Lindelof Talks Sequel and Secrets

In the recent Nerdist podcast with Chris Harwick, Star Trek 2 co-write Damon Lindelof spoke about Star Trek including working on the sequel, and Abrams' love of keeping secrets. Thanks to TrekMovie.com here are some quotes from the interview.

I function best in collaboration so I have sought out writing partners….On Trek 1, I produced it, but was obviously very involved in the story process with JJ [Abrams], Bob [Orci], and Alex [Kurtzman], so that was great. For Trek 2 I am actually writing, but again it functions a lot more like a TV show. We are all sitting in a room together throwing ideas around and seeing what sticks…I do not like sitting by myself staring at the blank page.

It’s tough. JJ is really good at secrecy and really good at playing the game because ultimately people want to know but they don’t want to have stuff spoiled for them. … We are working on Trek 2 now and there is such an expectation that it is top secret, because everything we do is top secret. And with that expectation comes this idea that "they are going to do something that is totally mind-blowing that is going to friggin’ fry our brains!" Because we are keeping it such a secret. As opposed to the fact that we are just keeping it a secret because we don’t want the audience to know too much going in. The fact that people went to go to see Trek and they didn’t know we were going to blow up Vulcan. They might have known that time travel was involved and they knew that Nimoy was in the movie, but they didn’t understand how it all worked so when you get to that point in the movie it’s cool because you get to emotionally experience it without being primed for it. It requires a
tremendous amount of – there are only so many people you can include in your circle of trust.