Video Blog: The Future Of Star Trek
Steve from Collider is a good friend of mine. At least a few times a week we talk about upcoming movies, TV shows, what gossip each of us have heard, and anything else we might find exciting. Since a number of our conversations cover things you also might find interesting, we've decided to start recording certain conversations as video blogs. Past video blogs have included The Future of the Batman Film Franchise, The Box Office Prospects of Watchmen, thoughts on the first 46 Minutes of Pixar's Up, and a four part preview of the Summer 2009 movie season.
Star Trek came out this weekend and beat all the box office expectations, which got us talking about what could possibly come next. But the new video blog is more than that, we also discuss the Star Trek Premiere, Pixar's Up, how one of the stars of Terminator Salvation watched our video blogs, and a shocking fact: how more people paid to see the original 1979 Star Trek film in theaters than will likely pay to see this new film on the big screen.
Discuss: Please, leave your thoughts on what you'd like to see happen in Star Trek 2 in the comments below.
Here are some of the topics we talk about. If you want to skip right to the Star Trek sequel discussion, it is at timecode 19:15. Warning, the sequel portion may contain spoilers.
* Sam Worthington Watches Our Videos Blogs
* Attending The Star Trek Premiere and After Party
* Star Trek's Huge Opening Weekend
* How Many People Paid To See Star Trek vs. The Original Star Trek Movie
* The Crowded Month of May
* Quick Thoughts on Pixar's Up
* Star Trek Sequel Talk
* What Will The Story Be About
* Most Popular Ideas With Fans: The Borg or Khan
* Steve Would Rather See More Adventure than a Weak or Rehashed Villain
* Peter explains Why Chekhov Must Die and How to Bring Back William Shatner
* Will There Be a New TV Show?
* When Will it Arrive in Theaters?
Video:Audio:
Download MP3Discuss: Please, leave your thoughts on what you'd like to see happen in Star Trek 2 in the comments below.Extra:Peter's William Shatner Theory Further Explained
I feel like I must explain my Star Trek sequel theory in more depth, or risk being screamed at in the comments by those who might not understand my idea. If you don't like my idea, that's completely and totally fine, I just want people to understand it before it gets critiqued.
When I began to think about how a Star Trek sequel might go down, two things occurred to me. First off, I don't want to see a remake of the original films. I have no interest in seeing the new actors put into a re-imagined spin of the old storylines. I think the great thing about the reboot is that it allows you to do something almost totally new with the characters and universe.
But the problem is the first film plays a lot on destiny, and the coincidences that cause the crew of the Enterprise to still come together, even though the timeline has been altered. And I do think that needs to be addressed in the sequel. The way to do it is to kill off one of the main characters in the first third of the movie. Chekhov or Uhura might be the best options. The reason to do this is to establish right off the back... this universe is different and not everyone will live long and prosper. Some of the history will still take place, while other events will be avoided completely.
I use this as a setup of how they could reintroduce William Shatner. Does Star Trek 2 need Shatner? No, it doesn't... but I think a lot of people would like to see it. Abrams has said that he didn't include Shatner in the first film because it would take a lot of plot to explain how old Captain Kirk is still alive. But this alternative timeline could explain everything. Some things in the future will still happen regardless of the changes and regardless of knowledge. Old Spock will still get sucked into a black hole. It's destiny, just in the same way the crew was destined to be together. The old timeline has been destroyed. There is only one timeline now, and this timeline is the alternative timeline
On the other hand, some things will be a lot different. James T Kirk is the character most affected by the butterfly effect change caused by Nero destroying the USS Kelvin. Now that that has happened, he doesn't go to the Nexus and doesn't die. Old Kirk in this new universe must go back in time and bring old Spock back to the future. Why? I'm sure there could be an easy explanation. And its not like this would be a huge part of the story.
This storyline would allow Shatner to reappear as Old Kirk in two or three scenes, somehow assisting in the main plot of the film, or possibly even saving Old Spock from death. Remember, Old Kirk now knows exactly when and where Old Spock is going to die. So maybe Kirk could arrive at that moment to save Spock and bring him back? Anyways, its just an idea. It's not necessarily what I'd like to see happen, but it seems like the best way to bring Shatner in briefly, get rid of Old Spock, and further the destiny vs. chaos theme from the first film.
Explaining How Less People will Likely See JJ Abrams' reboot in theaters than paid to see the Original 1979 Movie on the Big Screen
And as for the Star Trek box office, I thought I'd leave my number figures in print for those who care: Star Trek: The Motion Picture made $82.2 million in 1979. As of Sunday night, the estimate for JJ Abrams Star Trek is $76.5 million in 3.3 days of release (this number could change). We have no idea how this film will perform in the coming weeks, but usually a film makes 3 times its opening weekend box office in its final domestic release total. So Star Trek is expected to end around $210 million, which would be roughly 29.2 million tickets. Wow, a lot more people are seeing Trek than ever before, right?
Not really. Star Trek: The Motion Picture might have only made $82 million, but it was the #2 film at the box office for the year of 1979. The film actually sold 32.8 million tickets (at an average of $2.51 a ticket). This might shock a lot of people that weren't alive during the original films release but Trek was actually equally as popular in 1979 than it is now. It is shocking because we live in a day and age when Star Trek: Nemesis made only $43 million at the box office, which equates to around 7.5 million tickets. So compared to the last Trek film, released in 2002, JJ Abrams' reboot will sell almost 4 times as many tickets domestically.
I'm not trying to downplay the success of the movie. I just wanted to put it in perspective to all of those who believe its reaching a much larger audience than the 1979 film did. On the other hand, word of mouth on this film is huge, and much like Batman Begins resulted in a much bigger box office for The Dark Knight, the same is likely to happen with a Star Trek sequel (to a smaller extent, of course). But it might be possible for Star Trek 2 to double the audience for any previous film in the series. Its all about the franchise.
Discuss: Please, leave your thoughts on what you'd like to see happen in Star Trek 2 in the comments below.