It’s hard to watch Star Trek Into Darkness and not think about Star Wars. Yes, J.J. Abrams is directing Episode VII and so we have that knowledge on the brain going into this. Maybe we’re even on the lookout for clues hinting at what we should expect from his take on that galaxy. This isn’t the first time the Trek franchise has had to try and prove itself in the shadow of George Lucas’s own series. Even though it originated with a TV show in the 1960s, Trek‘s cinematic resurrection a decade later was in part allowed by and somewhat influenced by the success and quality of the first Star Wars. But even regardless of the fact that Abrams is following the latest Trek with the next Wars, I often otherwise felt like I was watching one of the latter while sitting through Into Darkness. Before getting into the evidence that Abrams is a clear fan of Lucasfilm works (and not just Star Wars) and likes to sample from them, let’s take a moment to think about what all his call back references and allusions to both Wars and Trek might mean for Episode VII. Will there be too much winking and fan-service, unhidden Easter eggs and inside jokes and maybe even outright recycling the way Into Darkness is with certain prior Trek installments? Could Episode VII have a number of allusions to Trek the way Into Darkness pays obvious homage to Wars? Rather than creating new worlds of his

Happy Star Wars Day. To celebrate this year’s May the 4th, we want to drown you in imagery from the whole first trilogy. And not just screen shots from the movie but behind the scenes production photos and concept art. Someone chose and compiled 1,138 pictures (you ought to know the significance of that number) for a gallery at IMGUR specifically for today’s occasion, and yes the usual fanboy favorites involve Princess Leia. In addition to the one above, there’s plenty of the slave outfit and, as pointed out on Reddit, apparently a formal moment (the premiere?) where you can see Carrie Fisher‘s nipple. Yeah, there’s truth to the idea that fanboys are 13 years old forever. Personally, I mostly cherish the pics that expose some of the magic of the costume and special effects but which highlight the craft and mastery of these practical elements of the making of A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. It’s the stuff that makes the joke about this being a behind the scenes photo from the production of The Phantom Menace all the more hilarious (and sad). I’ve posted a few of my favorites after the jump — and sure, I’ll include a sunbathing slave Leia in there. I never said I wasn’t among those young-at-heart (and hormone) fans.

During the production of 2008′s Star Trek, director J.J. Abrams was quite determined to keep as much information about the film from the public as possible. This included tactics on set such as putting actors under blankets to hide their costumes, additional security on set and limiting (until the last moment) how much information was distributed to the press. He loves this game, as evidence by the even more secretive Cloverfield project and his extensive talk about his mystery box. He enjoys the fun of not knowing everything that’s going to happen next. As a longtime Star Trek fan, I found myself alright with his stance. Even though knowing a great deal about the film would fulfill some part of my devilish curiosity, the moments of discovery that occurred during that fateful first screening of Star Trek in 2008 were more than worth the wait. In that case — as it has many times — J.J. Abrams’ mystery machine worked. So now that he’s signed on to bring Star Wars back to life for new owner Disney, will Abrams toy with Wars fans as he did his Trekker brethren? And would you want him to play things close to the chest? This is the subject of this weekend’s big discussion.

Did you think that the summer blockbuster movie season was full enough already? Not sure you could handle another major release? Had your fill of superheroes and sci-fi and comic books? Too bad. While we’ve long known that the upcoming Star Wars: Episode VII installment would likely hit in the summer of 2015, news at Cinema Con reveals that Walt Disney Pictures and Lucasfilm are just going whole hog on the entire thing and taking over summers with new Star Wars for the foreseeable future. Both ComingSoon and FirstShowing report that Episode VII will indeed hit theaters sometime in the summer of 2015, and that it will be followed every summer thereafter by a new Star Wars film, with the new traditional Star Wars eps alternating with those standalone character-centric films we’ve all been chattering about. While we know that we’re getting a new trilogy, we’re still not sure of how many standalone films we’re going to be getting, so it’s probably best just to block off your summers for the next decade or so. You weren’t busy, right?

Welcome to another edition of the Reject Recap, where we highlight the past week’s best news and original features from this very movie site and others around the web. It really wasn’t a huge week for stories out of Hollywood and the rest of the industry. Some of the biggest things involved sci-fi movie casting and trailers and the reminder of a remake nobody sees as necessary. In addition to the ten posts curated for your attention, we also share two goofy mash-up videos for your enjoyment this weekend. Start your weekend right after the jump.

On this evening’s edition of Movie News After Dark, we take a closer look at Tom Cruise’s ride in Oblivion, get up close and personal with Silent Ben Affleck, see what Russ Meyer’s Star Wars universe might look like and get down and dirty with the Internet’s finest movie-related accomplishment: the Supercut.

Not a whole lot happened this week of monumental notice. Though some specific careers may have been seriously altered and some new film trends could be in the making, there was nothing that aims to revolutionize the whole industry as we saw last week. That’s why this week’s Reject Recap is a bit more populated with lists than usual (there are also more videos, but they’re not among the ten). But they’re mighty fine lists that will have you thinking and discussing and debating. And not just our own, of course. As usual, we also looked outside the FSR borders for great film-related (and sometimes TV-related) pieces elsewhere. If you see something you think should be included in the Recap, please email me.  In addition to catching up with us and the other movie blogs here, be sure to check out the continued outpouring of great SXSW coverage we’ve been posting even as the film fest itself is over. Oh, and I highly recommend this week’s brilliantly spot-on Film Jockeys strip on “The Life Cycle of a Film Fan,” which should hit close to home for many of you. Now without further ado… Start your weekend right after the jump.

Tonight in the wide world of entertainment news, we’ve gone down the rabbit hole of nerd pleasures. From a wedding officiated by Patrick Stewart to Hugh Jackman’s hands to Brad Bird inserting curse words into Star Wars to our undisputed queen of nerdom, Anna Kendrick, it’s all about the love in Movie News After Dark.

Anything happen this week to revolutionize the film industry? What, you don’t know? You must need the Reject Recap, our weekly rundown of the best and most important news and features any movie fan must read. Yeah, most of it is our own content, but we also look outside the FSR borders for great film-related (and sometimes TV-related) pieces elsewhere. If you see something you think should be included in the Recap, please email me.  Over the past seven days, in spite of a major film festival going on (well, maybe because of this), a lot of very interesting things happened or came out. The Internet continued to alter the business of cinema and we heard about long-awaited sequels to ’90s movies. Obligatorily, we also thought more about the next Star Wars movie. And once again we include a few must-watch videos. So, in honor of what’s gone on this week, put on David Bowie’s “Changes,” sit back and play catch up with us. (Kick)Start your weekend right after the jump.

There are two reasons a movie might re-use a prop: because they have to or because they want to. Sometimes you love a movie so much you want to use or recreate a piece of it to show that love, or – if your budget is in the dumps – you just need something from the prop warehouse to re-paint and use as your own. Whatever the case, iconic is iconic, so if you are watching close enough you just might catch these one-of-a-kind props in films you wouldn’t expect them to be in.

As we all know, the new Star Wars franchise is going to need Billy Dee Williams. Without him, the movies will be at least 12% less cool. The good news is that the production knows that. The bad news is that it might not be a possibility. According to Film Buff, the actor was asked about returning as Lando Calrissian for the new series while attending the Monster Mania Convention, and the response was non-committal. Apparently Williams has been asked to come back but hasn’t decided whether he’ll do so or not. Like the site wisely points out, his potential pass may have more to do with his age (a timeless 76) than his desire to wear a baby blue cloak again. No matter the reason, it looks like Episode VII may have to suffer through being 12% less charming, but here’s hoping that Williams is willing and able to, at the very least, roll through in cameo capacity. Or that hologram technology gets good enough to put him on film without the actor ever having to visit the set.

If you’re starting to look at pieces of Star Trek Into Darkness just to imagine what J.J. Abrams‘s Star Wars movie will look like, the second trailer for the upcoming sequel is perfect for you. There’s a scene in which Kirk (Chris Pine) and Spock (Zachary Quinto) are in a small ship being chased around what looks like a trench on the surface of the Death Star, and they squeeze through a tight spot reminiscent of when the Millenium Falcon eludes two TIE Fighters on a large asteroid in The Empire Strikes Back. Also, the Enterprise crew appears to venture underwater… Maybe they’re looking to recruit Jar Jar Binks?

According to MarketSaw (via Celluloid and Cigarette Burns, who makes a case for the site’s track record of being right), Alfonso Cuaron is in the mix and could be the preferred candidate to direct Star Wars Episode VIII or IX or both. Obviously, this would be awesome. And it would be awesome for the exact two reasons that Cuaron is a viable candidate in the first place. He’s a director with intense cult appeal, geekily built from a talent that blisters eyeballs and bruises jaws. He’s had experience working successfully with a massive franchise aimed at the young and young at heart. But beyond Children of Men and his Harry Potter entry, we’ll get to see Gravity in October (which means we’re getting more Emmanuel Lubezki work too!), where Cuaron goes to space. So you can add that interstellar aspect to the list above. Obviously this isn’t wholly confirmed yet, and probably won’t be for a long time, but the thought of it is huge and perfect. Hopefully it turns out to be true.

Traditionally, February is known as Blaxploitation History Month here at Junkfood Cinema. Of course, “traditionally” a “decent person” “puts on pants before leaving the house” and “doesn’t touch communal buffet food with his bare feet,” so we are far from averse to bucking tradition. To wit, you might call today’s Blaxploitation History Month entry more of an investigation of blaxploitation alternate history. One of the most interesting facets of this short-lived subgenre of film is how it appropriated, and left its unmistakable mark on, several existing popular films and styles of film. We therefore had blaxploitation Westerns, blaxploitation horror, blaxploitation spy films, and even blaxploitation versions of movies like The Defiant Ones, courtesy of a young Jonathan Demme, and…the Warren Beatty comedy Shampoo, courtesy of what I have to assume was a dare. But what about sci-fi? Apart from an exceedingly small smattering of titles, one of which is about a white man and a black man whose heads are sewn onto the same body (so, there’s that), blaxploitation did not venture into sci-fi territory. This is likely because blaxploitation films often operated on very limited means, and science-fiction tends to necessitate a larger budget than, say, a crime story. That’s not to say shoestring-budget sci-fi isn’t obtainable, but it may have been the concern over the potential production price tag that kept filmmakers in this subgenre from attempting the blaxploitation/science-fiction mash-up. This, unfortunately, deprived us all of what should have been the greatest cinematic accomplishment of the 20th century:

According to Latino Review, Harrison Ford is returning as Han Solo in the upcoming Star Wars movies. The details are fuzzy beyond that core casting news, so it’s unclear to what extent the film (or films) will utilize him. Ford will turn 71 this year, but he’s obviously not retiring from the business any time soon; he’s appearing in as many as three movies that will see release in 2013, including 42, Paranoia and Ender’s Game. Maybe the last one gave him a renewed love for space-set sci-fi that made agreeing to play Solo again possible. It’s clear that the guy doesn’t take jobs he doesn’t have to, and the last time I interviewed him, he laughed at the suggestion that taking roles (including the re-up of Indiana Jones) had anything to do with a sense of nostalgia or longing for the past. The point? If he’s really in for the new Star Wars films, he’s in it for his own reasons and on his own terms. Screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan has already claimed that Episode VIII and Episode IX will start from a clean slate, but it’s definitely possible that Episode VII could include the history of Solo as detailed in the novelizations in the 1990s where Solo marries Princess Leia, and the couple has three children that set in motion massive changes to the universe. At this point, everything on that end is speculation, but as for Ford returning, it’s difficult to see how it could be seen as a bad idea. Put it this way: we live in

There is a lot of Star Wars material to work with. George Lucas originally had a few thoughts on where Episodes VII – IX should go, there are countless novel adaptations and comic books, and if you culled the collective amount of fan advice, there would be enough storylines for a thousand more movies. Screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan probably knows that better than most, but as the scribe has signed on to write one of the new sequel entries, he told the LA Times that his plan was to start from scratch. “I’m trying to start fresh,” he said. “There are certain pleasures that we think the saga can bring to people that they’ve been missing, and we’re hoping to bring them that, and at the same time, have them feel that it’s all new.”

  “Movie Houses of Worship” is a regular feature spotlighting our favorite movie theaters around the world, those that are like temples of cinema catering to the most religious-like film geeks. This week, film critic Marina Antunes highlights one of her favorite theaters. Her comments are those quoted. If you’d like to suggest or submit a place you regularly worship at the altar of cinema, please email our weekend editor. Vancity Theatre Location: 1181 Seymour Street, Vancouver, BC Canada Opened: September 2005, in time for that year’s Vancouver International Film Festival. The theater is part of the Vancouver International Film Centre, which is home to the fest, and the fest is the theater’s non-profit parent organization. No. of screens: 1

If those of you in the Northeast U.S. are looking for stuff to do this weekend while stuck inside, why not get caught up with the latest Reject Recap? The rest of you around the world, just pretend you’re also snowed in and do the same. It was a crazy week of rumors and rumors and rumors and I think there was actually an official news release in there somewhere. Between Star Wars, the Avengers franchise, the possible Justice League franchise, the Amazing Spider-Man franchise and — okay, anything that’s trying to steal the Avengers model — the Internet is in a blizzard of its own, that of buzz and speculation, which won’t stop for at least a few years. We can’t even cover it all here, so the Recap is not just a place for our own best stories; we’ve got links to other sites, too. Now, check out the biggest and best stories and original content from the past week, from FSR and our friends around the web:

Sometimes production houses float news to the public to see what their reaction is going to be. It may surprise you, or it might seem obvious, but you have a deep breadth of power just by having an opinion and offering it. It’s impossible to tell whether this kind of widespread focus group is what Disney intended with this recent spate of news and rumors, but there’s no doubt that the production team is listening to what fans are saying. And so are we. We want to know who you think deserves their own stand alone movie outside the next trilogy. Yoda, Han Solo and Boba Fett have all been floated as possibles, so hypothetically, if only one of them gets the treatment, who would you pick?

There were far too many news stories about Star Wars this week. It was a shock and awe campaign of rumors, half-truths and legitimate plans that all pointed to Disney making 29 new films featuring all our favorite characters for the next seventy years. To help dig through it all, Full of Sith podcast host Consetta Parker and Jovial Jay from TheForce.net join us to explain whether a movie about Yoda, Boba Fett or Han Solo should shoot first. Plus, Identity Thief screenwriter Craig Mazin explains how to make an uninteresting character interesting, and Geoff and I tackle a listener question about overcoming the fears of rejection and imperfection by talking about our own biggest failures. Download Episode #5