Star Trek Is Somewhat Hipper Than I Remember

Say what you want about the Star Trek movie marketing, you can’t say they aren’t trying. Yesterday we saw the guitar-rock-heavy commercial made for the WWE-watching set; but Paramount is also trying to get the opposite end of the spectrum — hipsters — by hiring artists to make bizarre Trek-inspired art like these custom Enterprise models. Now, Toys R Evil has helpfully compiled the images into the above Flickr sideshow, so I’ll let him explain what’s going on, too:

Respected graffiti, FX, and pop artists from all over the world have
designed their interpretation of the USS Enterprise – for The
ENTERPRISE PROJECT – as part of the promotions for the upcoming J.J.
Abrams-directed STAR TREK.
These 34-inch-long replicas of the USS Enterprise from the upcoming
film were cast from the actual 3D digital models created for the film
by Industrial Light & Magic. These models will begin touring the
world starting in March (See the location details on each ship to find
it’s current location).

25 Models / spots are shown on the project’s gallery website @ www.startrekmovie.com/modelgallery
[all images via]– with a selection of customs ranging from the
sublime, to the beyond the sanity-frontier! Artists currently include Amanda Visell, Ragnar, House Industries, comicbook artist Jim Lee and even filmmaker Robert Rodriguez!

This is all bizarre, but kind of neat. But who else’s mind is blown by the fact that Lucas’ ILM worked on the Star Trek movie? I figured Marvel and DC would merge before anything Lucas-owned would ever work on Trek. I mean, it makes sense, and it’s not really that big a deal, but… wow. (Via Toys R Evil)