JJ Abrams Back to Work on Star Trek

While promoting the upcoming CBS TV series Person of Interest, show executive producer JJ Abrams discussed the work being done on the sequel to Star Trek reboot that is now likely not going to hit theaters until 2013, four years after the first movie. The delay is mostly due to Abrams and the writers juggling up to four different projects at the same time forcing Star Trek on the backburner. They will say something else but their priorities for the last year tell a different story. Now it seems all parties have (mostly) cleared their plates to focus on rebooted franchise as he tells Collider about the thinking behind the delay.

Question: Are you back focused on Star Trek 2 now?
J.J. ABRAMS: Yeah. There have been a lot of things that we’ve been working on, a lot of important elements that we just know we need to really nail down and solve. Once you say, “We’re ready to go, but we don’t have a finished script yet,” or “I’m directing the thing and here’s the release date, but we don’t have a finished script,” what starts to happen – and I’ve seen this happen with a lot of friends of mine – is that you’re suddenly in production on a movie that they’re thinking, “Oh my god, we weren’t really ready. We thought we’d get it done in time, but we didn’t.” So, while we have a moment to say, “Let’s get the important things figured out,” then all the pre-production stuff will come. But, I just want to make sure that we’re putting the story and the characters, the cast and the crew, and most importantly the audience, first before we start talking about exactly which locations we’re going to be shooting at and what the wardrobe and visual effects budgets are. It just seems important that we get the important stuff right first.

Was it a difficult conversation or an easy one, given your history with them, to say to Paramount, “We’re not going to make that summer release date because it would compromise the movie”?
ABRAMS: They so get it. All they care about – and I had this discussion very recently with Rob Moore – is that the movie be good. No one wants to take a step backwards. They’ve been great.

Have you officially signed on as director?
ABRAMS: No. But, we’re working very hard on it and hopefully we’ll have something to talk about soon.

When you have to make shifts like that, how difficult is it to juggle the schedules of such a big cast?
ABRAMS: The fact is that we never booked them, so it’s not like we’re unbooking them and switching and cancelling lunch dates. They all understand. They want to be in a good movie as well.