By GustavoLeao / 11:07, 16 April 2008 / Star Trek: Nemesis

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The Bosh posted the transcript of an exclusive interview with Star Trek movie stars Leonard Nimoy and Zachary Quinto (originally posted on E! Online). Here are few excerpts from the interview.

Is Tom Cruise in the movie?

(Nimoy/Quinto turn and exchange very guilty looks)

Quinto: "Not that I know of."

Nimoy: "What's your next question?"

Interesting, have you had a chance to meet him?

Nimoy: "Yeah, he came and visited one day... he made "Mission Impossible 3" with JJ Abrams was this director of this movie and directed him in Mission 3, and he visited one day, and we chatted about that movie and about that fact that we met before, Tom Cruise and I. We talked about his interest in "Star Trek." I worked on "Mission" for two seasons back in the late ‘60's and so we talked about that a little bit. It was a very fun kind of conversation light hearted, easy about careers about movies. We had a good time."

Isn't it weird having Tom Cruise on the set just hanging out?

Quinto: "I didn't know he was there for our day. He came a few times actually to see JJ. He was there one day when we were shooting a fight scene sequence so we were all gathered around the monitor to see if the punches were landing, and I was looking at the monitor and I looked up and to where JJ was standing and I was like, (whispered) ‘It's Tom Cruise.' (laughter) It was totally out of blue. He was so cool and really supportive. It was nice to have him around."

Will the old school fans love this movie?

Nimoy: "I was thinking about this question about where "Star Trek" is now on the way over here, and I remembered that 10 years ago in 1998 their was a "Star Trek" movie called ","Insurrection and it occurred to me that this movie is the resurrection of "Star Trek." I mean that very sincerely. I think that "Star Trek" has kind of drifted along and maybe meandered and lost its way some what over the last few years, and I think this picture is going to put it back on track. I think it's going to revive interest in the entire franchise, the "Star Trek" story, the "Star Trek" idea, and I think above all its going to be a very exciting movie. There is a great pull of talent coming together to make this film. JJ Abrams is a very, very talented and creative director, great writers, exciting script and on a gigantic scale. I've been in the business 58 years, and I have never worked on a film of this size. And the great talent I see in Abrams is he's able to see that very, very large vision and shoot it very, very well, but at the same time is able to deal very intimately with the moments between the people in the film.

Quinto: "The first thing JJ ever said when I sat down with him to talk about playing the role was, ‘We're making a movie for people who have loved "Star Trek" for forty years, and we're making a movie for people who have never seen it before in their lives."

Well, that's my question because I think the old school people will go because they're going to give it a chance regardless, but how do you bring new people who aren't necessarily Sci-Fi fans?

Quinto: "Well I think you utilize the many talents of the people who are working on the film to infuse it with a different energy and rhythm so it's going to be unexpected, so I think that young people who might have only preconceived notions of what "Star Trek" was or what "Star Trek" is are going to be sort of, blastingly surprised."

Tough question, Should William Shatner be in this film?

Nimoy: "I don't understand the question. What do you mean by should? I'm really curious, what do you meant by that?"

Well, I've had the chance to interview him a couple times, and I know he would like to be... And I think he would be at the end of the day but...

Nimoy: "Ok. I'd like to talk about that. Bill Shatner's character, Captain Kirk, as we all know died several movies back. And it was a great loss, a great character and a wonderful actor were lost to "Star Trek." I have not been privy to the discussions with the writers and producers and JJ about what efforts they made to try to introduce him into this movie. The fact is they couldn't and didn't. It's a loss. There's no question about it. I think it would've been wonderful if he could've been in the movie, but at the same time I understand why he's not. And I think Bill has come to an understanding about that, I was with him a couple weeks ago. And my sense is he now understands that his time has passed. I think after this film my film has passed. I was very lucky. When Spock died at the end of "Star Trek II," there was a hint even in that film that Spock wasn't really gone. In fact, the next film was about the resurrection of Spock. But that didn't happen with the Kirk character. I think it was a waste, frankly. I thought the character should not have died, should certainly not have died that way in that movie. I said to Bill, if I had been there you wouldn't have died. But I wasn't in that film. And that's where we are today. We have a film without Bill Shatner, and it's a loss. But we have to move on, and I think its going to be a great film. There's a great new Captain Kirk. Christopher Pine is going to be a great Captain Kirk, along with Zach and the rest of the cast. I think there's going to be a very exciting new kind of "Star Trek" for the audience to see."

Can you give me a little insight? I was watching some old "Trek" today and one of the questions that popped into my mind was the bridge of the Enterprise. Obviously it looks really old school in the original episodes. Is it going to have that old school feel to it?

Quinto: "You're going to recognize it, but it's on a whole new level. Scott Chambliss is our production designer and every time we walked onto the set, we had to stand there for five minutes before we could even speak. I mean, really, they are so incredible and dynamic."

So is it futuristic looking?

Quinto: "It's got a look all of its own. Like this movie, it's an infusion of what came before."

But the bridge, I'm trying to get a sense of it, flat screens and LCD's or like buttons that still fall off the chair like they did back in the day?

Quinto: "Things fell off every now and again when we were in there for three weeks every day for 18 hours, but you know, they were glued on appropriately."

The full interview is here.