One of my favorite parts of the Star Trek movies isn’t always the stories and characters, but the starships themselves. I think it stems from my love of building models as a kid. I believe I built about 3-4 different models of the USS Enterprise, although I’m pretty sure they all sucked.

Anyways, here are the main points from the article. Read the entire thing over at The Movie Blog.

- The USS Enterprise NCC-1701 will be a major presence in the movie that will start out being commanded by Captain Pike and then later by James Kirk.

- The movie is being described as “a starship adventure�

- A Romulan ship commanded by Nero (Eric Bana). Ship will not look like the traditional Romulan vessel.

- Spock arrives in the past flying a Vulcan 1 man time travel ship. He’s not a ghost as some sites have reported

- There is another Federation ship with a big role called the USS Kelvin. The first officer of that ship is George Kirk (Captian Kirk’s dad?)

A lot of the information that came out is stuff we’ve already heard or have been hearing rumors of, but some of it is new details. Here is the majority of it:

• The film will definitely be rated PG-13. That doesn’t really surprise me since Star Trek has always been more of a PG kind of movie. There was no way they were going to go R with this one.
• The release date was pushed back because Paramount wants the movie to be a summer blockbuster and not for any other reason.
• The budget on the film is far below the sometimes reported $200M. A more widely reported $160M budget could still be accurate and is probably in line with other films of this nature.
• They went all the way back to the beginning of the original characters because their intent was to “re-invent” the Star Trek franchise. I’m not really sure why they felt that was necessary. I think this explanation is partly BS. I think they went back to the original characters because they thought it would attract audiences already familiar with the characters.
• The script was written with Leonard Nimoy in mind so Spock, as suspected, is probably a pretty pivotal character to the film. Nimoy read and liked the script, of course, which is one of the reasons the film was able to be made. One would assume they would have had problems had Nimoy not been interested in doing the movie.
• Speaking of Nimoy, he actually said that this film, Star Trek 11, is the biggest film he’s ever worked on and will definitely be worth waiting for. He reaffirmed Paramount’s faith in the film as a summer blockbuster.
• Nimoy apparently also mentioned that he didn’t like the death of Captain Kirk in Star Trek: Generations. In fact, he resented it. However, he did say that putting Shatner (Kirk) in this film would have been damaging to the story as a whole so he agreed with the decision not to do it.
• The USS Enterprise will be assembled in space, although parts of it will be assembled on Earth.
• One of the most interesting things revealed was that it was originally Steven Spielberg who read the script and talked to J.J. Abrams about directing it during a set visit to the Transformers set. Abrams mentioned it to his wife, who also helped talk him into the final decision to take on the massive project.

So that’s the gist of it. It looks like we now know with some certainty that Shatner will not be appearing in the film as Captain Kirk. I think that rumor has been pretty rampant so it’s good that they were able to put an end to it early on. I think it’s a shame that his stupid death in Star Trek: Generations is what prevented him from being a part of this project, though.

Any thoughts?

Star Trek fans everywhere moan.

Paramount has their reasons, of course. They apparently believe in the film so much they want to use it as a summer tentpole film and release it during the summer movie season where the blockbuster potential is larger.

Star Trek has no competition in its new slot – at least not yet, although it opens one week after 20th Century Fox opens X-Men Origins: Wolverine and one week before Sony is slated to bow the expected hit sequel Angels and Demons.

The Star Trek change was not the only shuffle Paramount made to its schedule and to the schedule of Dreamworks. Some of the other changes they made include:

• The Ben Stiller summer comedy Tropic Thunder is moving from July 11 to Aug. 15
• Martin Scorsese’s Leonardo DiCaprio vehicle Shutter Island…er…Ashecliffe will be released Oct. 2, 2009.
• An untitled comedy produced by Marlon and Shawn Wayans will be released on Feb. 9, 2009.
• The Eddie Murphy family film Nowhereland is moving from Sept. 26, 2008, to June 12, 2009.
• Renee Zellweger’s horror-thriller Case 39 is moving from Aug. 22, 2008, to April 10, 2009.
• David Fincher’s Brad Pitt starrer The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is moving from Nov. 26, 2008, to Dec. 19, 2008.

Still, it is the Star Trek news that is the most disappointing. It’s not that the studio doesn’t have a valid point and it’s not that it isn’t a smart business move. It just sucks that we have to wait another five months to see a movie we’ve already so excited about.

In case you’re doing the math in your head, we saw the teaser in January which means we saw the first trailer for Star Trek a full one year and four months before the film is set to open. That’s insane.

According to reports from ComingSoon.net, the new Star Trek sequel from J.J. Abrams has been pushed WAY back to May 8th, 2009.

It was originally scheduled for a December 25th release this year, but now we have five more months to see where Abrams takes the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise.

For us cadets, this means extended shore leave.

The article mentions the move as part of a major reshuffling of the Paramount release calendar, along with DreamWorks.

Insiders tell Coming Soon that the film has a lot more potential to bring in huge bucks if released in May instead of December. Currently that May 8th release date has no competition.

We probably can expect this to happen with some other films since the Writer’s Strike has thrown off a few movie schedules I’m sure and studios will want to balance out their earnings in the coming year or two.

So this basically means we saw the teaser for this film a good year and four months before we ever see the movie.

I for one am bummed at one of the most anticipated movies of 2008 suddenly delayed by such a long time.

Oh well, now I can say I know the first movie I’m looking forward to in 2009.

If you need something to talk about here are a few of the articles we’ve done recently that might give you something to discuss:

• Young Kirk Cast In “Star Trekâ€Â?
• New “Star Trekâ€Â? Poster Released
• Star Trek Viral Site – Secrets Revealed
• Star Trek Teaser Trailer Now Available Right Here!
• 3 Spocks To Appear In Abrams’ Star Trek “XIâ€Â?
• Tyler Perry’s “Why Did I Get Cast In J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek Movie?â€Â?
• First Look: Zachary Quinto As Spock In “Star Trek XIâ€Â?

The casting of a young version of Kirk seems to confirm the rumor that we will, in fact, see different timelines in the upcoming film. One would assume that most of Bennett’s scenes will be with Jennifer Morrisonand Chris Hemsworth who play Kirk’s parents, George and Winona Kirk.

With the casting of Bennett as the Young Kirk and the casting of Marlene Forte as “Chief Transporter” a few days ago it appears as if all the major roles in the film have now been cast.

Major plot details “Star Trek XI” are still being kept under wraps, but it is understood that the movie chronicles the early days of the Enterprise crew. The Paramount Pictures project began shooting in November and is expected to continue until March. Release is scheduled for Christmas Day, 2008.

The Updated Cast List For “Star Trek XI”

• Chris Hemsworth (George Samuel Kirk Sr.)
• Jennifer Morrison (Winona Kirk)
• Chris Pine (Capt. James T. Kirk)
• Jimmy Bennett (Young Kirk)
• Leonard Nimoy (Spock)
• Ben Cross (Sarek – Spock’s father)
• Winona Ryder (Amanda Grayson – Spock’s mother)
• Zachary Quinto (Young Spock)
• Bruce Greenwood (Capt. Christopher Pike)
• Karl Urban (Dr. Leonard ‘Bones’ McCoy)
• Simon Pegg (Scotty)
• John Cho (Sulu)
• Zoe Saldana (Nyota Uhura)
• Anton Yelchin (Pavel Chekov)
• Eric Bana (the villain, Nero)
• Rachel Nichols (Janice Rand?)
• Clifton Collins Jr. (Ayel)
• Tyler Perry (head of Starfleet Academy)
• Marlene Forte (Chief Transporter)

This is the one we’ve been using:

If you visit the Official “Star Trek” Movie Site you will see the words “UNDER CONSTRUCTION” under the video. Next to the words you’ll notice a small red dot. Clicking that dot will take you to the viral site at NCC-1701.

The images on the cameras are distorted and out of focus. On the lower right hand side of each video image, however, you’ll notice arrows and three numbers. Clicking on the arrows or the numbers themselves changes the numbers which change the focus of the camera (you can also use the slider under the video). Play around with it all you like until you get a clear image.

Alternately you can use the following numbers to view the clear videos:

• Camera 01 – 5 8 7
• Camera 02 – 1 2 3
• Camera 03 – 9 6 3
• Camera 04 – 2 8 9

After adjusting all of the cameras you will see the following images:

The videos are obviously security camera footage from the shipyard that is building the Enterprise NCC-1701, which is what we saw in the teaser trailer. The significance of what we are seeing is still unknown…hence the viral nature of the page. We’re supposed to study it and talk about it and wait for more clues.

If you wait long enough with the NCC-1701 page open (and it’s a pretty long wait although I’m not sure exactly how long) you’ll be rewarded. The offline camera will activate and change to a view of a corridor.

• Flash Player Teaser
• HD Trailer in Quicktime

You can also just watch it below, thanks to Jason Clark, I have the code to embed the thing right here.

Not only that, but we have another viral website to go along with it!

If you visit the Flash Player site above, there is an “Under Construction” area at the bottom and a blinking red light to the right of it. Clicking on that takes you to a site with four cameras overlooking the construction of the USS Enterprise at the shipyards.

The website is called NCC-1701.com. Nice.

Below is a screenshot I grabbed from the teaser of the rear of the ship likely standing from the neck portion that connects to the saucer.