Paramount hands the new Star Trek film to J.J. Abrams - Page 2

A reboot is what's going to happen in the sense that Berman and Braga have been jettisoned, and whatever Abrams does is a page one take. Where he takes it is heretofore unknown (with MI:III breaking, I'd expect some hints in the next couple), but Paramount, under its new leadership, is not looking to follow the footsteps of what's come before and been run aground. That or this is Abrams' payoff for making Mission Impossible III work. But again, when someone like JJ Abrams is coming aboard, it's for a rethinking of a franchise. Star Trek is pop culturally considered a washout. A niche franchise to which profits will be made, but not the sort that any one could brag about.

Crap.It flopped because it was not a good movie. The vast majority of Trekkies hated it, as did the general public. As Richard Dickson said, it could have opened against no competition whatsoever and still flopped.

They tried that once. They gave us the Maquis.

And that lead us to Voyager. Let us not tread that road again.

I actually think that outside Q and the Borg, Stewart was the only thing ever that made Next Generation watchable.

I'm not a huge Star Trek fan by any stretch of the imagination, I loved roughly half of the movies and enjoy some of the better episodes from all of the series (other than DS9- never warmed to it) and i think this is a fantastic idea.

Star Trek as it is, is dead.
It's over.
An idea like this, if properly handled could interest some of the older crowd who, let's face it, will watch any Star Trek as long as it's not utterly shit house, and win over newer folks who have never really given much time to the franchise.
If Mission Impossible takes off like it looks like it will, Abrams doesnt need to tackle something like revitalising a shitty limp series like this unless he really wants too and as a late comer to the Lost phenomenon, im more than willing to sit back and see what is to come of this.

If that means recasting one of the lead characters as a hot chick, I'm down. Of course, they alreay tried that with Spock, didn't they?

Latino Review is saying Abrams is off the project. Weird. Everyone is rushing to debunk, but LR is sticking with their story. Devin, please look into this immediately.

There seems to be a widespread "off the project" pandemic lately.

Didn't Harry Knowles debunk that earlier this week? I wouldn't be surprised if it were the case, though, and it's possible that M:I:III underperformed on DVD, leading to a less steady relationship, though Cruise took the (PR) blunt. Still, Paramount seems on some shakey ground lately, so anything's possible.

I didn't read the Latino Review story, which is a follow up and says it's serious (Oh Don). I wouldn't be surprised if Paramount had no faith in the relaunch that would undooubtedly cost around nine digits at least, and gave Abrams something else, possibly partly out of contractual obligation.

Paramount told me on Thursday that he's on.

From Hollywood Reporter...

Full article:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/...8b8a2528d5e9fc

So, could the confusion of what capacity Abrams is still involved in the project come from him deciding in the last week or so to step out of the directors chair on Trek XI and into a producers role? If that's the case then Latino Review is right in a sense while allowing for Abrams to correctly announce that he isn't off Trek just simply producing not directing.

And if he's only producing the next Trek film then LR could also be right about Abrams choosing to direct this CLOVERFIELD project for Paramount instead. Total speculation on my part but could explain the vague e-mails sent to Harry and Paramount telling Devin that Abram's still on the project. He is still on the project just in a different capacity than was originally touted by Paramount.

Moriarty has put forth the idea that CLOVERFIELD could possibly be a codename for the the new Trek movie. I suppose that makes more sense. I was under the impression that Abrams was always attached to develop, write and direct. The initial announcements from Paramount certainly stated as much but future articles seemed to quote Abrams as being unsure whether he would direct or just produce. So, if he has decided to only produce the film it shouldn't have cause an "off the project" report like the one Latino Review ran.

Abrams was NEVER NEVER officially on to direct. I know for a fact that it is something he has gone back and forth on, but besides Berman yapping, he was never directing TREK XI in any official capacity.

edit- Ah, nevermind, just found this over at Trek.com:

Forgive my own confusion. I hadn't really followed up on the reports of Abrams both developing and directing that were first released.





Original post-
And yet there seems to have been many official announcements from Paramount stating that he was on to direct. Not saying that someone high up at Paramount wasn't jumping the gun but shouldn't those initial reports be held responsible for any confusion that has led to the "Abrams not directing Trek XI" reports?

Find me an official announcement besides that Berman incident.

I guess I was just thinkig of the initial write-ups that coincided with that original Daily Variety piece. My bad.

But your theory DID make it onto the front page, so all's forgiven, probably?

Well, I hadn't read any of the reports of Abrams being undecided on whether or not he would actually direct. But, I haven't exactly been scouring the internet for articles relating to the next Trek movie. Outside of that original announcement I haven't been all that interested. So,my confusion on whether he would be directing is understandable.

You'd think, however, that Latino Review would have been privy to Abram's indecision and only officially being announced as a producer. That's something you would think they would check up on before running this story.

Forget it, Jake. It's the internet.

AICN posts:

Which adds...nothing, but at least he's aware of it and sending sort-of responses.

So are Berman & Braga involved in this thing at all? I was kind of hoping that this project represented a new start, free of the two clowns who drove the franchise into the ground.

No. Those two dicks are looooong gone.

There was a chance for a 'new start' when Manny Coto took over Enterprise in its final season and started fielding stories (and writers) that actually respected Trek, but it was too late to save that show. He's got his hands full with 24 these days.

Cotto, was doing an admirable job, but it was too little too late. I especially dug "In a Mirror Darkly."

The re-mastering of the original series has been a real treat. Can't wait for them to hit HD. I hope those clever kids use the goodwill from this experiment and tweak TNG. Those effects are very shoddy. It doesn't help that they shot the episodes on film and transfered to video tape. Which is why the original series looks stunning on DVD and TNG looks terrible.

The problem isn't that the principal photography is film-to-tape transfer-- the fact that film was shot at all is actually an advantage. The problem, which affects virtually all '80s and '90s shows, is that the editing and FX work were done on video, and (naturally) in the video resolution of the day. Remastering TNG will be a massively more difficult job than TOS, since it will require going back to the raw footage and either reassembling or recreating everything rather than working from an archived final print.

The last season was fantastic (minus the WW2 opener and the TNG episode disguised as the series finale)

And the remastered TOS has been equally amazing. The early pictures from The Doomsday machine have been spectacular. I can't wait to see it via Tivo tomorrow.

Balance of Terror (which they ran already) and The Doomsday Machine are the ones I've really been looking forward to. Lots of starship shots in those episodes.

I was unexpectedly wowed by the revised shots from Journey to Babel.

Agreed, the stuff with the Shuttle Craft was pretty damned cool. And the Doomsday Machine did not dissapoint. It was very well done.

I just watched The Doomsday Machine, and that was pretty damned spectacular. It's always been among my favorite episodes; it has a great script by Spinrad, full of the kind of conflict and tension that typified the original series at its best; it also has a terrific score by Sol Kaplan, with some of the series' most iconic pieces of music. The new effects really put it over the top, and made something I've seen a dozen times thrilling to watch again. I can't wait to own this on DVD.

It feels good to be excited by Star Trek again. I forgot what it's like.

Edit:
By the way, the fact that I knew who wrote the teleplay and the music score without having to look it up should in no way be construed to mean that I was once a hopeless Trekkie nerdboy who owned all of the models, applied battle damage to them, and hung them from his ceiling to look like they were fighting. It should also not necessarily be assumed that until the mid-eighties, I owned every single Star Trek novel every written, the Star Trek Concordance, The Starfleet Blueprints, or any of a host of other paraphernalia. And if I did have any of those things, I certainly wouldn't have them anymore.

Neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerd!

Aaand, my market just stopped running them. Fuck.

Fear not, 70's, they will be hitting HD by years end.

These re-masterings are some sweet shit. Doomsday Machine has always been a favorite as well.

The original has always been the best so it's not hard to be wowed by these.


Thanks to Hammerhead for giving the whys, but it still would be nice to see TNG get some of this love. It would rock to have more than three shots of the Enterprise D flying away.

Don't be ashamed. I have all of the episodes of "Space: 1999" on my computer.

IGN is running a nice little rumor that Mr. Abrams is slated to direct Stephen Kings Dark Tower. While this would implicate that he will indeed only be a producer on Star Trek, Dark Tower would be a way more interesting project anyway. Though taken with a grain of doubt I just pray that this will see the light of day as an HBO Mini-series. Now that would geek a lot of people out. Me at least.
http://movies.ign.com/articles/764/764210p1.html

Obviously Abram's Trek film will be a Dark Tower crossover. Having been part of "The Nexus" when he died, Kirk will find himself having to start over at his academy days where he will be sent westward if he fails the Kobayashi Maru training exercise. He passes the test, however, using a Tyberian bat he befriended as a distraction while he reprograms the test simulation. He receives a commendation for original thinking.

Soon after, Kirk and his new friend Spock encounter a visitor from the Nexus. It is Guinan disguised as Abe Lincoln who starts the pair on a mission to save the Tower. They commandeer the Enterprise only to find out that it has been possessed by the spirit of Blaine the Mono who warps them past the Great Barrier in an attempt to commit suicide...again. Once there they must do battle with God...er, I mean Flagg in disguise. Later, on the shores of Sha-ka-ree, Kirk and Spock discover a mysterious door labeled "Guardian of Forever". A disoriented McCoy stumbles out of it ranting about killers, assassins and Joan Collins.

Their ka-tet now complete they realize that the only way to stabilize the beams that support the tower is to reroute main power through Enterprise's main deflector dish. Kirk enters the newly saved Tower only to find himself in the mirror universe setting up the sequel.

One of the most entertaining things I've ever seen was the episode of Enterprise where everyone was evil.

It came on at 2 in the morning and Im sitting there watching this thing thinking . . . 'is this evil Star Trek? What the fuck is this?' It was evil Star Trek, and it was damned excellent.

I bet if you spend ten minutes searching the web, you'll find a fanfic site that has a story just like that, only with everybody having sex for no discernible reason.

Kirk never, ever needed a discernible reason for having sex. Kirk slash fiction, now matter how bizarre the pairing, is the only creepy fanfic on the web that could be feasibly canonized.

I think at this point even a terrible change in direction is better than churning out the same movie over and over. I'd prefer unexpectadly bad over predictibly bleh

just saw the preview clip and screenshots from the Re-mastered Tholian Web...it looks fan-fucking-tastic.

Indeed it does. I was wowed by the previously mentioned "Doomsday Machine"- awesome.

Love the screencap of the new Botany Bay over at startrek.com. Though some of the revised VFX shots in the "Tholian Web" promo feel a little undercooked to me.