geekosystem

According to Steve Schnier, no one has ever sent a model of the U.S.S. Enterprise into space before. That's not a world he wanted to live in, so he decided to do it himself. On April 28th Schnier and his wife Heather Shaw used a balloon to launch a model of the Enterprise 100,000 feet in the air. That's not quite space, but at just under 19 miles high, it sure makes for a lovely video.

Somebody fired a proton torpedo into the Internet's thermal exhaust port today, because it blew up with the story that Harrison Ford will definitely be returning as Han Solo in Star Wars: Episode VII. The source of the story is El Mayimbe from Latino Review, and he dropped the news on Fox News Latino, but so far there's been no official word from anyone actually in a position to make a definitive statement. Maybe we should all just take a breath here.

In his continued attempts to control everything we love, today J.J. Abrams said he's in talks with Valve co-founder Gabe Newell about bringing Portal and Half-Life to the big screen. These talks are in the very early stages, and a lot can happen to derail the projects, but Abrams has said, "Both a Portal and Half-Life movie are things I want to see." Us too, Mr. Abrams. Us too.

The trailer for Star Trek Into Darkness looked pretty amazing, but it lacked that "homemade" feeling. That's why the folks at Dust Films went ahead and made their own homemade shot-for-shot version. I've got to say, even if this was the real trailer for Star Trek Into Darkness, I'd still probably go see it. I might even want to see this version more. Well done, Dust Films. You can even see a side-by-side comparison of the two trailers after the jump.

There are days when it's just not worth it to get out of bed. Days when the only reasonable thing to do upon waking is hit the snooze button, draw the blankets back over your head, and roll back over into the welcoming arms of sleep. This is not one of those days, folks, as we just woke up to the just released teaser trailer for Star Trek Into Darkness, and if that's not worth waking up for, we don't know what is. So rouse that sleepy head, put on a pot of coffee and check out what you're in store for next summer -- lava lakes, terrified stares, and no shortage of things exploding, all narrated by a guy who sounds way more menacing and intimidating than someone named Benedict Cumberbatch has any right to. Then click replay and watch it again, because seriously, this looks kind of sweet and now that we're actually recalling how good JJ Abrams first foray into the Trek universe was, getting pumped for this one has officially commenced. In all seriousness though -- if you can watch the trailer after the jump without getting out of bed...we recommend that pretty highly.

Hopefully J.J. Abrams' company Bad Robot won't live up to its name when it adapts graphic novel Boilerplate: History’s Mechanical Marvel into a feature film. Unless by "Bad" Robot, we mean super sneaky sinister evil robot that's only pretending to be on our side as he fights alongside Teddy Roosevelt. Yes, that's a thing the robot does, so this is going to be awesome. But wait, the robot did a whole lot more in the wonderful alternate (or is it?) history in which he lived. According to Heat Vision, Boilerplate "purports to tell the story of the world’s first robot, who, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, fought alongside Teddy Roosevelt and Lawrence of Arabia, journeyed to the South Pole and was involved in the silent movie business before disappearing on the battlefields of World War I." Finally, my conspiracy-of-one theory has been proven correct. I knew the South Pole would be impossible to get to without robot assistance.

When we first heard that J.J. Abrams and Joss Whedon were going to be on a panel together, needless to say we were very excited. Well last night it finally happened. And while there was no big announcement of a collaboration (and we knew not to expect one), the panel was a great insight into the creative process these guys have and the geeky bond they share.

According to the Hero Complex blog at the LA Times, a rumor is circulating that Entertainment Weekly is going to sponsor an epic duo of a panel at this year's Comic-Con, uniting two of the greatest creators of nerd media: Joss Whedon and J.J. Abrams. Unfortunately, this rumor doesn't come along with any similar rumors regarding covert partnerships on secret projects, so it's probably just epic for epic's sake.