JJ Abrams recently spoke with the Associated Press about his upcoming Star Trek, and talked about the direction of the upcoming prequel/reboot.
“The whole point was to try to make this movie for fans of movies, not fans of `Star Trek,’ necessarily,’” Abrams said.
Not that hardcore Trek fans are being totally ignored. Abrams assures fans that “one of the writers who’s a devout Trekker” and that they were able to make sure they “were serving the people who are completely enamored with Star Trek”.
“But we are not making the movie for that contingent alone,” said Abrams. “It was an opportunity to take what I think has been a maligned world - to sound crass, a franchise - and treat it in a way that made it something that I wanted to see. To take the characters, the thoughtfulness, the personalities, the sense of adventure, the idea of humanity working together, the sense of social commentary and innovation, all that stuff. To take it and apply it in a way that felt genuinely thrilling.”
Everyone I’ve talked to about the project has hammered on this exact point. If there is one thing you’ll be able to take away from this film, it will be that Trek will have become more accessible to the mainstream public. And with the dwindling box office numbers of recent Trek releases (Nemesis), this is obviously the future of the franchise. And Abrams promises a Star Trek movie like we’ve never seen before.
“I feel like this is so unlike what you expect, so unlike the `Star Trek’ you’ve seen. At the same time, it’s being true to what’s come before, honoring it,” Abrams said. “I can say the effects for `Star Trek’ have never, ever been done like this. … I can only tell you the idea of the universe of `Star Trek’ has never been given this kind of treatment.”
Discuss: Are you excited for JJ Abrams’ Star Trek?
May 2nd, 2008 at 2:07 am
Yes.
…
…..
.
Though I’ve never seen any Star Trek before. So that says alot.
May 2nd, 2008 at 3:16 am
I’ll be keeping an eye on it. Personally, I think Abrams is more a brand name than a great director but he’s competent, has a smart eye for things and it should be a fun watch.
May 2nd, 2008 at 3:35 am
Now I was never really a fan of the show, I thought it was ok but never understood the whole hype behind it, I am planning on seeing this. I wanna see what Abram’s does to the movie, and it doesn’t seem like it will be a bad movie to see either.
May 2nd, 2008 at 3:50 am
So there’s going to be Lightsabers and Midichlorians in it right?
May 2nd, 2008 at 4:24 am
I was excited by the teaser trailer. Still am.
Then again, I’m a layman’s space geek. Human beings doing what human being do? Exploration of as much of this universe as possible? Orbital infrastructure? Hell yes.
I was born one day shy of the anniversary of Apollo 11’s escape of Earth, and about 7 years after Apollo 17 was reclaimed by Earth. I’ve seen video games and the internet evolve from Pong and BBS’s to WoW and websites like this. I’ve seen the heralded Second Coming, the iPhone.
I’ve never seen someone walk on the Moon except in rerun.
If that teaser trailer is anything worth speculating about, well, maybe the movie will spark interest in doing what we do best: Exploration. And yeah, I’ve more faith in the independent creative forces than I do in the government-sanctioned acolytes to do that sort of inspiring.
May 2nd, 2008 at 6:28 am
@jrl - You are right on the money. Whether or not you liked the tv shows, this was the overall theme in most of them (from my opinion). That’ s what I enjoyed about it; not only the desire to explore, but the human need to.
May 2nd, 2008 at 7:14 am
No.
Is there anything to substantiate the claim that JJ Abrams is a filmmaker? MI3 was not only terribly written (by the same two suits who scripted Trek), but terribly shot. It looked less like a movie than a TV show. Then again Star Trek movies basically are big TV shows, so maybe ST XI falls within JJ’s skill set. I don’t know. So much of Trek depends on the chemistry between its characters. Unproven actors + terrible writers + unproven director = big “?” for me.
May 2nd, 2008 at 7:45 am
I trust JJ. His work may not be the deepest or very profound, but I like the way he thinks and the way he approaches projects. And I think Simon Pegg as Scotty is well worth the price of admission.
PS. I know it didn’t do well at the box office, but was I the only one who thought Nemesis was pretty good?
May 2nd, 2008 at 8:57 am
Excited about the teaser trailer? What was on there that made it so exciting other then watching a slow push into a semi constructed Enterprise?! I think the last Trek movies suffered because they were trying to hard, so this might be a good thing. So we’ll see. That is until we see more on it.
I would have preferred James McAvoy as Scotty but I’ll take Pegg.
May 2nd, 2008 at 10:35 am
I am a huge Trek fan and am greatly excited for JJ’s vision of the franchise. No matter what, I’ll love the film just like I enjoyed Nemesis and every Star Trek film before it.
May 2nd, 2008 at 12:11 pm
Abrams is a quack. we just need someone of respect and authority in the community to say it out loud so everyone else will muster the courage to say it themselves
Lost is……well………lost and mired in ridiculously overcomplicated dribble at this point. Oh that’s right, he isn’t even the creative force behind that.
3 mos later, cloverfiled sits in a largely ignored and seldom recalled pop culture slumber. All of the predicitions that it would change modern cinema laughably notwithstanding.
And stx, seems like he’s just going to add more explosions and fx to the mythos. Genius? hardly. I promise to get up and walk out of the theater the moment kirk jumps out of the line of phaser fire and does a matrix-bullet-time turn in the air. :roll:
May 2nd, 2008 at 12:13 pm
Where all da’ Jedi Knights at?
May 2nd, 2008 at 12:26 pm
i’m looking foward to it, abrams has the midas touch and the original series is by far the most entertaining incarnation of trek…i’m not a trekkie but i’ve seen every tv show
June 2nd, 2008 at 5:25 am
Iam happy that Star Trek is getting a new fresh ideas, Ive been a fan for over 20 years, I must say that the last 2 films I was sleeping by the end of the film. I think that the old film makers are done, we need new ideas and new people like JJ to make new films.