To be honest, we kinda lost interest in both of these shows almost as soon as they started. So, it isn’t really much of a surprise that Fox has given the axe to both The Finder and Alcatraz.

Both series had dropped considerably in the rating since their debut and were, if we’re being brutally honest, not all that engaging or entertaining. Even though it was nice to see Michael Clarke Duncan getting more work.

Fox does like being in the Kiefer Sutherland business and consequently has given his series Touch, Exec. Produced by Heroes alumni Tim Kring, a second season. I’m sure that decision may have something to do with Sutherland’s participation in some 24 movies, regardless of Touch’s relative quality. Still, good for Kring and company.

In addition, Fox has also given series orders to Mindy Kaling’s It’s Messy and other shows like Goodwin Games and Ben & Kate. Other series commitments are expected to be announced soon.

Fortunately, all is not lost for J.J. Abrams current TV career as Fox did have the smarts to give Abram’s other show, the awesome Fringe, a final 13 episode season. That was a good move on Fox’s part and we could not be happier about it.

Fans of Fox’s quirky Sci-Fi/paranormal series Fringe can relax. It seems the network is happy enough with the show’s performance and dedicated fanbase that it has decided to renew the series for fa fifth and final season.

That’s right, the show will live on at least one more year and debut with a final 13 episode season in the Fall, the last episode of which will mark the show’s 100th. Fox made the announcement today and of course, fans are not the only ones happy about this development.

“We are thrilled and beyond grateful that FOX — and our fans — have made the impossible possible: ‘Fringe’ will continue into a fifth season that will allow the series to conclude in a wild and thrilling way,” series co-creator/executive producer J.J. Abrams said.

No word yet on the exact premiere date for the final season. However, don’t get too down about that because there’s already a promo for season 5. Check it out after the break. Fringe airs Friday nights at 9/8C on Fox.

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The rebooted Star Trek was a massive success. I walked the fine line of total restart and series continuation and ended up with a totally familiar, but all together new universe for us to explore. One of the first new explorations into this new universe will be the upcoming Star Trek game.

The game, which was announced at last year’s E3, is currently slated for an early 2013 release date. For those unfamiliar with the upcoming game here is what we know:

Star Trek continues the story from the recent J.J. Abrams film. Players take control of Kirk and Spock in what is being called an “unprecedented co-op experience.” 

“Star Trek challenges the boundaries of co-op gameplay with a galactic adventure that gamers and fans have never experienced,” said Tom Lesinski, President of Paramount Digital Entertainment. 

The new teaser doesn’t give much up on the ‘unprecedented co-op’, but it does showcase a very pretty looking game that should have Trek fans everywhere eager to play. Alongside this new teaser were three new concept art pieces that give some clue to the types of environments we should be expecting in the new game.

You can check out the new teaser and the concept art after the jump.

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Benderspink is teaming up with Roddenberry Entertainment to co-develop television and film adaptations of Days Missing. This will mark the first Roddenberry property to find its way to the big screen since J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek and the first TV show based on a Roddenberry property since Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda and Star Trek: Enterprise.

“We see this as such a strong concept that it could be done as a television show and feature trilogy at the same time,” says JC Spink, Co-Founder of Benderspink. “And, we’re extremely excited to work with Rod Roddenberry and Trevor Roth.”

Days Missing chronicles 24 hour periods of time that have changed the course of human evolution, but have been erased from human memory by a mystical and ancient being known as The Steward. These “days missing,” recorded in the annals of The Steward’s library, represent a lost human history that explains much more about who we are than we ever knew.

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According to a joint press release, Paramount Pictures and J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot Productions have agreed to an extension of their exclusive, first-look agreement through December 2015. The deal looks to be incredibly lucrative for both sides.

“J.J. is a unique talent and a captivating storyteller,” said Brad Grey, Chairman and CEO of Paramount Pictures. “J.J., Bryan Burk and the whole Bad Robot team are an integral part of Paramount and we’re proud to continue our collaboration. Their pictures have extraordinary resonance around the world and we’re so pleased Paramount will be their home for years to come.”

Bad Robot Productions’ original first look deal with Paramount began in 2006. Since then we have had releases of a variety of successful films and franchise continuations. Considering that grosses on Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol are now $670M globally, while those for the Star Trek reboot hit $385M worldwide, it is no surprise that Paramount is excited about the continuation of this deal. Under the previous Paramount deal, Abrams also had made Cloverfield and Super 8, both of which did well at the global box office.

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Welcome to the future, a world where it is news that a feature film is being shot on 35mm film instead of digital or in 3D. We now know that the new Star Trek film will be one of those such films, although that doesn’t mean we will be spared the 3-D post conversion.

MTV recently talked with J.J. Abrams about the 2013 film:

“I’m sure, like many people, you see what you do and you go, ‘I really could have done that one better, I should have done that, that was a mistake, more of this, less of that.’ You always do that… I’m hoping that as we do the next one, all the mistakes that I’ve made that I’ve hopefully learned from, I can bring to this one and hope make it better.

We’re shooting on film, 2-D, and then we’ll do a good high-end conversion like the ‘Harry Potter’ movie and all that. Luckily, with our release date now we have the months needed to do it right because if you rush it, it never looks good.

We were talking about [shooting in IMAX] and I would love to do it. IMAX is my favorite format; I’m a huge fan,”

While it is nice that J.J. is looking to get into the IMAX business, post conversion 3D has a rocky history. He sited the most recent Harry Potter film as the standard he expects, but even then shooting for 2D and converting it after the fact never looks as good.

We told told you recently that Peter Weller and Alice Eve had signed on to the cast of the new Star Trek sequel, joining the original crew and Benicio Del Toro who was in talks to play the villain. The speculation ran wild that Del Toro would be playing Kirk nemesis extraordinaire Kahn Noonian Singh. The one thing we can now know for certain is that Del Toro will not be Kahn, because he will not be in the movie.

Vulture is reporting that the talks between the actor and the producers broke down due to monetary issues. The speculation of the movie’s villain being Kahn had a lot to do with the fact that Del Toro fits the same mold that Ricardo Montalban so famously inhabited. J.J. Abrams has denied these rumors, but J.J. loves to keep things secret and anything he says about a movie in this stage of development is far from an official proclamation.

Those rumors might just get another boost as Variety reports Edgar Ramirez is now in talks to take over Del Toro’s assumed role. There is enough in common between Del Toro, Ramirez and Montalban that should keep the flames of Kahn hope alive and well for a few more weeks. 

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In what could be called a bit of sci-fi synergy, original Robocop actor Peter Weller is reportedly joining the cast of J.J. Abrams upcoming sequel to Star Trek. While no other details are available at the moment as to what type or size of role Weller will be taking on in the film, you can be assured it will probably not be that of a robot or cyborg.

Of course, now that Weller is being cast in the film, speculation as to his role can begin in earnest, even without any “official” word. That’s just part of the fun. In addition to him most likely not being any sort of robot, bad or otherwise, It’s likely Weller will not play Kahn Noonian Singh — even if that role also doesn’t go to Benicio del Toro.

Weller will more likely take on a smaller yet pivotal role as a Starfleet officer or recognizable alien species who helps (or hinders) Kirk and company’s fight to destroy the greater evil threatening them and Earth. We have nothing to base that on of course, just spitballing here and trying to fill some column inches. That’s just how we roll. Who do you think Weller should play?

Paramount will release the Star Trek sequel May 17, 2013. Weller joins recently announced new cast members Alice Eve and del Toro and the returning Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, Anton Yelchin, John Cho and Simon Pegg.

He may have his hands in half a dozen TV projects, and Zach Quinto may want to quit acting, but that isn’t stopping J.J. Abrams from continuing in his reimagined world of Star Trek with a second film.

First, Abrams announces that he wants She’s Out of My League starlet Alice Eve to have a juicy role in the upcoming sequel. This is the first hard confirmation of new casting news, seeing as the deal with Benicio del Toro has yet to solidify. From Variety.

As is common with Abrams, secrecy has surrounded the pic since the helmer officially announced he would be back — including which characters the new actors will play. Sources say Eve’s character is new to the “Star Trek” universe, unlike del Toro, would insiders believe will be playing someone familiar to Trekkies.

As if that isn’t juicy enough for all you diehards out there, an official date has also been announced, which will make it hard for actors like Quinto to continue to drag their heals.

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To boldly be published in comic book format!

Star Trek #1 is an ongoing series by IDW Publishing. The new comic book series is based on J.J. Abrams’ 2009 Star Trek while telling stories that are “re-imaginings” of the adventures of the 1960′s classic Star Trek TV show. Basically, take the fun, hip crew you liked from the 2009 film, mix them with the classic, brilliant drama of the 1960′s TV show, and you have an intriguing concept that appeals to new and old Star Trek fans alike.

Based on the original series episode titled Where No Man Has Gone Before, Star Trek #1 begins with the Enterprise finding the distress beacon from the Valiant, a vessel thought to be lost. After crossing the galactic barrier, Enterprise crewman and one of Kirk’s best friends, Gary Mitchell gets sick and begins to display psychic and telekinetic powers. Gary is now temparmental and angry. Captain Kirk has decide what to do about his good friend before he harms himself or worse, the Enterprise.

The issue follows the same basic first act of the episode it is based on with minor changes. Spock and Uhura are still dating like in the movie, and Kirk is still very new to command. Gary Mitchell even makes a joke about how he was ahead of Kirk in the Academy, and now Kirk is his superior officer. Robert Orci, one of the screenwriters for the 2009 Star Trek, is listed as creative consultant on the issue which I believe is the reason why the story feels fresh and modern even though it’s based on an episode over 40 years old.

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While most analysts thought that the famous team-up of JJ Abrams and Steven Spielberg would be box office gold, but it looked like the film failed to draw a massive audience, as Super 8 only opened to an estimated $38 million this weekend.

The film only cost roughly $50 million to make, so the profit margin is larger than it would be on a bigger blockbuster. With critics knocking last week’s X-Men: First Class opening weekend draw of $55 million, this measly $38 million is just that. It turns out mediocre marketing and nameless on-screen talent isn’t all you need to have a big box office weekend.

After it’s big(ger) first weekend, First Class dropped about fifty percent, bringing it to $25 million in the domestic box office and almost $100 million worldwide since last weekend. Coming up in third place this week is the ever popular The Hangover Part 2 with an estimated $18 million.

Next week, we expect big things for the box office as Warner Bros’ Green Lantern opens in over 3,000 screens, and is one fourth of the big superhero blockbusters of 2011.

J.J. Abrams latest film Super 8 is not E.T., to which it doubtless will be compared. Nor is it Close Encounters of the Third Kind, another film in the Steven Spielberg oeuvre to which it also owes a great debt. Heck, it isn’t even The Goonies. It is not any of these films.

Instead, it’s a stark reminder that having all the tricks in the bag doesn’t necessarily mean you can make magic. Being a fan of Abrams and his previous efforts, I went into Super 8 optimistic and enthusiastic that I was in for a great movie.

What I got instead was a shrill effort that accomplishes almost nothing except to demonstrate a filmmaker obviously at the top of his game technically, but seemingly lacking a grasp on what true human interaction, characters and to the greatest extent, story, are supposed to look like. I had a hard time caring about anyone in this movie, especially most of the kids. They all seem to exhist in the film mostly to fill a quota for a particular type of character.

You have the quiet kid who suffered a recent loss, the fat kid who tries to make up for it by being loud and bossy, the awkward kid who’s extremely nervous, the kid with braces who likes to blow stuff up because, as evidenced by the fact that you never see his parents, he’s obviously acting out. You also have the lonely, beautiful girl with the angry, drunk father.

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