Star Trek XI - spoilers!

[davekill]

It's been brought up that many of these actors had signed on for two future Trek movies if this is one is successful - just a contractual technicality, but a hopeful idea none the less.

I'm really liking the worn contemporary industrial look of the props we have seen so far. Sort of like "Star Wars meets Chevron Oil Refinery". It's a little less Utopian

Just don't put on the red jump suit!

[Rico]

The look is suppose to blend some of what we saw in "Enterprise" and mixing with TOS.  Should be fun to see!

[Geekyfanboy]

Tahir Breaks Star Trek Barrier

Faran Tahir, who is soon to be seen as an Afghan insurgent leader in Iron Man, told SCI FI Wire that he went straight from that role to a part as a heroic Federation starship captain in J.J. Abrams' upcoming Star Trek movie. Tahir, who was born in Los Angeles to Pakistani parents, said he was honored to play the first Star Trek captain of Middle-Eastern ethnicity.

Tahir described himself as being like a little kid while shooting his scenes as Captain Robau on a starship bridge set. "The first thing is that you all of a sudden go back to being 9 years old when you realize that you're going to be in Star Trek as a captain," Tahir said in an interview while promoting Iron Man.

"You walk onto the bridge and you see that bridge, and your first moment is not 'What is my line?'" Tahir said. "Your first moment in yourself is 'Wow! I'm on the bridge of a Federation ship, and I'm the captain.' That's exactly what went on in my head. You have to get over that, and then you go, 'OK, now let's actually make him work.'"

Tahir added that director Abrams' decision to make the character Middle Eastern was very much in keeping with Star Trek tradition. "The thing that I love about that idea is that, to me, it gives a lot of hope that in the future all these racial divides and all these cultural divides will be non-issues," he said. "And that's the spirit of Star Trek, right? It's about moving forward with all of this. To me, as an actor, it was very freeing to be able to do that, where my character was not being seen through the prism of my cultural or ethnic ties."

Tahir added: "They were being seen as how competent or incompetent, through what kind of a captain I was going to be in that situation. What matters is the merits of the character, rather than what his background is." Iron Man opens May 2. Star Trek beams into theaters on May 8, 2009. --Ian Spelling

[Rico]

Some more comments from JJ on the movie...

Although more of a Star Wars fan, J.J. Abrams wanted to make a better Star Trek.

As reported by Yahoo! Movies, Abrams found something in Star Trek that appealed to him, and wanted to improve upon it. "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," said Abrams "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."

Improving Star Trek means appealing to more than just the devoted Star Trek fan. "The whole point was to try to make this movie for fans of movies, not fans of 'Star Trek,' necessarily," said Abrams. "If you're a fan, we've got one of the writers who's a devout Trekker, so we were able to make sure we were serving the people who are completely enamored with 'Star Trek.' But we are not making the movie for that contingent alone."

Abrams went on to explain why he felt that reaching out beyond Star Trek fans was necessary. "You can't really make a movie for them," he explained. "As soon as you start to guess what you think they are going to want to see, you're in trouble. You have to make the movie in many ways for what you want to see yourself, make a movie you believe in. Then you're not second-guessing an audience you don't really have an understanding of."

Redoing Star Trek means updating the 1960s characters for the modern day. "It's a chance to see what Kirk and Spock would look like done now," said Abrams. "What's thrilling about it is how great the cast is, how remarkably talented and funny and just spot-on they all are."

An actor from one of Abram's childhood favorite movies, Star Wars, paid a visit to the Star Trek XI set according to TrekMovie.com. Harrison Ford (Han Solo) dropped by during the last week of shooting on the film to have lunch with Abrams. He is just one of several actors who have paid visits to the set during filming, including Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg among others.

source:  http://www.trektoday.com/news/020508_01.shtml

[Geekyfanboy]

Here's more sounds bites from Abrams

Director polishes 'Star Trek'
By David Germain
Associated Press

LOS ANGELES – J.J. Abrams grew up more a fan of Luke Skywalker and Han Solo than of James Kirk and his Vulcan buddy Spock. So why is a self-professed "Star Wars" kid directing "Star Trek"?

"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," said Abrams, who recently finished shooting on "Star Trek," due in theaters May 8, 2009. "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."

While he enjoyed the TV show about the Enterprise crew, Abrams said he was not a rabid fan.

The revival of the franchise seven years after the last movie ("Star Trek: Nemesis") flopped may depend on introducing a new generation to the 23rd century explorers.

"The whole point was to try to make this movie for fans of movies, not fans of 'Star Trek,' necessarily," said Abrams, creator of "Lost" and "Alias." "If you're a fan, we've got one of the writers who's a devout Trekker, so we were able to make sure we were serving the people who are completely enamored with 'Star Trek.' But we are not making the movie for that contingent alone."

Abrams would not share plot details, saying only that the movie would remain faithful to the original while breaking new ground in action, drama and visual effects.

"I feel like this is so unlike what you expect, so unlike the 'Star Trek' you've seen," Abrams said.

[Rico]

Kenny - this is pretty much what I posted above your post.   ;)

[Ktrek]

I kind of wonder what this mean?

"I feel like this is so unlike what you expect, so unlike the 'Star Trek' you've seen," Abrams said

How far can you stray from the formula before it's Star Trek in name only?

Kevin

[Geekyfanboy]

Kenny - this is pretty much what I posted above your post.   ;)

Yeah I saw that but there was additional info :) .. I found the bit about Star Wars interesting.

[X]

How far can you stray from the formula before it's Star Trek in name only?

I think that Enterprise proved that nothing is sacred. I loved Enterprise, but it seemed a last ditch effort to do everything they could to redefine star trek.

I think that we need something new. It's not going to take away from the hundreds of hours of other trek because that's already out there. I think of it more like Shakespeare. It was meant to be adapted to different times as time progressed. It wasn't the word of the script it was the ideals behind the script.

If they can keep to the spirit of Gene's vision, I can accept a new coat of paint. I could only pray that this is as successful as the new BSG.

I hope this movie does for Trek what the new Doctor Who and new BSG did for their properties.

Let's be honest, who couldn't do without giant energy hands holding the ship still or Spock's Brain?

A fresh BSG like start might be what we need so that our grand kids get to see new trek in their time.

[Rico]

Yep - I agree.  Bring on "Star Trek: The Next Next Generation."  :)

[billybob476]

We could always have the federation destroyed by an alien race. Then, the Enterprise, as the last remaining starfleet ship could lead a ragtag fugitive fleet in search of a new home called...uhh...something that isn't Earth.

[Ktrek]

We could always have the federation destroyed by an alien race. Then, the Enterprise, as the last remaining starfleet ship could lead a ragtag fugitive fleet in search of a new home called...uhh...something that isn't Earth.

ROFL! I love your sense of humor Billy!

Kevin

[Geekyfanboy]

Trek XI writers fill in gaps in Trek history
Posted by Michael Hickerson on Monday, 19 May 2008

http://www.sliceofscifi.com/2008/05/19/trek-xi-writers-fill-in-gaps-in-trek-history/

Over its 40 plus year run, the Star Trek universe has provided fans with a lot of details about the history of not only the Federation, but also the characters who inhabit Gene Roddenberry's vision of the future.  With hundreds of hours on both the small and large screen, the task of creating a new, original script for the next installment of the Star Trek franchise might have seemed daunting to screen-writers Robert Orci and Alex Kurtzman.

However, the writing partners agreed that while finding the right script to please long-time Trekkers and attract new fans to the franchise could seem a bit overwhelming, finding a time and place to tell the story wasn't as difficult as you might imagine.

"It's tricky, but we found out that it was an amazing opportunity, which is there'd never been an origin story of how this original crew of Kirk [Chris Pine] and Spock [Zachary Quinto] and Bones [Karl Urban] and Scotty [Simon Pegg], how they met," Orci said in . "So when we went back and started thinking about it, we realized, 'Goodness, that's never been covered.' It's not even a remake. There simply has not been a story that told how they got together."

"When we realized that, we thought, 'Well, that solves the introduction problem, because this will literally be an introduction to these characters that everyone knows, but not everyone knows how they met.' So we knew that we could tell a story that was still viable for Star Trek fans, because it's not a retelling. It's a new story. But we knew that for those who don't know Star Trek, it's going to be an introduction to the world. So we kind of lucked out in that it hadn't been done before."

Orci and Kurtzman have written several "first" installments in a potential franchise in recent years.  Along with the Trek reimaginging, they wrote last summer's successful Transformers.  However, Orci stated the tendency to see the first films in a franchise as an origin story and a necessary evil to set up superior second installment as a bit of a disservice to the first film and its creative team.

"I can tell you right now, we need not make any qualifiers like that," Orci said. "This is not something like, 'Oh, just sit through the first boring one, and then we'll get to the fun.' This one, I'm telling you, it's an origin story, but ... we didn't save anything for later. We wanted to make sure that it was, A, great for the fans, but [also for] a regular audience, a general audience. They're not going to be able to rely on they love Kirk or they love Spock. They have to love it on its own merits."

Orci added: "Transformers and Star Trek are very different things. However, I don't think anyone would say that the first Transformers somehow is like waiting for the second one to happen. Our goal is always, 'Do not be arrogant enough to think that you're going to get more than one movie.' Make one good movie, and if that movie's good, then hopefully you'll get another one. Don't save anything for later. Don't plan on the sequel. That's a mistake. And that's how we approached it. We were like, 'Let's make one good movie, and ... God willing, we'll get to do another one.'"

[Rico]

From Trektoday.com & Trekmovie.com
(spoilers ahead)

New Federation and Romulan ships will appear in Star Trek XI including one of a class never seen before on Star Trek.

As reported by TrekMovie.com, much of the Star Trek XI action will take place on the Enterprise NCC-1701, commanded by both Christopher Pike and James Kirk. Approximately four weeks out of the twenty weeks of shooting took place on the Bridge of this ship. Other parts of the ship that will be seen are: sickbay, crew quarters, corridors, engineering and the transporter room.

Another Federation ship is named the USS Kelvin, a starship one generation before the Enterprise. The Kelvin is of a new ship class and is smaller than the Enterprise. Captain Robau will be commanding it with George Kirk as his first officer.

Spock will be traveling in time and will be using a small Vulcan ship specially constructed for time travel. He will be the only crewperson on the ship.

The Romulans, villains of the film, will be arriving from the twenty-fourth century. Their interior ship design is supposedly different than the TNG-era Romulan design and is said to be "surreal". Nero (Eric Bana) will be commanding this ship.

Other ship locations which are known to be appearing in Star Trek XI include: a medical shuttle (from the USS Kelvin era), transport shuttle and a Federation ship bridge simulator for Kobayashi Maru testing.

To read more, head to the article located below:
http://trekmovie.com/2008/05/27/spoilers-details-on-star-trek-movie-ships/

[Darth Gaos]

Sweet....give me a time travel story anytime.  I know...some people hate'em for the blatant inconsistencies they seem to produce but I no care......I love me some quantum mechanics.