EW's Star Trek Article, Full Film Plot, Trailer Date

Entertainment Weekly's cover story about Star Trek is now online and is the source of the images that popped up online recently.

The article provides information on why Abrams decided to do the film, some info on the scenes and Nimoy's involvement. Most importantly, the first summary of what the plot of the film is about and official confirmation of the trailer release date which is November 14th with Quantum of Solace.

The full article is here but below are the highlights.

- Budget for the movie is$150 million, which for comparison was the cost of Transformers. That is a new record for Star Trek films. Most where made for around $50 million (and usually much less).
- One scene is Kirk and Spock "infiltrat[ing] a Romulan warcraft only to see their mission explode into a raging phaser fight."
- The phaser is a "sleek silver gizmos with spring-triggered barrels that revolve and glow in the transition from ''stun'' to ''kill.'"
- "...creatively, [JJ Abrams] was engaged by the possibility of a Star Trek movie ''that grabbed me the way Star Wars did.'' That meant a bigger budget and better special effects than any previous Trek film, plus freedom to reinvent the mythos as needed"
- 'I think a movie that shows people of various races working together and surviving hundreds of years from now is not a bad message to put out right now,'' says Abrams. (Not for nothing did Abrams give Randy Pausch, the now-late author of The Last Lecture and avowed Trekker, a cameo in the film).
- The plot:
Star Trek's time-travel plot is set in motion when a Federation starship, the USS Kelvin, is attacked by a vicious Romulan (Eric Bana) desperately seeking one of the film's heroes. From there, the film then brings Kirk and Spock center stage and tracks the origins of their friendship and how they became officers aboard the Enterprise. In fact, the movie shows how the whole original series crew came together: McCoy (Karl Urban), Uhura (Zoë Saldana), Scotty (Simon Pegg), Sulu (John Cho), and Chekov (Anton Yelchin). The adventure stretches from Earth to Vulcan, and yes, it does find a way to have Nimoy appearing in scenes with at least one of the actors on our cover — and maybe both. The storytelling is newbie-friendly, but it slyly assimilates a wide range of Trek arcana, from doomed Captain Pike (Bruce Greenwood) to Sulu's swordsmanship to classic lines like, ''I have been, and always shall be, your friend.'' More ambitiously, the movie subversively plays with Trek lore — and those who know it. The opening sequence, for example, is an emotionally wrenching passage that culminates with a mythic climax sure to leave zealots howling ''Heresy!'' But revisionism anxiety is the point. ''The movie,'' Lindelof says, ''is about the act of changing what you know.''
- Enterprise still has saucer section, nacelles, a captain's chair, and giant view screen.
- Bridge changes include handrails, is "blazingly white and glistening with light and glass." "People would joke, 'Where's the Genius Bar?'" says Abrams, somewhat defensively. "To me, the bridge is so cool, it makes the Apple Store look uncool."
- Leornard Nimoy: "I felt J.J. and his writers had a very strong sense of who the characters were and how they should work. To find a team that was interested in putting it all back together was very exciting." Trekkers will be excited too. Nimoy's first scene in the film, screened for EW, is goose-bumpingly cool.
- Zachary Quinto: "I saw it as a career opportunity, but I also saw it as a creative opportunity, too,'' he says. ''I have a real interest in where this character lives. I really relate to the duality of a logical mind and an emotional sensibility."
- Chris Pine's audition for Kirk required him to run through Star Trek jargon of commanding the Enterprise during a space fight.
- Chris Pine: "It was very hard to take myself seriously. I'm six-foot, I weigh about a buck sixty-five, went to private school, and grew up in the [San Fernando] Valley — I wouldn't follow me into battle."
- Simon Pegg: "I think Zach had the toughest job, but he gave a performance that totally captured the character without resorting to impersonation. And Chris had that steely arrogance and wry humor you want in Kirk. He's also sickeningly good-looking and really funny. Talk about nature giving a guy too much."
- Abrams: "There were days when I would look around the set, with all these tattooed faces and pointy ears, bizarre weaponry and Romulan linguists, with dialogue about 'Neutral Zones' and 'Starfleet' — and I would start sweating. But I knew this would work, because the script Alex and Bob wrote was so emotional and so relatable. I didn't love Kirk and Spock when I began this journey — but I love them now."
- Verification that the first trailer for the film is coming out November 14th with Jame Bond's Quantum of Solace.