Among the casting of J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek 11, the one I found a little suspect was Karl Urban, who will be playing a (younger) version of Dr. Leonard McCoy, the crotchety medicine man on the Enterprise. Urban seems too old for the role, but then again, I guess McCoy was always the oldest character on the show, wasn’t he? Now Urban has talked about his role on Trek 11 with Sci Fi Wire.

About two months ago, an intriguing rumor surfaced: Paramount is seeking the rights to Frank Herbert’s Dune in order to set up Peter Berg (”The Kingdom”) as a potential franchise director. Well forget rumor — it’s fact. Berg says about the project to MTV that he directing the new Dune franchise is a “done deal”, and that they would be in production now if not for the writer’s strike.

As previously reported, the first of two “Stargate” made-for-DVD movies, “The Ark of Truth”, will be making its DVD bow on March 11, 2008 from MGM Home Entertainment. Now Sci Fi Wire has released more details about the movie, including when it starts, what it’ll be about, and some DVD features.

In case you haven’t heard, Hollywood is remaking a contemporary version of the 1951 sci-fi classic “The Day the Earth Stood Still”. The remake was announced a while back, and would star Keanu Reeves and Jennifer Connelly, and would be directed by Scott Derrickson (”The Exorcism of Emily Rose”). Now Reuters reports that Jon Hamm, of the AMC TV series Mad Men, has joined the cast.

Anyone who is even mildly interested in science fiction has probably heard all the stories about William Shatner acting incredibly desperate to get himself a cameo in J.J. Abrams’ upcoming Trek 11 movie. It’s getting a little sad, actually, but then again, we are talking about William Shatner here, and looking sad hasn’t exactly been something he’s shied away from. Now comes news that, Yes, maybe, Bill as Kirk might happen in Trek 11. Maybe.

I swear, I didn’t start the site to focus entirely on Star Trek 11, and to tell you the truth, the Trek series isn’t even my favorite of the sci-fi universe, but it just so happens that lately we’ve been hearing a lot about Trek 11, including these tidbits about the upcoming film from one of the movie’s writer, Roberto Orci, who says that the character Spock is integral to the story.

Just as J.J. Abrams attached the trailer of his highly-anticipated “Cloverfield” in front of a major geek movie (”Transformers”), he’s now attached the teaser trailer for his upcoming “Star Trek 11″ reboot to “Cloverfield”, which will open everywhere January 18th, 2008. This news was confirmed to MTV, who got the news from “Cloverfield” director Matt Reeves himself.

A while back, the guys over at AICN reported that J.J. Abrams, the writer/director of the upcoming Trek 11, was going to be using the Guardian, the time travel device from the old Star Trek episode “The City on the Edge of Forever”, as the means by which some unsavory Romulans travels into the past to kill Kirk. I think it was also posted on IESB, though who got what first, I don’t know, and I don’t really care right now. Now sci-fi writer Harlan Ellison, who wrote the original episode story, says that isn’t true, and he’s kind of mad about it.

James Cameron’s mammoth undertaking “Avatar” is still a couple of years away from being anywhere near “releasable”, but the Fox studio has already decided to change the film’s release date from the original Memorial Day 2009 to December 18th, 2009, says Variety. For those keeping track of Cameron’s past works, this means “Avatar” will open in the same weekend as Cameron’s last film, 1997’s massive hit “Titanic”.

According to director siblings Colin and Greg Strause, the ending of the upcoming “Aliens vs. Predator 2″ sets up a third installment in the sci-fi franchise. If it does happen, says the Strauses, the battle will be taken to the stars, which would be a good idea because, let’s face it, it’s about time the setting changed a little bit in this series.