Simon Pegg Talks Excitement & Secrecy For Star Trek 2012 + Confirms Set Aside August/September To Shoot

Simon Pegg, Star Trek’s new Scotty, has been on big promotional tour for his new sci-fi comedy Paul, opening this weekend in the USA. And along the way he has talked a bit more about the buzz on the Star Trek sequel. He has also confirmed when Paramount has asked him to set aside time to shoot it.

 

Pegg talks "excitement" at Bad Robot + secrecy + confirms August/September shoot

In a radio interview with WAAF in Boston, MA, Simon Pegg and his Paul co-star Nick Frost were asked about the Star Trek sequel, the pair talked about the buzz and joked about the secrecy. Here is the exchange:

Simon Pegg: I’m hearing great things about the script. There is a lot of excitement at [JJ Abrams production company] Bad Robot about it. We are always the last to know because they don’t trust us with information.

Nick Frost: The one thing I can say – I shouldn’t – but apparently it is set in space. (laughs)

Pegg: That’s true. (laughs) I’m going to get in big trouble for that. … It is all very secretive. With the first one I was in a hotel room and a guy came with the script and I had to read it while he waited outside the door for me to give it back to him. That is because it is so difficult to keep a secret these days.

And in an interview with Dublin’s City TV Pegg talked more about about the sequel buzz he is hearing:

Pegg: I am one of those people [who want to know what is coming in the Star Trek sequel]. I know its being written and they are very happy with the script so far. JJ [Abrams] is finishing up Super 8 and we are waiting to get to work on it, which will hopefully be in the summertime. I am as excited as everyone else.

On Sunday Pegg and the Paul team were at the SXSW Film Fest in Austin, TX. Since we have seen many production dates thrown around by the cast, TrekMovie asked our friend and fellow Trekkie Jordan Hoffman (who is covering the event for UGO) to press Simon on if he was guessing or if he has been asked to set time aside. The actor confirmed that studio has told him to "keep August and September open" for his return to the role of Scotty in the Star Trek sequel.

So it does look like things continue to move forward on the unnamed Star Trek film due in theaters June 29, 2012. Based on comments from writers and cast, it looks like pre-production could get started by April, with production going by August. It is worth noting that even if Pegg is only shooting for two months, the production will likely take longer. Principle photography for the 2009 Star Trek lasted four months (including a Holiday break), but Pegg was only required for less than two months.


Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Kristen Wiig & director Greg Mattola – "Paul" screening at SXSW – Austin, TX Sunday March 13th

Paul opens this weekend

Simon’s new comedy Paul opens in the North America on Friday March 18th.  The film about two geeks on a road trip across America who befriend a real alien is getting good buzz and has been a hit in the UK. Written by Frost and Pegg, it is no surprise that Paul is full of sci-fi references including some from Star Trek. The most prominent Trek bit is a trip to Vasquez Rocks to re-enact the Kirk/Gorn fight scene from "Arena".

For more read Jordan’s review at UGO.com, and here is a new commercial touting the good reviews for the film. 

133 Comments
oldest
newest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Nick Frost= Harry Mudd? Yeh, i’m seeing that. Or maybe i’m not!
Still, at least i didn’t shout about beinf Firsttttt!

While were at it Kristen Wiig = Janice Lester.

I think Simon Pegg is the most optimistic/outspoken when it comes to the next Star Trek film.

That’s alright by me, just shows how much he loves what he does and is excited about getting started on the next installment!

Nick Frost is a hoot. “The one thing I can say – I shouldn’t – but apparently it is set in space. ” Ha. ha, ha.

It’s now time for the J.J. Abrams director watch.

Nice! News! Finally!

The countdown to the countdown has nearly begun.

Just for fun—can anyone name a Trek episode that doesn’t take place in space at all, meaning no shots of ships, star fields and the like?

Hmmm… none immediately come to mind…

@7 no shots of the Enterprise? Are you out of your Vultan mind?

Vultan. All of the Eps of all of the Series had Parts of it in Space and on a Ship. Good one though.
Can’t wait for the next Trek Countdown to begin.

Will JJ direct?

No….Rand, Mudd, Lester, Khan, Jones, Chapel, Decker, Evans, Mitchell, Korby, Adams, Noel, Finnegan, Metrons, Horta, Organians, Keeler, Tribbles, Tracey, and most of all, no space hippies, hipsters, metrosexuals, or whatevers. New direction, new characters, please!!

Not a good sign when the director is photographed at a screening sleeping.

Frak it! I’ll be at the theater this weekend in line to see Paul.

@7 I’d need to watch it again, but I think Rocks and Shoals isn’t set in space, just another planet. Since it starts once the ship has crashed. We get a shot of a ship sinking, but as far as I recall never one in space.

7. Vultan – March 14, 2011

I seem to reacll that just about every episone had at least some stock footage of Enterprise entering/breaking orbit, or at least in orbit. City on the Edge of Forever would probably come close, though.

hmmm Far beyond the Stars? or maybe an holodeck episode?

Ooh! I know, The Ship, it starts on the planet if I recall correctly, and you never see a ship in space.

#2
Genius !

DS9 – Far Beyond the Stars….just a couple second clip of a starfield is all

Somewhere, Bob Orci is reading this while gritting his teeth and shaking his fist, because I have a feeling that Nick Frost just revealed a major plot-point.

Taylor Lautner=Khan.

Ummm…I’m just saying…let’s get the teeny boppers into this.

And so there is more “talk” with absolutely nothing being said!

Oo de la li, oo de la li.

@20 wasn’t one of the biggest critizisms with the last movie that the teenie poppers are already in this?

20.
…..

“Taylor Lautner=Khan.”

So, you’d be willing to sit in a theatre surrounded by teenage girls shrieking “KKKHHHAAANNN!”?

Re: Scotty’s discovery from the movie:
http://www.cracked.com/article_19037_7-movies-that-ignored-world-changing-discoveries.html

They have a point there…

If Paramount is scheduling the shoot, then the script is finished…?

I PREDICT!!!!

A rewritten version of “Balance of Terror”.

@26

Romulans AGAIN???
Highly unlikely.

@ 26.
An expanded version of a one hour TV episode would be a disaster, no matter how good the source material is. The best thing that could happen would be a solid stand alone story that recycles nothing, in real time, meaning something 3-4 years past the events of ST2009.

I just hope Scotty and McCoy have significant more screen time in the sequel.

I love the photo of them at the Texas screening of Paul.

They are funny chaps

: )P

I think DS9 “The Ship” has that bit at the end, with the Defiant towing the Jem’Hadar vessel.

“Rocks and Shoals” looks promising though for even less time spent on a space shot. There must be an establishing one for DS9, the times we go back for Kira’s B-story (the hanging Vedek?).

If we’re excuse a single shot here and there, maybe ENT “Carpenter Street” (Archer & T’Pol 21st Century Detroit). ENT “Home” (set on Earth and Vulcan). TNG “Family” maybe. Perhaps VOY “11.59” although it’s been a while since I saw it.

Oh… ENT “Carbon Creek”. Probably low on space shots.

#20

AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

Let me say that I ‘m not screaming in excitement … does not play with that ! … but I ‘m quiet … the guys wouldn’t do this to us … I HOPE !!! LOL and +LOL !

hmmmm … there are so many provocations on the internet lately … :-) :-)

27. While I agree Romulans are unlikely, they might get away with it on the basis Nero was a departure from the highly intelligent chess-masters sneaking around Federation space in cloaked ships, we’d come to expect. Nero was an anachronistic blunt instrument used to shatter canon to pieces.

Apparently the episode of TNG’s “Family” is the only one where there ISN’T a shot of the bridge.

More Scotty, McCoy AND Pike in the next movie!

That still leaves plenty of time for the Kirk/Spock lovefest!

^ Or maybe it’s fairer to describe Red Matter and the Narada as that.

Hi Simon Pegg ! … a lot of excitements ? … OK ! … :-) :-)

@24 subatoi

good point well made.

I like the other entries too. He’s a funny writer too.

Oh Ballzy!

You and your bloody lovefests.

I’d rather see Kirk and Spock in lovefest than that awful concoction of Spock/Uhuruuuuuuuueergh.

That may possibly have sounded quite wrong……

: )P

I would say there was less than a 50/50 chance Anthony.

well, that is according to my own transwarp calculations…….: )P

Perhaps Scotty doesn’t like Vulcan sandwiches?

They are probably full of sand anyway.

Maybe that is why they are “sand….wiches”……

….anyway, back to the transwarp calculations……: )P

43. Scotty probably doesn’t care for the vegetarian option.

Scotty owes JTK biiiiiiig time!

“Miracle worker” indeed!

: )P

Thanks Anthony on the confirmation (or not) of the finished script. :)

As for transwarp beaming, maybe in the second movie they will inadvertently find the beagle…somewhere funny…

Plomeek sarnies or whatever.

@45

That is true.

Leaf sandwiches can get dull pretty darn quick.

Always best that you leaf that option alone……

I’m sure he’d have got it working if there was a bottle of 15 year old Islay single malt on Vulcan…….: )P

#11, Yeah I agree.

Rand and Chapel (as they were in TOS) wouldn’t be appropriate for nowadays. I still say female chief of security (in trousers) would be a fresher area to go.

JJ said that this sequel would not be a remake, although then again, it depends on what you call a remake.

Like I say, the real thing that irks me is that the movie could be on the level of “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” and yet get praised like it’s the next “Dark Knight.” Granted they didn’t do everything I feared they’d do in the first one, it just makes me wonder.