Orci, Kurtzman Updates Status of Star Trek Sequel

The writing team of Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman provided an update on the status of the script for the sequel to Star Trek to TrekMovie.com this weekend. The interview occurred before the Saturn Awards where the pair was honored with the George Pal Memorial Saturn Award. Star Trek won a Saturn for Best Make-Up. The video can be found here, highlights below.

- Orci: "We have a story and now the next step is we all get together and try to destroy it. ...try to shake loose and see if it stands up to our scrutiny. If it does we do it and if doesn't we do a little more drawing board."
- Orci: "We have a front runner [for villain]."
- Kurtzman: "…the emphasis is little bit different in that in the first movie ...it’s really about watching the team coming together. That doesn't go away in the second movie. In the second movie it’s about how the team know they are on their journey, live together as a family."
- Kurtzman: "Relieved to have [Damon Lindelof] full time now. Now we are going to really dive into Trek next week..."
- Orci noted sequel title can't be Star Trek 12, Star Trek 2 (or II), but said would "take it to the court and see" about the idea of following in the path of The Dark Knight and choose a title that invoke the franchise.

To sum up, it seems the real effort on the script is about to begin to try and have a final script by the end of the year. In regards to the title, I think the team will take a page from Transformers and go with a number- less title and colon since Trek doesn't have famous "nicknames" like Batman does. About the only title that would work would be "Enterprise" but that is out do to the TV series. From a creative perspective I am sure they might want it but from a marketing perspective trying to sell a Star Trek film without the title Star Trek would be a nightmare.

2011 Star Trek Books Schedule

Thanks to TrekMovie, you can now find out the preliminary plans for the next wave of Star Trek books coming out next year. The books explore most of the various sub-franchises within the Star Trek universe from Star Trek 2.0-verse, New Frontier, TOS era, Next Generation, and bunch more. Personally I highly recommend most Star Trek books as just a fun read. The post Star Trek: Nemesis books have been solid for the last few years now as it continues the adventures of the Star Trek universe of characters from Deep Space Nine, The Next Generation, and Voyager often in new yet familiar directions.

January
Star Trek: New Frontier: Blind Man’s Bluff (TPB)
by Peter David
Latest novel for the Excalibur crew follows the events of David’s 2009 novel "Treason"

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy – The Competitive Edge by Rudy Josephs
Second young adult novel set at the Academy during the events of the 2009 Star Trek movie.

Star Trek: Typhon Pact: Paths of Disharmony
by Dayton Ward
Fourth novel of the Typhon Pact series focuses on Picard and the crew of the Enterprise-E dealing with "the survival of the Andorian civilization hanging in the balance".

Estate of Gene and Majel Roddenberry Video

Rod Roddenberry, the son of Star Trek mastermind Gene Roddenberry, has put together a video that shows off the items that are part of Julien's Auctions Sale for Gene and Majel Roddenberry estate collection that will take place Planet Hollywood Las Vegas on Sunday June 27th. The auction not only has 250 items from the estate but includes additional items donated by JJ Abrams and Paramount from the 2009 movie. William Shatner has also donated items. The auction has personal items, props, costumes, posters and more from all eras of Star Trek.

The video is pretty cool just as a walk down Trek memory lane and a way to get to know a little bit more about Gene Roddenberry. It is also a good way to go shopping as the proceeds of the auction is going to charity. The Roddenberry and 2009 movie items will go to the Children's Defense Fund and Student Veterans of America. Shatner's items go to his Hollywood Charity Horse Show. If you can't make it to Vegas to view the items in person, you can proxy big online. Instructions can be found at Julien's Auctions which also sells a $50 catalog of the items. (via TrekMovie)

IDW September Star Trek Comics

IDW Publishing has released their publishing plans for September. The month will bring two Star Trek comic books. If you are interested in the books, just let your local comic book store know. For the full details of IDW's TF and other books including GI Joe, Transformers, Angel and more click here.

Star Trek: Captain’s Log: Pike #1
Stuart Moore (w) • J. K. Woodward (a & c)
After the events of Talos (Which were detailed in the classic television two-parter, The Menagerie), Captain Christopher Pike and the crew of the Enterprise have been called back to Earth for a debriefing. Upon entering our solar system they are attacked by a suspicious spacecraft—could this episode somehow be linked to Talos… and what eventually awaits Captain Pike?
• FC • 32 pages • $3.99 • Expected in-store date: 9/22

Star Trek: Burden of Knowledge #4 (of 4)
Scott & David Tipton (w) • Federica Manfredi (a) • Joe Corroney (c)
After answering a call for help from a most unexpected source, Captain Kirk and the Enterprise return to the site of a previous mission, where they make a shocking discovery, one that may force James T. Kirk to make a decision like no other! It all comes together here! From the creative team behind SPOCK: REFLECTIONS!
• FC • 32 pages • $3.99 • Expected in-store date: 9/8

Sequel Draft By End of Year

In an interview with IGN to promote Hawaii Five-O, Star Trek and Transformers writer Roberto Orci provided an update on the sequel and his other projects. Below is the Trek related portions of the interview, the rest can be found here. (via TrekMovie)

GN: J.J. Abrams is about to shoot Super 8. After that, has he decided if he's going to direct the Star Trek sequel or not?
Orci: You know him. Until he reads the script and gets super excited he's not going to commit to anything. God Bless him. Just like the first movie.

IGN: Is the next Star Trek still looking to shoot around the middle of next year?
Orci: We'll work backwards from 2012. So you know, you can do the math. We've got to probably turn it in by Christmas and get a pretty good draft by then. And then kind of get it up and running.

IGN: Second movies, including Wrath of Khan, are often the dark chapter. Things often get pretty intense. Are you going to go in that direction?
Orci: Well, it's weird. We got kind of a mixed review in terms of the darkness or not in the first one. There was genocide of an entire planet, Spock's freaking mother died, Kirk's dad died… But it's like, "Well, it wasn't very dark!"

So I think maybe thematically, because we don't have the burden of an origin story, we can play a little bit more with the theme and it can be a little bit more complicated. But I still think we like fun. Star Trek has always been funny. Even Wrath of Khan has got some great great, great fun in it. I think it will be equally confusing for some, but I do think we get to jump right into it now.

IGN: Leonard Nimoy's been very adamant that he's done acting. Were there ideas you had for the sequel that are derailed by that?
Orci: He was so generous and gracious to us as fans and to us as people working on that franchise to come out of retirement that it's embarrassing to ask him to do another god damn thing. So if he came over and said, "I really want to do something," we'd listen. But we're not about to go and beg him one more time. He has served Star Trek more amiably than anyone can ever hope and we will defer to his wishes.

Video Interview with Leonard Nimoy

Friday Leonard Nimoy participated in the Hero Complex Weekend Film Festival that included a showing of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. While there the actor participated in a 45 minute Q&A (below from bdbdb) as he talked about Star Trek, Fringe, and more. Below is the 8 part video and a few highlights thanks to TrekMovie.

- "very grateful" that ever since Star Trek he has never had to worry about work
- George Lucas "did us a favor" as Star Wars "put Star Trek back into production"
- On Next Generation: "I was happy to see it go on, I didn’t watch a lot of it, I thought there was a lot of good work done, good talented people."
- Said he would only direct Star Trek Generations, if Paramount agreed to let him work on major rewrite, which they didn’t agree to so he didn’t do it (shame considering how the movie turned out)
- A reason agreed to return to Star Trek 2009 was that Nimoy didn’t feel he had "closure" for the Spock character and got "teared up" after hearing Orci, Kurtzman and Abrams talk about their approach
- Nimoy didn’t like the work in his first episodes in Fringe and was resistant to return this season, felt he was just there for exposition. Took JJ Abrams to call to get him to return to Fringe, and was now "glad" he did it, and happy that William Bell "went out in a blaze of glory saving everybody, like Spock did at the end of Star Trek II."

Star Trek Online Update

Star Trek Online has issued another major update for the game and its website. This includes an update to its prequel story timeline, new patch, trailer and Q&A with the fans.The Path to 2409 has been completed filling in some of the history in the 22 year gap between the destruction of Romulus and Remus as part of the events in JJ Abrams' Star Trek and beginning of the STO storyline.

Additionally the game has had Season One: Update Two pushed out that adds accolades, squad support, store improvements, and other details. Below is the trailer that shows off the difficulty settings and death penalty that were added with Update One last month.

Deep Roy Hopes for Role in Sequel

Deep Roy says in an interview while at 2010 Dallas Sci-Fi Expo is hoping for a return of his character in the sequel. Roy played Keenser, Scotty's alien sidekick in the first movie when Spock Prime and Kirk where trying to get off of Delta Vega. At the end of the flick he was shown in a Starfleet uniform and likely member of the engineering team so a reprisal of the role wouldn't be that hard to write in. He doesn't know for sure if the character will return, just says "let's see what happens". The full interview is below.

Introducing Sir Patrick Stewart

Actor Patrick Stewart was officially knighted today by Queen Elizabeth II. The famous actor, known for his role as Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation, Charles Xavier in the X-Men films and much more now adds knighthood to his long list of honors.

Sir Patrick Stewart said told the BBC he owed "literally everything" to the English teacher [Cecil Dormand] who first encouraged him to perform. "Although many people in my life have had great influence on me, without this man none of it would have happened."

"The knights of the theatre represented to me not only the pinnacle of the profession but the esteem in which the profession was held. To find myself, to my astonishment, in that company is the grandest thing that has professionally happened to me."

Congratulations to Sir Patrick Stewart.