In the flurry of chaotic renewal and cancellation news, Fox has released its new primetime schedule that includes seven new series among its many renewals (including five nights of Gordon Ramsay! … Almost).  The broadcast network is premiering J.J. Abrams’s sci-fi police drama Almost Human on Monday nights in late fall, along with with Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci’s fantasy series Sleepy Hollow in the second time slot in early fall (with encores on Friday nights) before The Following returns (why oh why).  Tuesday remains a comedy night, with the addition of Dads and the Andy Samberg comedy Brooklyn Nine-Nine.  Hit the jump for the full new line-up and schedule, and look for images and videos from the new series coming later today.

Back in December, we saw Star Trek Into Darkness‘ villain “John Harrison” (Benedict Cumberbatch) inside a glass prison (or more likely, a forcefield; larger point: no bars) being interrogated by the film’s heroes.  Today, new images from the film have been released, and we see our villain being flanked by security guards.  Last year, audiences learned an important lesson: if your villain gets captured, it was probably part of his plan.  Presumably, “John Harrison” is planning to have Scotty go Hulk and destroy everything.

Hit the jump to check out the images.  The film also stars Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, Anton Yelchin, Zoe Saldana, John Cho, Simon Pegg, Peter Weller, Noel Clarke, and Alice Eve.  Star Trek Into Darkness opens in IMAX 3D on May 15th, and 2D and 3D on May 17th.

All good things must come to an end and so it is with FOX’s spectacular sci-fi series, Fringe, which will conclude its fifth and final season in a two-hour finale on Friday, January 18th starting at 8PM ET/PT.  Created by J.J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, Fringe was an X-Files for a new generation, as it followed a team of specialized investigators into all things paranormal and supernatural.  Though it’s struggled with ratings throughout the years, the show’s smart writing, impressive cast and dark humor have earned Fringe a rabid fan base, one that sadly will not get to see the cast and crew return to Comic-Con any longer.

Starring Anna Torv, Joshua Jackson, John Noble, Lance Reddick, Jasika Nicole and Blair Brown, the two-hour series finale of Fringe will also celebrate its 100th episode.  Your guess is as good as mine as to what the final episode code word will be.  Hit the jump for the full press release. 

Early reports have director Rupert Sanders (Snow White and the Huntsman) circling the Van Helsing reboot that stars Tom Cruise and is being produced by Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci.  Sanders and Universal apparently have mutual interest in maintaining their working relationship.  While the feature debut of Sanders brought modest box office success, the film was eventually overshadowed by the rumored affair between the director and star Kristen Stewart.  Cruise is currently filming All You Need is Kill and there is a good chance that Van Helsing will be his next project.  In other words, Universal needs to lock down a director soon. Can Sanders resurrect Van Helsing? Hit the jump for more.

The critically acclaimed and fan-favorite sci-fi drama series Fringe is back for a fifth and final 13-episode season. Promising to deliver a climactic and satisfying conclusion, things will pick up in 2036, when the Observers have become ruthless rulers who will reign supreme. Now, the Fringe team will make a final stand, bringing together all that they have witnessed, in order to battle and protect the world.

During this recent interview to promote the show’s return, showrunner/writer/executive producer J.H. Wyman talked about when they decided to set the final season in the future, where Peter (Joshua Jackson) and Olivia’s (Anna Torv) journey will go and how Walter (John Noble) has changed now, how he’s learned to constrain his ideas with a TV show budget, his reticence in changing the show so dramatically for the final season, what has changed most from the original plan, the major challenges they faced in bringing everything to a satisfying conclusion, whether there was always an intention to make the Observers the bad guys, and what he will take away from his experience on Fringe.  Check out what he had to say after the jump, but be are that there are some spoilers.

The Spider-Man reboot The Amazing Spider-Man was a sizeable hit this summer at the box office, but the film was surrounded by an air of production troubles.  The film was only director Marc Webb’s second feature, and was a huge step up from his swell but small-scale debut (500) Days of Summer.  A fair amount of reshoots took place, and when the film hit theaters we saw that much of the footage from the film’s marketing (including the entire “Untold Story” storyline) had been removed from the finished pic.

Sony hired Transformers and Star Trek scribes Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci to rewrite the script for a sequel before the first film came out, but Webb’s involvement in the follow-up was less clear.  Though many assumed another director would be brought in to helm a more commercial (ie. action-centric) sequel, it now looks like Webb is coming back after all with his leads in tow.  Hit the jump for more.

Things are moving rather quickly on Universal’s reboot of The Mummy.  It was announced back in May that Star Trek screenwriters/prolific producers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman would be developing reboots of both The Mummy and Van Helsing, with Tom Cruise attached to star in the latter.  In subsequent interviews Kurtzman hinted at approaching the reboots with a darker tone than their original counterparts, and sure enough, Underworld and Total Recall director Len Wiseman is now being lined up to take the helm of The Mummy.

Hit the jump for more, including Wiseman’s thoughts on the monster redo.

Just a few short days ago, Chris Pine talked briefly about his experience on Star Trek 2, saying the film would keep its comedic elements, but the crew of the Starship Enterprise would face an even greater threat.  Now, co-star Zachary Quinto has a few words of his own to share on the J.J. Abrams’ sequel, calling it “bigger and bolder.”  Quinto had much more than that to say, and you can read it after the jump.

Star Trek 2, also starring Karl Urban, Anton Yelchin, John Cho, Simon Pegg, Zoe Saldana, Alice Eve and Benedict Cumberbatch opens May 17th, 2013. 

While Chris Pine is currently shooting Jack Ryan in downtown Manhattan (you can see images of him and Kevin Costner here), he recently spoke out about the tone of Star Trek 2.  Specifically, Pine was quick to mention that the J.J. Abrams sequel doesn’t follow the rules set down by Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, which says a follow-up film should be “like the original, only darker.”  As the first Star Trek had its lighter moments (Pine’s Kirk having an allergic reaction and being repeatedly injected by Bones), the sequel appears to keep the comedic element amidst a greater threat to Starfleet.

Also starring Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, Anton Yelchin, Zoe Saldana, John Cho, Simon Pegg, Alice Eve and Benedict Cumberbatch, Star Trek 2 opens May 17th, 2013.  Hit the jump to read what Pine had to say.

The ever-busy Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci have added yet another project to their development slate.  Heat Vision reports that Kurtzman and Orci have signed on to produce an adaptation of the fantasy adventure book series Dragonology.  Instead of reading like novels, the books are presented as long-lost works written by Dr. Ernest Drake in the 19th century.  The central concept of the film is that dragons actually exist, and a team of dragonologists “embark on the quest to avert a plot to use the world’s remaining dragons to wipe out humanity.”  Leonard Hartman wrote the initial draft of the script, but he’s now been moved to an executive producer role as Kurtzman and Orci look for a new writer to tackle the adaptation.

Following the initial book, subsequent entries in the Dragonology series centered on the anatomy of certain dragons, how to summon dragons, and learning the secrets of dragons.  Kurtzman and Orci recently signed a deal with Universal to develop and produce reboots of Van Helsing and The Mummy, and they’re also writing and producing the Amazing Spider-Man sequel.  Hit the jump to read a synopsis for Dragonology.

A Legend of Sleepy Hollow series is in the works for the 2012 pitch season.  The project will be written by Transformers scribes (it had writers?) Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, who are adapting it from a Phillip Iscove script.  Len Wiseman (Underworld) is set to direct.  The trio also worked together on the Hawaii Five-0 pilot.

The project is reportedly being shopped to Fox, CBS, ABC and NBC.  Given the recent popularity of reworking fairy tales and mystery stories, Sleepy Hollow shouldn’t have trouble finding a home.  But it may need to add some zombies, werewolves and/or aliens to really look attractive.  Ichabod Crane: Vampire Hunter has a nice ring to it, don’t you think? For more on the project, hit the jump. 

This weekend I find myself deep in the heart of Louisville, KY for Fandomfest Louisville 2012. Part Comic-Con, part pop culture celebration, and part horror film festival, a few guests of note include Bruce Campbell, Sean Astin, Tyler Mane, and slasher icon Kane Hodder. While each of these attendees has a special place in my pop culture heart in one way or another, my mission today is to track down former WCW star Diamond Dallas Page. 10 year-old me loved nothing more than watching DDP and co. weekly on WCW Monday Nitro, and today may be the only opportunity I get to share that joy with someone who was an integral part of it.

All wrestling memories aside, awaiting you on the other side of this week’s Top 5 is a brief recap and link to our Magic Mike interviews with Channing Tatum, Steven Soderbergh and more, the new international and domestic trailers for Rian Johnson‘s Looper, Steve’s People Like Us video interviews with Chris Pine, Elizabeth Banks and more, the new Total Recall trailer, and Brendan’s inaugural By the Numbers feature that spans Pixar’s entire filmography to date.

Though Tom Cruise had been involved in a reboot of Van Helsing since 2010, the project didn’t actually get moving until this past May when it was announced that Star Trek and Transformers screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman would be producing the pic with Cruise set to star.  Given that Orci and Kurtzman are juggling a number of major projects at the moment (Star Trek 2, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Ender’s Game, and the release of People Like Us), we haven’t heard much about the direction this reboot will take.

Kurtzman recently talked to us about how The Dark Knight‘s realistic influence has informed their take on the story, and now the producer has spoken a bit more about grounding their Van Helsing in reality and how their version will differ from previous iterations of the story.  Hit the jump for more.

People Like Us is a family dramedy inspired by true events from the life of writer/director Alex Kurtzman. The story follows Sam (Chris Pine), a twenty-something guy who learns that his father has suddenly died, leaving behind a secret 30-year-old daughter (Elizabeth Banks) that Sam never knew about, and he is forced to re-examine his own life and re-think everything he thought he knew about his family.

At the film’s press day, Alex Kurtzman talked to Collider about deciding to share such a personal story with the world, the advantages and disadvantages in writing something without a set deadline, what made him decide to direct, and how important the casting was for the tone of the movie.  He also talked about the emotional experience of returning to the Enterprise for the Star Trek sequel, what made he and business partner Roberto Orci want to sign on to write the sequel for The Amazing Spider-Man, how they just wrapped Ender’s Game (which takes place 70 years after a horrific alien war) and Now You See Me (about FBI agents who track a team of illusionists that pull off bank heists during their performances) as producers, and how excited they are to be rebooting Van Helsing and The Mummy. Check out what he had to say after the jump.

We’ve been provided with eight clips from director Alex Kurtzman’s (co-writer of Star Trek and Cowboys & Aliens) character drama People Like Us to share.  The film stars Chris Pine as a debt-ridden salesman who must split a sizeable inheritance with a sister (Elizabeth Banks) he didn’t know about; as he struggles with the decision of whether to share the money or not, he forges a relationship with his unsuspecting sister and her young son.  In a change of pace from their usual blockbuster/action fare, Kurtzman co-wrote the script with frequent collaborator Roberto Orci and Jody Lambert.

Hit the jump to watch the clips.  The film also stars Olivia Wilde, Michelle Pfeiffer, Mark Duplass and Jon Favreau.  People Like Us opens on June 29^th.