‘Star Trek’ Producer & Writers On The Two Spocks + New Comic-Con Photos

In their coverage of Comic-Con 2007 Star Trek Magazine talked to Star Trek producer Damon Lindelof and screenwriters Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci about the introduction of the two Spocks. Lindelof noted the excitement at Comic-Con and said that is what they want for the film: "the pure magic of seeing Zach Quinto and Leonard Nimoy in a room together for the first time is exactly the magic we’re trying to put on the screen. Mr Spock is a character that transcends sci-fi, he’s almost mythic." The writers talked about how important it was to them (and the script) for Nimoy to agree to do the film:

We knew the odds that our script would actually lure Nimoy were about a million to one, but it was a gamble we had to take, even knowing that if he said no, the whole thing was for nothing. To have him sign on and then manage to also get Zachary Quinto, who everyone can see is going to be an inspired heir to this legacy, is like winning the lotto twice in a row. For a couple of Trek fans, this is a dream we hope we don’t wake up from.

…More in the latest issue of Star Trek Magazine. See below for new images from Comic-Con

the following are Paramount’s official press kit images (and official captions) from  Comic-Con 2007

[click images to enlarge] 

 
(Left to right) At the Paramount Pictures/DreamWorks Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies panel at the Comic-Con International Convention in San Diego, California on July 26, 2007, screenwriter Roberto Orci, actor Leonard Nimoy, producer Damon Lindelof, actor Zachary Quinto, producer/director J. J. Abrams, screenwriter Alex Kurtzman, producer Bryan Burk and executive producer Stratton Leopold appeared to discuss their upcoming “Star Trek” adventure.

 


At the Paramount Pictures/DreamWorks Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies panel at the Comic-Con International Convention in San Diego, California on July 26, 2007, actor Zachary Quinto (left), who was announced as the new Mr. Spock in the upcoming “Star Trek” motion picture, shakes hands with the man who created the role, actor Leonard Nimoy (right)

 


At the Paramount Pictures/DreamWorks Pictures and Nickelodeon Moviespanel at the Comic-Con International Convention in San Diego, California on July 26, 2007, actor Zachary Quinto (left), who was announced as the new Mr. Spock in the upcoming “Star Trek” motion picture, takes the stage with the man who created the role, actor Leonard Nimoy (right) 

 


 At the Paramount Pictures/DreamWorks Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies panel at the Comic-Con International Convention in San Diego,California on July 26, 2007, actor Zachary Quinto (left), who was announced as the new Mr. Spock in the upcoming “Star Trek” motion picture, and the man who created the role, actor Leonard Nimoy (right), are introduced to the audience

 


 At the Paramount Pictures/DreamWorks Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies panel at the Comic-Con International Convention in San Diego,California on July 26, 2007, director/producer J.J. Abrams made a major casting announcement for his upcoming “Star Trek” film

 

Photos Credit: Dan Steinberg, © 2007 DreamWorks LLC and Paramount Pictures.

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This should be a fun movie. J.J. Abrams, the creator of Lost, is the director, Zachary Quinto, the villian Sylar of Heroes, is the young Mr. Spock, and the best part is, Leonard Nimoy is playing the elder Mr. Spock for the last time. We don’t have a young Captain Kirk yet, but I have a way to bring back William Shatner as the elder Captain Kirk. I just wrote a letter to Paramount yesterday, and I’m going to send it tomorrow.

Magic indeed, I look forward to see how that translates into the film!

My god, so many articles in one day. I better sum up the headlines be up to date with my translations…

love the choice for the younger mr.spock, and its great to see mr.nimoy back on screen again! im more than excited to see this movie get started!!
they got the spocks right , i hope they get the big man himself right too! not just any actor can play kirk, it has to be someone special ,and has all the arrogance and special touch that made that character come alive!bill is capt kirk and forever will be! so i hope and pray that lighting strikes twice when it comes to capt kirk, I love to see the new younger kirk not only look like him but embraces the heart soul and quliaties that made this character memorable. What made the original series so special was its characters and stories not the visual effects and i hope that remains true in the new star trek movie! So lets beam up again, to a new adventure! Itll be great to see the enterprise warping on the screen again!

No telling if this will be the last outing for Nimoy as Spock… this is a multiple film deal, Quinto revealed. In any case, Nimoy’s endorsement gives me the greatest hope.

And Shatner will be in it, I have faith. I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if it’s announced once casting is confirmed for young Kirk.

Im just so excited about this movie – since i began to watch Star Trek back in 1994 (ok im a youngling) i have never felt such a sence of utter excitement for one film!

Totally agreed there, #6.
Star Trek has something Star Wars and all the other sci-fi movies will never have–a sense of some sort of goal ahead, something that humans will eventually be able to reach. There’s so much hope, so much love, so much intense feeling about it…that I just love ST. Thank God for ST XI and Nimoy’s blessings. Now we just need Shatner…and fast, lol.

Please don’t leave out The Shat.

Come on Mr Shatner,, where are yaa !!

:-)

Here’s a cool idea! Old Spock finds himself in some kind of weird time paradox where he basically keeps reliving his live. Old Spock ceases to exist and BECOMES young Spock!

And he never gets out of the time paradox!

Pretty cool, huh?

I love the Shat, but he should not be in this movie:
Nimoy (naturally) looks much older than he did in “Unification” (TNG), so it would make more sense if the old Spock part is set in a post DS9 setting, like on Spock’s 200th birthday or something.
So even if Kirk pays a time traveling visit from the Nexus or something, that would seem strange and forced.
Not saying having Kirk back would not be totally awesome

Please, no time paradoxes. Star Trek has done the time travel/paradox thing to death.
The dead horse is no longer being beaten, they’ve already sent it to the glue factory.

Since this film is being told from the point of view of an elder Spock it makes me wonder who he’s relating the story to.It would have to be someone in the recent Star Trek Next Gen future.Wonder if he’s still a Romulan abassador or if he’s moved on.

I just had a thought: Supposing that the “old Spock” scenes are set in the 24th century, could it be possible that Spock could still be on Romulus? If so, could any of that possibly tie into the new movie? This is completely ignoring any books/other media, as they are not canon.

#13,
Sorry to double-post, but when I wrote my second post, I hadn’t re-loaded the page and I didn’t know yours was there. I don’t want you to think that I was copying you.

13 No biggie

I mean…Great minds think alike

If this film takes place after Nemesis, well, Romulus has gone to hell in a hand basket. I expect that Nimoy has a fairly important role, otherwise he probably wouldn’t have done it. Two possibilities come to my mind:

1. Some kind of long running conspiracy or sinister plot in the Federation or whatever, and Spock must go back in time or something, and the two meet.

2. Spock is recalling an adventure. His current whereabouts are mostly just for “canon” fodder.

#13: “Since this film is being told from the point of view of an elder Spock…”

I don’t think it’s actually been said that this is from elder Spock’s point of view — we just know that he’s in it, and it seems to make sense that he’d be telling the story. But he might be part of a narrative being told from an entirely different point of view.

You re right.I don’t know what function elder Spock serves in the story.Just speculating

it wound be nice to know what old spock is up to and the actor did say that this is a spock story! maybe he is on his way to earth to tell starfleet what he has been up to and on his way he recalls what happend when he first met captain kirk

Not bad no. 10…
but Quantum Leap kinda played that card already :)

I’d almost gaurantee this will have absolutely nothing to do with the continuity of the TNG films, even casually. I’d be EXTREMELY surprised to hear any mention of Romulas in that context. Even if it is a flashback.

And yep, I want The Shat.
Remember, respect for canon or no, this is being made for a general audience. And if we have Nimoy, general audiences will wonder… “where is The Shat?”

#1 “I have a way to bring back William Shatner as the elder Captain Kirk”
Yeah, well, no disrespect, but fellow posters have come up with no less than 237 ways to bring Kirk back, so….more power to you!!!

#22, True…it is kind of Quantum Leap-esq…lol. I agree also that I’ll be shocked if this ties into Next Gen at all. I think Paramount REALLY wants to get the bad taste of two Next Gen films (three if you count Generations) out of people’s mouths.

I can’t say I blame them — if so.

#23 237 ways to bring back Kirk? Wow…lol!!!

23 That’s for a Next Gen reunion TV movie IMO.They (and Shatner) did it .It’s up to them to fix it .But ,personally,I don’t see how Abrams and co. should bother themselves with a cocamaimie Next Gen Kirk resusitstion/canon fixer upper story.

#26 was to Harry’s #23 post

#26–I think the plot itself is the easiest part. As someone else said, there have been 237 plus different ways to bring Shatner into the movie from people on this board alone. The hard part is getting Paramount and Shatner to just do it already. Nimoy says the movie would be better with Shatner in it. He’s not alone.

They did a great job with the Spocks. Now get the Kirks.

I still think the Kirk thing is best left to a Next Gen TV reunion movie for the trekkies.

Every movie should be “for the trekkies” or something is wrong. I am not sure when and how that became a bad thing. I still believe it’s possible to make a movie “for the trekkies” that the general movie-going public would enjoy as well. You mean to tell me that if for example The Doomsday Machine was a feature film no one would go see it? My point is, I think something like that would draw people in…”trekkies” or not…and that’s classic Trek storytelling at it’s best!

It would be cool if it turned out to be a echo of TAS “Yesteryear” where an older Spock intervenes for good, in an unknown capacity, in the life of his younger self…

And his initial reason for being at the Guardian is to try to save Kirk!

WHICH HE DOES!

Can we please get off mundane topics like bringing Kirk back and get on to more important matters, such as the size and shape of nacelle caps? After all, Shatner will “shuffle off this mortal coil” soon enough, and we won’t have to worry whether he will EVER reprise the role one last time………….there, don’t you feel better?

I really don’t think this can be an “elder Spock tells the tale…” movie. Here’s why.
ZQ mentioned possible sequels to XI. It would be tough to have two or three movies of this type without looking like a series of lame”I remember when’s” … or am I just not being imaginative enough?

Xai–just because Quinto is signed on for sequels doesn’t mean Nimoy is. I don’t think one thing has to do with another. Nimoy’s role could be flashback, or not, but the sequel thing probably has little to do with that.

I just wish we could get some more casting news, or something about the plot ALREADY!

Why do all the first posters, when there is a new JJ abrams article, always gush like its the first time they’ve ever heard of it?

How do you know J. J. Abrams is really an old-school geek? Check out the “Infocom” t-shirt.

The Cast And Crew look great together in that photo !

I expect there to me more people added to the rouster as we get closer to filming the movie in November.

Maybe a photo of the extended cast and crew too ;)

– W –
* It’d be nice *

Wow, are Nimoy and Quinto that tall or is every else just that short?

“That is the thing about Lindelof, Abrams, Orci and Kurtzman…they are us just with big time jobs in Hollywood.”

And a lot more money.

I was thinking… Are they gonna make Spock greener? I’ve noticed that he’s got some red in his skin but that doesn’t make much sense to me. Star Wars so ripped off Star Trek it’s not even funny. Star Wars sucks!

I’m almost to the point where it seems like the easiest way to bring back Kirk is by Spock finding his body on Veridian III and placing his intact head in a jar ala “Futurama”. It could even spawn its’ own sequel’ “They Saved Kirk’s Brain!”

“Kirk’s brain”!! Oooh, now there’s an episode I would have loved! ‘Course, with the part of his anatomy that the womanizing captain thought with, it probably wouldn’t have made it past the NBC censors!

Is it possible that Abrams, who is known to map out storyline arcs well in advance, has already got a trilogy plot fleshed out? If so, he will probably film all of Nimoy’s “bits” in front of a “blue screen” this year, then slot them in to the three films, over the next decade, as he needs them. This would go a long way to explaining the cryptic remarks about an elderly Spock being an influence to the younger one “now and beyond”. Not to mention, with Nimoy’s advanced age, getting his performance for all three films “in the can” now would be only logical! Heh, heh, heh……sorry, couldn’t resist!

43:

Pray tell how Star Wars “so ripped pff Star Trek it’s not even funny?”

Point 1: Lucas wanted to make Flash Gordon a film. He could not get the rights to it so he decided to make a film based off of Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers.

Point 2: Lucas based many crucial concepts and characters off other subjects he loved: Greek, Roman, Norse, Old Brithish, and Japanese Mythology, the Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhists Religion, American, Roman, and German history, films by Fritz Lang, Akira Kurosawa, Sergio Leonem, John Ford, Howard Hawks, and again I stress the importance of the old Flash Gordon and Buck Roger serials. I don’t know if Star Trek played any role. It probably did but nor more than any of the above mentioned. And I know that there are obvious examples of Flash Gordon Lang and Kurosawa. But all I know for Star Trek is a possible reference to it in Cloud City.

Point 3: The aliens in Star Wars were way different than in Star Trek. Rememeber, Star Wars–Now called Episode 4 A New Hope came out in 1977. The aliens look way different than anything in any of the origianl shows. In fact, it was the success of Star Wars that caused the Motion Picture into being made. And in the Motion Picture, for the first time, we see aliens that don’t look quite human!

Point 4. Star Wars is like Jidai Gekki–the old Japanese word for old story with a samurai theme. It also has gun slingers that a reminiscent of the real life American Western’s shootists. The Rebellion is like the resistance of WW II. The Empire takes from the Roman Empire and the Nazis. The characters are nothing like Star Trek.

You may not like Star Wars But I love it!

In fact, to ME, while Star Trek is all right, Star Wars is great and has yet to be topped. But this is just a matter of opinion.

Truth is Gene Roddenbarry and George Lucas may have been inspired by some of the same films, myths, ideals, etc. And since Star Trek came first, it may have played a role, but probably a small one, IN Star Wars. In fact, if it had played a big role, Lucas would have said so to get the first Star Wats film going. Everyone though Lucas was nuts when he said he wanted to make a movie like the old Flash Grodon serials he watched as a kid!

But I guess that this doesn’t matter. Ultimately what matters is the film makers. And if I am not mistaken, Abrams told Entertainment Weekly that while he enjoyed the old Star Trek films, he was not a trekker or trekkie. In fact, he said he was more of a Star Wars fan!

Lucas watched Star Trek while writing Star Wars there are things that prove this.
1. words like jettison and parsec
2. cloud city
3. creatures in Journey to Babel resembling the cantina in SW
4. some sound effects in ST used in SW

#47 “And if I am not mistaken, Abrams told Entertainment Weekly that while he enjoyed the old Star Trek films, he was not a trekker or trekkie. In fact, he said he was more of a Star Wars fan!”

Lets hope that fact doesn’t unfluence Trek ’08 too much! Star Trek is very different than Star Wars – and needs to stay that way.

#48 trektacular wrote:

“Lucas watched Star Trek while writing Star Wars there are things that prove this.
1. words like jettison and parsec
2. cloud city
3. creatures in Journey to Babel resembling the cantina in SW
4. some sound effects in ST used in SW”

Oh brother…..the word jettison did not exist before Trek….ya right….hahaha.

Parsec……..oh man come on

Cloud City……go look at old comic books…..not a new idea, even when Trek was on

Come on people