The Dark Tower Stalled

Probably thanks to the unexpected success of Star Trek at the box office and a sequel in the works, JJ Abrams and Damon Lindelof have been confirmed to currently no longer working on the adapation of Stephen King's magnum opus. As summarized by TrekMovie.com:

Abrams:

The ‘Dark Tower’ thing is tricky. It’s such an important piece of writing. The truth is that Damon and I are not looking at that right now.

Lindelof:

You’ll be hard-pressed to find a huger fan of The Dark Tower than me, but that’s probably the reason that I shouldn’t be the one to adapt it. After working six years on Lost, the last thing I want to do is spend the next seven years adapting one of my favorite books of all time. I’m such a massive Stephen King fan that I’m terrified of screwing it up.

I’d do anything to see those movies written by someone else. My guess is they will get made because they’re so incredible. But not by me.

Abrams Talks About Fringe's Ratings

Last year Fringe was the king of the television ball with the highest rating for a freshman series last year. Now in its sophomore season and moved to Thursdays, the change has caused a massive drop in viewership, down to around 5 million. This is usually the threshold when most of the networks consider cancellation. On the bright side, according EW, Fox remains committed to the show.

“The mood on set and in the writer’s room is as good as the ratings are bad, which is to say, wonderful,” Abrams tells me. “Luckily, Fox has been insanely supportive, for which we are deeply grateful.”

Abrams is encouraged by the show’s “strong” DVR numbers as well as the glowing reviews from critics. “But given that we’re on one of the hardest [nights] on television, we’re just focusing on making the best show we possibly can,” he says. “What else can we do?”

Bottom line: Fringe is in no immediate danger of going “over there” (a.k.a. TV graveyard). The key word there being immediate.

The cause is to me seems obvious. Thursday just isn't a good fit considering the massive level of competition with Grey's Anatomy, CSI, The Office and 30 Rock. Television tends to create loyalty with viewers and a new show attempting to break that loyalty is always an uphill battle that takes time to win. It needs to be moved but likely will not.

Abrams Producing Micronauts?

In a Wall Street Journal article covering the sudden explosive interest that Hollywood has developed in toy products since the massive success of Transformers, it was revealed that "J.J. Abrams, who created the TV show "Lost" and directed this summer's "Star Trek" film, is in discussions to produce a movie about Japanese toy line Micronauts, which Hasbro just acquired."

Micronauts is a toy line from the 70s that lasted about four years in the United States before being cancelled. The toys were at first produced by Mego and then again in 2002 by Palisades Toys. There was also multiple comic book lines produced to go with the toys, first with Marvel and then again in 2002 with Image before moving to Devil's due before publishing on the franchise ended again. The basic idea is a group of adventures living in the Microverse (as in microscopic) fight to end the tyranny of Bara Karza. It was essentially Star Wars were everything occurred at the microscopic scale rather than in space. Click here to read up on the wiki entry for the potential future movie franchise.

Abrams May Direct Undercovers Pilot

The Hollywood Reporter says that JJ Abrams may direct the pilot episode of Undercovers, his potential new television series with NBC that is described as a husband and wife spy team.

Schedule permitting, Abrams will make “Undercovers” the first TV pilot he has directed since 2004’s “Lost” opener. ABC’s two-hour “Lost” opening is considered one of the best-directed pilots of all time and helped launch Abrams’ feature career into helming such films as “Mission: Impossible 3” and “Star Trek.”

Abrams has created and produced several TV shows but is not frequently in the director’s chair. He helmed the pilot and handful of episodes of his ABC spy drama “Alias” but hasn’t directed an episode of his latest series, the Fox sci-fi drama “Fringe,” which he co-created and executive produces.

Abrams also directed an episode of NBC’s “The Office” in 2007 and “guest directed” an episode of “Jimmy Kimmel Live” in 2006. NBC’s “Undercovers,” about a husband and wife working together as spies, has been described as a mix between “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” and “The Bourne Identity.”

Abrams Up For Superman

In a new interview with MTV, JJ Abrams has indicated he is up for bringing Superman to the big screen once again. Around 2002 the director, hot due to Alias, had developed a treatment that was wildly panned by the internet as it throughout most of the conventions of Superman, essentially keeping the characters names but not a whole lot else. However, with the success of Mission Impossible, Star Trek and others, the director and producer has a proven track record of re-imagining properties without crapping on what came before.

"No one has talked to me about it," Abrams told MTV News. "Obviously I’m sure Warner Brothers has a plan for what they want to do."

"Writing that script was a long process," he explained. "It was a very passionate character for me. As a kid growing up it meant a lot to me. It would be wonderful and fun to see that brought back. I don’t know what Warners is thinking or what their plan is. It would be a blast."

That version of the movie—the one that was reviewed and vilified—was actually not the latest draft we had at the time and we worked on it well after that. I do think there’s a version of that movie that could be really fun to see," said Abrams. "You never really know. Everything happens for a reason."

I am all for Abrams taking a crack at Superman, as long as someone at DC (or even Kevin Smith) gives him a few stories to read to bring him up to speed on the core characteristics of the character and his universe. I personally recommend Kingdom Come, Superman for All Season, Action Comics #775, Superman: Brainiac TPB, or just a really long conversation with Geoff Johns who has nailed the character better than anyone else in a very long time.

Nimoy Retiring Again?

Hero Complex is reporting that Star Trek's Leonard Nimoy may retire (again) after making a third and likely final appearance on Fringe as William Bell. Nimoy had retired before but took a break to film Abrams' Star Trek movie.

"I have such a great life," the 78-year-old actor said at his home last week. "I'm not looking for work."

"As an actor you're always wondering when you're going to work again, who you're going to work with, what it will be. I don't have that consuming drive," he said. Then he nodded toward an image that will be on display at [his photography] exhibit. "This is my creative outlet. This is what I do."

Nimoy was fresh from a trip to the Vancouver set of "Fringe," where he had shot an upcoming episode. He made it sound as if it might have been his final one in the role of Bell, a rarely seen character on the show but one that is, by all appearances, at the very core of the series' mythology.

"I've done three appearances for them. I don't know if I will do a fourth... "They've asked me to do more, but we have to talk about where the character is going. So far my character, William Bell, and my appearances have been used to lay in information about this alternate universe and the experience of being in this other world. And that's OK, but I don't know yet what plans they have for really developing a dramatic story for the character. I'm waiting for a conversation about that."

"I think they're talking amongst themselves now so they can present some kind of plan, a story arc of some kind."

It sounds like if we want more Nimoy on TV, we need to pray to the writing gods that Abrams, Orci and Kurtzman can come up with something compelling enough to keep Nimoy's interest to keep reprising the role. Considering how small (yet critical) the role seems to be to the Fringe universe, he could probably be killed off screen with relative ease. Be a shame though.

Abrams Wins Best Director Scream Award

Saturday Night, the Spike TV Scream Awards ceremony was held at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles, CA and Star Trek took home six awards including the top award of "Ultimate Scream" and Best Director for JJ Abrams. Star Trek had 17 nominations in 15 categories.

Th wins:
Ultimate Scream
Best Science Fiction Movie
Best Director (JJ Abrams)
Best Science Fiction Actor (Chris Pine)
Best Cameo (Winona Ryder)
Best Fight Scene (Kirk Spock bridge fight)

Probably the highlight of the night for Trek fans was Shatner accepting the Ultimate Scream trophy:

Morgan Freeman presented the Ultimate Scream award (essentially best in show) to "Star Trek" — and William Shatner shocked fans when he stepped on stage to accept the trophy.

"J.J., I'll handle this," Shatner said to J.J. Abrams, seated in the audience, who also won best director and best sci-fi movie for "Star Trek."

"This movie was big," Shatner said. "Imagine how big it could have been with me in it? ... I'll be waiting for your call."

The full list of winners can be found here. The telecast of the award ceremony will air on Spike TV on Tuesday, October 27th from 10:00pm to midnight ET/PT. (via Trekmovie)