As requested, a movie spoiler thread.

Awesome. Thanks, cutecouple.

So, what do we (think we) know so far? Maybe Pike. Maybe Shatner and Nimoy. Lt. Kirk and the "no bloody A, B, C, or D" Enterprise. What else?

I think they're dusting off that old Harve Bennett script about Kirk's academy years that was put aside to do Trek V. (or was that Trek VI)

That doesn't sound like Abrams' style. It may be a similar idea, but I don't really see Abrams as the kind of guy to take this huge opportunity and use it to polish someone else's script.

Yeah, I figure it'll be something brand new, too, but it still made me think of Bennett- as if it was twenty years in the making. (Or fifteen- I think it was VI).

One thing that came up in the office was whether, if there were Kirk and Spock flashbacks, they would be pre-Kirk's "death" at the launch of B, or in Trek "present-day," taking into account Shatner's novels resurrecting Kirk. It's a thought.

One more point: The early years of Kirk and Spock have been covered a lot, in novels and comics. ENT played havoc with lots of non-canon material, but this will do it much more. I don't blame them- they don't have any obligation to follow non-canon, which often contradicts other non-canon anyway- but it's a thought as well.

It's pretty much guaranteed that Greg Grunberg will show up in some role.

Yay! (And heh.)

That was my exact response. I love him. I wonder if he'll go for an alien look or keep his own face.

Do we have any information (rumors) if this movie is going to be a re-imagining, or just a fresh look within established Star Trek continuity? That would help me determine what JJ is planning to do with this movie.

Anyway, new casting rumors are circulating. James McAvoy To Be New Scotty?

I like this rumor as he is a great actor who is actually Scottish, but I do think he is much too young for the role. Also, I like the idea that the leads (Kirk and Spock) should be somewhat unknown, but the remaining cast could be actors that we are familiar with. Such as, Gary Sinise as Dr. McCoy. That is a casting choice that I would really love to see.
Are there other casting suggestions that we can think of? Christopher Pike? Gary Mitchell? Carol Marcus?

Ooooh... Gary Sinise as McCoy would be AWESOME. But yes, McAvoy is much too young for Scotty.

I don't really care for Damon as Kirk, but I think he might make a great Pike. Mitchell and Marcus are almost dependent on the casting of Kirk, if they even make appearances (though I'd think Mitchell, at least, would be a given).

I think JJ has said this is in established continuity, but is not directly connected to anything that we've already seen.

Good. I thought I was the only one, Harrison.
I like MD, as an actor, but I don't think he would make a good Kirk.

That I can see and I would support it with great enthusiasm.

I thought of Marcus after seeing Where No Man Has Gone Before this weekend. Mitchell talks with Kirk about that "beautiful blond I got for you*" and Kirk replies how he "almost married her*". When I saw that I immediately thought of Carol Marcus. Of course, that was just my fandom thoughts connecting. YMMV

*Not exact wording.

jake, it's not just you. DC did an annual on Kirk's Academy days once and pretty much made it explicit.

Ooh, I didn't make that connection at all! Nice! I was hoping that Mitchell for sure would make an appearance; I hope that Marcus will now, too.

Since Pike is supposed to be older than Kirk, how about Christopher Eccleston?

I haven't seen the TAS ep yet, but isn't April supposed to be English?

By the way, the DC issue had the following characters: Kirk (and brother, at the start), Decker Sr. (as a professor; he mentions his son in passing), Finney (briefly), Finnegan, Mitchell, Kelso (again briefly), Uhura, Marcus, Kyle, Ruth and...I think that's it. It sort of makes sense that there are very few from the main cast.

Apparently, GG said in a recent interview that he really wants a decent part in Trek XI.
Grunberg Wants To Be Vulcan.
I know that GG has a deal with JJA where he has a part in every project, but I guess I'm not that big a fan of his previous work. I know that it's an unpopular opinion, but I don't like his character on Heros either. As long as he doesn't want to be Spock or Sarek I'll be fine with whatever role they put him in.

I started watching for Greg but he's not one of my favorite characters in Heroes either. I loved him on Alias though so I look forward to seeing him on Trek (depending on his role of course. I don't think he'd make a very good Vulcan).

I have long thought that GS would be a great Dr. McCoy. He'd be a fool to turn down the role.

I'm on the fence re: the new movie, tending toward the "not really put out about it". I guess I'm starting from the low expectations place, that anything might be better than nothing or that it couldn't possibly be worse than the lowest common denominator stuff that's been put out since Voyager.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, J.J. Abrams has been confirmed as the director as well as the producer of Trek XI.

Trekmovie.com further claims that a Christmas 2008 release is being planned; if true, this will get them safely away from James Bond, Harry Potter, and any other big holiday releases, thus solving one of the problems of Nemesis. If they can solve the other problem of Nemesis by making sure the film isn't horrible, they'll be in fine shape...

Paramount has given Trek XI the greenlight. There will be an official announcement shortly, but TrekMovie.com has spoken with several sources who have confirmed that Paramount has given JJ Abrams the nod to start pre-production. The release date is, still, planned for December 2008 and production could start this summer, or fall. Now, the casting process can begin and rumors are swirling about who is being considered for The Big Three.

I don't like Matt Damon as Kirk. He doesn't have the looks, the charisma, the "strong male" presence and maturity to play Kirk.

Gary Sinise I can definitely see playing McCoy and playing him well. Dare I say, I might even like him better. I like DeForest Kelly but he could sometimes come across as flat.

I have to add this though... I'm sad that it's goodbye to TNG characters.

Hmm. They're a bit old for the Academy, though, aren't they? Are they just going to make a TOS adventure?

As to Damon...well, I've got the reservations, too, but from the other direction: I don't see the humor. Brody I can see.

Oh My... Oh My... Oh My...
It's official. Star Trek returns 12/25/2008.
Christmas Day and Star Trek XI! Talk about the best Christmas present ever.

One interesting side point I note is that Paramount's official releases are apparently now counting TAS as part of the franchise. Amazing what the need to sell DVDs will do. :-)

I have a bad feeling this will get screwed up too.

I would think whatever the budget for this film is could afford at best one of the actors rumored for the big three, and probably the least know of those three. Personally, I'd prefer lesser knowns for a host of reasons.

I've always thought Billy Connolly would be a great Scotty. But I suppose he's too old in relation to the other cast suggestions, so phooey.

Brief interview with Trek XI writers (who are now claiming that the arrived-upon title is simply Star Trek):



I think this is a little too vague to indicate anything, positive or negative (if it means they're not trying to shoehorn the Borg in, though, then happy day).



So it's going to be about the relationships, and, at the same time, it's going to have more action than any other Trek film to date (Plus technobabble). I've got to hand it to them, this is very complex flummery.

For some reason, I'm reminded of Infinium Labs...

Please, don't make Grunberg a Vulcan. I can see him as a nice, comfortable Andorian barber or something, but not a Vulcan. No way.

I'd be surprised if we saw a "big name" as Kirk. A reimaging scheme seems to work better with a new name, or at least lesser known. I could see them using someone more famous for McCoy or Scotty, though, and possibly Spock.

I'm sorry folks, but I have to do a happy dance over the concept of a reboot that's just called Star Trek. I've been hoping for one since season two of Enterprise.



Awww, I love me some Penny Arcade. I totally remember when Phantom was supposed to be the next big console.

I hope TPTB listen to all the fans that don't want a Kirk,Spock,McCoy reboot. I would be happy with a whole new look (darker) and feel to the Trek universe. I hated ALL the starfleet uniforms in all the treks except Enterprise.

I'm hoping they redo the TOS uniforms, at least a bit. I even have some ideas that would make them better, more in line with what we saw after (and before). For starters, no miniskirts.

I want an all black and leather type of uniform. Lots of layers with none of that skin tight look. And no mini skirts. They could have red,gold,or blue seams around the shoulders and collars to identify group.

I was thinking of the all-color top, to keep the familiar TOS look, but with a black band around the top where the ENT and TNG onward uniforms had one. It would match the collar and pants (again, that goes for women too). Maybe standardize insignia, fix ranks, you'd be way ahead of what it was before while still being familiar.

It just seems strange to me that if TPTB desire a reboot of Trek, that they would make everything look retro. I hated those pajama-uniforms.

This really worries me. These writers just did Mission Impossible--horrible!--after all. I worried about this more elsewhere, if you are interested.

I don't know that I agree with your assertion that frenzied action is at odds with ideas - like them or not, the action in The Matrix films is all about representing ideas. Though I do concede that they had to create a world with extremely specialized rules in order to do this. But I don't see the ideas as mutually exclusive.

I loved Mission: Impossible III, though, as much for how it offered Ethan some humanity that the first two films lacked (and the fact that of the three, it was the one that played most like an episode of the original series, with an actual team for once) as anything.

Not that this will make anyone feel better, but their major claim to fame before becoming Abrams' co-producers of choice was the screenplay for Michael Bay's The Island. I bring it up because it had some great ideas floating on the surface - human cloning ethics, questions of identity - that were subsumed by it being a Michael Bay movie. But the potential for raising some meaningful sci-fi issues is there, and until details start to leak, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.

Yes, The Island was a big disappointment to me because of those unexplored issues. We'll see what happens, but if the next Trek film is a whiz-bang, MTV-edited, superficial mess, I will be horribly disappointed.

Why Trek sometimes fails horribly: Ever noticed over the many years that people brought in to write,direct,or act often say they were not familar with Star Trek and never watched. As if it were beneath them to watch or follow science fiction? I think that plays into a formula for failure. These new people being brought in to direct and write should be hardcore fans that already know the Trek Universe. If they don't love it and only have a "Ho-hum" attitude towards Trek then the next movie will show it.

Which is why I was heartened by the article linked above - the writers apparently are Trekkies from wayyyy back! :-)

It's not always a guarantee. I remember one of the big names on Nemesis- writer, director, I'm not sure- showing a picture of himself watching Trek as a kid. And supposedly Blalock was a big Trekkie, but she wasn't bad.

I think the writer of Nemesis was a self-proclaimed Trekkie; the director, Stuart Baird, was emphatically not a Trek fan.

That's about the first moderately heartening thing I've heard about Trek XI, as I am less than a fan of the whole reboot thing. But if they're going to go that way, I hope they manage to do it really well and don't bugger it up.

As a die-hard 1st gen fan of Trekdom, I thought Manny Coto was doing a great job. He should be given the reins. Or me. I bet I could blow 'em away.

Watching 1st Contact again today. In my opinion the best of all Trek movies. There were only 2 flaws in this movie and they should be noted by TPTB. #1=the choice of actors that played zefram cochran. James Cromwell looks nothing like Glen Corbett or portrayed the same type of character. This is a big deal and a huge negative for fans of continuity.
#2="the live-long-and-prosper" greeting at the end with the gay looking vulcan. This should need no explaination but lets just say that Vulcans have more than one greeting options. I suspect these were Ron Moore flaws. It's the little details that matter the most!

Well, maybe #3....the music. The god-awful rock music. Should have been the Beatles or Floyd. 500 years from now they will still be favorites.

The NYT site is currently carrying a profile of Orci and Kurtzman in which they discuss their approach to writing blockbusters, and they come off reasonably well.

I don't care if they don't know the material at all before they start. My concern is that once they commit to the project that they study and treat the material with the respect that it deserves. However, that seems to be moot in Star Trek's case.

Also, for future reference, a registration free link to the NYT article, generated here.

Some movie news and rumors (mostly rumors at this point). I hadn't heard Sylar's (Zachary Quinto) name connected with Spock before now but I think he'd be a good fit.

Oh dear, I hope that doesn't come to pass. Not a fan of his acting.

Re the comments from the director (in the article which is linked below that one), I don't see the point of trying to make a movie for non Star Trek fans. At this point, is anyone going to "accidentally" go to a Trek movie who's not into the show? On the other hand, if he means it's accessible to people who've only seen bits of the original series and not much else, that's fair enough.

Yeah, but a lot of Trek fans will go regardless, but declining numbers from previous movies and the failure of Enterprise indicates that Trek needs to attract people other than fans.

There's a difference between respecting the previous work, and treating it like holy writ.