What is Movie News After Dark? It is all about movie news, it happens nightly, and you should never, ever go to bed without it. Should you happen to do so, we’re most likely going to send someone out to teach you a lesson. And you don’t want to learn any hard lessons now, do you? We didn’t think so. We begin tonight with an image that is sweeping the internet. With a little lightening, this new image of Noomi Rapace in Prometheus reveals a pair of Space Jockeys in the background. It’s hard to tell from this angle, but they look rather large and intimidating. It goes along with a quote writer/producer Damon Lindelof gave to Hero Complex: “The movie is definitely epic in its scope. One of the filmmakers that we ended up talking about to a fair degree of redundancy was David Lean, who directed ‘Lawrence of Arabia.’ We wanted to make the movie feel big by having the characters be small in big spaces. That connected to the larger themes we were talking about — that we’re all just these little gnats crawling around on our little planet.”

As pre-production on the J.J. Abrams directed sequel to 2009′s Star Trek intensifies, we are beginning to see some updates from the folks at Paramount. Namely casting rumors about villains, rumors about what villains will appear and a few things about Benicio Del Toro being in, out and everything in between. Tonight brings us reason to forget about all that and celebrate something slightly more official. Benedict Cumberbatch, the star of Steven Moffat’s incredible BBC series Sherlock, Steve Spielberg’s War Horse and soon to be the voice of ‘Smaug the Dragon’ in Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit, has joined returning cast members for the still untitled but very much anticipated Star Trek sequel.

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?

What is Movie News After Dark? It’s out right now. Please leave a message. We begin tonight with some new concept art for The Adventures of Tintin, courtesy of the folks over at Hey U Guys. It’s yet another look at the smooth animation behind this film from Steven Spielberg, who may appear again later in tonight’s edition of Movie News After Dark.

It’s been over a year since the Lost finale, and it doesn’t seem like the outcries have died down yet. “I loved it!” and “It sucked!” are the most popular responses the ending has seemed to gotten. However, when you’re hitting the message boards, you’ll mostly come across the “it sucked” sentiment. Now, J.J. Abrams asks those “it sucked” folks if they can do better: “For years, I had people praising Lost to death, and now they say: ‘I’m so pissed at you for the end of Lost.’ I think a lot of people who were upset with the ending, were just upset that it ended. And I’ve not yet heard the pitch of what the ending should have been. I’ve just heard: ‘That sucked.’”

It was pretty clear from the Prometheus Comic-Con footage that there are more ties to Alien than the film makers are letting on. Whether or not it deals with the Xenomorphs is still up in the air, but the look of the film clearly fits into that universe. Bleak, beautiful, and epic were all adjectives that came to mind while watching the brief footage. This is a pure sci-fi horror film. While it may be PG-13, and I’m betting it will be, that may not matter all that much. As writer Damon Lindelof says below, this is a film that relies heavily on atmosphere. The story also deals with the obvious: playing God. The title alone gives you a big hint as to what the film is about. The tale of Prometheus tells the story of man stealing fire from the Gods. Here, it’s about man searching for answers to questions they probably should not be looking for. Here’s what writer Damon Lindelof had to say about fusing his own sensibilities with Ridley’s, making a hopeful horror movie, and writing distinct women:

After Avengers, Ridley Scott‘s secretive Alien semi-prequel Prometheus is perhaps the most anticipated film of 2012, so when the opportunity arose to listen to screenwriter Damon Lindelof, star Charlize Theron, and director Ridley Scott talk about the film, I punched fellow Reject Jack Giroux in the face, stepped on a Twilight fan, nut-sack bashed a security guard and then patiently waited in line to gain access to the panel. It started off quickly with a production package of Prometheus goodies that I’m going to tell you all about, after you click the Read More button to your right.

What is Movie News After Dark? It’s a nightly movie news and commentary column that is a little disoriented at the moment. But don’t worry, it will find its way. Oh, there’s a few Michael Bay-related stories to talk about. That’s so much better… With the release of Transformers: Dark of the Moon happening this evening at 9pm or midnight or whatever, there’s been a lot of talk about Michael Bay, the most divisive man in cinema (at the moment). Today brought several must-reads, including GQ’s Oral history of Michael Bay exposé, which chronicles the life and times of the man who demands it all to be awesome. I also enjoyed this defense of Michael Bay piece by Jacob Hall at Movies.com. It’s a delightful look at the internal struggle movie-lovers face when confronted with pure, unfiltered awesome.

What is Movie News After Dark? It’s a nightly movie news round-up that finds the darndest things. Like Sacha Baron Cohen’s beard, creepy Musketeer posters, Mark Wahlberg, Simon Pegg, Paul Walker and a way to make your tweets into epic cinematic adventures. You need this and you know it. We begin tonight with Sacha Baron Cohen looking crazytown as The Dictator, his latest mockumentary prank film. Only this time, it’s got a more concise narrative. Cohen will play the dual roles of a ruthless dictator who heads to the U.S. for a meeting at the United Nations and finds that his number two has replaced him with an unsuspecting sheepherder lookalike. The big guy has sort of a Cosmo Kramer meets Mr. T vibe going on, with all the frills of the late Saddam Hussein. That feeling deep in your loins is unbridled excitement. That’s a good thing.

When the rare opportunity to read a truly talented writer’s take on a big budget phenomenon presents itself, you can’t turn it down. When that project is a sequel to Armageddon – arguably the reason why movies were invented – and the writer is Damon Lindelof, you should feel confident doing just about anything to get it. Especially if “just about anything” involves meeting a shadowy figure in the basement of the Umami Burger on Hollywood. It was on that dusky night almost a year ago that a be-cloaked voice handed me the script for Armageddoner and then told me in great detail what the Smoke Monster was. Then, only a month later, Lindelof posted the script himself on the internet for all to see. Naturally, I was hesitant to write anything about it until now. I can’t put my finger on it, but there’s something that makes writing about this particular script now that just feels right. The question isn’t whether it’s good or not. The question is whether it’s the best script or merely the greatest. Here, at least, is what I thought:

Those holding their breath for the Alien prequel to go away, or to pass over without doing much damage to the franchise can breathe easy now. They may even want to use that fresh influx of oxygen to cheer. Deadline Bisbee is reporting that from the bones and ashes of the Alien prequel comes Prometheus, rising like a phoenix who invented fire. Mixed metaphors aside, the universe of Alien is expanding and opening its arms for an original story with original characters. Noomi Rapace is on board to play a scientist named Elizabeth Shaw, and the second major role of Vickers is being battled over by Charlize Theron and Angelina Jolie. So what the hell is it about?

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.

Executives at Fox (and for that matter, Natalie Portman) are in love with a recently completed Alien prequel script by Damon Lindelof. That’s the word on the street. It’s word that should come with some cautionary optimism for Alien fans. The good news is that the tension between director Ridley Scott and the moneybags at Fox may be over thanks to said script. A few weeks ago there were rumblings of a major rift, much of which was driven by the director and studio not seeing eye to eye on issues like budget and rating. Scott wanted to deliver a bigger, harder R version of Alien — it had fans drooling and Fox slamming on the brakes. But according to the latest reports, team Lost Lindelof swooped in at the last minute with a script that makes it all better.

For many fans, closing the book on Lost once and for all has been a difficult task. Not only was it one of the most devoutly followed shows of all time — a series that showed us that the world of television could be delivered in a manner that felt cinematic, but existed over a longer period of time — but it was also one of the most intriguing and divisive shows in recent times. Our most recent memory of the J.J. Abrams championed show is just that — the great divide created by the big finale, dubbed appropriately “The End.” On May 23, 2010, it all came to an end. And with it came the answers to questions, some six years in the making, as well as more questions that have continued to plague the starving masses to this day. None of that hysteria will end with the release of the Complete Collection on Blu-ray. The questions remain. However, this week’s release of Lost in its entirety, complete with delicious goodies, is meant for a celebration. It’s time to look back at Lost from the beginning and celebrate one heck of a journey.

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.

It’s been more than a week since the big finale, and we’re still talking about Lost. I say give it a few weeks and it will be old news. But for now, we’re going to continue on our quest for answers.

ABC has provided us with the full details on the upcoming release of LOST: The Complete Collection on DVD and Blu-ray, which will hit stores on August 24, 2010 right alongside the release of The Complete Sixth and Final Season.

Like all of you, I have my own emotional and intellectual response to the Lost finale: its meaning, its significance, and whether or not it was satisfactory. But since Sunday the Interwebs have run the gamut of all possible responses to the show’s farewell night, so my response to Lost instead is a look at what its run may mean for the future of televisual storytelling.

As if you weren’t confused enough about Lost, Lindelof and Cuse had three alternate endings that will probably blow your mind right out of it’s comfortable little skull bed.

Face it: LOST is over. And whether your eyes are puffy from a night of post-reunion crying or simply one to many Dharma beers, chances are you’re now searching for the meaning behind those last two-and-a-half hours — or at least confirmation that you’re not crazy in your interpretation of them. So whether you loved it or hated it, here’s your Definitive Guide to WTF Just Happened on LOST.