star trek

J.J. Abrams likes walking on tightropes. Witness the chances he's taken with TV's 'Lost' and 'Fringe' and the big-screen reimagining of 'Star Trek' (and possibly 'Mission: Impossible IV'). Now the multi-hyphenate wants to take on a book that revolves around tightrope walking, Colum McCann's National Book Award-winning novel 'Let the Great World Spin.'

According to a report in The Hollywood Reporter, Abrams and his Bad Robot production company (which has a deal with Paramount Pictures) is negotiating to grab the rights to McCann's novel, his fifth, which was published in June by Random House. Abrams would produce and McCann would adapt the screenplay.

Considering all that's going on in their respective social circles, you'd never expect that the popular kids from 'Gossip Girl,' '90210,' 'High School Musical' and 'The Twilight Saga: New Moon' could take time out of their busy schedules to bond over the same issue.

However, leading the hottest star cluster to ever hit young Hollywood, 'New Moon' superstars Nikki Reed, Ashley Greene and Kellan Lutz have teamed with 'Gossip Girl's' Leighton Meester, Ed Westwick and Jessica Szohr; Hayden Panettiere of 'Heroes'; 'High School Musical's' Corbin Bleu; 'Star Trek's' John Cho; and Tristan Wilds of '90210,' among many other primetime and box office superstars, to help flight global poverty and AIDS via the "Coming Together as ONE" campaign PSA.

This year gave us some great movies, as well as some fantastic movie trailers.

When you think about it, a trailer has a big job to do. It has to grab us with a few short clips, tell us what the movie's about, and make us want to gallop to the theater and plop down our hard-earned cash for a couple hours of entertainment. Even better if we call our friends on the way home and tell them to go see the movie.

It's a tall order, and not every trailer is up to the task. But the ones who get it right shine big time. Here are our picks for the top ten movie trailers of 2009.

Now that 'Star Trek' has entered the last phase of its first mission (DVD this week, next up TV), it's time to look ahead to the next chapter in the franchise, 'Star Trek 2.'

To celebrate the DVD and Blu-ray release Tuesday of J.J. Abrams' 2009 blockbuster hit, Paramount held a gala party the night before at the Griffith Observatory overlooking a sparkly Los Angeles. Though revelations from the fortress of notorious creative tight-lips -- Abrams, his creative partner and producer Damon Lindelof -- were slow in coming, there were some tips as to where 2012's 'Star Trek 2' may be heading.

Our editors at Inside TV bring us exciting news today, from scene-stealing sidekicks to next year's early Emmys.

-- The Emmys are scheduled to arrive a bit earlier in 2010, airing on August 29 instead of the usual mid-September. Beach bodies on the red carpet sound good to us.

-- What would Johnny Carson be without Ed McMahon? Conan without Andy? Check out our favorite TV sidekicks.

With J.J. Abrams' 'Star Trek' reboot tearing up the DVD charts this week and talks about another entry in the franchise underway, the online rumor mill is hitting warp speed about what the 'Untitled Star Trek Sequel' might be.

Though there's no script and no casting yet, and though Abrams hasn't even committed to directing the film, ComingSoon.net is stoking speculations that the most famous Trek villain -- Khan, forever immortalized by Ricardo Montalban in the 1967 'Star Trek' episode 'Space Seed' and the 1982 feature 'Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan' -- will be reincarnated in the next outing.

So if Abrams does return and Khan is the villain, who would play the chest-baring baddie?

Faran Tahir may not be a household name yet, but the prolific actor can claim the title of Only Actor to Appear in a Top 5 Highest Grossing Film for both 2008 and 2009. As Raza, the leader of the Ten Rings, in 'Iron Man,' the Los Angeles-via-Pakistan actor was the thorn in Robert Downey Jr.'s side (and might be again if rumored plans to include Tahir in a sequel come to fruition.) Switching sides, Tahir played the heroic Captain Robau in J.J. Abram's reboot of 'Star Trek,' in a brief, yet memorable, performance.

Three releases this week explore strange new worlds: From the warp speed of 'Star Trek' to the shape-changing fashion world of 'Bruno' to the world of a priest-turned-vampire in 'Thirst.' Throw in the tearjerker 'My Sister's Keeper' and you have an eclectic slate of movies to watch.

Spock is stretching as no 'Heroes' actor has stretched before ... in a new turn for someone who specializes in aloof and dangerous roles.

Zachary Quinto -- he of the spiky ears of J.J. Abrams' 'Star Trek' -- looks to have lined up his first post-'Star Trek' project, a carefully considered decision after a summer blockbuster that poised the 32-year-old TV actor for a successful film career. Quinto is "loosely attached" to star in the Canadian indie romantic drama-comedy 'Whirligig,' according to a story in The Hollywood Reporter.

In last night's still air, one could hear a faint but constant wail not unlike a tired banshee. Those were Stephen King fanatics mourning the passing of J.J. Abrams' film adaption of 'The Dark Tower.' Early this summer, it seemed Abrams and his partner, Damon Lindelof, were still developing the project. However, the 'Star Trek' director just told MTV News, "'The 'Dark Tower' thing is tricky. It's such an important piece of writing. The truth is that Damon and I are not looking at that right now."