J.J. Abrams To Direct New 'Star Trek' Film

Tycoon Guy writes "TrekToday reports that Paramount has asked 'Lost' creator J.J. Abrams to direct a new 'Star Trek' film. The movie will be set at Starfleet Academy and will feature younger versions of James T. Kirk and Spock, chronicling their first meeting at the Academy and their first outer space mission. The movie is set for a 2008 release and will apparently be one of Paramount's biggest projects for the year."

Not enough time has passed

[WebHostingGuy]

Not enough time has passed since the last movie. They need a bigger break because they will still have the same people who have been dragging down the movies for a while. Unless the screenplay is truly orginal and very creatively written this is not going to be that good. The problem with the last couple of movies is that rather than create a fantastic movie around a fantastic story being told they are creating a movie to create a movie and using the template of Star Trek to do it. If you think of the very successful movies in the franchise they are the ones in which the writing of the story was original and out of the box.

I'd rather have...

[hal2814]

Personally, I'd rather see post-TOS but pre-TNG Star Trek, maroon uniforms and all. Kirk and Spock could be older (which works out for the actors who are older themselves now) and the movie could be set closer to the most popular (in terms of movie revenue) stint in Star Trek history. I've still got a bad taste in my mouth from Trek prequels thanks to First Contact and Enterprise.

Sounds like a winner.

[Pedrito]

Really, I don't think they could do any better than J.J. Abrams for a movie like this. The guy writes really smart, compelling stuff (Regarding Henry is one of my all-time favorites) and he's an impressive director, at least from the TV stuff I've seen him do. I'm actually kind of hoping this will spawn a new series. Anyone else get the feeling that maybe they're testing the waters? I wouldn't mind seeing a series created by J.J. Abrams. He's done well in the past, particularly with Lost and Alias.

Option 3 - Star Trek ala Harry Potter

[Picass0]

The story of a tallented student (Potter/Kirk) who breaks all the school rules to save his friend and is rewarded for his creative thinking.

Re:I like this idea

[hal2814]

Not only were they "the perfect balance of differing personalities," they were also the right number of characters to focus on in a show that is situationally driven instead of character driven. When the focus of the show is some new weekly visit to an alien world, trying to spread focus to 10-15 characters like they did in TNG really didn't work for me. I don't really care what happens to Diana Troy or the Crusher family or even to Worf or Kunta Kinte (or Toby or LaForge or whatever you call him). Sure they need screen time, but it seems like TNG spent entirely too much time delving deeply into too many characters' lives. I really liked that TOS had three main characters and the rest were important but certainly secondary.

Old Star Trek Tech vs. New Gagdetry

[digitaldc]

So what I want to know is, are the controls and panels going to look like they are made from Lego sets?
Or will it be super sophisticated and electronically dazzling, or will it look like it does in the TV series era, cheap sets with cardboard controls and hand-painted view screens?

Fascinating.

what about a DS9 movie?

[Squeezer]

I loved Deep Spance 9 because unlike TOS and TNG where it was a space ship flying around causing trouble, with DS9 the trouble came to the station. It was neat to have something different, and I really liked that.

You know ....

[gstoddart]

The Star Trek Universe has become so damned muddled over the last years, I'm not even sure it would be canonical for Kirk and Spock to have been at the academy together. (Then again, I've never been clear if some of the stuff in Enterprise was strictly canonical either.)

Spock had served with Christopher Pike before Kirk, and I don't recall much in the way of explaination of how they met each other. Given the relative life-spans of Vulcans and Humans, I had assumed Spock had served in Star Fleet for quite a while.

Add this in with it being a prequel of a bunch of well known characters, I have fears this will turn into a Star-Trek Troopers meets Wesley Crusher Episode. They'll either have some fantastic adventure thrown in the middle, or it won't have any action and it'll be about Kirk reprogramming the Kobiashi Maru (or, well get an alternate explaination for it as opposed to it being a planned exam).

But the actors will either have to completely re-interpret the characters, and piss people off -- or they'll act as charicatures, and really piss people off.

Nothing good can come of this; and I'm not sure I'd watch this. It scares me. :-P

Alternate Story

[Anonymous Coward]

When I was young I played the RPG. They had an interesting supplement that involved the secret agent side of star trek. I think this would be a better angle maybe not for a movie but for a series (say 20 years from now). It would have a darker angle from the ususal idealic society that Star Trek has created. They did a few episodes on espionage in a few of the different series but it would be a refreshing change from the starship/spacedock scenery.

Re:Kirk and Spock, the steamy years....

[Ucklak]

Because Enterprise sucks?

OK, that's _my_ opinion.

I grew up during the original TOS reruns and I loved it. The shows really sucked, most of them. What was cool was what it represented and the surounding environment. Phasers, transporters, warp speed, travel to other planets, aliens in cool makeup (at the time), hotties in William Ware Theiss outfits, Kirk was ruler of the universe and Mr. Spock was cool. Kirk was so cool that we forgave the Catspaw, Spocks Brain, Spectre of the Gun, Platos Stepchildren (hell- most of the 3rd season), the Abraham Lincoln episode, and the evil twin episode which really wasn't that bad of all the evil twin episodes that exist on television.

We got the movies and we thought that that's it. No more tv episodes then TNG happened.
OK, different, cool, different, not as cool as TOS because no Vulcan. The straight guy Data was alright, Number One (bozo) was annoying but Picard rocked. We forgave Whoopi Goldberg and the tar creature episode because we had the holodeck and some real baddies, the Borg and Q.
TNG wasn't as engaging to me but I wasn't a kid anymore.

Then we got DS9. WTF?!? Same universe, different point of view.
Very well written and a surprise all around. The tribble episode was neat and we got the Ferengi.

Voyager, no one really cared about it, at least people who liked the older series. Only die hards seemed to like it as they would like anything with "Star Trek" slapped on it. Mostly all female, doctor didn't exist in real space and they brought back a vulcan, as a black guy. Nothing wrong with that but it just seemed like they wanted a 'black' alien that wasn't a klingon.

Then we get Enterprise. OK, I'll bite. Pre TOS so they can't really screw up now or else the space time continuum will get messed up and the fans of Voyager will turn rabid and scream that Enterprise ruined Star Trek.
Don't really get anything new because anything new already existed. This time we get a female Vulcan that follows the Voyager steps of hotties in spandex. Hotties look better in William Ware Theiss outfits, not spandex.

Most of the crew is likable except I don't get the doctor character. Why make him an alien when aliens are new?
Enterprise sucks because it isn't bold and doesn't break new ground. All it is is Voyager with different people with limitations of what they can't or can do. It's like all of the tech in Enterprise "doesn't work well or isn't tested yet".
Voyager was TNG with different characters but without the drive.
TNG was TOS with different characters but it continued the "where no man has gone before" dream. Voyager just placed them farther out.

It seems like they're trying to return to the roots which made TOS good which was Kirk but William Shatner is responsible for us liking Kirk, not the writers.

I say let it rest for another 5 years at least and if they're going to do a series, do another starship becaue Enterprise will always be about Kirk, no matter who is in the captains chair.

Most of the movies suck, they even had an evil twin movie.
How is it that in TOS, we can see on the view screen people on a planet surface in detail but in Generations there are annoying reportes with huge cameras mounted on their eyes?

Give it a rest. Fire Berman and Braga and remove them at least 1000 miles from any star trek property, they're only in it for a paycheck.

Nemesis killed it for good

[Wylfing]

I think people are still turned off because of Nemesis. It did have some quality stuff regarding Data and humanity in there, but they did some things that made it suck hard:

• The "enemy" was totally new and hastily introduced.
• The "enemy" was a frikkin clone of Picard.
• The "enemy" has a superweapon aimed at Earth.
• They killed Data.

The first three add up to a ridiculously bad story, and the last is more or less a betrayal. I mean, think about it: they cap off a rotten story not worthy of a mediocre television episode by killing Data. This is a problem in a lot of ways. For one, there is a lot of "future history" that says Data lives a long, long time -- longer than any of the other characters by far. Completely ignoring previous canon, to Star Trek fans, feels like...well, a betrayal. That's why they hated Enterprise and its freewheeling attitude toward canon. If you're going to do Star Trek, you really have to stick to the existing facts.

The other problem with killing Data is that, because he was supposed to be the longest-lived of all the main TNG characters, his death feels like all their stories are done. Put another way, as long as they aren't shown meeting their ends, they continue to be alive in the fans' minds. Having them die makes fans' interest in the entire thing drop off. It makes it hard to work up interest in any Star Trek.

I was thinking bout this...

[UnixRevolution]

Just the other day. kinda like the "Young Indiana Jones" tv series, except maybe it'll be good. I know it sounds like they're beating a dead horse...

but as long as Berman isn't involved i'm intrigued.

At least Paramount hasn't given up Star Trek for dead yet.

Re:As a former Trekkie, PLEASE JUST LET IT DIE!!

[rtb61]

Well that is easy to resolve, make use of the star trek universe without the fedration and star fleet i.e. the rise of the borg, from the first out of control nano probes to the final enslavement of their parental race plus a bunch of other aliens along the way, very dark indeed.

Eh.

[StarKruzr]

I mostly agree with you except regarding Enterprise, which really started to approach TNG in quality toward the end. I'm not sure why you couldn't call it Star Trek.

That said, this is a TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE idea. Who gives a shit about Kirk and Spock's academy years?

Give us the adventures of the Enterprise-B or -C. Give us a COMPLETELY NEW STORY - something that can stand on its own as Star Trek. How about a story about the frontier - that's only been briefly explored with the Maquis. Something going on with civilians at the edge - or beyond - recognized Federation space.

Something NEW, for God's sake. PLEASE. This movie as they explain it to us is going to be DeGrassi Junior High in space.

Why not let George Lucas direct

[Jerim]

If he can screw up Star Wars, think of what he could do with Star Trek.

Seriously, what is this need to create a huge backstory for these characters, with them all knowing each other? I preffer for these three individuals, Kirk, Spock and McCoy, to be three seperate individuals who led very different and seperate lives before they joined up on the Enterprise.

Maybe even have Kirk have a long history of hating the Vulcans for some reason. (Rascist perhaps.) That would lend more dramatic power to the Kirk/Spock bond many years later.

Have McCoy traveling around the universe with his parents who were entertainers. Live a life two rungs from the bottom of the social ladder. So he decides to become a doctor because everyone admires doctors. Then he turns his back on his parents, who he is ashamed of. Even have the love of his life meet his parents and take their side. She insists that McCoy should love his parents which he can not. So she lives him. At some heartbreak on top of heartbreak. (Sort of puts into perspective his "grouchiness" on the Enterprise.)

Have Spock be anything but the controlled, devout Vulcan on the Enterprise. Maybe he was a wild teen, caught up in drugs and killing people, until he one day woke up to find himself surrounded by the misery of life. He embraced the Vulcan traditions because they gave him stability in life to rise above. Maybe even add in some father-son conflict which we know existed thanks to ST:TNG.

Why in the hell do you dump these three characters at starfleet, and basically try to recreate the same show just with a different setting? Do something new and innovative. Having Kirk and Spock being friends at the academy makes no sense. It dilutes the history that they will have in the future.