J.J. Abrams’ cultish, mythology-driven show Fringe is facing potential cancellation. Though the show is a fan-favorite and has survived into its fourth season, it continues to face two of its greatest antagonists, and no, I’m not talking about shape-shifters or Walternate. I’m talking about consistently mediocre ratings and the Friday night “death slot”. But if Fringe has one plucky can-do hero in its corner, it’s Joshua Jackson.

Just yesterday at the Television Critics Assoc. press tour, Fox chief Kevin Reilly wasn’t pulling any punches when talking about Fringe. He said that the show was completely cost-ineffective, stating that Fox, “lose[s] a lot of money on that show. At that rating, on that night, it’s impossible to make money … and we’re not in the business of losing money,”

When asked to respond to Reilly’s comments, Joshua Jackson, who plays Peter Bishop on the show, said this:

“Look, I’d rather not get canceled but if we did get canceled, so long as they have enough time to properly finish the story that to me is the most important thing, [...] Even though Kevin Reilly had very honest things to say about the show, I get it, it’s a money-making business and if we’re not making that money then we don’t deserve to be on the air.”

Jackson wasn’t completely satisfied accepting his potential fate, expressing a desire to explore different mediums to finish the story of Fringe.

“Yeah, however the story needs to end or whatever they put together as the ending, whether it’s at the end of season 4, whether it’s a TV movie. They’ve talked about doing graphic novels; whatever it is, I just want it to properly end,”

For some reason, his comments remind me of Firefly fans.

In any case, Fringe returns from hiatus this week, 9:00 P.M. on Fox. Though there have been cancellation rumors, there’s nothing out there to suggest that Fox will pull the rest of the season before all episodes have aired.

So what do you think? Still looking forward to Fringe season 5?

Joshua Jackson Suggests Walternatives to Potential Fringe Cancellation is a post from: The Inquisitr

In 2009, J.J. Abrams revitalized the Star Trek franchise with the highest grossing Trek movie to date. Star Trek pulled in $257 million in the United States and $385 million worldwide. So why would you change a winning formula?

J.J. Abrams will be returning to direct Star Trek 2. Chris Pine (Kirk), Zachary Quinto (Spock) Karl Urban(Bones), John Cho (Sulu), and Zoe Saldana (Uhura), will all be returning for the sequel as well. And according to Airlockalpha, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, who penned the 2009 Star Trek script, will write the latest installment in the sci-fi franchise.

According to Screen Rant, pre-production on the new Star Trek film has already begun. The shooting script is supposed to be ready by the end of the month and Abrams will start principle photography this Winter. A release date hasn’t been made official yet, but most Trekkies are looking toward a 2013 summer release.

Abrams was always expected to return to the director’s chair for the second Star Trek, but the Mission Impossible III director sure made Trekkies nervous by not making anything official until this week.

Now that the director is all set, Star Trek fans can now focus their worry on things like movie plot. Who will be the new villain in “Star Trek 2?” Kurtzman and Orci have said that they won’t remake any of the original Star Trek movies, but that’s about all that is known about the new plot.

Will you see the new “Star Trek?” Will William Shatner make a cameo?

J.J. Abrams to Direct New ‘Star Trek’ is a post from: The Inquisitr

I’m sorry to say, that one night of sleep didn’t change that at all. With a 96% review at Rotten Tomatoes and 8.4 on IMDB I’m confident it will make about $92 million at the box office this weekend.

“Set your phasers to stunning.”

The awesomsauce: You don’t have to be a Trekkie to watch this movie. You don’t need to know anything about the Star Trek universe, characters or technology. You’ll miss some references (I noticed a few lines from “Wrath of Khan”) and some Kirk-Spock moments, but that’s details. The story is great, the jokes hilarious and the special effects are very well made without been too unreal.

The actors are spot on. Especially Zachary Quinto (who probably is used to playing emotionless on Heroes) nails Spock. You don’t see Sylar (bad guy from TV-series Heroes), you see Spock in him. Chris Pine makes a great James T. Kirk. In a few scenes you can actually see him make some of the classic Kirk faces and movements. I think he has spent many hours watching William Shatner’s Capt. Kirk. The same goes for Karl Urban. His Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy is simply brilliant. I can see DeForest Kelley’s Bones immediately and of course you get a “Dammit I’m a doctor not a *something*”-line.

JJ Abrams succesfully reboots the Star Trek franchise!

The less good: I’m not going to waste many letters on this. If you are a hardcore Trekkie I’m sure you don’t like the engine room of the USS Enterprise. The warp drive looks like something from gas/hydro plant, but c’mon that doesn’t change the awesomeness of this movie. I did miss one thing. The classic Star Trek theme. When you see the Star Trek logo/badge you always expect it, but soundtrack composer Michael Giacchino has a surprise up his sleeve. You can actually recognize a few classic notes from time to time. (and yes the classic theme can be heard later on in the movie)

To sum up: This movie brought several tears of coolness I’ve only experienced a few times before (as Superman rescued Lois Lane in the plane, so good to hear  the Superman theme again or when I heard the Indy theme in Indy 4). Go this the Star Trek movie and you’ll feel just like me – JJ Abrams; we want to see this crew’s next space adventure ASAP!

I give it 10 out of 10, just because I’m still thinking of this movie.

*UPDATE* Star Trek made $72.5 million in North American ticket sales in its first weekend. Not enough to beat Wolverine’s $85 million record last weekend, but I doubt Star Trek will drop 68% next weekend as Wolverine did this weekend.

Star Trek review – No spoilers is a post from: The Inquisitr

Appearing in San Francisco to promote Star Trek, J.J. Abrams told an audience that the team behind Cloverfield is looking at a possible sequel, or follow up movie.

“We’re working on one right now,” Abrams said. “The key obviously is with a sequel, certainly with this film, is that it had better not be a business decision. If you’re going to do something, it should be because you’re really inspired to do it. It doesn’t guarantee anything and it doesn’t mean that it’s gonna work, but it means you did what you did and not because you’re trying to make a buck. We have an idea for something that’s pretty cool that we’re playing with. It’s something that would be related to ‘Cloverfield’ and hopefully we’ll do something sooner than later, because the idea’s pretty sweet.”

Cloverfield grossed $170 million worldwide on a $25 million budget.

J.J. Abrams considering Cloverfield Sequel is a post from: The Inquisitr

One for fans of the excellent series Fringe: a user mashup of the appearances of “The Obsever.”

Michael Cerveris plays the role and although you don’t always catch him, he’s usually in every episode.

Enjoy:

Best of Fringe’s “The Observer” Mashup is a post from: The Inquisitr

The first shot of the new look Starship Enterprise from the J.J. Abrams Star Trek movie is out (picture above).

If it looks like the old Enterprise, just more modern looking, there is a reason. Abrams told Entertainment Weekly (also image source) that “If you’re going to do Star Trek there are many things you cannot change. The Enterprise is a visual touchstone for so many people. So if you’re going to do the Enterprise, it better look like the Enterprise, because otherwise, what are you doing?”

In related news, 400 lucky journalists got their first look at 4 scenes from the yet to be completed movie, with JJ Abrams and Simon Pegg doing the scene introductions.

DenofGeek offers the best description of what was shown here but warning: serious spoilers in the descriptions.

Star Trek latest: new Enterprise revealed, scene previews shown is a post from: The Inquisitr

It’s still 7 months away from hitting the screens, but the first shots from the forthcoming J.J. Abrams refresh of the Star Trek series have been released.

Single photos have been released to different sites, and there’s some question over who had them first, so a number of them below, with references to the source as much as I can gather, although the links may be incorrect.

Deck shot (MTV)

Untitled (JoBlo)

Spock (AintitCool)

USS Kelvin (TrekMovie)

New Star Trek movie pictures is a post from: The Inquisitr