"Star Date" - Movie Honors Trekkies

[Takara_Soong 4]

From Scifi.com:

 

Screenwriter Paul Hernandez told SCI FI Wire that he's preparing for his feature-film directorial debut: Star Date, about guys who throw a Star Trek viewing party in order to find like-minded girls, leading to the first Trek conventions. It's based on a true story.

 

In an interview, Hernandez described the opening scene as if making a pitch to a studio executive: "Picture this: In the opening scene it's 1972, and a couple is necking in this car, and this guy is very visibly a nerd, and you wonder what she's doing with him. Then, he notices the time, and he says he has to run home because there's a rerun of a Star Trek episode that he has missed, and he never saw it. Well, she breaks up with him."

 

Hernandez said that the guy then talks to his friends about finding girls who also like watching Star Trek, and they expect about 10 people. "The reality is that they end up getting about 10,000 people involved, and it's the invention of pop culture and results in the first convention," Hernandez said.

 

The Paramount movie will incorporate some original footage of the conventions three decades ago, showing a young William Shatner as Capt. Kirk and Leonard Nimoy as Spock. He's hoping they may be involved somehow in Star Date, too.

 

"I did go to a few of the conventions myself as an 11-year-old kid," Hernandez said. "In 1981 I went to the Shamrock Hotel, but I didn't get dressed up, because I thought that's just too much. saw trailers for Tron and Time Bandits and then [star Trek II:] The Wrath of Khan, and the next day we became Trekkie fans."

 

Hernandez wrote the upcoming movie Sky High with Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley; it opens July 29. Hernandez's first screenplay, Instant Karma, is in production, starring Pierce Brosnan and the voices of Dom DeLuise, Burt Reynolds and Eartha Kitt in a film about a safecracker who is reincarnated as a series of animals.

[HRH The KING 0]

:P :lol: :P

[zipkirk1966 0]

OK when does it come out lol Roddenberry is making Trek Nation can't wait for the to come out. I love both Trekkies and Trekkies 2 I love these kind of movies is shows fandom to the world yes I'm a geek and very proud of it, I don't hide it I tell the world so to me these movies don't make fun but that's just me lol.

 

Brian

[Kor37 9]

Sounds interesting. I remember those early conventions. They were the best! Not like the garbage they have now.

[zipkirk1966 0]

I would have love to have gone to those cons in the past now what cons have you been to that are garbage I know there not what they use to be but I make them as fun as I can but that's just me LOL

 

Brian

[Kor37 9]

I would have love to have gone to those cons in the past now what cons have you been to that are garbage I know there not what they use to be but I make them as fun as I can but that's just me  LOL

Click For Spoiler

I suppose it all depends on why you go to a con. If you go to a con just to buy things, then nothing has changed. There always have been and always will be hucksters at the cons willing to overcharge you.

 

Personally, I have always gone to a con for the guests. I like to hear the guest speak and I like to get their autograph. Back in the good ole days, the guests were very accessible. I remember going to the 2nd Trek convention ever held. It was at the Commodore Hotel in New York City. I ran into Jimmy Doohan just walking through the dealer's room. He signed my con program for me. Nichelle Nichols,Walter Koenig and Majel Barrett all had tables right in the Dealer's room where they would sit for hours talking with fans and signing autographs. If you wanted to see a guest speak, it was first come first served at getting a good seat in the room. The same went for the autograph line. If you were willing to stand in line long enough, you got your autograph. The guests back then also had no problem with posing for pictures with you. I have a whole wall in my basement covered with 8 x 10s of Trek guests posing with me for a picture. At the next con, I would always bring the picture with me and have them autograph it.

I also have fond memories of going jogging with George Takei and having dinner with Walter Koenig. That was the good old days.

 

Now, at TODAY's cons:

 

- Unless you pre-register for the con, you have virtually no chance to hear a guest speak or to get an autograph. If you wish to get a good seat for their speech, you need to buy special ultra-priced tickets. A regular admission tickets puts you in the back of the room. To get an autograph, you have to have bought one of the first 200 or so tickets to the con. If you just show up at the con and buy an admission, forget it. You will never set sight on any of the guests. The guests get picked up and the airport and kept in their rooms until their speech. You will never see any of the guests just walking around. A picture with a guest? Forget it! Even if you purchased the higher eschelon tickets that will permit you to get an autograph, asking a guest to pose for a picture is usually met with an incredulous stare and a call to Security. Some of the Trek guests have even stooped so low as to charge extra for an autograph.

Anyway, thats my rant on today's conventions. I rarely go to one anymore.