'Star Trek' team hints that the next film will reflect contemporary war issues

[Blue_Tires]

I was in Vancouver visiting the set of "Fringe" (you'll see that story here on Thursday) and caught up with two of the show's key creators, J.J. Abrams and Roberto Orci, who are also squarely at the center of the "Star Trek" universe now. They had great success with the revival of the grand old Starfleet mythology with Abrams directing and Orci co-writing (along with Alex Kurtzman) and I had to ask about their plans for a follow-up film, which will have Damon Lindelof added to the writing team and is aimed at a summer 2011 stardate at theaters.

Abrams spoke about the general creative imperatives for the story while Orci hinted that we might be seeing clear metaphors for modern geo-political concerns in the story about ongoing mission of the Starship Enterprise. First, here's what Abrams told me:

"The ambition for a sequel to 'Star Trek' is to make a movie that's worthy of the audience and not just another movie, you know, just a second movie that feels tacked on. The first movie was so concerned with just setting up the characters -- their meeting each and galvanizing that family -- that in many ways a sequel will have a very different mission. it needs to do what Roddenberry did so well, which is allegory. It needs to tell a story that has connection to what is familiar and what is relevant. It also needs to tell it in a spectacular way that hides the machinery and in a primarily entertaining and hopefully moving story. There needs to be relevance, yes, and that doesn't mean it should be pretentious. If there are simple truths -- truths connected to what we live -- that elevates any story -- that's true with any story."

Here's what Orci had to say:

"We’ve literally had two meetings now. We haven’t decided anything but we’re starting to circle around some ideas. We got a lot of fan response from the first one and a considerable amount of critical response and one of the things we heard was, ‘Make sure the next one deals with modern-day issues.’ We’re trying to keep it as up-to-date and as reflective of what’s going on today as possible. So that’s one thing, to make it reflect the things that we are all dealing with today.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/herocomplex/2009/09/will-next-star-trek-take-the-klingons-to-guant%C3%A1namo.html

[Orsino]

1. That's a trouble with movie franchises.

There's a need to schedule the next installment before there is a script. The assumption that there is always a screenplay to be had, Hollywood being what it is, may be a safe one, but it seems to lead to complacency and lowest-common-denominator fodder for the theaters.

[Blue_Tires]

2. in a lot of cases, studios sign deals way in advance

for a surefire box-office winner (i.e. comic books, etc) to be done in a series with one or two (or more) sequels...

[MilesColtrane]

3. Uh oh

Abrams should do what he does best, which is make popcorn-munching, action.

He has yet to prove, to me at least, that he can do high concept.
He has the chance to sway me based on how he wraps up LOST.

I've got a feeling that there are going to be millions of disappointed fans after that series finale.

[tigereye]

4. oh no! The last one was terrible, IMHO

I wish they would get their canon straight. Yeah, I'm a purist... :D

[kentauros]

5. You mean get a straight cannon shot at JJ Abrams?

:D

[tigereye]

6. ha ha!

:rofl: It was too much geared to the explosions and weird personal match-ups set for my taste.

[kentauros]

7. I didn't understand why three hundred years from now

a warp-capable engine room looks like Deerpark, Texas (where all the petro-chemical plants are locally...)

Other than that, Abrams stayed true to my definition of him: Let's kill as many people as we can in the most imaginative and gruesome ways possible!
Of course, the soon to be released 2012 will outdo him in that field...

[Blue_Tires]

12. well that part of the set was clearly a homage to the TV show engineering set

i also thought it was too antiquated to work, but i understand where they were coming from...

[kentauros]

14. I don't see that as an "homage" to the old set.

The original set was all clean lines and lacking in anything resembling a chemical plant. It looked futuristic. This remake didn't.

[Blue_Tires]

22. i was thinking more about this (at least the part past the screen)

i thought the set was an expanded idea of that...especially with all the bright, day-glo colors

[kentauros]

23. I still don't 'see' the comparison.

New Trek engine room looked like a chemical plant, or, at best, the boiler room in a building in bright colors.

I've worked in chemical plants, and they look like this, minus the bright colors and cleanliness ;)

[Blue_Tires]

25. yeah, the steam, steel girders and conventional controls seem way out of place

looks like the bottom of a present day cargo ship...very antiquated when compared to the bridge...

you cant tell me the best aerospace engineers of the future designed THAT when considering space constraints and maximizing efficiency...

[kentauros]

26. Too bad they couldn't have filmed in Geneva

at the Large Hadron Collider:



Now that looks futuristic and massive :D

[MilesColtrane]

30. That looks like a Stargate.

[Blue_Tires]

21. i actually had a lot of fun with it

at first i was shocked in the theater at how far he strayed from canon, but there was a good amount of fan service, and the weird, uncharted directions he took with the characters entertained me, i confess...

the issue now is how do you make a sequel related to the first now that the fans will demand he reel the plotlines back into something recognizable?? will there be a reboot into canon this time? or will he go farther into the fanfic-style "what-if" fantasyland??

[tigereye]

27. spoiler

the blowing up of V was what got me - incredible.

[ContraBass Black]

8. The last movie was different from most Star Trek

In that it was almost entirely about Star Trek and not about anything happening in the world contemporarily. If done well, this will be refreshing.

[Deja Q]

10. If done well.

For 4 years, I had high expectations for "Doctor Who"'s return as well. It failed. For reasons quite similar to some of the people responding here, why the new Trek had failed.

Then look at other contemporary shows, et cetera, and wince.

[pokerfan]

9. They should do a show about a pending quadrant-wide economic collapse...

triggered by a Ferengi dealing junk bonds. The final 45 minutes could be a monologue by a Vulcan economist.

Does everything have to be allegory?

[Deja Q]

11. Trek often made allegory...

TOS often did it subtly...

TNG got it right (before season 5, anyway)...

Few are really capable of storytelling nowadays. It has to be a self-mockery of a previous franchise or it's a "reality show". Or some psychotic mix of both.

[pokerfan]

16. examples of subtle allegory in TOS?

I saw nothing subtle about A Private Little War, Balance of Terror or The Return of the Archons. The two best films (II & IV) weren't allegorical. 'City on Edge of Forever,' the most praised TOS episode wasn't allegorical at all.

[Rabrrrrrr]

13. So JJ is saying "Since I utterly fucked up and detroyed everything that was good about Trek,

and took some well-deserved criticism for my utter lack of respect for the enduring and guiding vision of Rodenberry's child, and basically dropped my pants and proudly and openly took a great big diarrhea shit in public on everything that was good about it, this time I'm going to try to actually do a Star Trek movie that's actually, you know, Star Trekkish."

At least, that's how I read it.

I hope he spends the rest of his life in an attempt to redeem himself from the sin of his first Star Trek movie.

[Auggie]

15. Okay with me...

may be the only way to reach certain morans

[Yavin4]

17. Modern-Day Issues, Eh? Star Trek; The Search for Spock's Birth Certificate

Alien life form, Orly Taitz, claims that Spock is not a vulcan, rather he was born in Kenya.

[Bucky]

28. Ha! Good one!

Or maybe Tribble-bagger protests outside of Star Fleet Headquarters after the Borg get kicked out due to running Star Fleet into the ground.

[DerekG]

18. He can do whatever the hell he wants

The movies I'll be watching are titled The Wrath of Khan, The Search for Spock, The Voyage Home, and The Undiscovered Country.

[Moondog]

19. When I wish to be entertained, I do not seek out political relevance.

Yes, I know, I'm a heretic. So sue me.

[LanternWaste]

20. What I enjoyed about the most recent film

What I enjoyed about the most recent film was its lack or moralizing and preaching-- as the previous films and series were so heavy handed and overwrought in that respect.

But metaphor or allegory for current events? I'm all for that...

[NoPasaran]

24. I hope to live to see CSI: Startrek made

Combining the acting talents of William Shatner with those of David Caruso.

[Fire Walk With Me]

29. I have a brilliant idea for the second film.

A Federation science ship journeys to a ruined star system in which they meet up with their old nemesis, the genetically-engineered ultramusician Greg Kihn, who places mind-control worms into the ears of two crew members. Greg and his fans proceed to take over the science ship sent to investigate and lay a trap for Kirk. In the process, they steal the Genesis device, a new machine which causes excellent lead singer/musicians to leave the band and for second-rate singer/musicians to attempt to take their place. To stop the use of such a diabolical device, Kirk and crew....hide in the nebula. This does not deter Kihn from triggering the device, hoping that Kirk and crew will lose all hope due to the extreme transition from "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway" to "Illegal Alien". The plan fails as Kirk and crew warp away at greater than the speed of (bad) sound.

Cue Kirk screaming "Kiiiiihn!"

But...





Spoiler alert....






Spock turns out to have been a Phil Collins-era Genesis fan, and, having tuned his scanner to Kihn and kept listening, falls dead. The crew have no pity and throw him in the ship's recycling unit.


SEE? ITS JEENIUS!