There is yet even more from JJ Abrams from last week’s TCA event in Los Angeles. Deadbolt reports some of the same quotes, but also has a Abrams discussing the optimism (and darkness) of past Trek and how that is reflected in his new Star Trek movie.
The event was focused on JJ Abrams (and Robert Orci & Alex Kurtzman’s) new X-Files-like show Fringe. The interview brought up Abrams other shows Lost and Alias as well as Trek. At one point he was asked "Why are you drawn to dark subject matter?", to which Abrams replied (bringiing up Trek):
JJ Abrams: It is funny. You know, looking at Trek, which has – there is some real weird and dark stuff that happens in it. But the truth is that Star Trek is so optimistic. There’s an optimism to Star Trek that is to me one of the things that was most appealing about the idea even of doing the movie, which is – while there is darkness that must be in contrast, and while there is real obstacle and an incredible villain and it’s terrifying and weird and creepy and scary and gross and all of the kind of things that you’d expect from this crazy sort of adventure, it’s also got a huge heart and a wonderful kind of family at the core of it. So while there are weird things that happen in Lost, Alias, and certainly in Fringe, something like Star Trek is ultimately, as I believe is the case with Fringe as well, a hopeful story.
There is no question that there is incredibly weird stuff that happens and people get tortured and hurt and the villains are evil and mean, but it’s part of defining who the good guys are. I think at the end of the day there are a lot of movies out there that are incredibly grim and very cynical and I don’t think that certainly Alias or Lost – and I can tell you with Fringe – these are stories that are ultimately very much about the people, totally humanistic emotional stories and good prevails. I’m always turned off by stuff that is too cynical and dark.
For more from Abrams check out Deadbolt
Considering how dark and moody the sneak preview trailer for “Star Trek” was, I find JJ’s comments… interesting.
I don’t know, TNG didn’t show us a very merry future for the characters of TOS.
1
I didn’t think the trailer was that dark. I thought it was kind of connecting our world to the Star Trek world with all of those audio commentaries about space exploration. It was showing the literal construction of the movie and what is to come.
#2 Well considering it was 100 years or so later you wouldn’t expect them to be alive still.
#1 Scott
I didn’t find the trailer dark, other than the lack of light and I think that was to help highlight the torches and hide a few things.
Moody? Sorry, no agreement there at all. The audio clips of moon missions and space flights combined with Trek’s preamble and the swelling theme… nice.
Based on what JJ says here and on other interviews, he’s got it right. TOS Trek is very positive, hopeful and full of heroic figures there to save the day or explore that vast final frontier.
Hope, compassion, understanding, and accepting diversity were at the heart of Gene Roddenberry’s concept for Trek. It’s nice to see that Mr. Abrams seems to understand this.
Still no pics, still no trailer, still nothing…
I think Abrams understands the message of eternal optimism that Roddenberry was trying to convey, while also also being pragmatic about several millennia of actual human history. As so many people on that side of the pasture fence have been saying, they’re trying to keep it real without getting the message too muddied. IOW: this time around, Ensign Ricky makes it home to Mommy for Christmas, and the blonde that Kirk has been gamahooching gets vaporized in a plasma conduit rupture. Now, that is how it would ‘really’ happen.
If it’s so great give us a PICTURE!!!!
9. It’ll happen, don’t get antsy.
Has anyone else noticed that the poll currently adds up to only 99%?
The trailer wasn’t dark at all. It was very optimistic with the space travel quotes.
People getting tortured? On screen? Bring it on! Khaaaaann!
It’s going to be bad. I said all along that they will let it happen badly. Paramount wants Trek gone. Does anybody remember OptimusPrime stepping on the flowers outside that house? It was dumb. They ( the writers) don’t get it. Even Bob, doesn’t understand what it is about, I’m telling you, and I will have said it when all of you are going-, “Superman!? What happened?” Remember what happened when they let a young boy make a Superman movie? Ask us why? we are worried? I don’t want LOST IN SPACE.
14. Who says we’re getting Lost in Space? How do you know it’s going to be bad unless you’ve seen this movie? What makes it so bad?
Ah, people these days are too hard on movies. Not every movie has to be super hyper realistic. Come on. Lighten up a bit people.
I liked “Superman Returns” just fine, so I’m not going along with the “What happened?” litany.
#16
I agree. I go to the movies to escape my hum-drum reality. I want to be entertained with a good story, good characters, and fun…which comes in many different forms. I consider myself a true Trek fan and am holding onto the hope that this movie will fulfill all of the above.
OptimusPrime should never have been lurching around somebodies house without being detected. That’s all beside the point. MI3 blowed and that’s the only movie he made, it’s Hollywood, and the point I am trying to make is that they will pay millions of dollars to see it go away, just wait. If Trek is LIS (lost in space) or MI3, Jar Jar Binks.
9. KJTrek – July 21, 2008
“If it’s so great give us a PICTURE!!!!”
7. Green-Blooded-Bastard – July 21, 2008
“Still no pics, still no trailer, still nothing…”
You got poster ( and pictures) LAST WEEK!!!!
Dennis Bailey doesn’t know who Superman is.
I am so happy to have read that article!
Thanks TrekMovie.
And come on now. Was “Lost in Space the movie” that bad?
It was far and away better than the 60’s TV show.
Well, everybody loves a happy ending. But it sounds like, minus the ‘kitsch’ and ‘camp’, life just happened in front of J.J.’s cameras. It doesn’t mean that someone won’t have a reason to get up out of the dirt and keep on keeping on at the end of it.
14. Michael Adams – July 21, 2008
“It’s going to be bad. I said all along that they will let it happen badly. Paramount wants Trek gone.”
Huh?
Paramount can be goofy and bad at times, but not even they could find the logic spending $150M, selling the licensing fees and all the rest..
…just to make Trek “go away”.
If this is how “you get it” and all the rest “don’t get it”, maybe you better stick your head up, get some fresh air and get a look-see.
Sorry…
Next!
21. Michael Adams – July 21, 2008
Ok, now you are just trolling…
is this the same jj abrams who produced cloverfield lol
Just wait. “Lost” in space? I mean the TV show. They all ready tried it with Nemesis yo.
Lost in Space (the movie) wasn’t so bad. I expected it to be different and appreciated the nods to the original. That’s how I am approaching the new Star Trek. If I wanted, or expected, a clone i would just break out my DVD’s and be done with it.
Michael Adams, i don’t know if i speak for everyone else here when i say to hell with your “opinions”
So far the writers of “Star Trek” have done exactly what requires of them with each of the movies they’ve written;
MI:III – Its a Tom Cruise action adventure thriller – its based on a TV show that was pretty cheesy.
Transformers – IT”S A MOVIE BASED ON KIDS TOYS!!!!!!!!!!!!
with both franchises they wrote stories that was faithful to the source material.
you are not going to get Lost In Space, you are going to get “Star Trek” and from what we’ve seen in the trailer and from what the new posters look like – its going to be a gritty realistic however faithful to the original, feature film that is a lot bigger in scale than anything we’ve seen before in Star Trek – it’ll put Star Trek in a league where it has never been before, competing with the likes of the HUGELY SUCCESSFUL Transformers franchise, Indiana Jones, Batman and Star Wars.
go burry your head back in the sand because quite frankly that seems to be where you’ve kept it these past few months. ugh! =/\=
Ok Everyone lets be nice. he is entittled to his opinion as scotty would say and then of corse Scotty would just hit him with a right cross. But Abrams is right Star Trek Tos Was a gritty and wonderfull show with Good People doing inpossible jobs.It was fun and heroic and Upbeat and explored space and the human hart and thats what the great bird wanted. it was not about action and shootum up but did that when needed. it was about frendship and Love and great stories.I think Abrams has hit it dead center and Giving it the big budget and making it grand with a great story will be great. Just like the latest Batman movie the dark night. Great action and a great story to boot. heres to the next Star trek movie. Big budget and action and a great story.
lost in space season 1 was great, it was only when they changed format to the campy style is when it went down hill, with a few exceptions like “the anti matter man” great episode. Maybe netflix LIS season 1 and has a darker feel. As far as the Lis movie goes, I didn’t think it was all that bad. And maybe a reimagined LIS movie will pop up, with all the remakes, it will get there. John Woo tried a new lis tv pilot and it didn’t even make past the pilot.
As everyone knows, you can’t please all the people all the time, but only time will tell, we have barely seen a poster and a few quotes and some people are already flushing it down the toilet.
For GODS sale, give it a chance. And for all of you BSG lovers, didn’t we hear the same rumbling when the reimagined BSG was in production and well the rest is history, or at least 4.0 and 10 more episodes to go. BSG is the best show on TV, and hopefully the last 10 episodes will prove it.
When JJ was directly involved in lost, writing, producing etc the show was tops, but when JJ was more hands off, Lost lost it’s way.
Again for GODS sake, give ST 11 a chance, and stop bitching.
I hope so. I feel also that this is a different thing, than anything else they have done, but I feel that a forum has been established for the (Star Trek people) to hear what “we” have to say and it’s still early enough for them to correct any mistakes they might have made at this point. All those other movies were for children, but Trek is not. They are trying to make it for them this time.
I love my fellow Star Trek fans. Love!
32. Michael Adams – July 21, 2008
“I hope so. I feel also that this is a different thing, than anything else they have done, but I feel that a forum has been established for the (Star Trek people) to hear what “we” have to say and it’s still early enough for them to correct any mistakes they might have made at this point.”
If you think they still have time to correct things by listening to us here… why are you being so negative?
“It’s going to be bad”- Michael Adams, #14. Takes some advice from the name of this article please and give feedback instead of gloom and doom on a film you’ve not seen one frame of.
Yes, Xai – I know baby, I just love it too much.
I am hoping this movie captures the flavor of the morality plays that was such a vital part of TOS. The drama, the humor, heck…the humanity of what we all know and love about the original series without a lot of technobabble is the core of storytelling that I am anticipating.
That being said, I have to agree with Dennis Bailey’s comments and am, again, in Xai’s corner.
I have a lot of faith that Bad Robot will make a good flick that will satisfy on many different levels.
TOS was hopeful, but was also honest enough to show us humans who remained flawed and that bad things could still be done by humans, as well as other races. TOS was about the desire to improve ourselves.
TNG and its stablemates scare me because of the supposed ‘perfection’ of the characters. No wonder, eventually, that facade of ‘perfection’ had to be cracked!
As for this Michael Adams guy and his ilk. Crank out the mournful violin and whine it away! I’m gobsmacked at the utterly strange remarks certain people make about this film. The film is covered by a veil of secrecy because lot of us won’t be able to resist the spoilers if they’re out there. So certain people decide to pee on our bonfire because we’re excited about the film. Michael clearly hates the people involved in the making of this film, so perhaps he should go away and join a site like danielcraigisnotbond.com.
I mean, I don’t post on Doctor Who sites anymore, because I loathe the new show and especially the work of that talentless hack Russell T Davies. But at least I’ve seen enough of the series to know it’s unadulterated garbage and that the majority of critics and viewers are clearly deranged or brainwashed! ;)
I’m happy with my classic series DVDs, which are the sort of Doctor Who I enjoy and I live in hope that a new showrunner will move the series, stylistically, more towards the Who I enjoy! But if I keep going on to Who fora and moaning that I don’t like it, that makes me a troll . . . and believe me I have made the mistake of going on to these fora and ended up being rude to people!
Similarly here, people are dissing the new film when they know almost nothing about it. Hope is the key. Give these people a chance before you dismiss the film. And allow us to be excited about the film without trying to bring us down! It’s not about censorship of opinion: it’s about having good manners.
Mi3 was great. A fun thrill ride with nice stunts, and characters. Who didn’t like Phillip Seymour Hoffman? He was great.
37. Dom – July 21, 2008
Brava!
35. Michael Adams – July 21, 2008
Yes, Xai – I know baby, I just love it too much.”
Baby? Sorry, bud.
————-
#36 Tony
thanks for being in my corner.
“But the truth is that Star Trek is so optimistic. There’s an optimism to Star Trek that is to me one of the things that was most appealing about the idea even of doing the movie, which is – while there is darkness that must be in contrast, and while there is real obstacle and an incredible villain and it’s terrifying and weird and creepy and scary and gross and all of the kind of things that you’d expect from this crazy sort of adventure, it’s also got a huge heart and a wonderful kind of family at the core of it.”
Just as long as he doesn’t take it to the GR level of TNG where there can be no conflict between the characters.
Curious to see how Fringe plays out.
“these are stories that are ultimately very much about the people, totally humanistic emotional stories and good prevails. I’m always turned off by stuff that is too cynical and dark.”
>coughcough<
I am glad JJ has the massage of hope thing going on.
And re: #’s 14, 19, 21, 27, 32, 33, & 35….
I say, Mr. Adams, I don’t understand where you are coming from.
The quotes thus far from JJ, Orci, the cast, as well as the studio support Paramount is showing and fan reaction to all of this seem to differ from yours.
There is some room for concern I’m sure, but until I plop my bottom in the seat at the cinema and actually see this thing I reserve my judgment.
I’m excited about JJ’s movie and I feel like Trek is in good hands. I am trusting so far that we will get a labor of love that meets our expectations.
20. Xai – July 21, 2008
You got poster ( and pictures) LAST WEEK!!!!
Yes Xai we did, but we didn’t get the picture we really want. The one that will calm a lot of our fears.
SHOW US THE DAMN SHIP!!!!!!!!!!!!
You’ll get the ship and then you’ll want something else, the marketing on this movie has been very well timed, I know of no movies that have had much out this long before the opening, the problem is that they moved it back, so we have been waiting a lot longer than we normally would. But I think it is a good thing, as it will have a much better chance in the Summer.
We did get the ship! It was in the preview, Did everyone miss it?
44. Splurch – July 21, 2008
“Yes Xai we did, but we didn’t get the picture we really want. The one that will calm a lot of our fears.
SHOW US THE DAMN SHIP!!!!!!!!!!!!”
I really would like to see her too, but what if you DID get to see her now and didn’t like her? What would you do? Scream on an internet Trek site?
What fears? It’s a movie! There are far better things to be upset about. Relax.
Good Point #46…
there ya go Splurch…it’s covered.
I liked MI:III … was teh best of the trilogy by far. JJ brought something to the movie that wasmissing from the previous two.
And The Lost In Space movie .. hated it when it forst came out.. but love it now. I think taking it to a darker place was great.. made it less campy but still had the feel of the show.
As for JJ’s Trek… guys, come on.. why woul dyou tear aprt something you haven’t even seen yet?? You are ready to hate it without seeing it. You know nothing about it.. make speculation and critisize without seeing anything but a few things here and there.
I have been a Trek fan since I was 2… yes two… I have a B&W pic of me a s a kid watching TOS when it was being first run! I am excited about this movie after the let down of Nemesis. I am reserving my judgement until I have actually seen the movie. It like I tell my daughter when she won’t eat something.. how can you say you hate something if you haven’t tried it yet?
I do believe, however, that this is going to be a great movie. I like the recasting choices. I like the interviews so far.. I like what I have heard from the writers and JJ. I think they were the right choice to bring this franchise back.
All the nay sayers need to relax and chill til it comes out.. then if you don’t like it.. you’ve seen it and can form an opinion then.
I never did care for Trek episodes where our friends and hero’s got tortured. Not nice. I do hope it isn’t too expilicit.