Big News from the Land of Wheaton

Wil Wheaton has announced on his blog that he will be a contributing writer for the second volume of STAR TREK: The Manga .
This is big news for us unabashed geeks and Trekkies (or Trekker if you prefer), and commemorates Wil's first foray into the realm of fiction writing.
On his blog, Wil states:

Initially, I was terrified at the prospect of creating and writing this story, but this voice in my head kept saying, "Dude, this would be so cool! Come on, man, let's do this!" Ultimately, I decided that if I'm going to truly call myself a Writer, and if I'm truly going to write that novel someday, I've got to tackle fiction sooner or later . . . and what better way to test myself than with characters and a universe that I already know?

Wil's previous works include Just a Geek and Dancing Barefoot, as well as his Geek in Review collumn. Wil has spoken about his interest in writing a fiction novel in the future.

It's Official! Star Trek XI

Well, folks, it's official. Star Trek XI will begin filming later this year for a Christmas day 2008 release. According to the press release (see above link), J.J. Abrams is going to direct as well as produce the film, so we should be in for a real treat if any of his past successes give us aught with which to judge (Lost, MI:III, Alias, The Office) .


Star Trek XI will be a series re-boots as Batman Begins, and will feature Kirk, Spock and McCoy. Matt Damon is rumoured to have accepted the role of Kirk, which should be awesome. Damon is a fantastic, dynamic actor; I'd be delighted to see him in the Captain's chair of the Enterprise. The rumour mill has also generated Gary Sinise as Doctor Leonard McCoy. I think Sinise is a little old for the part, however, like Damon, is also a fantastic and dynamic actor who would bring nothing but positive traits to the roll of the transporter-hating doctor from Georgia.
Paramount has also released the official teaser poster for Star Trek XI:

Also, for those interested, it's rumoured that J.J. Abrams will be directing the screen adaptation/s of Stephen King's Dark Tower series.

For now, I'll leave you with this...because it's cool.