Today Star Trek Into Darkness producer/director JJ Abrams invited the press (including TrekMovie) to visit Bad Robot HQ in Santa Monica, CA. While there the media could chat with folks behind and in front of the camera as well as get a closer look at elements of the movie. During the day TrekMovie picked up on a number of new character and story tidbits. Find out what’s new below but beware of spoilers.

For those who aren’t big fans of Star Trek, bear with me. There’s been a lot of fun news about the upcoming film in the last couple of days.

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD

While the movie won’t hit theaters until May, members of the press were treated to a special screening of J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek sequel tonight at Bad Robot.

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During the screening, those fans were proven to be wrong as Eve’s character was revealed to be none other than Carol Marcus, the (future) mother of Kirk’s son David (as revealed in Star Trek II: the Wrath of Khan).

Well that is a little surprising to me. I don’t think it was ever explicitly stated, but certainly implied that Carol Marcus was never in Starfleet. But I guess JJ can do what he wants…

I’m still not convinced this movie is going to be any good. But I’ll definitely see it just for the Johnny Depp entertainment value.

Still, at this point, I’m not expecting to enjoy much else about the film.

Disney wants Alice to return to Wonderland.

Mouse House stalwart Linda Woolverton is penning a sequel to Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland,” the 2010 hit that starred Mia Wasikowska as Alice and Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter. The 3D film went on to earn $1 billion worldwide and scored Oscars for art direction and costume design.

Woolverton has a long history with Disney, having previously written the studio’s “Beauty and the Beast,” “The Lion King,” “Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey,” and “Maleficent,” and contributed to toons “Mulan” and “Aladdin.” Sequel’s plot details are…

Casting for The Amazing Spider-Man sequel has been pretty stellar so far. Shailene Woodley was added as Mary Jane Watson, followed by Jamie Foxx as Electro and Dane DeHaan as Harry Osborn. Now, in an unexpected announcement, Martin Sheen has confirmed that he will return as Peter Parker’s Uncle Ben.

Not surprising given that there will likely be flashbacks, or things of like nature.

I still hate the first Amazing Spider-Man film and was hoping they wouldn’t continue down this road. Sigh.

Tonight I had the honor to be invited to a special preview presentation of the opening 9-minute prologue from Star Trek Into Darkness which will be showing at IMAX 3D screenings of the Hobbit next weekend. A detailed play-by-play will be held until next weekend but I can report on comments from JJ Abrams, share my first impressions of seeing IMAX 3D Trek, and go into a bit of minor spoilers (at end of the article).

If you are a Star Trek nerd as I am, click through and read this right now! Sure does make me wish I was going to see The Hobbit in IMAX. Unfortunately, I’m going with a few…

Forgive me as I indulge myself in some explanation for why we suddenly went silent for over 24 hours. And please, upfront, accept my apologies, we’ll try not to let it happen again.

Nerd Details Follow (feel free to ignore)

If you are geek or nerd, you may want to know what happened. Here is the short version. MovieByte’s server environment has always been somewhat challenging. We are hosted on the same server with several other sites owned by the parent company, Liberty Alliance, which utilizes Varnish cacheing, and load balancing across several actual servers. I’ve never worked with a…

Yes, this is TJ harping on the frame rate thing again. First, a quick quote from an article on Film.com:

Leave it to Peter Jackson to experiment with our ocular health. His latest film, “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” was shot in 48 frames per second, or double the standard going rate of 24 frames per second. The goal is pretty clear; by shooting with these high frame rate 3-D cameras, he hoped to deliver a smoother image to the movie-going public. Did it work? Or did it make people nauseous? Perhaps a little of both, but it certainly raises the question: Exactly how many frames per…

Speaking of interesting looking sci-fi trailers:

Tom Cruise stars in Oblivion, an original and groundbreaking cinematic event from the director of TRON: Legacy and the producer of Rise of the Planet of the Apes. On a spectacular future Earth that has evolved beyond recognition, one man’s confrontation with the past will lead him on a journey of redemption and discovery as he battles to save mankind.