Last week I alluded to the possibility of a Star Trek/Star Wars crossover given J.J. Abrams will be directing the next film in the “Star Wars” franchise. Well, what more can I say then?

Here I was thinking the twain would never meet, but now I read that Star Trek director J.J. Abrams will be directing the new “Star Wars” movie.

Lucasfilm Chief Kathleen Kennedy has been courting Abrams, one of the most successful directors and producers in Hollywood – and a man beloved by fanboys. He runs one of the industry’s top production companies, Bad Robot, and created or co-created television franchises like “Lost,” “Fringe” and “Alias.” He has also directed film spectacles “Mission: Impossible III,” “Star Trek” and “Super 8.”

Could this be the opportunity for a Star Trek/Star Wars cross-over? Given the turmoil gripping the “Star Wars” galaxy following the demise of the Empire, a Captain Kirk sort of figure could be just what its citizens need…

The US has decided not to consider constructing a Death Star, a move that, needless to say, pleases the Galactic emperor, Palpatine, according to Grand Moff Tarkin:

The overwhelming military superiority of the Galactic Empire has been confirmed once again by the recent announcement by the President of the United States that his nation would not attempt to build a Death Star, despite the bellicose demands of the people of his tiny, aggressive planet. “It is doubtless that such a technological terror in the hands of so primitive a world would be used to upset the peace and sanctity of the citizens of the Galactic Empire,” said Governor Wilhuff Tarkin of the Outer Rim Territories. “Such destructive power can only be wielded to protect and defend by so enlightened a leader as Emperor Palpatine.”

While just a little more time than was really necessary is devoted to Mr Data, this clip showing characters from the early episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG) filming wardrobe and make-up tests is still quite… amusing.

And who else, by the way, thinks Geordi La Forge must have been beamed up to the twenty-fourth century from the 1980s?

HAL, the supercomputer of 2001: A Space Odyssey fame, talks about the making of the film in a reasonably frank interview at Mother Jones.

That’s easy. Trying to learn the dialogue. I was supposed to say this line: “I’ve just picked up a fault in the AE35 unit. It’s going to go 100 percent failure in 72 hours.” I just kept screwing it up: “A3E5 unit,” “A53E unit.” I mixed it up every way you can imagine. Keir Dullea, who was a good friend of mine, was laughing so hard he popped a blood vessel in his eye. Eventually they had to unplug me and let me cool down for a few minutes. When they booted me back up, I nailed the line.

Slit-scan cameras are often used to take panoramic photos, but produce results best described as psychedelic when capturing moving objects.

The technique has also been used to create animations in film and TV shows, with the “stargate” sequence from “2001: A Space Odyssey”, and the often seen scene of the USS Enterprise going into warp drive in “Star Trek: The Next Generation”, making for a couple of examples.

(Above photo by Richard Hagen)

George Lucas has sold his “Star Wars” film franchise to The Walt Disney Company for around four billion dollars. The good news for fans of the popular sci-fi saga? A new batch of films are on the way, with the first set to arrive as early as 2015.

“For the past 35 years, one of my greatest pleasures has been to see Star Wars passed from one generation to the next,” said George Lucas, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Lucasfilm. “It’s now time for me to pass Star Wars on to a new generation of filmmakers. I’ve always believed that Star Wars could live beyond me, and I thought it was important to set up the transition during my lifetime.

I always had the feeling, despite the protestations of Lucas to the contrary, that there would be more films in the “Star Wars” saga. So, will they be sequel films – set in a period following the original trilogy films – or will they explore other aspects of the (sprawling) extended universe?

A number of hard-core, to say nothing of ambitious, “Star Wars” fans have banded together to build a 1:1 scale model of the Millennium Falcon that will resemble Han Solo’s freighter in almost every regard. It’ll be interesting to see if the duplicate craft can also make the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs.

And what’s next after the Millennium Falcon? A fully sized – and operational – model of the Death Star perhaps?

Space elevators may one day become a useful way of transporting people and cargo on and off the planet’s surface, but living in the shadows of these devices may be another matter.

Payload, a short science fiction film directed by Australian writer and director Stuart Willis, is an unsettling, yet riveting, glimpse into a future world where space elevators are commonplace.

Via Australian Infront.

Star Wars Uncut is back and the crowd sourced re-make of The Empire Strikes Back is well under way. Long story short, filmmakers choose a fifteen second scene from the original movie and can recreate it in anyway they wish to. I’m looking forward to seeing the finished product.