menuBarBack
Beam Up News | Join | Your Account
Home
Advanced Search
boxBottom
News Tribblets
boxBottom
Stardates Calendar
News Story

Features

Roberto Orci and Bryan Burk on Re-Introducing Star Trek to a New Audience and the Difficulties of Including William Shatner as Kirk in the New Movie

Features

By GustavoLeao / 13:13, 13 December 2007 / Star Trek: Nemesis

The latest issue of Sci Fi Magazine features an exclusive interview with Star Trek movie writer and producer Roberto Orci and executive producer Bryan Burk. Here are few excerpts

"There are five of us originally involved, Bob Orci, Alex Kurtzman, myself, J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof, and respectively we are across the board as far as Trekkers go." Burk said "But we all felt it was an incredible world that has existed for 40 years, and like some other great franchises, be it Batman or James Bond, it needed a boost by finding a new approach to the story and the world. It was too great to let it go away or continue on its current path."

Regarding the movie storyline, Orci said "There were many, many elements of the story that we had talked about just theoretically, if ever Star Trek were to come back. There was lots of stuff we wanted to do, and that was a blessing. Normally you dont have that much investment and research for a project you get hired to do. One of the things we fought for is that it not be called Star Trek 11. Because even if you were a fan back then or you haven't seen the last few [movies], with that title you might think it's like tuning in to Lost now and that you'll never catch up. So it's so important to get out the message that this, in a way, is Star Trek Zero. Its a reintroduction. We designed it so that if you know everything about Star Trek you will have one kind of an experience, because you will pick up on all kinds of references. If you are not a fan, those things will be an introduction, and it wont require you to know anything."

About the new cast playing iconic characters, Burk said "We went to all the original actors when we were casting the younger versions of themselves. Nimoy was totally on board with Zachary Quinto, as Shatner was with Chris Pine. Nichelle Nichols loved Zoe Saldana, and George Takei loved John Cho. It just feel like the baton was being passed in a very respectful way from them to us".

And wwhat about the rumors of William Shatner making an appearance in the movie ? Orci explains "There's two things. One, from our point of view we are still hoping to find a way [to put Shatner in the movie]. Secondly, one of the difficulties that was brought up and discussed with Shatner, when we all met him and pitched him ideas, is that Trek fans are sticklers for their canon. Unfortunately, Shatner's Captain Kirk was killed in Star Trek VII, so the difficult there is not just ignoring that or explaining it away in an unsatisfactoty way merely to get him back in. That is the struggle - the rigors of canon and not phoning it in just to have a cameo. From my point of view, its a very long shoot, and things can change. It's just whether we can figure it out."

"Our goal is twofold" says Orci " One is to make sure that the fans, who have been stewards of the continuity and who are some of the most intelligent fans of any franchises ever, that they be satisfied with anything that has the name Star Trek on it. But more importantly, the goal is really to introduce casual fans and people who dont know Star Trek at all to this universe and to connect it to today. The goal of Star Trek is that if you dont like sci-fi or know Star Trek, this will bring you into the world."

You can read the full article here.



More Top StoriesComments
Nov 23J.J. Abrams and Chris Pine Talk How Gratifying That Star Trek was Well Received, Working with Leonard Nimoy and Star Trek XII0
Nov 23Chuck returns to NBC with a special two-hour show on Sunday, Jan 10, 2010, before returning to its regular time slot, Mondays at 8pm on the following night. It's return to prime time television can be attributed to a successful fan renewnal campaign last year. CHUCK is a one-hour, action-comedy series that follows Chuck Bartowski (Zachary Levi, "Less Than Perfect") -- a computer geek who is catapulted into a new career as the government's most vital secret agent. This upcoming season will include some special guest stars, including Brandon Routh of "Superman Returns" who will play CIA agent Daniel Shaw in an episode, and the addition of SUBWAY restaurant as a major advertiser to the show. Chuck averaged a 4.0/6 rating last season, about eight percent better than the recently cancelled "Trauma". Ratings-challenged Heroes moves back an hour when Chuck returns on Monday nights. STAR TREK VOYAGER's Robert Duncan McNeill serves Chuck as a supervising producer and director.0
Nov 235-Page Preview of Third Issue of Galactica 1980 Comic Book  0
Nov 22Quinto, Urban, Saldana, Cho and Greenwood on Their Hopes for Star Trek XII3
Nov 22Exclusive Digital Content Now Available With New Star Trek Movie on iTunes
1
Story Archives...Browse:   

Talkback

62 comments Post New | Help
View:

RE: The writers are 'Lost' | Report this post to moderator
By: Judge (Odo's file, contact) @ 19:04:04 on Dec 17, 2007

I also almost never post. Have had an account for a long time but I agree with the "flashback" scenario and how cheap and easy such a thing is. My quick suggestion is a videophone (really cheap) or personal meeting between Spock and Kirk just before he's heading off to the Ent B launch. They reminince on the old days, new ships with old names, new crews whatever. Spock hears of Kirks death. Really hurts him. Now he remembers that last conversation with Kirk upon hearing of the new threat to young Kirk and it fuels his desire to stop it...etc, etc, etc....yep it's not too hard to come up with a 2 minute piece of film and finally once and for all send the elderly actors into a respectful retirement without crappy deaths.....but I suspect there is money involved and not story line blocks at work.

Any body got a bootleg to the new ship yet??? If Cawley's seen it someone else has too.

Reply
Reply
Quote
Quote
Parent
Parent
Talkback Top
Top

RE: The writers are 'Lost' | Report this post to moderator
By: c.p. (Odo's file, contact) @ 09:03:49 on Dec 14, 2007

Quote:
What I'm trying to say here is, if they're still whining over how to involve Kirk in this film, they're on a wrong track. There's so many ways to do it, and still it's not done?

As someone once said, "There are two possibilities":

1. He is/will be in the film and, as a "happy few" of us have said before, Orci keeping this ball up in the air, even as his story is being filmed, is a suspicious omen to that effect.

2. His inclusion in the story, which none of us have read I'll remind you, would compromise the integrity of it. You gave two examples, one of which you correctly identified as impossible for this movie, even given our limited knowledge of it. There may simply be no way for him to be credibly included.

I, myself, have a hard time thinking of a way to include him that wouldn't be distracting and wouldn't leave me howling to have him back later in the film--which would eat up too much of the film, seems to me. But my growing Oliver Stone suspicion is that he will be in this film in some symbolic way, and that our chain is being yanked hard to buzzing effect.

Reply
Reply
Quote
Quote
Parent
Parent
Talkback Top
Top

RE: The writers are 'Lost' | Report this post to moderator
By: TRexx (Odo's file, contact) @ 03:57:24 on Dec 14, 2007 | Edit History (1)

Quote from Comicman:
What I'm trying to say here is, if they're still whining over how to involve Kirk in this film, they're on a wrong track.


Meanwhile, on the other side of town, Shatner appears hellbent on convincing us that he's either too pompous or too daft to just call Abrams for the straight dope. Absent a restraining order from JJ et al, Shatner's "I know nothing" situation is an obstinate choice.

When the players don't treat this project as serious business, should the fans?

The owls are not what they seem.


----------------

Star Trek XI -- Wall Poster

Image

Reply
Reply
Quote
Quote
Parent
Parent
Talkback Top
Top
Promenade










TrekWeb Merchants
Amazon.com
Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.ca
Amazon.de
Barnes & Noble

Get Firefox!
Privacy Policy | About Us | Legal Notice | Contact Us | | Get Firefox!
© 1996-2009 TrekWeb.com and Steve Krutzler. All rights reserved.