Can it be? Is it true? Have the stars aligned to ensure that J.J. Abrams is ready to start rolling cameras on Star Trek 2. According to Star Trek Movie, January 15, 2012 is the day that Abrams takes a seat in the director’s chair, tugs his uniform down and calmly says, “Make it so.” Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman and Damon Lindelof are currently polishing a script to fit within the budgetary confines that Paramount has outlined. Apparently Industrial Light and Magic is already working on some of the effects shots that can be done before filming even starts. So it’s finally happening. Now, the only real question is whether it will be ready for its vague 2013 release date. With a full year of production, it seems more than likely. How will you celebrate?

The mere concept of Cowboys & Aliens had potential for summer greatness. This could have been crazy, ambitious, and all kinds of weird. Imagine cowboys getting into shootouts with bug-eyed creatures packing high-tech weaponry. Sounds awesome, right? Only a tad of that awesome made it to the screen, and overall, it’s good. One would think director Jon Favreau would use his clout from two hit films to craft a blockbuster with a little audacity, but he didn’t. Like his other works, this is about as safe as most blockbusters come, and that’s fine, mainly because the director is still miles ahead of most journeyman filmmakers. There’s a clear passion for clean fun in his movies, something many blockbusters lack. Iron Man, Zathura, and Elf are all audience-friendly fare that don’t have a lick of divisiveness, and Cowboys & Aliens fits in comfortably with those films. Faverau is, at the end of the day, a solid popcorn filmmaker. Most of his efficiency behind the camera shines through in Cowboys & Aliens, as do a few of his weaknesses. Here’s a little of that awesome and a bit of the weaknesses. Note: This list does include spoilers.

Every TV season there are a select group of people that really stand out above the rest. People that really push their shows to a place that no one expects. People that take the medium of television and spin it on its head. And that’s why sometimes they need the love that the Emmys just refuse to give. And with that, I bring you The Top 10 TV Big Shots of 2010-2011. Let’s celebrate these creative minds and their teams in no particular order.

What is Movie News After Dark? This is a question that I am almost never asked, but I will answer it for you anyway. Movie News After Dark is FSR’s newest late-night secretion, a column dedicated to all of the news stories that slip past our daytime editorial staff and make it into my curiously chubby RSS ‘flagged’ box. It will (but is not guaranteed to) include relevant movie news, links to insightful commentary and other film-related shenanigans. I may also throw in a link to something TV-related here or there. It will also serve as my place of record for being both charming and sharp-witted, but most likely I will be neither of the two. I write this stuff late at night, what do you expect?

We’ve taken you behind the scenes of Cowboys & Aliens and into the mind of director Jon Favreau, and today we dig deeper into the films that the filmmakers talked most about during the set visit. Cowboys & Aliens may be the only Steven Spielberg film that Steven Spielberg isn’t directing. From the conversations I shared with Jon Favreau and co-screenwriter Bob Orci on the set of the film, a select group of movies kept returning to the fold as titles that had a lot to do with the shaping of tone and storytelling. A theme quickly emerged. While Executive Producer Steven Spielberg was busy inviting the filmmakers to private screenings of new prints of The Searchers, the filmmakers were drawing on their childhood love of Amblin and the films of Spielberg himself. Still, even though it lacks diversity in the directorial column, this is one seriously formidable list of inspirational films.

It feels like only yesterday that the Reject HQ crew was sitting just a few feet from Leonard Nimoy as he flirted with Neil’s mother after a mind-blowing screening of Star Trek – a film that surprised everyone by being better than good. Now, we’re waiting to return to the stars. To go where so many audiences have gone before. Unfortunately, that trip is still a ways off. Fortunately, screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman were nice to enough to give SFX Magazine an interview where they give word on the project – and it might be word that fans of Khan and Klingons might not want to hear.

As the only literate Reject, it’s my duty to find the latest, the greatest and the untouched classics that would make great source material for film adaptations. I read so you don’t have to. This week, Print to Projector presents the story of a library destroyed, a desperate move to secure the hope of the future, and the 99 superheroes that emerge.

With most screenwriters, you normally either mostly enjoy their work or mostly dislike it. With Alex Kurtzman, you probably both love and hate his work with equal amounts of blind passion because he and co-writer Bob Orci wrote almost every single movie that was released in 2009. Hyperbole aside, it looks like Kurtzman has put down the pen in order to pick it back up again while sitting in the director’s chair (because directors use pens, too) for the Dreamworks project Welcome to People – another sign that his relationship with Steven Spielberg is getting stronger. Especially in the face of their collaboration on Cowboys and Aliens. The plot is about a man who is prompted to reach out to an alcoholic sister he never knew about by his late father’s will and a large sum of money. It sounds like gut-wrenching indie fare, but could be wrapped in a large Dreamworks budget.

We’re not sure what Lost and Star Trek producer Damon Lindelof had for breakfast, but his Twitter feed has revealed today that he’s ready to get to work on Star Trek 2. As you know from previous reports, writers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci have been at work on the story, which will eventually become a movie that will hit theaters on June 29, 2012.

Sam Rockwell will be joining the cast of Jon Favreau’s Cowboys and Aliens as a supporting character. This only makes the already excellent cast of this film even more excellent.

Back in October, we told you about the plans of Star Trek scribes Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, who are looking to revive and reboot the 29-years gone CBS show Hawaii Five-o. Now at least, we know who might be saying “Book ‘em, Dano.”

The good folks over at Latino Review have filed an interesting little report this evening, from one of their linguistically confused scoopers. According to the report, Fringe producers and Star Trek scribes Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman have secured the rights to the comic franchise Locke and Key.

What does that mean? I explore a few possible ways it could be different and invite you to do the same.

Reviewing Star Trek on Blu-ray was such an all-encompassing, enjoyable experience, I had to fight to find the right words to describe it. Luckily, about 1600 of them just popped into my head.

Let’s get retro. It’s been 29 years since Hawaii Five-O wrapped for CBS, and that’s 29 years too long.

Oh Zombies. Either they are becoming popular again or no one in Hollywood has any creativity. Or they all collectively get together and decide what fads they want to propel. Luckily, the latest adaptation comes from some cool source material that originated right here! On the internet!

If you’re the writing team of Fringe, how do you follow up that amazing season finale? Come on in, I’ll tell you how…

Could the team that brought up Star Trek be partnering with the team that brought us Iron Man? Downey Jr is already on board and Favreau might just be signing on the dotted line soon enough for aliens in the Old West.

Variety is reporting that Steven Spielberg is “seriously considering” directing a movie about the fictional secret agent known as Matt Helm, created by Donald Hamilton.

When J.J. Abrams stepped onto the red carpet at this year’s Saturn Awards, he had to know that Star Trek questions were coming. Luckily, he has all the answers about a possible sequel.