‘Star Trek’ in Rome, ‘The Watchmen’ and Omega in Everyday Hero headlines

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Today’s edition of Everyday Hero, your handpicked headlines from across the fanboy universe....

When in Rome, do as the Romulans do: Reporter Ariel David of the Associated Press has this report from the Italian capital regarding the new ‘Star Trek’ film: ‘Director and producer J.J. Abrams visited the Eternal City on Friday to give a sneak peek of the early years of Capt. James T. Kirk and the other characters who warp around the galaxy in the upcoming ‘Star Trek’ movie... ‘I want fans of Star Trek to come watch it, but the truth is I made the movie for future fans,’ Abrams said at the presentation in a Rome theater...the preview and four ‘Star Trek’ scenes were strictly controlled, with security keeping out cameras and other recording devices. This much we can say: The brash and womanizing Kirk had a less than glorious start to his career, since the film introduces him as a bar-brawling biker in 23rd-century Iowa. The movie follows the young troublemaker, played by actor Chris Pine, as he meets up with his future crew, getting off to a rocky start with most of them, including Zachary Quinto’s edgy and hostile Spock. The peek given Friday also featured plenty of action sequences, including a hair-raising space dive and a sword duel at high altitude above an alien planet as the crew battle the villains led by Eric Bana. The movie is also likely to enthrall fans with inside jokes, including a scene that pokes fun at the accent of Russian character Chekov, as well as a cameo by Leonard Nimoy, who reprises his original role appearing as an aging, time-traveling Spock.’ {Associated Press, via Yahoo]

‘Watchmen’ on the witness stand?: This upcoming Sunday the Calendar section of the Los Angeles Times is dominated by a huge image of Rorschach -- I have an advance copy here on my desk right now and its startling to see this familiar image by Dave Gibbons printed sooo large. Right above the blank-faced hero is a strip of photographs of just some of the Hollywood players who had a stake in the ‘Watchmen’ property at some point in its long, messy trip to the screen. The accompanying article by John Horn is the most comprehensive explanation to date of the legal issues that entangle the Warner Bros film planned for next March. An excerpt he begins with a quote from director Zack Snyder: ‘ They haven’t stopped us,’ Snyder said in early October, after he had shown dozens of journalists some footage from his film and was asked about the lawsuit. ‘We are just acting like we’re making a movie.’ Even now that the movie is in postproduction and is stirring intense anticipation, ‘Watchmen’ presents other challenges for its distributor. Its R rating will keep out some younger moviegoers who made multiple trips to the PG-13-rated ‘The Dark Knight.’ And it very well may be hard to build a franchise like ‘X-Men’; the ‘Watchmen’ movie has an ending that, like a comic-book version of ‘Titanic,’ hardly encourages a sequel no matter how good the grosses. A prequel certainly could be made but Snyder, a devoted fan of the graphic novel, has called it a terrible idea and vowed to oppose it. As Snyder hurries to finish the film and ‘Watchmen’s’ release date approaches, the Fox and Warners lawyers continue battling over documents, depositions and the film’s script, which Fox says Warners won’t share. It’s unclear if Fox can really prevent Warners from releasing the film. Warners will likely ask [U.S. District Court Judge Gary] Feess to dismiss the case once all the evidence is collected, a motion Fox is certain to oppose. The more likely outcome is Fox studio chief Tom Rothman or Warners’ head Alan Horn striking some sort of compromise deal in which the studios share the movie’s costs and proceeds. But because Warners already is sharing the portion of the film it didn’t sell to Paramount with financing partner Legendary Pictures, the studio doesn’t have that much to divvy up...’ [Los Angeles Times]

The ‘Omega’ force: The crossover between ‘legitimate’ literature and comics continues. David S. Ulin, the books editor of the Los Angeles Times, has a review of the new Marvel collection ‘Omega: The Unknown,’ which has an intriguing pedigree: ‘It’s fitting that ‘Omega: The Unknown’ (Marvel: unpaged, $29.99), Jonathan Lethem’s first foray into comics, should come with a blurb from Michael Chabon. Chabon, after all, is the only other literary novelist I can think of who has made the jump to writing superhero comics -- with ‘The Escapist,’ which grew out of his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel ‘The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay.’ Unlike ‘The Escapist,’ ‘Omega’ isn’t an original creation; it’s based on a little-known Marvel series from the 1970s. (It lasted just 10 issues.) For Lethem, though, ‘Omega’ was influential, helping to inspire his 2003 novel, ‘The Fortress of Solitude.’ He’s a fan, in other words, as is his collaborator Karl Rusnak, and that’s a defining factor in their ‘Omega,’ which also ran for 10 issues, in 2007 and 2008. Gathered for the first time in one volume, it is a strange and wonderful hybrid: a superhero comic that reads with all the ambiguity of fiction, set in the Manhattan neighborhood of Inwood and -- like ‘The Fortress of Solitude’ -- merging the fantastic with the most mundane aspects of teenage urban life.’ [Los Angeles Times]