He changed the way we look at Science Fiction on television with Lost, now J.J. Abrams is moving to the Fox Network with an all new, sci fi thriller. Next season Fox will debut his new show, Fringe.

Here's how Fox describes the show:

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: Return of the King”), 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.

JJ Abrams, the guy responsible for such fine television programming as Alias and Lost, has a new science fiction series coming to television. Oddly enough, it sounds an awful lot like an old series.

Variety says his new show is Fringe, and it's been picked up by the Fox network. The show is about a young, female FBI agent working with an oddball scientist to investigate unexplained medical and scientific phenomenon.

Sound familiar? Yeah.

Former Dawson's Creek star Joshua Jackson will play the male lead in the show's 2-hour pilot, with Anna Torv starring opposite him as FBI Agent Olivia Warren. That's Anna in the picture with this story.

The picture to your right has been floating around the net this week. It first popped up over at CanMag, where they claim this is the box art for the upcomign DVD release of Cloverfield.

It definitely fits with the movie's mysterious, secret government files tone. It does not however, fit in with any of the marketing used for the film, which seemed to center around using that same Statue of Liberty image over and over and over and over again until we were all sick to death of it. It'd be surprising if they left it off the movie's DVD packaging now.

Maybe this will be the cover art for some sort of alternative DVD? That might make sense. Use the Statue of Liberty poster artwork for a bare bones edition, and save this for an SE. It doesn't actually say Special Edition on it, but it does look like that kind of cover.

This morning frequently wrong rumor site ran a story claiming that George Takei would show up in JJ Abrams' Star Trek prequel. Of course this flies in the face of everything anyone associated with the production has had to say on the matter. The people actually making Star Trek have been pretty clear on this: None of the original cast will be in the film except Leonard Nimoy.

Still, AICN insists it's true. Except of course their story is based on nothing but vapor. All they have is an interview with George Takei where he basically says "no comment". That's hardly a confirmation that he's in it. AICN has invented a story out of nothing.
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Dear Mr. Abrams,

I’d like to talk to you for a moment as a Star Trek fan. It stopped being fun to be a Star Trek fan some time in the 90s (probably when Voyager got lost on television), but hey we’re still around. We do other things these days, we watch romantic comedies with our wife, and when she’s not looking we get excited about Battlestar Galactica; but for a lot of the people who have recently been waiting in line for movies like Star Wars and The Matrix, it’s Star Trek that’s their first love. The old girl just hasn’t been treated properly in awhile. We have high hopes that you’ll be treating her better.

Except some of us were wondering, do you know what you have your hands on here? I ask, because so far your efforts to bring a new Star Trek movie to the screen have been shrouded in absolute secrecy. I understand that you might not want to spoil the entire plot and that you can’t exactly announce cast members until they’ve been hired (I'm warming up to John Cho as Sulu by the way), but that’s not what I’m talking about here. The problem you see, is that this is not Cloverfield or Mission Impossible. Those properties don’t have decades worth of dedicated fans and history behind them. This is Star Trek. It’s been around since the 60s, and the eyes of millions upon millions of devoted followers are upon you around the world.

I question whether or not you’re aware of Star Trek’s fan base, because so far you’ve been treating your project as if it’s Cloverfield, when in fact it is not. I’ve heard you mention us, your film’s fan base, in several of your interviews; but simply mentioning us doesn’t necessarily accomplish anything. You’re playing your cards awfully close to your vest. As with Cloverfield, we’re not even entirely sure what you’re calling this new Trek adventure, let alone what this movie is about. With Cloverfield it’s exciting, because you’re producing something brand new and unknown. With Star Trek, well I have to be honest, it’s making us Star Trek fans pretty uneasy.
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