Star Trek Movie Blog: May 2009

Friday, May 29, 2009

Star Trek Concept Art

Artist James Clyne has posted his concept art for Star Trek on his website. To the right is just one example of dozens of pieces, which you can find here. It is all gorgeous and shows were some of the ideas used in the film started from. Clyne has done lots of work for a wide variety of projects so be sure to check his website out to.

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Weekend Box Office Report

Week three for Star Trek and it finishes the week in the third spot ($22M) behind Night at the Museum 2 ($53.5) and Terminator Salvation ($43M). Rounding out the top spots is Angels and Demons ($22.4M) and Dance Flick ($22.4M). Wolverine dropped to 6th ($7.8M). These numbers do not include Memorial Day in the states. As of now Star Trek easily hold the spot as most successful movie of the summer with a domestic take of $183.6M to Wolverine's $163M. Currently it resides just behind Monsters and Aliens for highest domestic grossing film of the year which is $193M. Suffice it to say that if Trek doesn't exceed that by tomorrow, it will by the end of the week.

International numbers puts Star Trek in fourth place ($11.5M in 58 markets) for total of $87.5M. Angels & Demons was first ($60.4M in 99 markets), Museum 2 was second ($50.1M in 93 markets). As you can see Star Trek is not finished premiering in many markets so its overseas total is likely to grow much higher.

Grand total, Star Trek's worldwide sales is $271M, easily making it the most successful Star Trek movie to date. As for next week, Up is getting released so keeping with the pattern, Trek is likely to take 4th place on its 4th week of release.

TrekMovie Q&A Part 2

Trekmovie.com has posted the second half of the Q&A with fans on the site with Star Trek writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman. Part one can be found here. Below are snippets from it but the full transcript is here.

Data: Do you think of bring some characters from TNG era in future Star Trek?
BobOrci: If we can do it organically, perhaps.

TREKKIE369 : Have you guys ever considered bringing Vulcan and Romulus back? And if not, how many survivors are there from both planets?
BobOrci: Recall that in this new Universe, Romulus is still out there, as Captain Pike indicates. As for Vulcan, Spock, in his Captain’s Log, estimates that there are approximately 10,000 survivors.
BobOrci: ...Let’s just say then that the 10,000 does not count off worlders

Capt Krunch: ...why [built the Enterprise] in Iowa and on the ground?
BobOrci: The behind the camera reason related to our goal to connect a general audience to the idea that Star Trek is real and grounded (literally). The idea was based on a fan made picture we found on the internet depicting the USS ENTERPRISE in a shipyard. Alex and I showed this image to JJ, and he locked in on its value immediately.

From an in world story perspective, the idea is that George Kirk’s death caused Starfleet to commemorate his sacrifice with the Riverside Shipyards. We’ve heard the complaint that it is inefficient to build a space ship on the ground, but we figured that any ship that can literally cross the galaxy by warping space and moving faster than light is surely able to what the space shuttle can do — and that is, get into space easily.

MoPo: I understand it was a movie, but wasn’t giving a 3rd year cadet a promotion to Captain (one rank below Rear Admiral) after one mission a little rushed and forced just to get Kirk in the captain’s chair?
BobOrci: Yes it would be if there were no other extenuating circumstances (like saving the world, or the recommendations of Spock Prime and Captain Pike). People said the same about about a one term senator who jumped to the Presidency, (JFK, an inspiration for Kirk, as well as Obama).

Kirk1701: Is Kirk’s origin completely governed by FATE? Doesn’t that dehumanize him — make him more of a ‘tool of the gods’, rather than the blue-eyed humanist hero?
BobOrci: Question of fate has been touched on in article. In my mind, no, we are not relying on fate. Spock Prime pushing to place Kirk in the Captain’s chair is not based on the notion of fate, but on the proven empirical evidence ( from Nimoy’s past) that Kirk has an ability that others don’t.

Ran: As a fan, what were you thinking by destroying Vulcan, Romulus and killing Spock’s mother? Was it really necessary?
BobOrci: We knew it would be controversial for sure, but we wanted to make it clear that the rules had changed, and that we were DEFINITELY in a new time line. As for Spock’s mother… we haven’t mentioned this too much, but one of the inspirations for the Kirk/Spock relationship was the friendship between Paul McCartney and John Lennon. In a way, they were opposites, but they bonded early in life because they both suffered through the loss of A PARENT in childhood.

Logan: How does the Stardate work in the new Star Trek-Movie? It’s shown quite diffierent in the ways seen in the past films and series.
BobOrci: The year, as in 2233, with the month and day expressed as a decimal point from .1 to .365 (as in the 365 days of the year).

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Writers Talk Trek with Newsarama

Newsarama talks with Star Trek writers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci about the success of Trek and their approach to writing the movie. The full interview is here and with a few segments below.

NRAMA: You provided a fresh take on the Kirk/Spock relationship. Why go that route?
Orci: In a way, we went with reverse engineering from what you know. If you met them originally in the show as friends working well together, then dramatically what’s as far away from that which you could put them? Then we thought “What if they’re not friends? What if it’s a trial to actually realize the value in each other?” It seemed like very rich territory.

NRAMA: Sitting down, what were some of the things in the “must list” that had to be included?
Kurtzman: It’s funny because we all sat down, the two of us, along with Damon Lindelof, Bryan Burk, and J.J., made up a list of what we’d expect to see from Star Trek, they were all the same things. There was everything from how Kirk cheated on the Kobayashi Maru to the Tribbles to a million little details. There are certain phrases we knew the characters said and how we were going to get there organically. The exercise for us was in figuring out how to construct a story around revealing those things in ways that felt they were inevitable as opposed to gimmicky.

NRAMA: As Star Trek fans, which scene tickled your inner geek the most?
Orci: For me, it was when Spock Prime beams Scotty and Kirk back to the Enterprise and they have that conversation about cheating and he tells them to live long and prosper.
Kurtzman: My inner geek definitely jumps up and down when Scotty was introduced. It also goes crazy when the Enterprise is attacked at the midpoint and as a result of the crew being alive, our people end up in the chairs we know them to fall into.

NRAMA: The script took six to eight months to bang out so what other ideas did you bandy around?
Kurtzman: There was no other macro idea. We knew we wanted to do an origin story with Spock Prime coming back. Obviously, details within the story changed wildly. We had a draft with Carol Marcus meeting Kirk as a child and goes on to be the mother of his son. We had Nurse Chapel have a potentially budding romance with Spock that we explored. At one point, we were bandying around the idea of destroying the Enterprise mid-battle.
Orci: That was actually the only time the studio even put the brakes on us. “Please don’t destroy the Enterprise.” We said “Okay, you’re right. Vulcan fine. Enterprise no.” There were a few million things like that along the way.

Abrams Talk Fan Theories

Star Trek director JJ Abrams spoke with MTV about four rather odd fan theories about the movie that either is about reading to much into the film or attempt to recon film choices.

The "Abrams Sabotaged Shatner" Theory: Some Trekkies have postulated that the new movie's inclusion of the Beastie Boys classic "Sabotage" is a subtle dig at the original Captain Kirk, who has been known to mispronounce the word as "sabotaage."
"Yes, I have heard that theory," laughed Abrams. "It was so funny when I heard it. I wish I could say it was done on purpose, but it was not. I just dig the song."

The "Throw the Old 'Trek' Off a Cliff" Theory: In the same scene as the "Sabotage" song, a young James T. Kirk drives a '60s-era Corvette over a cliff, leaping out at the last minute. Some fans believe that the car is from 1966 — the year "Trek" came on the air — and that it represents a statement about the new film throwing away the trappings of the classic show.
"I'm not sure if it was a '66," Abrams said of the Corvette. "But that was also the year that I was born, so I wouldn't want to do that to the year, for personal reasons. No, the idea was to show the renegade, young Kirk and have a wildly anachronistic scene where you had an earthbound, almost back-looking scene combined with a forward-looking futuristic scene technologically. It had nothing to do with that kind of metaphor."

The "Kelvin Crew Knows Who Romulans Are" Theory: In the classic "Trek" series, humans didn't know what Romulans looked like prior to Captain Kirk's time; in the new film, a Romulan craft kills the humans aboard the U.S.S. Kelvin. According to one fan theory, the attack on the Kelvin leads to a slip-up by Abrams, because the human crew recognize their attackers as Romulans.
"It's not mentioned in the scene on the Kelvin, but they are aware of it," Abrams confirmed, agreeing with the sharp-sighted fans. "Because later in the movie, Kirk mentions that they were Romulan. And we very purposely begin the film with a moment that, for fans of 'Star Trek,' is a left turn from the timeline they are familiar with." For anyone who thinks they "caught" Abrams, however, the director is quick to point out the opposite. "For fans of 'Trek,' yes, the Romulans appearing breaks with what is known to be 'Trek' canon. But that is on purpose."

The "Sleeker, Faster Response" Theory: If the new "Trek" gives us the Enterprise equivalent of a Blu-Ray disk, then the ship on the original "Trek" looks like a Betamax tape. One fan theory is that the attack on the Kelvin forced the Federation to build sleeker, faster spacecraft in the movie's new reality.
"Right," agreed Abrams. "The idea of the story is that at the beginning of the film something happens that changes the course of history. They cross paths with this futuristic ship, and it changes everything that would've been the classic series 'Trek' fans are familiar with. ... One could argue that, based on the readings they got from the [Romulan] ship that showed up, it inspired ideas and technology that wouldn't have advanced otherwise." Hence, the huge difference between the old Enterprise and his version. "On the one hand, you could answer the question by saying that history got a boost, an adjustment, from this moment at the beginning of the film," he grinned. "And if you don't want to answer the question, you could say it's just a movie."

Post Trek Interview With Abrams

AICN has posted a post-Trek release chat with director JJ Abrams as he discusses his approach to the film and its current success (the movie has passed Wolverine in box office for the year). Below is a few answers but the full interview can be found here.

Quint: It’s not even an opinion at this point. Look at the success of the film so far, both critically and monetarily. I think it’s pretty clear that you guys have hit that sweet spot, which, I still don’t know how you guys were able to do that.
JJ Abrams: I think that part of it was that Alex (Kurtzman) and Bob (Orci) and Damon (Lindelof) are so well versed in TREK and yet they’ve got a great perspective on how TREK is perceived outside of that fanbase. And then you’ve got myself and Bryan Burk even more so, who were less familiar and so we had to this sort of range of experience with STAR TREK and a range of knowledge of it. And so you had the inside out and the outside in working together to make the movie and it really was the litmus test for us, which was “What is the story and the narrative of the story that we would all appreciate?” Once we got to that, we felt like we might be on to something.

Quint: Well, you seem to inject a lot of the adventure of a STAR WARS into the STAR TREK universe and you are also able to figure out the one way to reboot it where you kind of take away any arguments you have about bastardizing or going off canon. You were able to find a way to give yourself freedom to have fun with the movie and not be so tied.
JJ Abrams: I think that the convention of breaking away from the timeline, which just obviously gave us the freedom to tell a story that wasn’t constrained by canon, but at the same time… and the weird part is that we also had to embrace it, because that’s what we were inspired by and we had to honor it and make sure that we weren’t insulting, as much as we could, the fans of TREK.

And we knew no matter what we did, that there would be some percentage of STAR TREK fans that would hate it. We just knew that there was no way to make everyone happy and yet it was important that we try and so that was the approach. The other weird balancing act is that it was simultaneously its own thing, but it was also adhering to what has come before. It was a vision of the future that needs to work in a way that was relevant for today, but also was a vision of the future from fifty years ago, so there was a lot of bouncing back and forth. There was a brand new cast and yet it also had a character played by one of the original actors, so it was a strange backwards/forwards original piece that was also trying to adhere to what came before, so there was always this bizarre dance going on between trying to make something that was just purely its own piece and also something that was honoring and… what’s another word for it? Just being true to what had come before and that was, I guess, the biggest challenge of the movie.

Quint: I think also, just as a testament to the cast that you were able to draw, we haven’t really touched on Karl Urban or Simon Pegg and those guys bring so much to the movie, but as a testament to everybody, at the end of the movie all I wanted to do was see the next adventure of that crew. It seems like they are finally in the places they need to be and all is right in the world and they are about to go on their real adventures. So is that something that you purposefully set up, so you have…
JJ Abrams: The idea was that there were all of these disparate pieces and in a way, they are all sort of orphans and then by the end of the movie, they all click into place, they have all sort of come together as a family.

When Karl Urban came in, quite frankly I felt that it would be unlikely that that guy from BOURNE or the hunk from LORD OF THE RINGS was going to be Bones. I knew he was from New Zealand. I just didn’t see the connection, even though I liked his work very much, but I thought “Well, he doesn’t seem right for this, but I’m a fan.” He came in and blew my mind so fast. It was one of those great things where it’s a great lesson to not be so closed minded, but God he was amazing. He just channeled DeForest Kelley, it was eerie.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

TrekMovie.com Writer Q&A

TrekMovie.com has written an article of a Q&A session that occurred between site fans and Star Trek writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman in their comment section of an article from last week. The result was a rather informative view of their approach on writing the movie and incorporating things such as transporters, time travel, alternative universes and the like. Snippets below with the full article here. Time travel/parallel debate is the most interesting part and worth the read.

moauvian moaul: …How could Kirk and Scotty beam aboard the Enterprise from Delta Vega - half way across the galaxy? I know Spock gave Scotty the formula but, if they could transport at that range why the need for starships? Why a Star Trek to begin with? Am I missing something and wouldn’t that undermine most of the plots on ALL the various series and movies?
BobOrci: Interesting. We discussed that very question. The short answer is that it is entirely too dangerous. Scotty was almost killed, and we even had a line before they beam out where Scotty says, “If the calculation is off by even .oooooox (insert crazy number) we could end up 3 meters OUTSIDE the ship!” Remember, Spock Prime actually made the calculation. It’s possible there’s something key that he did not tell Scotty so that he could not reproduce the results.

VZX: How much time passed between the destruction of the Narada and Kirk getting his medal and becoming captain? I would prefer at least a year or two, as it would make a little more sense than a cadet automatically becoming captain, regardless of how many people he saved. It is just too hard to swallow and it kind of took a lot of believability away from the movie, making it even less realistic. I know you guys wanted to end with the movie with Kirk as captain and everyone in their place, but some line or two of explanation would have been nice.
BobOrci: There a are few subtle transitions in the movie that are purposely ambiguous to allow debate about how long things took to happen, like warping to Vulcan or the very thing you bring up in order to leave it in the eye of the beholder. But yes, we wanted to absolutely end with Kirk as Captain.

Robogeek: Since, among other things, the movie was about Kirk’s (altered) origin and journey to the Captain’s chair of the Enterprise, did you not think it should end with us seeing and hearing him make That Speech for the very first time, as the perfect bookend/punchline/finale to the entire film? I have to admit I was surprised and disappointed that we didn’t get that moment (which I sort of felt the entire film was leading up to brilliantly). I was also a little mystified by the choice of having Spock Prime give the speech, since frankly that’s already been done to more powerful/resonant effect (at the end of Star Trek II).
Can you talk about this decision, and whether you considered (or even tried) having Chris Pine do the speech? And dare I ask if you ever considered asking Shatner to do it?
BobOrci: We certainly did consider all of the above as you would’ve. Ultimately, we felt that from a canon and fandom point of view, Spock Prime (Nimoy) had really made this voyage possible (literally within the plot and karmically through his support of the movie), and as such, he deserved to announce the “continuing voyages” which would’ve seemed odd for Pine to say since it’s his first real voyage. But we certainly debated it all at length. Fun stuff.

Final Box Office Numbers

As reported, Star Trek took second place after Angels & Demons. Turns out the race was even close then expected as the final numbers come in. A&D took in $46.2M vs. $43M for Star Trek. Also Star Trek was barely number one both Saturday and Sunday so really the only reason it took the top spot was the midnight showings. Once you include overseas, Trek is now sitting at $215.4M globally.

In addition Star Trek broke the 2nd weekend record, beating The Dark Knight with a $5.3M to $4.7M take. Since the movie had only a two week run (Friday IMAX theatres switch to Night at the Museum 2) there was a greater sense of urgency the Dark Knight probably helping increase sales. Anyway, all in all, the future is bright for the franchise.

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Abrams Talks Sequel, New Universe Possibilities

The new Star Trek movie created a new parallel 2.0 universe that leaves the TOS Prime universe intact. JJ Abrams talked about the sequel story possibilities with MTV including williness to William Shatner in the movie assuming the story makes sense for it. Since Shatner doesn't do cameos, I am not holding my breath.

"The fun of this [new alternate 'Trek' reality] is that the destiny of these characters is in their hands — it's not constrained by the pre-existing films or TV series," the "Lost" mastermind explained. "Believe me, whether it's William Shatner or Khan ... it would be ridiculous to not be open to those ideas."

"One of the reasons we wanted to break with the original 'Star Trek' timeline was it felt restrictive," Abrams said of the plot device that could conceivably fuel the venerable series for another five decades. "The idea, now that we are in an independent timeline, allows us to use any of the ingredients from the past — or come up with brand-new ones — to make potential stories."

"It'll be fun to hear what Alex and Bob are thinking about Khan," Abrams said of their impending meetings to discuss sequel plotlines. "The fun of this timeline is arguing that different stories, with the same characters, could be equally if not more compelling than what's been told before."

"[Khan and Kirk] exist — and while their history may not be exactly as people are familiar with, I would argue that a person's character is what it is," Abrams said of the notion that his Khan could be just as evil, even if Kirk never stranded him on Ceti Alpha V. "Certain people are destined to cross paths and come together, and Khan is out there ... even if he doesn't have the same issues."

"I wouldn't rule out anything," Abrams said of a possible flash-forward that could make up for Shatner's near-miss inclusion in the new film. "The point of creating this independent timeline is to not have the restrictions we had coming into this one. And one of those restrictions was that Kirk was dead."

Personally I think the Kirk vs. Khan dynamic was done to perfection in Star Trek II and a new villain and challenges should be explored rather than treading old ground.

Various Star Trek Tidbits

Star Trek In Space
International Space Station astronauts got a treat as they got to watch the new movie on a laptop, and since one of the few legal copies out there, they get to watch it as much as they want. Mr. Barratt, 50, Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka, 50, and Koichi Wakata, 46, of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency settled into the node, named “Unity,” after dinner and secured their feet with floor straps to keep from floating during the screening, NASA spokeswoman Nicole Cloutier said.

Obama Reviews Star Trek
Speaking of special screenings, President Obama was able to watch Star Trek at the White House and said it good. He even went so far as to do the Vulcan salute for the reporter.

TOS Tribble for Sale?
Someone on eBay has what they call a real The Original Series Tribble from the episode "The Trouble with Tribbles" that still works once you insert the AA batteries. Supposedly it comes with a certificate of authenticity signed by Chris Doohan, son of James Doohan (Scotty). If you have $5000, it can be yours.

Chris Hemsworth Is Thor
The actor who played George Kirk, dad of James T. in the movie is set to become Thor for the Marvel Comics movie which is part of the build up to the Avengers movie. The movie is currently scheduled for May 20th, 2011 release date with Kenneth Branagh directing.

Weekend Box Office Estimates

Week two for Star Trek and the box office prospects are looking very good. As expected Angels & Demons took the top spot with $48 million but Star Trek nearly took the top spot with a take of $43 million. The result was only a 43% drop in sales, remarkable considering the summer movie competition. Wolverine, in its third week of release took a 44% drop to $14.8 million for the weekend putting it at $151.1 million total.

With a current US box office total of $147.6, the new Star Trek is now the highest grossing picture in franchise history and currently resides at 6th for attendance but that will change pretty quickly. Foriegn estimates add another $21 million from 57 markets bringing the global total to $216.

Looking at Rotten Tomatoes, the long term prospects remain solid as it appears that Angels & Demons and Wolverine are going to non-factors in the race to summer box office king. A&D has a critic rating of 38% (66% community rating), Wolverine has rating of 37% (65% community) and Star Trek remains high with 95% (88% community) so word of mouth will remain a factor and indicates repeat viewers. Suffice it to say Star Trek is going to have an excellent run at the box office proving that Paramount's gamble to move the film from Christmas to Summer release was a good one.

Next week Terminator Salvation and Night at the Museum 2 is out so Star Trek will probably drop a few places, but it looks like it has excellent chance to landing at third. At this point I have wonder if the movie will not top out at around $225 domestically. It is too early to tell but generally a hugely successful film has a total that is 50% US, 50% rest of the world so if that pattern holds, Trek has the potentially of crossing the $400million threshold in a few weeks.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Join Starfleet Academy, Death Star vs Enterprise and Ship Comparisons

On the movie front the movie continues to do well at the box office as it will probably cross the domestic $100 threshold by Friday night. In the meantime a few links for your pleasure.

First up is Join Starfleet Academy, a joint venture between Nokia, Verizon and Paramount that has a lot of Star Trek centric features. The site has videos, interviews, wallpaper, games and other features to have some fun with. In addition they have added an interesting feature called "Augmented Reality" that uses a webcam to detect the picture you’re holding up and display a 3D image with details (video example below).

Verizon Wireless Star Trek Augmented Reality - Click here for more blooper videos
Next is a pretty darn good video the Enterprise vs. the Death Star. It’s short and if you’re not looking you will miss it (look behind the Stormtroopers).

Last is an interesting comparison the Enterprise vs. Battlestar Galactica and other ships both new and old. The Original Series ship was 288 meters long, the new one is 725.35 meters, nearly 3x the size (which I think puts it at Enterprise-E dimensions). Click here for a few more details.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Star Trek Tokyo Premiere

Star Trek made its premiere in geek style with a giant Enterprise above the red carpet in Tokyo, Japan as Abrams and cast and crew showed up to help promote the movie in the land of the rising sun. The Japanese market is key to the film's oversea success which is why such a grand premiere. Below are a few pictures from the red carpet with the full gallery here.

Star Trek: D-A-C Now Out

If you have an XBox 360, Star Trek: D-A-C is now available for download from XBox Live for $10. The game is a top-down shooter of Starfleet versus Romulans for control of space. The Playstation Network and PC version is supposed to be follow but release dates have not been announced. To learn more, click here.

Message of New Movie

Interesting question from Io9.com to the Star Trek writers. Since the Original Series episodes often had a message, what would they say the message was for the current movie.

One thing I always liked about the series were the moral lessons. Would you ever think about having a more challenging social message, maybe in the next Star Trek movie?
Kurtzman: The thing that is genius about Trek, and we've talked about this a lot, is that there was always a veiled message story. You never felt like you were getting beaten over the head by whatever the topic was. The bridge crew itself was this kind of idyllic world, there was a Russian, and in the middle of the Cold War everyone was working together. We feel like if you're going to tell a message in Trek you have to veil it in a really, really clever story.

So what was the message of this movie?
Orci: It sort of reflects where we are when Spock reflects at the end and kind of says, "I've kind of left you in a dark world, keep your chin up." The destruction of Vulcan in Trek lore to us is kind of the equivalent to a September 11th and the Holocaust all rolled into one. How does this crew deal with that? Is it a cynical decision that leads to a war with Romulus? Or is it a singular problem problem solving situation, with the person who really did it?

Are there any social issues you'd like to tackle in the next Star Trek movie?
Orci: It has to be a mosaic, we don't want to make anything a single issue. It would be a mosaic of... of our Southern California upbringing [laughs].
Kurtzman: Different philosophies... I agree, its hard to sort of pin point that we want to make a movie about one thing...

Orci: Adoption! [Jokingly]

Yep, as suspected there really isn't one unless you call good effects plus action equal good box office results.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Star Trek Sequel Talk

Star Trek writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman talk with MTV about sequel possiblities. Thanks to the new Star Trek 2.0 universe they figure they have a blank canvas to work from that could even entertain the possibility of death for major characters. Thanks to Brian for the link.

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

One of the obstacles that we found ourselves butting up against [when we took on the job] was this idea that we already knew the fate of the characters," writer/producer Alex Kurtzman told us of the newly established parallel "Trek" dimension, forever altered by the reckless actions of time-travelling villain Nero (Eric Bana). "If you're going to bring a whole new iteration of 'Trek' to life, you could never put them in any real danger — because you already know how they either died or lived. So, we felt like, all right, we have to find a way to make the future unpredictable, so whenever they're in these difficult, treacherous situations there truly is the risk of death."

"All the characters who existed in the universe or canon we grew up with are essentially still around in some capacity," Kurtzman explained. "But their lives have been altered, so they may again intersect with our crew."

"There's a deal in place with the writers and the actors," Abrams said recently of "Trek" sequel plans, explaining that all the key actors are under contract to return. "If people like this movie, and there's a demand for another one, we would be happy to work on it."

Well, they certainly did — and Kurtzman and his writing partner Roberto Orci (who also collaborated on the upcoming "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen") told us that their minds are already swimming with sequel possibilities.

"I don't think we ever need to talk about time travel again," Orci explained, saying that Leonard Nimoy and other "original universe" cast members will likely be unnecessary from here on out. "In fact, in the end of the movie, the device that allows time travel is destroyed. So we're stuck with this universe we're in now."

"Now we're in this new world," Kurtzman agreed. "And we're just gonna have to live through the unpredictable future."

As for ideas in that universe, Orci explained: "We've had a couple of really preliminary conversations, but we really didn't want to [get ahead of ourselves], because this isn't something we invented. We wanted to see what fans think of the first one; let's see what works, and what people think is the best in what we've done. And then we can take that into account when we think about the next movie."

BK Commercials, Continuity Changes, Blu-Ray and Lens Flares

A few links of interest and amusement.

First up, today is the release date for the new Star Trek Blu-ray and DVD sets. On the Blu-Ray front now out is The Star Trek Collection is all 10 movies and another is the Star Trek Trilogy of Wrath of Khan, Search for Spock, and the Voyage Home films. For DVD's there is the Trilogy set, Best of The Original Series and Best of the Next Generation. The Best of sets are four episodes on one disc. The TOS set is The City on the Edge of Forever, Balance of Terror, Amok Time, and The Trouble with Tribbles. The TNG set is The Best of Both Worlds (both parts), Yesterday's Enterprise, and The Measure of a Man.

For those that have seen the movie you will notice that Abrams has displayed a love for lens flares. Partmor decided to take that love to segments of Space Seed, the episode that introduced Khan, and enhance the various light sources to rather dramatic effect.

One of the changes the new movie has wrought is the creation of a Star Trek 2.0 universe that is similar but different form the one of the last 43 years. The folks over at Culture Zoo did an analysis on what effect these changes could have on Trek history. It’s rather Trek specific but an interesting read. An example is in the Prime universe, a star goes nova, destroys Romulus and sets Nero on his destructive path because Vulcan refused to provide the technology to stop it. Now that Nero is destroyed, doesn't that mean the technology will never exist and he has now doomed Romulus in this new future?

Burger King is releasing more Star Trek commercials. The below one takes place on the Enterprise set as kids play with their toys.

Additional Star Trek related commercials can be found here.

Monday, May 11, 2009

The Planned Shatner Scene

It turns out that Star Trek writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman wrote a rather clever scene that would have allowed for an appearance from William Shatner. It sounds like it would have been a great scene but since Shatner doesn't "do cameos"; well it’s no surprise why it didn't happen.

Alex Kurtzman: We had a scene with Shatner, and that ended up going.
Roberto Orci: Right, we had a scene with Shatner.
Orci: We wrote it, it was in the script.
Kurtzman: The very last scene when Spock and Spock meet each other, finally. And elder Spock is convincing young Spock that he couldn't interfere, because it would have diverted [Kirk and Spock] away from their friendship. And that their friendship is the key to the whole sort of shebang.
Orci: He gave him a recorded message from Kirk.
Kurtzman: He [elder Spock] said, "Don't take my word for it." And he handed him [younger Spock] a little holographic device and it projected Shatner. It was basically a Happy Birthday wish knowing that Spock was going to go off to Romulus, and Kirk would probably be dead by the time...
Orci: It turned into a voiceover, at the end of the movie.
Kurtzman: So It was a nod too, but it ultimately felt like a cameo, in a way that wasn't.
Orci: I still liked it [Laughs].

Final Box Office Numbers

Yesterday I reported the estimated numbers for the weekend box office but now Box Office Mojo has posted the final numbers including the foreign take.

The finalized take increased Star Trek's totals from $76.5 to $79.2 million which exceeds internal Paramount expectations of $50-$60 million. The first weekend breakdown:

Thursday: $4.0M
Friday: $26.89M
Saturday: $27.25M
Sunday: $21.06M
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Total: $79.20M for US
Foreign: $35.5M
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Grand Total: $114.7M

The several million discrepancies indicate that sales on Saturday and Sunday were higher than expected. One problem that may impact the films long term vitality at the box office in face of new competition is the audience make is 60% male, 40% female and 65% was 25 years and older. Personally that sounds like a solid sweet spot for this type of movie but Hollywood still thinks that 25 and under are repeat viewers that create the mega blockbusters. I just think a good popcorn flick combined with excellent word of mouth will do the work regardless of demographics.

Including in those numbers is a new record for IMAX viewings with a weekend take of $8.5 million on 138 screens, surpassing The Dark Knight's $6.5M take. The diagram above is a comparison of the previous Star Trek films opening weekends accounting for inflation from TrekMovie.com. Keep in mind that first weekend totals were not really important until the mid nineties. Before then, longetivity at the box office was what drove a marketing campaign rather than one huge weekend.

One number that isn't that good is the international number which sits at $35.5M but that doesn't include a few key markets such as Japan. For the film to even hope to reach $500 million plus that all studios want for their films, the foreign box office needs to be equal or greater than the domestic totals. However, for foreign markets longetivity is about as important as one huge weekend so it is too early to draw any conclusions about the film's success overseas.

The key factor will be how it holds against the competition with Angels and Demons, Terminator: Salivation and Up. Star Trek will not remain number one but if it can stay in the top five for the next few weeks, its final tally will be even more impressive. Regardless of the final numbers, Paramount has to be pleased as the relaunch of the Star Trek franchise is a complete success.

Trek Interviews and Other Links of Note

Star Trek is celebrating an outstanding weekend but that doesn't mean the interviews have stopped.

G4 Interviews - Click the link to go to the lovely Alison Haislip site where she has posted her interviews (for Attack of the Show) with Leonard Nimoy, Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto and JJ Abrams.

IGN Interviews - A nice one stop shop as IGN has posted their interviews with the cast of Star Trek.

Top 25 Star Trek Characters - IGNs list of the best characters in Star Trek over the last 43 years. Their top five - 5) Leonard McCoy 4) Data 3) Jean-Luc Picard 2) Spock 1) James T. Kirk.

Star Trek Easter Eggs - The movie has a lot of references both overt and not that gives a nod to the last 43 years of Star Trek history (and the new reality of movies with product placements). Nods include Pine ending in a wheelchair is a less gruesome nod to The Original Series' fate, Scotty being banished for losing Admiral Archer's dog (Archer was the Captain of the Enterprise in the prequel television series from a few years ago), and of course the catch phrases ("I am giving her all she's got Captain!").

Thanks to Brian for some of the links.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Star Trek #1 Weekend Movie

If you’re the cast, crew or executives at Paramount, you probably have a very satisfied grin on your face as the preliminary numbers are out and Star Trek is #1 at the box office in the states and expected to do the same internationally once those numbers are out. According to Box Office Mojo, the weekend take is $72.5 million, the most successful launch for any Star Trek film to date. Previous record holder Star Trek: First Contact took in $30.7 million or around $52 million once account for inflation. It was also the second most successful weekend so far this year only behind Wolverine's $85M weekend (which experienced a massive 68.3% drop). Once you include Thursday ticket sales the total reaches $76.5 million.

US Estimated Sales breakdown:
Thursday: $4 million
Friday: $24 million
Saturday: $26 million
Sunday: $22.5 million
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Total: $76.5 million

Next weekend the sequel to the Da Vinci Code, Angels and Demons, comes out so Star Trek is expected to take a box office hit from the new competition much like Wolverine from Trek. However, Star Trek is one of the highest rated movies of the year by both critics and viewers (96% on Rotten Tomatoes) so it will have something going for it that Wolverine didn't (only 37%) - excellent word of mouth. Anything below 50% will indicate that Star Trek will have a very profitable box office ride that could land it in the top three for the summer in revenue. As it is, it wouldn't surprise me if the sequel gets fast tracked with a larger budget.

Star Trek On SNL

Chris Pine (Kirk 2.0), Zachary Quinto (Spock 2.0), and Leonard Nimoy (Spock Prime) stopped by Saturday Night Live to help promote the movie. It was part of the Weekend Update segment.

Bana, Collins Interviews

TrekMovie.com has posted their interviews with Star Trek's Eric Bana (Nero) and Clifton Collins, Jr. (Ayel, Nero's 1st officer). The full interviews are here, snippets below.

Eric Bana

TrekMovie: One of the things I was most taken with in regards to your performance, is that you play a very different kind of Romulan. Did you do any research into the Romulans? And what other influences did you look at for inspiration? Maybe even pirate movies?
Bana: My point of reference was always Nero as he was written and I tried to develop my ideas based on his genesis. I always go the exact opposite when I was preparing. I watch no movies and definitely nothing vaguely related to what I am about to do. I never used other films in my research. It was basically about It was essentially working on how this guy would look, sound, feel, walk, behave - based on everything that happened to him, and the fact that he was Romulan, obviously. I didn’t want to be overly humanized and overly likable, I just wanted his vengeance to be understandable. Just because I think it is more interesting for the audience. I never like it when we have to accept our villains just because they are villains.

TrekMovie: We just reported about how the whole Nero in Rura Penthe part of the film was cut, which probably took a couple weeks to film. Did JJ have to break that to you?
Bana: You mean the whole thing with him in prison and breaking out of prison…He told me long before seeing the film that they were doing that. I always had complete faith in JJ and so whatever choices he was making was the best for the movie. It didn’t bother me at all. I thought it was cool sequence. I loved seeing that patience in the character. I think we still get a sense of it enough so we keep some of those dramatic elements in the story, we just don’t see it. Saved for the DVD I guess.

TrekMovie: Do you think by cutting the sequence the audience could be losing something in understanding Nero, or do you think it enhances his mystery?
Bana: That is a really good question. They would definitely get to know him more and his plight would be more understandable. In some ways I think it could have made it more threatening. I always loved this notion of a villain who is extremely patient. Someone who is waiting 25 years to exact his revenge. That is far scarier than someone who just reacts to the moment. In some ways it may have added to the threat level.

Clifton Collins, Jr.

TrekMovie: What was your research for the role in terms of the Romulans and Star Trek?
Collins: I started off by looking into the movies, but in the back of my mind I was thinking that this isn’t those other Star Trek’s… so I stopped after Kirstie Alley appeared, although she was beautiful, so that threw me off. So I just worked with JJ on the balancing act of how much emotion to show or not show and we played with a range of things.

TrekMovie: You and Eric had an opportunity in this film in that you weren’t stepping into someone else’s shoes, was that freeing?
Collins: You know with all the grandeur of the franchise, none of that hit me until the first day when I walked on and JJ asked me to look down that barrel and announce to the USS Kelvin that this is Star Trek. I have made like seventy-something films and it felt like my first time. JJ was like ‘are you ready for this?’ and I was ‘no’…Oh my god Clifton you are doing Star Trek! It all caught up to me, but the grandeur and the responsibility, which I hold for all of my characters, but this thing is different.

Friday, May 8, 2009

My Star Trek Review

This is my first real attempt to do an in depth review of a film. There was two ways to go about writing this, one is as a diehard Trekkie" or as a fan of movies, which is really your choices when deciding to watch this movie. I decided to go with the latter as the first would probably come across as bitter and angry which I am not. Nor is it realistic to what Abrams and Paramount is trying to accomplish with this movie which is restart the franchise for a new generation. So here you go my review of Star Trek.

JJ Abrams Star Trek is a wildly entertaining summer movie that re-invents the Star Trek franchise as an action film. The movie is designed from the ground up to appeal to new fans but provides design, writing and character goodies for those lifelong fans to also enjoy.

The story itself is pretty simple, it is all about revenge and the famed crew of the Enterprise is all that stands between life and death. The movie is sold as a prequel but really it is just uses some rather massive contortions and serendipity moments to get a young cast with familiar character names together on the Enterprise bridge in the roles that most people are at least vaguely familiar with. There is a brief explanation of parallel universes and so forth but let us be clear, this is a complete re-launch of the Star Trek franchise and what came before is simply a place to grab ideas from. This film, in spectacular fashion, makes it clear at one point that it refuses to be beholden to what came before.

The character introductions, while entertaining and cute, really don't service the film in any meaningful way. Spock (Zachary Quinto) and James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) are given character arcs to illustrate growth but as written are without much depth and predictable. The villain himself, Nero (Eric Bana) has the highest body count in Trek history yet his story is weak and typical of a TV cop show where the bad guy kills because someone failed to save those he loved. I think the writers wanted you to feel sorry for Nero but you don't. He is simply there to point the Enterprise at and provide Kirk with a back-story that has some emotional depth. The rest of the core characters all play a useful part in the film in some form or fashion, something that can be difficult when trying to juggle nearly a dozen characters and give each a moment.

The reason the writing works though is because the acting, directing and special effects are executed pitch perfect. While die hard Trekkies may grumble, the actors inhabit their new roles rather well. Chris Pine retains the swagger and confidence that William Shatner brought to the role of Kirk but now there is a level of sadness and anger that Kirk rarely showed. Quinto simply is Spock. He manages to bring a huge amount of emotionally range to a character that is supposed to suppress all of his emotions. It is an honors level acting course in subtle acting through tone and facial expression that is throttled up or down as needed for a scene.

The supporting Enterprise bridge crew of John Cho (Sulu), Anton Yelchin (Chekov), Zoe Saldana (Uhura), and Simon Pegg (Scotty) all inhabit their roles as well as possible, making the most of the few moments they get to shine. At most, my only complaint is Chekov's accent and jokes are a little over the top and maybe the character should take voice lessons between sequels. Eric Bana does the best as he can with his role as the villain but has little to work with beyond look menacing, yell orders and remind viewers that he wants revenge. Leonard Nimoy, as "Spock Prime", exists in the movie to literally pass the torch to the new cast and as usual his very presence brings a gravitas to the role that Quinto doesn't yet have. His role is little more than a cameo but he makes the most of it.

In everything, there are homages to the Star Trek ideas of old. The Enterprise itself, with an exterior design that harkens back to the old design, is updated with a sleeker and more modern look. The bridge, with touch controls, clear screens and a massive view screen retains the center chair captain's chair and front navigator seat is full of lights and plenty of screens makes for an interesting if bright visual. The view screen itself was updated from an oversized television screen to a futuristic windshield (with heads-up display) as the saucer section is showing on the bottom of the screen much like the hood does in a car. The engines rooms retain a clean look but have that cluttered feel that convey a battleship design with pipes showing, stairs to climb, and levers all over the place that one would expect from such a location. The costumes retain the original series design of color denoting department, but now are more flattering and detailed.

Where this film really shines though is the action sequences, special effects and sound. The camera often flies into the action rather than above it, almost as if there was a camera mounted on one of the missiles roaring in to cause destruction. The space battles are not two ships trading single shots like in the other movies, but a burst of massive firepower as they open their arsenals in a fight for survival that causes damage on multiple fronts. The CGI work is spectacular is it captures the beauty of Star Trek with space, the ships and yet also perfectly captures the ugliness when that beauty is destroyed. This is also a film that needs to be with a good sound system as all that sound and fury needs to be properly enjoyed.

This film, while bringing a new look and feel to universe of Star Trek, doesn't forget where it came from with homages all over the place. From the costumes, to the sets, to even the sound on the bridge, there is love for what came before complete with a reprise of the Original Series score at the end. The score, by Michael Giacchino, is homage all by itself as it is full of familiar music from past Star Trek films and shows while adding his own sound to it. If there is one complaint I have about the score it is that it recycles some of his themes too frequently, probably a consequence of Giacchino's television background. However, it does its job, which is enhancing what is on the screen without getting in the way.

The film does have its issues. A lot of it is in the story as you are just expected to accept things just because. Nero was there for Kirk's birth, the somehow disappears for 20 years without explanation, happily returning in time to confront the adult Kirk. Cadets that are just about to graduate are promoted quickly and for no real reason other than they need to get them on the bridge of the Enterprise. The film heavily relies on coincidence to move things along such as Kirk stumbling across Spock Prime and Scotty or technology going form barely functioning to being able to do wonderful things at extreme distances depending on story needs. Another problem is lens flares. The film is full of them. If there is a light source, it is going to cause a lens flare at some point. It occurs in fights, on the bridge, in a hallway, everywhere. They go from an element of the look of the film to a flat out distraction.

The $100 million budget, larger than the previous three movies combined, is all there on the screen. The result is a very entertaining film that leaves you wanting a sequel but really forgetting about the movie moments after setting out of the theatre. The story is serviceable, the cast great, the characters interesting and the special effects spectacular. Star Trek is the perfect popcorn flick to forget the world for two hours. JJ Abrams achieved his goal of bringing a beloved franchise and introducing it to a new generation.

Star Trek D-A-C Trailer, Screenshots, and Interview

Star Trek D-A-C, the tie in video game for the new movie, is going to be out on XBox Live starting May 13th for $10 and later this summer for the Playstation Network. Here is the new trailer, an interview with Ben Hoyt and also click here for screenshots.

IGN interviewed Paramount Digital Entertainment producer Ben Hoyt about the new game. Below are a few snippets and can find the entire article here.

Kikizo: Having a look at the game I can see it features many ships from the new film, are there any older ships in there is it mainly focused on the new film and battles?
Ben: It's new, entirely new; we have the new Enterprise and a bunch of other ships that are inspired by the art style direction of the film.

Kikizo: Let's talk about gameplay modes, what can we expect to see?
Ben: There are three game types, and each can be played either in the online or solo modes. The ideal scenario - the way we designed - is primarily a multiplayer experience, so the game supports up to twelve players in two teams of up to six, and I think that's where you're likely to have the best experience of the game, is getting online, talking smack, coordinating and strategising with your friends using voice - that's the way to play the game to get the most out of it. But you know, different strokes for different folks, I mean that may be the way I would play it but there are definitely other people out there who may have their own style. So we've included a co-op where you can play with your friends against AI opponents if you're feeling a little non-confrontational, or if you just don't like talking to people at all there's a solo version of the game where you can play the same game with AI team mates.

The three game types we have are Team Deathmatch which is a classic first team to 50 kills, type of thing. There's a mode called conquest which is more of a traditional control point game where you're trying to capture different sectors of space and hold them against the opposing armadas, and there is a mode called Assault which is an offence/defence where one team is trying to defend a Starbase and the other trying to capture it, and there are turrets and space mines, stuff like that.

Kikizo: You mentioned online stats, what can we expect to see?
Ben: Yeah we have nine leaderboards, but plenty of stat tracking in terms of your kills and deaths, and how many kills you have with each different ship type, that sort of thing.

New Star Trek iPhone Game

A new Star Trek game is now out on iTunes for your iPhone and Touch. The game was created by EA and will set cost you $3. The is a shooter only the Enterprise is the gun where you use a bulls eye thing to steer the ship and tap the screen to fire. Click here to go to the App Store for more info and a few more screenshots here.

Nimoy's Top 10, Trek Time Travel, and Blu-ray

Leonard Nimoy was on the Late Show with David Letterman to read off the "Top Ten Lines Never Before Said in a Star Trek Film".

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From io9.com, the six time travel theories from Star Trek's past. The main difference is time travel occurred within the same universe, the new movie's is with the able assistance of a black hole that time travel can also involve universe hopping. Click here to read it.
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Gizmodo has a review of the blu-ray release of the first season of Star Trek: The Original Series that includes the old style effects and the new improved digital effects that still capture and fit in the style of the times. The series have been converted to 1080p so if digital clarity is your thing, this might be worth the purchase.

Yep, More Interviews

The campaign continues to get you to see Star Trek. Click the links for the full interviews, just posting a few snippets.

Star Trek Movie Magazine - click the link for excepts of interviews with the cast for the magazine.

JJ Abrams (Director)

TrekMovie: You talk about how people do not need to know a lot to enjoy this film. One thing that I do think may be an issue and have some people at least asking the question: What was Nero doing for 25 years? Talk me through the decision to remove that. The one thing I would like to see in this film was more Nero.
Abrams: Well you are not wrong. Not only would it have been nice, but I thought it was nice to have that stuff in there. But I don’t think the majority of the audience has the patience and the willingness to do the kind of work that deep-routed fans of genre, and certainly of Trek, are willing to do and in fact live to do. I have found on Lost and on Fringe that the casual viewer may be confounded by a plot turn that I love. What I love about this is not just mystery, but sometimes these diversions that take you into a really weird place, then kind of get back on track and continue. That sequence took the audience off track into a whole new place that I thought was really cool, really weird, beautifully designed and had great mood. I loved the visual effects and the whole thing. It broke my heart to cut it. But when we showed the movie to the audience with that sequence it really threw them. Because we had a bad guy who is suddenly imprisoned by other bad guys. You didn’t know who was who. There was exposition that I really enjoyed, that people felt was confusing and distracting. And it threw the audience off and took them on this diversion and the truth is, not unlike Richard Donner’s Superman, the movie really begins in earnest about half an hour into the movie, when in that film Christopher Reeve is flying away from the Fortress of Solitude as Superman. Everything that preceded it was critical to emotionally connect to the story, but now the story begins. In our movie it just felt like a five minute diversion that people were like ‘what?’

Anton Yelchin (Chekov)

TrekMovie: How much of a discussion with JJ was there on the level of genuine ‘Russian-ness’ to put into it?
Yelchin: I wanted it to be close to the Chekov accent, I guess that is where our opinions differ. I have no problem doing a real Russian accent, but that wouldn’t be Chekov to me. The interesting thing about it is that his accent is a cold-war stereotype of a Russian person. And when I watched the series and the films, that is what I found interesting about it. And I adjusted it, it is not entirely the same, but Walter [Koenig] came on set and was like "that sounds like me." And that is what was fun for me. As a person familiar with a Russian accent, and someone with Russian roots who can speak Russian and knows what Russian people sound like, it was fun to purposefully mess around with the Russian accent — to purposefully change what I thought a Russian accent was to suit that stereotype they had in the sixties.

TrekMovie: You spent a lot of time at your console on the bridge and the console in the transporter room. Did any one of the set designers ever tell you ‘this button does this, and that button does that’? So when Pike issues an order, you know what button to push?
Yelchin: Me and John Cho kind of sat down the first day and talked to JJ said that because this is going to become the way for us to do things, we need to figure out what is what. We really kind of stuck to doing the same things over and over again. We also got these neat little space pens, like when I come up with the solution. No one sat us down so it was up to us and John and I really coordinated what we were doing to make sure it looks legitimate.

John Cho on Jimmy Kimmel 5/7 - Thanks to Brian for the link

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Star Trek Officially in Theatres

It is now 7:00PM on the east coast of the United States so Star Trek has officially premiered in theatres. So what did you think?

Even More Trek Interviews

More interviews from the Trek cast as they make the TV and print rounds.

Zoe Saldana on Jimmy Kimmel 5/6/09

John Cho on Jay Leno on 5/6/09

Abrams on Charlie Rose

Pine and Quinto

Abrams on Good Day New York

Bruce Greenwood - click link for complete interview

TrekMovie: What is interesting about your character is that even though it was originated by another actor, there was only the one episode. So did you find it was a little easier for you compared to the other guys, as you had a lot more freedom to work with?
Greenwood: There is less of Hunter’s Pike in the history, but having said that, and you know this better than anybody, once part of Star Trek, it is indelible. Whatever imprint you make can’t be undone. I went back and looked at Pikes dilemma as face by Hunter and then I realized it is very different than the dilemma that my Pike faces. Having said that, they are both tremendously passionate people. The risk I was taking was with Kirk and not with my own future per se.

TrekMovie: Fair enough. There is one decision he makes in the film that still has me scratching my head and this is probably a question for Bob [Orci], but when Pike makes Kirk first officer and Spock is like ‘are you joking?’ Did you ask Bob or JJ why is he doing this? Did it make sense to you?
Greenwood: It made sense to me. What I intuit about Kirk’s ability to command can hardly be put into words. It is just that sense that the kid is incredibly rough and has a terrible bedside manner and can be abusive as with the scenario. I was not happy with the scenario [Kobayashi Maru]. We shot something in which I said to him as we are walking away after we get the emergency call, we shot something where I say "cheating is not winning." I had a long conversation with JJ About that and because I felt it was important for Pike to let Kirk know that this was not evidence of a perfect mind — this was not particularly impressive. On a technical level yes, but in terms of the lesson that he was meant to learn, it was more like what Spock says. Having said that, he has a sense of what it is going to take to prevail that is informed by his gene pool.

Simon Pegg gives Scotty a bio

Montgomery Scott was born on March 3rd 2222, in Linlithgow, West Lothian. His parents eventually moved him and his brother Robert to Aberdeen, where his sister Clara was born. An exceptional student Scotty (or Mad Monty as his friends called him) was advanced forward several years in the educational system, meaning his intellectual peers were all at University age, whilst he was a mere 14. As a result, he spent much of his time crawling the pubs of Aberdeen with is friends, drinking and getting into fights about thermodynamics and quantum mechanics with men twice his size. At the age of 16, he came to the attention of professors at the Advanced Relativistic Physics Department at Glasgow University, after disproving the Prerera Theory (regarding photon torpedo detonation) and was transferred to study there for a year (where he really picked up the accent) before being accepted to Starfleet Academy on a scholarship. However he deferred his placement in favor of practical experience in space, working aboard mining ships and freighters, in particular the USS Deirdre, where he fell in love with engineering. Eventually he attended Starfleet and finished top of his graduating year, although the honor was later stripped due to disciplinary action taken against him due to “highly speculative and dangerous experiments with matter transfer”.

Thanks to Brian for the Zoe and Cho links, and TrekMovie.com for the rest.

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

More Cast Interviews

The Star Trek cast is making the rounds to fill theatre seats for tomorrow's night opening of the movie. Below are snippets from each but click the links to read the whole thing.

Zachary Quinto - Two video clips from ABC. The first clip is an interview were Quinto discusses the movie, becoming Spock, and Trek tradition. After a commercial break, the second clip airs wtih Quinto talking about what would be on Spock's iPod (classic rock and Bob Dylan). Thanks to Brian for the link and info.

Karl Urban (Leonard "Bones" McCoy)

Did you and JJ sit down and decide to go that route with Bones –to make him the one that would be the closest to the original?
Urban: No, actually. We never really had that conversation. As a long-term fan I felt it was important to see some semblance of continuity to the wonderful work Mr. Kelley had done. And really, to me, it is about the character’s attitudes. And there is a certain specific way that the character of McCoy reacts in certain situations and I really could only do my version of what that could be. There were certain character traits that were keys for me. Finding a voice was important. I remember JJ coming up to me one day and he says "what you are doing is wonderful, it is not DeForest Kelley, but it is something that is Bones, but it’s different, and keep on doing what you are doing." I had a lot of fun working on this character. I got to do and say some fun things. I am just very grateful that the character has gone down well thus far. I look forward, if I get the opportunity, to continue to develop it in further installments..

TrekMovie: As a fan. what was your biggest fanboyish moment in making this movie?
Urban: I think it was meeting Leonard Nimoy and being on set the very first day that he became Spock again, the first time in seventeen years. to be this close, as I am to you, to an actor and character of such iconic status who you have enjoyed and has been part of your childhood — to be that close to him was such surreal moment. To hear him deliver those lines in that Spock cadence — I’ll never forget it. I feel very privileged to be part of it and blessed that he was part of our film.

John Cho (Hikaru Sulu)

TrekMovie: Once you got the script, what was it like for you, since Sulu is a little different than he was in the show and has a lot of action. Were you nervous about that or excited?
Cho: A little bit of both. I was thrilled he was out of his chair and getting into the mix. If I had one complaint about the old show, as an Asian-American, I wanted to see Sulu get involved a little more and kick some booty. And this is it, this is happening. I can’t believe I am fulfilling my own personal dream and having Sulu shaking it. And secondly, I was like ‘I have never done this before’, I have never done action before so it was a completely different way of working for me, where I led with my body. Strangely, that stunt work we did a couple of months prior informed everything else. I was surprised by that. That the way my body changed as a result of doing all that training, kind of made me a different person. I was like ‘I like this, I am going with this’ it was a little like an Academy experience for us. It informed how I sat in the chair, how I attacked every line. It was surprisingly useful.

TrekMovie: You talk about getting back into the chair. You and Anton [Yelchin] still do a lot of ‘in the chair’ work in this movie. So you and he worked out some system so you know what does what at that consoles? Like you guys have figured out a system where you know what to do if Kirk says ‘fire the photon torpedoes’?
Cho: Not precisely, but vaguely, yeah. We made decisions and it was building from scratch. I went in there and I called JJ over and I was looking at the set and I said ‘what is the language?’ I realized we are setting something here, we have got to feel confident going forward. The set was an in interesting mixture of the digital vibe of the original show, and kind of the — I hate to bring this up — but the analog vibe of Star Wars. The bumpiness and used feel and the real dials. It was funny, Star Trek was such a smooth sleek view of the future and how do you combine that. Do you depress things? We could have gone in a bunch of ways. We relied on the touch screen more than anything else.

Zoe Saldana (Nyota Uhura)

TrekMovie: You mention kissing aliens, so I can’t help but bring up something. I would say as a Trekkie it was the most surprising thing about this film. Were you nervous about the love connection with Spock and tell me how you prepared for it.
Saldana: I thought JJ [Abrams] was out of his mind when he and Bob Orci and Alex Kurtzman decided to take that route. My concerns was what effect it was going to have on the fan community and whether or not it was going to go according to what they had known for so long. But at the same time there was no way to disprove that something like that had taken place before on the Enterprise. So after I gave myself that permission I allowed myself to go back to the script and read the story and focus on these characters and their journey and it made perfect sense to me. He is half human, half Vulcan, at some point if he was only going to be a Vulcan man, then why even make him half human. You are constantly waiting for him to break. It is that battle that makes Spock who he is and connects Spock to the beautiful friendship he has with Kirk and keeps him connected on a sensitive level when it comes to life. And I felt Uhura was a very commanding and — Nichelle [Nichol]’s Uhura was just so sexy and she always had things together and she had a swagger to her that was absolutely sensuous but confident. And she had already gotten there. I couldn’t necessarily start here there because there would be no journey for her. She was definitely very determined and a very strong woman and really wanted to be on that Enterprise and be the xenolinguistics expert since she was like five years old. So who else but Spock for her to look up to and have an infatuation with, more than Kirk.

Zachary Quinto (Spock)

TrekMovie: I know that you have tried to make this role your own, as directed by JJ and as Leonard [Nimoy] understood. But what would you say is the most different about your interpretation of Spock, and on the other hand what would you say was the most the same?
Quinto: I will take the second part first. I think there are a number of characteristics of Spock that are inextricable from who he is and what his heritage is and what his cultural history is. There is a certain way he carries himself and a certain way that he speaks and way that he relates that is defined ultimately by Leonard, but more than that, by the history of the mythology of the character. For me that was the part of the character that was most similar to the version that Leonard played. I think the versions that were different is that that he is much less at ease about his duality. He is much more in conflict internally and I think he has much less control over the stirrings of his human emotion, and that allowed me a little bit more room to play with then many Leonard felt he had with his experience with the character.

TrekMovie: How did you prepare to literally go where no Spock has gone before? It is very new territory.
Quinto: [laughed] It is new territory, but I think it is very important to our movie. On one hand, I think it infuses the story with a certain levity and a certain humor between Kirk and Spock and this sort of rivalry. Between Kirk and Uhura there is this sort of cat and mouse thing going on. And that is the source of a lot of laughs for me. I think between Spock and Uhura it actually provides a sort of depth and complexity to these characters and relationships that adds a kind of value to this movie and sets it apart from what has come before it. Uhura represents a canvas onto which Spock is able to project the emotions he cannot express. To that end I think it is a valuable device and I think it is well laid in to the evolution of this story and I hope that it is not too disruptive to the die-hard Trek canon fanatics.

Eric Bana (Nero)

Let's talk about your character, Nero. He has such a tragic back story. Did you ever feel like a tragic hero?
That's a good question. Tragic hero? I guess to a degree. I never really saw him as a villain, even though he sort of performs that function for the drama of the story. To me, yeah, he was Nero, leader of the Romulans who has been wronged and is seeking revenge, and that's kind of how I see him so I think. Yeah, I like your description.

I'm curious about your movements in character. You're very aggressive and strong, did you come up with any of those reactions and jumps yourself or was it all planned out?
Some of them were a bit spur of the moment. It was a pretty intense character. I passed out, I think, once during one of the takes, I got so carried away. Lost about twenty seconds, down on the floor, and got up, and the camera was still rolling and it was like, "I guess I just continue now." Um yeah. It was pretty crazy.

Star Trek Tidbits

Just a few odds and ends stumbled upon today.

40 Years of Star Trek Covers
From Gizmodo, a look at Star Trek on the cover of magazines for the last four decades, most of them from TV guide.

Enterprise Viewscreen Comparison
A geeky look at the size of the ships viewscreen through the years. One the original series, the Enterprise's screen was 136-inch with 1.73:1 aspect ratio. TNG's Enterprise-D was 212-inch with 1.92:1 aspect ratio. The new movie's Enterprise (2.0) is a massive 326-inch with 3.25:1 aspect ratio.

JJ Directing Photos
Click the link to look at photos of JJ providing actors with notes and doing director stuff.

Mainstream Media Reviews

Most online publications have provided their take on Star Trek. Now it is the mainstream media's turn (ie TV and newspapers). Over all the reviews continue to remain very positive but not quite as universal as they were from online sources. Below a few for your enjoyment. I picked up my tickets already so the reviews are more just for other perpectives rather then an assist in deciding if it is money well spent.

Roger Ebert (2.5/4)

The Gene Roddenberry years, when stories might play with questions of science, ideals or philosophy, have been replaced by stories reduced to loud and colorful action. Like so many franchises, it’s more concerned with repeating a successful formula than going boldly where no “Star Trek” has gone before. Perhaps the next one will engage these characters in a more challenging and devious story, one more about testing their personalities than re-establishing them. In the meantime, you want space opera, you got it.

New York Daily News

The new "Star Trek" is more than a coat of paint on a space-age wagon train. It's an exciting, stellar-yet-earthy blast that successfully blends the hip and the classic. And while it has young actors in iconic roles, don't worry Trekkies, a time-travel plot acknowledges previous stories.

Entertainment Weekly (A-)

There's a time-tripping plot that, frankly, could have been trippier (not to mention a bit more, you know, logical). Maybe that's because it's basically an excuse to shoehorn Leonard Nimoy into the picture. Excuse granted: He's as dry, and spry, as ever — a tribal-elder aristocrat. I do wish Karl Urban, as Bones, lit his short fuse with a bit more idionsyncracy, but Zoë Saldana gives Uhura a sultry spark, and casting the puppyish Simon Pegg as the hyperkinetic Scotty is genius. As for Pine and Quinto, they really do feel, by the end, like Kirk and Spock. With a crew like this, you can welcome the future.

Rolling Stone (3.5/4)

Abrams has banished irony and easy cynicism from his Star Trek universe. And I will banish spoilers from this review. The script is by Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman (they did Transformers, which this jury will disregard), and damned if I know what they're talking about. It might as well be Duplicity in Space when they drag in time travel. Know what? Don't care. Star Trek creates an alternate universe you want to get lost in. It's an irresistible invitation for fun. What more can you ask of a summer movie?

Associated Press

It's a daring and exciting approach that's sure to tickle and provoke purists, while at the same time probably cause neophytes to feel a bit lost. A major plot twist pops up — which includes the arrival of Leonard Nimoy — about halfway through the film, a twist that doesn't exactly work and from which the film never completely recovers.

Star Trek Countdown Prequel Summary

The new movie is out in just two days so here is a summary of Star Trek Countdown from Wikipedia. The four issue mini-series prequel that helps bridge the gap between the 40 year old Star Trek (or Prime universe) and the new Star Trek (or 2.0 universe) that the new movie is kick starting. More specifically it explains Nero's motivations, how he gets the technology to exact his revenge and Spock Prime's part in the events.

The comic is set eight years after the film Star Trek Nemesis. Federation and Romulan tensions have generally subsided, with Spock the official Federation ambassador to the Romulans. Data is still alive and has become captain of the Enterprise-E after successfully imprinting his memories onto the prototype android B-4. Jean-Luc Picard is now Federation ambassador to Vulcan, Geordi La Forge has retired to develop his own ships, and Worf is a General in the Klingon Empire.

The galaxy is threatened by the Hobus star, which will become a supernova. Spock proposes that the Romulans transport the precious mineral Decalithium to Vulcan, where it can be converted into red matter capable of turning the star into a black hole, therefore ending its threat. The senate opposes Spock, but he finds a comrade in Nero, the leader of the miners.

Nero vows revenge against Vulcan if Romulus isn't saved

Nero witnessed Hobus consume a planet first-hand and offers to secretly transport Decalithium, noting it would be better than doing nothing and then leaving his wife and unborn son to die. Nero's ship, the Narada, is attacked by the Remans, but the Enterprise rescues them and escorts them to Vulcan with Decalithium taken from the Reman ships. On Vulcan, the council opposes Romulan use of red matter, infuriating Nero; he vows if Romulus is destroyed, he shall hold them and Spock accountable.

Romulus is destroyed before an evacuation could begin

Nero returns to Romulus to discover Hobus has gone supernova and destroyed his home world. Driven mad by his loss, he attacks Federation Olympic class hospital ships that have arrived to give aid, believing they have come to claim his people's territory.

Nero, on quest for revenge, holds the Debrune Teral'n

He beams aboard surviving senators onto his ship and kills them for not listening to Spock, and then claims the Praetor's ancient trident, the Debrune Teral'n, which is the greatest symbol of Romulus.

Narada's new abilities when retrofitted with Borg technology

He and his crew then shave their heads and apply tattoos to signify their loss. Nero goes to the Vault, a secretive Romulan base, and has the Narada outfitted with Borg technology to begin a rampage against his enemies.

With the supernova expanding, Spock decides to deposit the red matter weapon. He takes the Jellyfish, a ship developed by La Forge that can withstand extreme environmental conditions.

Nero's Narada and Spock's Jellyfish are sucked into the vortex, ending the supernova threat but unleashing Nero on a new universe

The Narada goes about destroying and assimilating Federation, Klingon and Cardassian ships alike, wounding Worf and damaging the Enterprise in the process.

When Spock successfully destroys the supernova, the Narada appears to attack when the black hole flings it and the Jellyfish back in time (and an alternate universe), leaving Picard and the crew of the Enterprise as witnesses to Spock's sacrifice.

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