SNEAK PEEKS - Los Angeles Times
Advertisement

SNEAK PEEKS

Share via

Not all the news from the summer pic front is so upbeat: Reports put “Star Trek V: The Final Frontierâ€--due June 9 from Paramount--back in the editing room following recent test screenings.

A Paramount rep said the film that was screen-tested “was really a work in progress,†and promised “a blockbuster.â€

A test-viewer we talked with reported “a lot of laughter and snickers†throughout a recent screening at the Paramount lot, attended by a recruited audience of more than 200--along with star/director William Shatner, star Leonard Nimoy and producer Harve Bennett.

Advertisement

“There was only a little applause at the end,†said our source. A sequence that “looked real fake†was set in Yosemite National Park. “There’s this little tiny figure shown from a distance--scaling a massive, sheer-drop cliff. Then the camera zooms in real close, and you see it’s Shatner. And he’s sweating, and climbing free hand! No ropes, no nothing! The audience just cracked up.â€

Special effects got mixed marks. Some time warp scenes “are really neat.†But there were also snickers, said our source, for “some real tacky effects,†including one in which the Enterprise “looks like a cardboard cut-out†as it hovers against a planet.

Advertisement