[Obviously, if you've never seen Lost and are waiting until the entire series is available on DVD, stop reading now]

Let the official countdown begin.  In 74 days, Lost one of TV’s best shows will begin its final season.  Starting with a two-hour season premiere on February 2, 2010 at 9pm E.T., we begin (or hope) to unravel the island’s final mysteries: the smoke monster, time jumping, the statue, the temple, the island’s healing power, why the dead appear to the living, and so many other questions.  It’s all come to this and 74 days seems like an eternity and yet by the time the series finale airs sometime in May 2010, it will feel like it was over too fast.

After its two-hour premiere (which will follow the inevitable yet likely helpful one-hour recap show), Lost will begin airing at its regular time slot of 9-10pm ET on Tuesday nights beginning the following week, February 9th.  So grab your constant, blow the hatch, and get ready for the end.  If you’d like to read the press release ABC sent us, hit the jump:

To promote the release of Star Trek today on DVD, Blu-ray, and digital download, the cast and crew have once again stepped into public to let us know where the U.S.S. Enterprise is heading next.  First, a bit of sad but not totally unexpected news: We probably won’t see Star Trek 2 until 2012.  It is a bit of a bummer considering that we’ve grown accustomed to a breakout hit having its sequel ready in two years time.  The bright side is that they won’t be rushed and can really put their time into making this film better than the first.

Hit the jump for more about the sequel’s villains, timeline, and the tone the filmmakers want to set.

J.J. Abrams finally said no to a project.  Unfortunately, MTV Movies is reporting that project was an adaptation of Stephen King’s wildly popular The Dark Tower series that he and Damon Lindelof were previously attached to.  While Abrams cited his reluctance to delve into a new story immediately after finishing Lost, Lindelof mentioned the difficulty of adapting an immensely popular work.  “Having seen Zack [Snyder] go through what he went through on Watchmen in terms of saying where can I digress from the material, I just get headaches from changing anything,” he said.  Hear that fanboys and fangirls?  Your reputation for intense scrutiny has gotten so bad it’s scaring people away from good projects.  Keep it up and you can kiss that Wheel of Time adaptation goodbye.

“Star Trek” director J.J. Abrams is once again using his producing magic to get another TV series off the ground.  Yes, I know that “What About Brian” and “Six Degrees” were both cancelled, but he’s had some success with the last two projects he helped launch, “Lost” and “Fringe”.  Now he’s going to try to give NBC a dramatic hit they sorely need in their line-up with “Undercovers”.  Hit the jump for details.

I don’t know anything about “Micronauts” and I’ll have to carry that burden with me for the rest of my life.  I turned away from my studies of toy lines from the 70s and now I’m stuck in a dead-end job writing about movies.  The news that J.J. Abrams may produce a movie based on the tiny toys is a cruel reminder of my ignorance about 4-inch high action figures.

In an Wall Street Journal article today about the lucrative business of toy-based movies, there was a brief mention about Abrams being in talks to produce a film based on “Micronauts”, which Hasbro has just acquired.  Oddly enough, “Micronauts”, unlike other properties, does not have its own narrative.  They’re just tiny toys based on the sci-fi/action genre.  Although the toy line ended in 1980, a Marvel Comics began a series about “Micronauts” in a 1979.  There’s a whole article about the comic and its characters which you can read at Wikipedia.  I merely glanced at it for I do not deserve to learn the secrets of the “Micronauts”.  I gave up that dream a long time ago.

Spike TV is airing the 2009 Scream Awards tomorrow night at 10 PM, ET/PT. Since the show was recorded last week in Hollywood, the network has made a few clips available to help promote the ceremony. So if you’d like to see a sneak peak of Johnny Depp honoring Kieth Richards with the Rock Immortal Award, William Shatner accepting The Ultimate Scream award on behalf of JJ Abrams, Stephen Moyer thanking Alan Ball for being a match maker while accepting the award for Best Horror Actor and Jessica Alba presenting Johnny Depp with the scream award for Most Anticipated Fantasy Movie…hit the jump to take a look:

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen earned over $820 million at the box office and become the #1 movie of the year in North America and throughout the world. Star Trek is the eighth-highest-grossing film of 2009 and has become the highest-grossing film in the series.

The writers responsible for both of those films, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman talked about their DVD releases, during a recent press day at the Viceroy Hotel in Santa Monica. The two compared their processes for each of the films, along with their approach to making existing material interesting and new for audiences. They also talked about their history with “Star Trek” and covered a lot of subjects the fans will find interesting. Here’s what they had to say:

This year’s reboot of the Star Trek franchise, under the guidance of director J.J. Abrams, proved that new eyes could make something that has already been around for 10 films, fresh and exciting again. Abrams’ sensational re-invention was hailed by critics and embraced by both long-time fans and newcomers to the Star Trek world. With an exciting cast, including the original Spock himself, Leonard Nimoy, the success of the film left fans highly anticipating its sequel.

While Abrams and writers Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman are busy trying to determine the story for the next Star Trek film, the director took time out to talk about the special features on the upcoming DVD/Blu-Ray release on November 17^th. Here’s what he had to say ……..

J.J. Abrams list of productions grows ever longer.  On top of “Lost,” “Fringe,” the inevitable “Star Trek” sequel and the long-gestating “Cloverfield 2″ and “Mission Impossible 4″ films, Abrams production company, Bad Robot, will also be handling a script from new collaborators Aline Brosh McKenna (”The Devil Wears Prada,” “27 Dresses”) and Simon Kinberg (”Mr. and Mrs. Smith,” “Sherlock Holmes”).  Paramount purchased the script, still untitled, for a sweet $2 million, taking advantage of its first-look deal with Bad Robot.  For more details, hit the jump and begin the year-long secrecy-fueled roller-coaster of anticipation that comes with an Abrams produced film.

A gag reel for director J.J. Abrams “Star Trek” has hit the net. The reel runs over six minutes and features some pretty funny stuff. And a lot of dancing. You’ll see. If you’re not familiar with how a movie gets made, everyone works very long hours. Some days you might be on set for 16 hours with not many breaks. By the end, you’re loopy. I think some of the dancing in this gag reel must have been from some of those days.

But the two highlights of the reel are some shots from the deleted scenes of the movie and also getting to see what it was really like on set. The video is definitely worth watching if you enjoyed the film. “Star Trek” hits DVD and Blu-ray November 17^th,

The phenomenally successful re-imagining of the legendary adventures captured in Star Trek will be coming to DVD and Blu-Ray on November 17^th. Although it is too early to talk about the specifics of the special features and extras that will be included on the 2-disc DVD and 3-disc Blu-Ray, in speaking to members of the press this afternoon at the Viceroy Hotel in Santa Monica, writer/director/producer J.J. Abrams gave some insight into the plans for the forthcoming Star Trek sequel, the possibility of it being done in 3-D and what he sees his involvement with the franchise being, for the foreseeable future. And, with so many other projects on his schedule, the prolific storyteller also touched on Mission: Impossible 4, Fringe and his latest television pilot, just sold to NBC. Hit the jump to read what he said:

I imagine at this point J.J. Abrams could cause a bidding war over a doodle he scribbled in the back of his 8th grade science textbook.  However, Variety reports that as of right now, Abrams has ABC, NBC, and CBS jockeying not for work from his junior high period but a new  TV spec which is an action/adventure spy show.  A kind of “Alias 2.0″, perhaps?  It doesn’t really matter since as a show launcher, Abrams has pushed “Lost” and now “Fringe” into massive genre success even though he isn’t involved on the day-to-day business of either show.  Variety doesn’t mention the depth of Abrams involvement in this new show beyond his spec but I think it’s safe to say that Abrams will keep his attention focused on movies and let another writer/executive producer take on the daily operations.  Of course, the biggest question of all is how many wigs this new spy series will employ.

Few films have ever been as universally well received as J.J. Abrams’ “Star Trek”, a terrific scifi action flick that captured the attention of long time Trekers and at the same time satisfied general audiences with its dazzling effects, charismatic leads, dynamic direction, and tell me warp didn’t kick your ass. So it comes as no surprise that sequel rumblings have started spreading throughout the interwebs. But now, we have solid talk from the filmmakers themselves about what a sequel to the successful series reboot, with director J.J. Abrams and writer Roberto Orci talking about the follow up. Perhaps the most surprising news is some of the directions discussed for the next film, which could involve an exploration of current themes of terrorism and politicized war, according to Orci, saying “We’re trying to keep it as up-to-date and as reflective of what’s going on today as possible. So that’s one thing, to make it reflect the things that we are all dealing with today“. For more from Orci and Abrams, as well as more potential story ideas, gun it to maximum warp and hit the jump.

The new series on the 2008-2009 broadcast network primetime television season left a lot to be desired.  And when I say a lot to be desired, I mean the majority of them were only a couple steps above unmitigated disasters.  There may actually have been more watchable mid-season replacements than new series that started the year (maybe-when talking about numbers this low, it’s tough to tell).  The combination of the Writers Guild strike (which devastated the traditional television development season) with the global economic collapse and the threat of a Screen Actors Guild labor stoppage was too much for the nets to handle, at least in terms of quality.

The one show coming into Fall 2008 that really had my hopes up was Fringe.  Luckily, it did not disappoint.  Considering his fandom among many, I should point out that I am not a J.J. Abrams groupie and that, prior to Fringe, I never watched any of his shows beyond one or two episodes. More after the jump:

A dashing eccentric man with swagger and charm.  A buttoned-down female agent.  Sound familiar?  Let’s face it, it’s a formula that works in science fiction television and Fringe employs it wonderfully.  But can this series fill the void left in our hearts from our long-departed X-Files?  In a word: yes.  More after the jump.

Someone at Paramount must like me. I didn’t have time to see “Star Trek” on IMAX, when it came out May 8, but now I just might. The franchise reboot is getting another run on around 100 IMAX locations this Friday. The reason for the title coming back to the big big screen is pretty simple: it broke IMAX records in May, opening with $8.5 million domestically in its first weekend and continued strong. Unfortunately, it was shelved after only two weeks due to previous commitments with Fox to release “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian.” Most films get a four week theatrical run, and now that the summer season has cooled, “Star Trek” will pick up its remaining weeks. More excitement after the jump.