Writer’s strike be damned. While the “real” writers were out there protesting, Michael Bay was sitting at home writing the script for “Transformers 2″. Sort of. Bay says he writes all the scripts to his movies, and it’s from that template that the paid writers write the final script from. But never mind that. What does Bay have planned for “Transformers 2″, ass-kicking robot-wise?

I must admit to having a bit of a warped perspective on William Shatner. You see, every now and then I’ll see Shatner show up on my local TV channel doing advertising for a local law firm. Yes, William Shatner is now doing TV commercials for local law firms. Anyhoo. William Shatner apparently doesn’t think too highly of himself, either. Or at least, his acting.

This is news to me, but then again, I don’t really keep up with the Star Wars universe nearly as much as I should, because for me it’s kind of been played out, and I’m not really that interested in heading back to “a galaxy far, far away”. But according to this USA Today story, George Lucas isn’t just releasing “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” as a new TV series, but he’s also releasing it as a feature length movie.

This is strange news. Everyone has expected that Eric Bana’s Romulan villain, Nero, would have a big role in J.J. Abrams’ Trek 11, otherwise why would they cast such a big name for such a small role? But according to Bana himself, his role is only “a cameo”. But, he adds, “It’s a good cameo!” Is he messing with us?

A second trailer for Pixar’s animated “Wall-E” has arrived online, and it fleshes out (no pun intended) the storyline some more. We learn that Wall-E is a robot sent to Earth to clean up the mess humans left behind after we have abandoned the planet entirely; but something happens and Wall-E develops a “personality”, turns out to be very curious. Later, a second robot, Eve, shows up, and Wall-E falls in love. He ends up hitchhiking on her ship as she rockets off Earth and, presumably, that’s where the story continues in the movie.

If you were watching the Superbowl over the weekend, then you might have seen the latest trailer for Pixar’s sure-to-be newest hit, “Wall-E”. It’s the story of a robot who — well, see the trailer for yourself below. Like all Pixar animated movies, kids will love the crap out of this, and adults will get something out of it, too. But really, it’s all for the kids, right?

When you think sci-fi, you normally don’t think “Russians”. There are exceptions — “Solaris” being one. But other than that, I can’t really think of any Russian sci-fi that has broken through onto the International stage. Well that might just change with “Inhabited Island”, a movie based on the 1971 novel by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, and a film that is rumored to be the most expensive Russian film ever made, already scraping the $40 million dollar mark. Some believe it will surpass that by the time it is finally finished.

Zoe Saldana is a gorgeous woman, and the idea that she’ll be playing a younger version of Uhura in J.J. Abrams’ upcoming Trek 11 is pretty good stuff. Via an interview with Black Film, Saldana, who will also be seen in James Cameron’s sci-fi epic “Avatar” in 2009, talks about her role on Trek 11.

Not to be confused with “young adult Kirk”, who will be played by Chris Pine, word from Coming Soon is that J.J. Abrams has cast 11-year old Jimmy Bennett to play an even younger version of James T. Kirk in Trek 11. I guess this means we’ll be delving deeper into Kirk’s past than originally thought. What’s next, a fetus Kirk?

When reviewing something as potentially dangerous (at least from a reviewer’s point of view) as a movie based on a popular novel by a very popular genre author like Jules Verne, it’s best to come right out and say it: I have never read the original novel, and I am not exactly well-versed in the works of Jules Verne. So there you have it, I have exposed my ignorance of the source material, and as such, you should judge my review of the movie version in that light.