See, articles like this drive me crazy. Either the movie will have TOS characters, or it won't. Just cop to it, okay, please? Don't give us this dodge-and-parry BS! We're not asking to give away the whole plot, but at least admit to what you've got in mind! It doesn't make any sense to get all in a whinge about his story being misreported if he isn't going to deny what was stated.
Prequels don't work. Abrahms is smart enough to know this and so is (wll maybe not) Paramount.
I dont want to see anything take place without one of the established crews. I dont want to see people imitating Kirk and Spock. I dont want to see the beginning of the Federation. All bad ideas and they will find this out once the movie opens in a couple of years.
Part of the draw for Trek fans is seeing their favorites on the big screen. If they had trouble getting people into the theatre for the last two movies you actually think people are going to want to see this? Is a non Trek audience interested?
Bad idea from the get go. Horrible!
Abrams good, Academy bad. Hopefully things get worked out, but as long as he's saying nothing is set in stone, plot wise, then I'm hopeful a more appropriate storyline will be chosen. Unfortunately Abrams' comments could be interpreted as saying the film itself is not a done deal, either.
This wouldn't be the first time a reputable source got things wrong. Remember CBS and the George W. Bush fiasco a year or so ago - the one that cost Dan Rather his job? Happens to the best of them.
Al
Surely they wouldn't have posted it if there wasn;t any substance..?
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jonathan-davies.net - pure boredom
And the moon landings were faked, too... JMS' little conspiracy theory means he will never produce any Star Trek. Which is just as well, as there is enough fan fiction out there.
I really think the story will change. If there is even a finished script, when someone new somes on it almost always gets scrapped or totally revised.
I think Abrams and Section 31 were made for each other.
I don't get where all these posts already trashing JJ Abrams handling of Star Trek are coming from. The guy just inked the deal to take the reins of Trek XI. Nothing has been set in stone as to how he is going to handle it.
Rick Berman gets trashed based on his piss poor track record where Star Trek is concerned. For him, the evidence has been in for a long, long time. JJ Abrams track record on other highly respected projects does however earn him at least the benefit of the doubt.
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Respectfully,
Von Bruno
vonbruno@aol.com
i would like star trek 11 to feature william shatner as henry falkner inventer of the photon torpedo to bring star trek full circle.
shatner would star and leonard nimoy will cameo as a photonics engineer who works under him. i cant decide whether or not he should be vulcan. probably not cos that will be typecasting nimoy.
the remaining original series should be as follows:
walter koenig should play bert grimshaw, cybernautics expert who trains a young noonian soongh (brent spiner), prequelling the data android.
george takei will play botonist jinsung wang, a by the book florist with a hidden agenda.
nichelle nicholls will be a betazoid named madeleine cosby who forsees the fall of the galactic federation in a wet dream.
james doohan and deforest kelley should have cgi roles with voice alikes. the doohan cgi would be an orion smuggler called henry spender and the deforest kelley cgi will play martin hammershaw an alien kidnapped gunslinger from the wild west who awakes from cryo-stasis.
finally majel barrett roddenberry will return as the only original actress to portray their original character nurse chapel who is now a senior expert on humpback whale integration after time displacement.
patrick stewart and jonathan frakes will also cameo as rusty henstridge and joe clapperson, respectively. they will both be rescued from harry mudd (ricky gervasi) in the opening scene and killed at the end of the movie to satisfy classic fans.
Looks like it could still be a Laurel & Hardy silent film with a Donald Duck insert and two ferengis selling cola but stumbling over a Dalek causing a fire in the ships torpedo room.
The possibilities are endless.
I remember vividly reading an article in Starlog magazine back in 1986, as Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home had been released and TNG was just beginning production, and they included some "tidbits" of what the new Trek series was going to be about. I don't recall whether they actually quoted Roddenberry or not, but the one line I do recall was that they claimed Data was going to be "an evil Betazoid" character.
In the intervening years, I've come to realize that Paramount is good at nothing if not misdirection, especially when it comes to Star Trek. If nothing else, it builds anticipation. It also leads to dashed expectations, depending on the fans involved. They're (the Paramount public relations department) very good at planting stories in various Hollywood trade papers and national entertainment magazines. The initial story about Abrams doing Trek XI may have been something along those lines. The subsequent article with his quote is either an attempt at damage control, or a clever plot by Paramount to get people guessing.
I suppose it worked.
They did do one thing right, though...they immediately quashed any speculation that Rick Berman would be involved. Good move on their part, and immediate positive buzz for the movie. Now we wait until 2008. But there can only be two possible outcomes for this franchise in the hands of a new director: either it succeeds beyond anyone's wildest dreams (see: Christopher Nolan and "Batman Begins") or it could be large amounts of suckage (this is my worry about Bryan Singer and "Superman Returns"). If the latter, Star Trek will die, of that I'm sure. If the former, then we'll see another new TV series in short order.
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"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by." - Douglas Adams
"Remind me to write an article on the compulsive reading of news. The theme will be that most neuroses can be traced to the unhealthy habit of wallowing in the troubles of five billion strangers." -- Robert Heinlein
falcon
I kinda of got the feeling from reading that short story that Abrams may be thinking of bringing back the older post Generations versions of Kirk and Spock.
He is a huge TOS fan. I think that would be more interesting than seeing a Starfleet Academy film.
The quote clearly says that he is going to produce with an option to direct. He might find a different director, he might not. I wont be surprised if Abrams' stint at the helm does not last long enough to produce an actual film.
I'm still skeptical about using the TOS look and feel in a modern production. Computers just dont go click clack click clack and give answers in robotic voices. I mean...they COULD, but it would be a drastic waste of memory and processor cycles.
Hmm. A few days ago I opined that Abrams probably wouldn't be doing a direct ripoff of the Bennett SFA premise, and because of that we shouldn't jump to any conclusions yet about the new movie. For that apparently inflammatory statment, The Noble Robot tried to rip me a new one. Well, where you at now, NoRo?
As is usually the case, initial reports turned out to be misleading. I'll be very interested to hear the full details of Abrams story idea, when he's ready. Hopefully, the Starfleet Academy aspect will be minor, if it's there at all.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmm(n)
Speculation and Analysis: looks like SFA may be out, reading between the lines sounds like he wants Trek XI to be a harbinger for a TOS -reboot-.
^Raise-Eyebrow.
In fact if you look at Variety's original article, it doesn't actually say it's an Starfleet Academy oriented series, it only mentions that they meet there.
I'm getting a startlingly familiar "let's rip off Star Trek: New Voyages" Paramount exec thinking deja vu feeling about all this.
Not that it necessarily matters, DS9 was a "let's rip off JMS's Babylon-5 concept" to begin with, but it turned out well, and the empathy for JMS having his series premise stolen by Parmaount (who turned down the production of his series at the last minute and launched DS9 instead) also rocketed B5 into the genre spotlight.
So, although I detest the Hollywood thieves-guild executive mentality, even if it is the case that they're ultimately planning to riff on New Voyages (and reboot TOS with new actors and a continuing TOS mission/new voyages *cough*) it does not necessarily co-relate to bad product.
Guess we'll just 'ave to wait and see.
*pause*
I hate waiting.
(Shrug)
Michael Maelstrom.
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Michael X. Maelstrom, The Avante Guardian, Tag. 
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M o n t r e a l, Q u e b e c, C a n a d a, E a r t h, S o m e t i m e s.
If Empire Online is right and the movie is not about Young Jim Kirk at the Academy, maybe Abrams is talking about the possibily of bring back Shatner and Nimoy for one last movie together. I sure hope so.
Gustavo
The Empire article makes nothing clear but absolutely does not refute anything Variety claimed in their's, except for in the title (which leads me to think it's hype). But I am encouraged by what Abrams has to say in reaction to the leak. It's possible that when distilled to 6 or seven words like "young Kirk and Spock's teenage academy adventures" Abrams feels it does serious injustice to the idea they have for Star Trek's new film. And it gives me hope that he is sensitive to the necessity that these characters not be resurrected through a hokey gimmick. Or at least that the movie, as ultimately presented, doesn't come off as a hokey gimmick, even if a leaked 7 word blurb does.
Empire is strangely contradictory in this article. They start off saying it's not Kirk and Spock, but they provide no quote from Abrams to that effect, and then they go on to include a quote from him that suggests it's true. Perhaps clarity will emerge over the next few days...
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"Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and
this administration, will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance, or insignificance, can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass, will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation." -- Abraham Lincoln.
"History. We won't know. We'll all be dead." -- GWB
It's a rip-off. / We're stepped on, and cheated! / We're flat, stone-cold lied to / But we're not defeated / No!
Halen. "The Dream is Over."
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