I’ve got a few con reports from today’s Toronto Fan Expo regarding Abrams, Nimoy and Shatner. At the con, Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner stated that their representitives have been contacted by the office of Star Trek XI producer JJ Abrams. Apparently JJ wants to to talk and has requested their home numbers. Nimoy said he gave his out and is awaiting JJ’s call. Shatner, who had brought the subject of Abrams up, joked that he wasn’t ready to talk to the man who was ‘going to revive the franchise’. Shatner in recent weeks has made many glowing comments about Abrams and about wanting to be in Trek XI…we suspect he will take Abrams call.
UPDATE: Video from inside the room from John at the MovieBlog
Nimoy: There’s always room for one more
Immediately after the discussion of Abrams, Nimoy told the crowd a story from when he was an out of work actor driving a NYC cab in the 50s. One day he picked up none other than Senator (later to become President) John F. Kennedy who was surprised to even be recognized, but Nimoy knew him from Boston. Kennedy gave Nimoy some words of inspiration that Nimoy says keeps him going to this day. After lamenting his life as an out of work actor, Kennedy said "there’s always room for one more." Coming right after the comments about Abrams this seems intended to indicate that Nimoy was implying there is always room for one more for Star Trek XI, and the crowd’s cheers to this line indicate they got the connection.
One more time old friends?
Both Shatner and Nimoy have been very chatty lately about Abrams and Star Trek XI. Although Shatner joked (see video) about talking to Abrams, he has often touted Abrams and made it clear that he is ready to suit up for Trek XI. Nimoy has stated that he has a deal to approve recasting. The Trek Movie Report has confirmed that he and Shatner have new Trek XI deals covering recasting, but they may not be binding. Nimoy also seems open to being in the film itself and has speculated that Abrams might want him and Shatner to appear in some kind of flashforward. The Trek Movie Report recenlty got a confirmation from Trek XI co-writer Bob Orci that the serious scriptwriting has just started; shooting for the end of October for the first draft. One would imagine that they would need to know shortly if all were on board if they were to write in any sort of ‘flashforward’ into the script. Although the pair may appear together again in Trek XI, Nimoy hasn’t been convinced by Shatner to come out of retirement for Boston Legal. Nimoy joked he only wants ‘leading man’ roles now.
Abrams confirmed to direct?
I have got a couple of conficting reports that Shatner stated something about Abrams directing Star Trek XI. In the past Abrams has only stated this as ‘probable’. It is possible that Shatner has new info, or that he is just assuming Abrams is directing, or possible he didn’t actually say it (some say he did say it, others say he didn’t). For now TrekMovie.com will continue to assume Abrams is a ‘probable’ but will try and find out more if possible.
thanks to John, Treleth and Lan for the tips
Flashforward!?
since younger actors would be playing Kirk and Spock in their 30s, Shatner and Nimoy would be ‘forward’ in time. Or the movie would be a ‘flashback’ from their time.
Translated = Shatner and Nimoy will be in Star Trek XI. Which would be great news.
Unless this JJ Abrams guy really knows his stuff and of course Star Trek and its history then he’s making a HUGE mistake by having any prior cast members in this venture. I’d certainly like to say adventure but that might be a bit premature – wouldn’t you say?
As equally silly as this may sound Paramount should hire or have the best film consultants that are
available to look over this story before it goes into production or we may all be seeing the last of Star Trek as we have known it and that would be sad – now wouldn’t it?
@Duane Boda
star trek was always a risk. that’s why it becomes so succesful in the past.
I’m getting tired of this flashback stuff. I’d like to see the timeline maintained from TNG, DS9 and Voyager.
I’m not interested in the “early days”. I want to watch humanity continue to struggle forward.
Another problem I see: It took TNG a few years for the cast to completely mesh and the stories to become compelling. (Having Ron Moore and Michael P. helped too.) By the time TNG was making moving the cast had a familiar ‘family’ feeling to it.
You won’t get that with a new feature film with a whole new cast. So – imho they are going to have a REAL hard time winning fans over.
@jay
It’s better and more true to restart the original than producing another series with similar characters and stories selled “as new”. I don’t want a kirk-like captain, if there was the possibility to bring Kirk back! And of course it’s a little bit risky, because the new faces will be compared to the original actors.
“Best film consultants there are?” Who would that be, and what do “film consultants” do, exactly?
Anyway, given the lead-time before production the writers ought to be able to concevie framing sequences featuring Shatner and Nimoy without knowing for certain that they’ve been signed. What would be problematic, of course, would be basing the core story action on their availability.
Of course Star Trek has always been a risk (Deep Space 9) is a fine example and I’ve always wondered why they kept selling – producing it? From what I ever seen – Deep Space 9 was the worse of all soap operas except it was set in space. Here is one idea on a production timeline IF they ever decided to do another series: Do one really good episode each 4 or 6 weeks instead.
As far as Film Consultants that could be anyone. That way you could and would cover the entire fan spectrum in a non-biased (unpaid) and professional (paid producers) in the field.
Given this wide spectrum you couldn’t have anything but a polished and honed product. I sincerely think that JJ Abrams should consider and invite all input to what the fans want….it would be good.
its time for a new star trek weekly show set in the time line after voyager