Not exactly recent news, but for those not in the know: “Heroes” star Zachary Quinto, the man behind Sylar, has been cast as the new Spock in J.J. Abrams’ new Star Trek flick.

Now SciFi.com has a video interview with the man who would be a Vulcan, where he reveals he’s been working with Leonard Nimoy to understand the mind (and heart?) of this classic character.

He certainly looks the part, doesn’t he? Especially the nose. They did everything they could in Heroes to make him look like Clark Kent, juxtaposing his Sylar’s boogeyman nature. But forget all that; what about the fact that one of Hiro’s heroes is being portrayed by the big Heroes villain?

Do you like this choice? Who could possibly fill the Starfleet-issue boots of the other two “big” roles? Let us know what you think! I agree with Zac (our Zac, that is) that Gary Sinise would make a great Leonard McCoy.

June 16th is Captain Picard Day. Be sure to remember the great Jean-Luc Picard on this very important day.

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Minimate HQ reports that DST revealed the line up for the second wave of classic Star Trek minimates.

The line up is as follows:

• Battle Damaged Kirk and Gorn
• Mr. Spock (The Cage) & Uhura
• Sulu and Chekov
• Swashbuckling Sulu (Chase)

I have to say that Swashbuckling Sulu is ridiculously awesome.

On this past Saturday, April 28th, James “Scotty” Doohan’s cremated remains were blasted into suborbital space aboard a rocket launched from the New Mexico desert, along with Apollo 7 astronaut Gordon Cooper, and the remains of several other people who weren’t nearly as important. Doohan actually died back in July of 2005, and follows in the post-mortem footsteps of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, whose remains were also shot into space in 1997.

And so, Scotty has been beamed up for the very last time in this grand finale. More can be read here.

All I can say is, “Damn, that’s how I want to go”. Just, not with 200 other people crammed in there with me.

Star Trek: The Original Series has gotten the minimate treatment and now some pictures have finally surfaced. Play.com (UK) has all three sets plus the variant figure listed separately for sale. Availability begins 2007.07.25. The break down is as follows:

• Kirk and Spock
• Mr. Scott and Dr. McCoy
• Captain Pike and Orion Slave Girl
• Dress Uniform Dr. McCoy (chase)

I have mirrored the images below. Be sure to check out Spock sporting a remolded hand and naturally the Orion Slave Girl. I encourage more Star Trek figures of this in any Star Trek line since there was effectively an equivalent to the Orion Slave Girl in nearly every episode, much like the poor Red Shirts.

  

News via Minimates HQ.

Today’s the big finish for WonderCon, and the upcoming animated DVDs from DC were the highlight of the day. Read on, OR ELSE…

DC:

• Superman/Doomsday is due to release on September 18th, 2007. Superman will be voiced by Adam Baldwin, Lois Lane gets Anne Heche, and Lex Luthor is James Marsters.
• The next film to be released will be DC: New Frontier.
• The third animated feature they’re working on – Teen Titans: The Judas Contract – is in pre-production, and will have a different animation style from the recent Teen Titans cartoon. They’ll also stick more tightly to the comic, to differentiate themselves from the similar arc on the series.
• Each movie will have its own ‘pocket’ continuity, where they’re not beholden to each other, or to the previous cartoons. Also, the movies will have more freedom in what they can do (read: they’re going to corrupt our youth with violence), as they aren’t made specifically for TV.
• The DVDs should have a decent amount of special features, like behind-the-scenes featurettes and other extras and games.
• After these three, they’re looking to do films for Aquaman, Wonder Woman, and Catwoman in the future. (The OTHER Big 3 of DC, right?) Bruce Timm’s wishlist for the future includes: The Question, Jonah Hex, New Gods, Kamandi, and Challengers of the Unknown.

IDW:

• For Transformers books, we have an upcoming Spotlight on Kup and one for Galvatron, a Megatron Origin mini, and two “Best Of” books – one for Don Figueroa and one for Simon Furman.
• There will be a Star Trek: Original Series mini which will have two versions of each issue – one in English, one in Klingon. And I was just wondering what could be nerdier than merely mating Star Trek and comics…

GROO THE WANDERER:

• Like we said yesterday, the prognosis on the Groo/Conan crossover looking good.
• Also, Mark Evanier has completed a script for the “Groo the Wanderer” movie, and Sergio Aragonés has completed some art, but at the moment it’s still tied up in negotiations.

JJ Abrams, mastermind of the WB classic “Felicity,” is officially on board for the next Star Trek movie as director, and Paramount has announced that it will shoot this fall for a Christmas Day 2008 release. Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman (Alias, The Island, Transformers) will write the screenplay. You can see the full press release here.

So thats the official line. What of the rumor mill? Cinematical has some reports on casting that sound kind of… suspect. When the word first went around of a series reboot, we heard stuff like Kirk & Spock in the Academy and young Star Trek. A prequel, like Muppet Babies. Now some names are flying around and depending on who you ask, they’re close to signing or already cast. But some of these actors are a bit older, so maybe the prequel thing is out the window. So who is who?

• Matt Damon as James T Kirk. I just watched The Departed last night looking for Kirk and I think he can do it. Damon is one of the best, and the only thing he’ll do that Shatner didn’t is give a performance without camp.
• Adrien Brody as Mister Spock. Another great actor, an Academy Award winner at that. The hardest part about Vulcans is taking them seriously with those ears, especially for someone so well known already.
• Danel Dae Kim as Hikaru Sulu. He’s best known as Jin Kwon on LOST, but also has some experience on Trek. He played Corporal Chang in 3 episodes of Enterprise!
• Gary Sinise as Dr Leonard McCoy. I can think of few others more suited toward the role as the incredulous ship’s doctor. He comes on board much older than the rest of the crew, and certainly older than Deforest Kelly in the original series.

It remains to be seen how this will pan out, but Star Trek definitely needs some help now or this franchise will die.

I’ve never considered myself a Trekkie, only because a Trekkie would chuckle at my lack of basic knowledge of Starfleet. I am a casual fan though, and so I’m able to quite enjoy former Star Trek: The Next Generation star Wil Wheaton’s look back at the show.

Wheaton’s talks enthusiastically about his part on the show as an actor and also as a fan of Star Trek. He’s also pretty frank about being disliked by Trekkies, and slyly points out how corny the macguffins in the ST:TNG were.

Read on for Wil’s thoughts on Fairpoint, Ferengi, and sexy time on the Tsiolkovsky.