List of Saturn Award Winners: Avatar Rules!

The 36th Saturn Awards (which honor movies and TV shows in the Sci-Fi and Fantasy genre primarily) were handed over last night.

It was Avatar who basically dominated the awards with ten wins, including Best Picture, Best Writer and Best Director (James Cameron), Best Actor (Sam Worthington), Best Actress (Zoe Saldana), Best supporting Actor (Stephen Lang) and Best Supporting Actress (Sigourney Weaver) - take that Oscars!

Star Trek was recompensed for Best-Makeup and writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman received the George Pal Memorial Ward.

Sam Rockwell cast in ''Cowboys and Aliens''

Sam Rockwell has been cast in Dreamworks' Cowboys and Aliens, a sci-fi movie based on a graphic novel by Platinum Studios about cowboys and Indians uniting together to resist an alien invasion.

I wanted to share this bit of casting news because I love Sam Rockwell, and I particularly loved him in Moon (you must see that movie if you haven't yet because it's simply quite awesome) and Galaxy Quest. I'm also looking forward to seeing him in Iron Man 2 in the role of Justin Hammer.

Hugo Awards: Star Trek and Doctor Who Get Nominations

The Hugo Awards are awards for excellence in the field of science fiction and fantasy. They were first awarded in 1953, and have been awarded every year since 1955. [AussieCon4]

These awards are set to be presented in Melbourne, Australia, at Aussicon 4 - the 68th World Science Fiction Convention - on September 5, 2010.

Orci and Kurtzman Q&A on Star Trek and its Sequel

Trek Movie has posted excerpts from a Q & A with Star Trek writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman given at the WGA theater in Beverly Hills on Wednesday night. It's part of of a series of screenings for WGA nominees.

My favourite bit concerns their explanation of the Spock/Uhura kiss and romance

Orci: Well you know Oedipally you marry your mother [laughs], and his mother was human. Part of our take was that we were going to harmonize with canon. So in the original series, the first interracial kiss was between William Shatner and Nichelle Nichols, and we thought in this, what is the harmony of that? And the harmony is the first inter-species kiss. It is Uhura and Spock. Well, number one he is younger and not as in control of his emotions. And number two, he has just lost his mother, who he has apologized to for saying "I hope you don’t feel I am rejecting all that it human by perusing Kolinahr," the Vulcan purging of all emotions. So in losing her, showing his emotions to Uhura is a way of keeping her.

On the sequel Orci said:

We would never do a remake….it will be some time in the five year mission. But that is a question. Should we pick them up immediately the next day or should it be later, we are still discussing that.

Please go here to read the very interesting report.

Star Trek Script Start Date

After practically getting no news from JJ Abrams himself, co-writer Damon Lindeloff at least gave us something to hang on to.

According to Lindeloff he, Abrams, and co-writers Roberto Orci and Alex Krutzman should start writing the script to the Star Trek Sequel in April, when they have finished writing the Lost scripts.

This is at least some good news.

Source

Writers Orci and Kurtzman on the Star Trek Sequel

Star Trek writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman also sat for a lenghty Q&A at the same Paramount event wich revealed their plans to reboot Hawaii Five-0, Fringe and more importantly the Star Trek Sequel.

Here are some of the highlights from the session

In the Q&A, we learn that Nurse Christine Chapel was originally planned to appear in the first movie in the early drafts of the script.

Also, when asked if there was ''anything from Enterprise or Next Generation or Deep Space or elements, like the Borg, Cardassians, Bajorans, anything on the top of your list that you might want to throw in to the next movie?'' Roberto Orci answered:

I think we’d think about it, just because we do love The Next Generation…I think our instinct would be to first look at The Original Series, before we considered that. But, all that is on the table.

About the possibility that the next Star Trek would be more allegorical and more in tune with modern issues as well as how they would do that and yet keep the positive future envisioned by Gene Roddenberry, Orci answered:

The torture thing was just a for instance. Someone asked, “Modern day issues like torture?,” and we said, “Yeah, sure, modern day issues,” but, we’re not doing a story about Gitmo as I read on some site that it was going to be about Guantanamo Bay. But, now that we’ve established the characters, we can have a more philosophical allegory, where what’s happening in the future represents our world, like the best versions of it in the ’60’s did, representing women’s rights, racial equality, progressive issues.

Both writers also admitted they were still at the brainstorming stage and that they had not yet figured out a story. And again, the Khan question popped up for the millionth time and Kurtzman responded by saying:

Where we’re starting is, “Okay, where are our characters now? What are interesting complications that we can put in their lives? What feels like an organic emotional place for us to get to? How do we want to test them?” And then, you look at everything and start asking, “Who would be the best foe?”

Go here for the rest of the Q&A where they talk Fringe, Cowboys and Aliens and much, much more.