Entertainment Weekly reports that the first nine minutes of Star Trek Into Darkness will be premiering on December 14 in about 500 IMAX 3D theaters worldwide in front of screenings of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.
Star Trek Into Darkness is only the third film to give an IMAX first-look exclusive, with the first two films being The Dark Knight (shown with I Am Legend) and The Dark Knight Rises (with Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol).
The sequel to director J.J. Abrams’ 2009 reimagining of the classic franchise, Star Trek Into Darkness will feature key scenes filmed with IMAX cameras. For moviegoers watching the film in IMAX, Paramount states that “sequences filmed with the extremely high-resolution cameras will expand to fill more of the screen.”
The original cast that crewed the Enterprise in 2009’s film will be returning for the sequel, including Chris Pine as Captain Kirk and Zachary Quinto as Spock.
Added to the cast for Into Darkness is British actor Benedict Cumberbatch as an as-of-yet unnamed villain. Cumberbatch is probably best known for his role as Sherlock Holmes on BBC’s Sherlock.
Other than the cast, crew, and release date (May 17, 2013), not much else is known about the Star Trek sequel.
While films like Iron Man 3 have already gotten a head start on releasing images and trailers, Star Trek Into Darkness hasn’t shown any signs of what the film will have in store for Star Trek fans. Not even a poster or teaser trailer has popped up for the film.
This is characteristic of director J.J. Abrams, who typically likes to keep a lid on his work until the very last minute. In this case, the very last minute may be December 14, when the first nine minutes of the film are screened.
Are you excited about the return of Star Trek to theaters? Will you be picking up IMAX 3D tickets for the 9-minute preview?