Nazneen Contractor may not yet be a household name, but trust us, she's heading for stardom at warp speed.

A veteran of stage and screen, as well as a formidable dancer, the actress is familiar from her performances on television series such as Rules of Engagement, The Border, and Last Resort.  She is perhaps best known, however, for her more-than-meets-the-eye role as Kayla Hassan on the eighth season of Fox's 24.

With Star Trek Into Darkness, Contractor is making her debut appearance in a massive franchise blockbuster.  Now playing in 2D, 3D, and IMAX 3D nationwide, the follow-up to the 2009 reboot returns director J.J. Abrams to the series.  The secretive story finds an act of terrorism rocking the Federation from within Starfleet itself.  When the U.S.S. Enterprise is tasked with capturing the culprit, it's a quest that will test Captain Kirk and potentially cost him his crew.

Opening in theaters on May 17th is the highly anticipated new film Star Trek Into Darkness, which is a sequel to 2009's Star Trek - a reboot of the classic science fiction franchise. The movie is once again helmed by visionary director J.J. Abrams (Super 8) and features returning cast members Chris Pine (People Like Us) as Captain James T. Kirk, Zachary Quinto (Margin Call) as Spock, Karl Urban (Dredd) as Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy, Zoe Saldana (The Words) as Uhura, Anton Yelchin (Like Crazy) as Pavel Chekov, John Cho (A Very Harold & Kumar 3D) as Hikaru Sulu, Simon Pegg (The Adventures of Tintin) as Montgomery "Scotty" Scott, and Bruce Greenwood (Flight) as Christopher Pike, as well as new cast members Alice Eve (The Raven) as Dr. Carol Marcus, Peter Weller (Robocop) as Admiral Alexander Marcus, and Benedict Cumberbatch (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) as Commander John Harrison.

IAR's very own Guest Correspondent Katherine Tulich recently had a chance to travel to London, England and sit down with director J.J. Abrams to talk about their work on Star Trek Into Darkness. The visionary director discussed the new movie, making it a stand-alone sequel, the film's darker tone, references to Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, utilizing 3D, overseeing both the Star Trek and Star Wars franchises, and whether or not he will be involved with a third Star Trek movie. 

Opening in theaters on May 17th is the highly anticipated new film Star Trek Into Darkness, which is a sequel to 2009's Star Trek - a reboot of the classic science fiction franchise. The movie is once again helmed by visionary director J.J. Abrams (Super 8) and features returning cast members Chris Pine (People Like Us) as Captain James T. Kirk, Zachary Quinto (Margin Call) as Spock, Karl Urban (Dredd) as Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy, Zoe Saldana (The Words) as Uhura, Anton Yelchin (Like Crazy) as Pavel Chekov, John Cho (A Very Harold & Kumar 3D) as Hikaru Sulu, Simon Pegg (The Adventures of Tintin) as Montgomery "Scotty" Scott, and Bruce Greenwood (Flight) as Christopher Pike, as well as new cast members Alice Eve (The Raven) as Dr. Carol Marcus, Peter Weller (Robocop) as Admiral Alexander Marcus, and Benedict Cumberbatch (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) as Commander John Harrison.

IAR's very own Guest Correspondent Katherine Tulich recently had a chance to travel to London, England and sit down with Karl Urban and Simon Pegg, as well as Alice Eve to talk about their work on Star Trek Into Darkness. The two popular actors discussed the new movie, returning to their roles as Bones and Scotty, respectively, Scotty's unusual story arc in the film, Bones' on screen dynamic with Kirk and Spock, and the two characters importance in the Star Trek mythos, while the beautiful young actress talked about how she got cast in the sequel, working with director J.J. Abrams, her pivotal character, and the possibility of returning for a third film. 

For just under half a century now, Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek has had a fascinating and loving relationship the real-life explorers of the final frontier at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

With Star Trek Into Darkness bringing Roddenberry's hopeful vision of a spacefaring future to screens this week, a new promotion is combining Trek and NASA in an entirely new way, thanks to Google and this age of fabulous modern communications technology.

On Thursday, May 16th, fans can participate in a live Google+ Hangout with creative figures and stars from Star Trek Into Darkness, along with NASA astronauts in orbit and on Earth.

Opening in theaters on May 17th is the highly anticipated new film Star Trek Into Darkness, which is a sequel to 2009's Star Trek - a reboot of the classic science fiction franchise. The movie is once again helmed by visionary director J.J. Abrams (Super 8) and features returning cast members Chris Pine (People Like Us) as Captain James T. Kirk, Zachary Quinto (Margin Call) as Spock, Karl Urban (Dredd) as Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy, Zoe Saldana (The Words) as Uhura, Anton Yelchin (Like Crazy) as Pavel Chekov, John Cho (A Very Harold & Kumar 3D) as Hikaru Sulu, Simon Pegg (The Adventures of Tintin) as Montgomery "Scotty" Scott, and Bruce Greenwood (Flight) as Christopher Pike, as well as new cast members Alice Eve (The Raven) as Dr. Carol Marcus, Peter Weller (Robocop) as Admiral Alexander Marcus, and Benedict Cumberbatch (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) as Commander John Harrison.

IAR's very own Guest Correspondent Katherine Tulich recently had a chance to travel to London, England and sit down with Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto to talk about their work on Star Trek Into Darkness. The two popular actors discussed the new movie, its homage to Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Spock's fight scenes, why the Vulcan is angrier in this sequel, Quinto's relationship with the legendary Leonard Nimoy, and Pine's experience acting opposite the film's mysterious villain, who is played by Benedict Cumberbatch. Also, be sure to keep an eye out for a special Easter Egg at the end of the video featuring Pine singing a line from the classic Bon Jovi song "Wanted Dead or Alive."

This summer, let Star Trek Into Darkness take you on a vacation to exotic outer space. 

With your family, you can experience the beautiful vistas, retro-futuristic costumes, vengeful space-terrorists, vertigo, and, of course, disease and danger wrapped in darkness and silence.

Allow these two new official photos and behind the scenes featurettes act as a brochure, a handy guild to the possibilities of a space-cation.

You want some official Star Trek Into Darkness promotional goodies?

You got 'em, as Paramount has unveiled a brand new clip that doesn't exactly give a whole lot away, but reinforces that the twelfth Star Trek does have a heavy element of Starfleet conspiracy.  And that's not all, as we also have two very different new posters, one featuring Alice Eve as Carol Marcus and another reserved just for early IMAX attendees.

Paramount Pictures has dropped another official clip from next month's Star Trek Into Darkness, an excerpt of an action scene that plays more like Star Wars than Trek.

Wow, Scotty and Chekov are really getting hosed here.

Despite climbing their way through the ranks of Starfleet to serve in hugely important positions on the Federation flagship, neither is included in this crop of seven new character posters for Star Trek Into Darkness.

And to compound their humiliation, John Harrison and Carol Marcus, played by franchise newcomers Benedict Cumberbatch and Alice Eve, have their own posters here.

With a month until Star Trek Into Darkness goes into darkness on May 17th, Paramount Pictures has beamed down one last theatrical trailer.

This last trailer away-team includes no redshirts, but the action-packed trailer is accompanied by two new character posters, one apiece for Chris Pine's Captain James Tiberius Kirk and Benedict Cumberbatch's "John Harrison."