One of the many news items coming out of Comic-Con yesterday was that Leonard Nimoy will reprise the role of Spock in the upcoming Star Trek XI. The part will probably be just a cameo, as it was also announced that Zachary Quinto, of the TV show Heroes, will star as the young Spock. And while the young Captain Kirk has not yet been cast, director J.J. Abrams said he also had not ruled out bringing back William Shatner as... Read more

MTV Movies Blog reports that it was announced at Comic-Con today that Karen Allen will be back as Marion Ravenwood in Indiana Jones IV — just as she predicted at a screening of Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) over a year ago. Mind you, she also predicted at that time that Natalie Portman might be in the new movie as Indy’s daughter, and that prediction doesn’t seem to have come true — though rumours do persist that the Shia... Read more

Time for a few quick quick quickies. 1. If you saw Transformers, then you probably saw the trailer for that mysterious J.J. Abrams movie which looks like a disaster flick shot on a cheap home-movie camera. The trailer does not say what the movie is called, but early rumours said it might have the working title Cloverfield. Now comes word that the movie might be called Monstrous, and the movie might have something to do with beasts from Jewish mythology,... Read more

Here are the figures for the past weekend, arranged from those that owe the highest percentage of their take to the Canadian box office to those that owe the lowest. Sicko — CDN $1,990,000 — N.AM $19,185,853 — 10.4%Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix — CDN $20,800,000 — N.AM $207,866,865 — 10.0%Knocked Up — CDN $13,280,000 — N.AM $142,698,885 — 9.3%Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End — CDN $26,770,000 — N.AM $306,034,458 — 8.7%Transformers — CDN $22,610,000... Read more

Lou Lumenick at the New York Post reports that Skinwalkers, a werewolf flick that was going to open this Friday before it got bumped to August 10, will not be screened for critics. Read more

I invited my brother to join me and some friends for the preview screening of Sunshine, which happens to be taking place on his birthday. He declined the invitation, and this was his reason why: Gah, this one, I’ve heard about it… Sol’s power output is roughly equivalent to 100 billion thermonuclear warheads detonating every second (or 10 trillion nuclear warheads of the type dropped on Hiroshima). Asking me to suspend my disbelief that anything we could possibly send would... Read more

As I have been saying for months now, Matt Damon is simply too old to play “the young Kirk” in the new Star Trek movie. He is, in fact, older now than William Shatner was when the series began. Thankfully, Damon has now finally put that rumour to rest. Click here if the video file above doesn’t play properly. Read more

Bill Maher talks to Entertainment Weekly about that documentary on religion he recently shot with Borat director Larry Charles: What about the documentary about religion you’ve shot with Larry Charles? People are already talking about it.It’s funny that everybody wants to know about this and there isn’t even a movie made yet. [Larry’s] cutting it right now. The 10-minute reel that we showed at Cannes caused such a stir there, [the movie] immediately sold to 20 different countries. And Lionsgate... Read more

Lou Lumenick at the New York Post reports that I Know Who Killed Me, starring Lindsay Lohan as a stripper, will not be screened for critics before it opens next week. Read more

Karina Longworth at SpoutBlog has some interesting comments on Knocked Up and the alleged lack of realism therein: Stepping away from Denby and Emdashes for a moment, this brings us back to the elephant that’s always in the room when talking Knocked Up: the idea that Katherine Heigl’s character is poorly written, because someone like that would never get involved with someone like the character played by Seth Rogen. I know it’s a stretch to ask anyone whose natural analysis... Read more