Want to learn lots about Star Trek producer (& sequel co-writer/producer) Damon Lindelof? Yesterday Damon spent 2 hour & 40 minutes on The Kevin Pollak Chat Show. Amazingly they barely touch on Star Trek, but Lindelof talks about his genesis as a writer, a lot about Lost plus Twitter feuds Cowboys & Aliens, Prometheus, collaborating with JJ Abrams and Ridley Scott, and more.
Damon Lindelof: The Epic Interview
Over the weekend Damon Lindelof (producer for Star Trek and co-writer/producer for Star Trek sequel) sat down for over 2 1/2 hours on the Kevin Pollak Chat Show. Watch the whole thing below.
Here is a rundown of topics with Lindelof:
- [23:00] Intro of Lindelof
- [26:00] Lost, including criticism of finale (and talk about other show finales), and "feud" with George RR Martin
- [50:00] Inspirations, including (George Lucas & Stephen King)
- [59:00] Early writing and time at NYU
- [1:07:00] Early life in Hollywood
- [1:15:00] More on Stephen King and King film/TV adaptations
- [1:26:00] Admits likes Star Wars more than Star Trek (in series of This v That questions)
- [1:27:00] Genesis Lost and his starting his JJ Abrams collaboration, and becoming showrunner, and even more Lost
- [2:10:00] Cowboys & Aliens and working with Jon Favreu, and collaborating with Orci, Kurtzman and other writers (on C&A)
- [2:18:00] Prometheus (and working with Ridley Scott) and its connection to Alien franchise
- [2:24:00] How the writer’s strike allowed him to produce Star Trek while also working on Lost
- [2:25:00] More on Ridley Scott and Prometheus [fun fact: took 2 weeks to write first draft of script]
- [2:34:00] Talks briefly about newly announced 1952 project with Disney, clarifies he won’t be working on it until after the Star Trek sequel
- [2:38:00] Wrapping up and outro
- [2:43:00] Damon playsLarry King Game (doing bad Larry King impression)
They had 2 hours and 40 minutes and yet they couldn’t spend even one of them talking about Trek? I find that a bit weird.
Bloody hell.
I thought we were in for a treat then.
Oh well, best crawl back under my rock then….
Who is this Damon Lindelof anyway?
Wasn’t he in Baywatch?
Sigh Damon Lindelof. I am so glad you have work after Trek 12,I’ll be looking forward to it. Now. How about making Trek 12 huh?!?! And then,I would say,you can do whatever the heck you want. But I can’t say that,you wanta know why? Because then I’ll be yellin’ at you to hurry up with the next Trek,so……..yeah,I’m sorry,I’m weary from waiting,and I just have to let it out sometimes. :(
Nothing about Star Trek. .. so I am not interested, too… LOL
:-( :-)
Oh,and #2.how long have you been under that rock? :)
#1.
Why is it weird? They have lives outside of “Star Trek”, you know. And until the script is done and filming gets started, he can’t say much anyway.
He likes Star Wars more than Star Trek. Hmm, well, considering the last movie (and some comments made by Abrams), I can’t say that’s much of a revelation.
“Punch it, Chewie.”
Why would I want to watch almost 3 hours of chattering teeth wearing government issue glasses when there’s no Star Trek in it?
I don’t really care if these guys prefer “Star Wars” more than “Star Trek”. In fact, I think it was a positive. They knew what made the “Star Wars” films so successful, and thus were able to bring some of that magic to “Star Trek”.
8. dmduncan – June 27, 2011
—-Why would I want to watch almost 3 hours of chattering teeth wearing government issue glasses when there’s no Star Trek in it?—-
You wouldn’t. Which is why it’s weirdly featured at this site.
Be just as well to give us a look at his grocery list.
I’ve been wondering if Damon Lindelof eats raw tomatoes.
#9
Well, this new Trek is right up your alley then!
I have a feeling we may see someone frozen at the end of a certain upcoming movie—and I don’t mean Captain America!
Less interviews and more star trek script writing!
I may DL this and turn it into a podcast. Watching it for all 2 hours and 40 minutes seems a bit… much.
BobOrci
Dude, if you happen to be reading this, I noticed you over at AICN in the transformers 3 columes. Do yourself a favor and keep away from there. They realy hate you on that sight.
Dont feel bad though… they hate thier own mothers over there.
#5
I was under for quite a while until I realized it was a Horta and it had been trying to mate with me because I had a rock on.
A horta’s whore is what I am.
;)P
#14
I think Bob has fairly broad shoulders. He puts up with us after all. ;)
Sorry, Damon I hated season six and the finale of Lost. And by the way,
I’m not a troll. You are an artist, so not everybody on the planet is going to love everything you write. In the pilot for Lost, Charlie asks, “Guys where are we?” If I had known you weren’t interested in telling us, I would have stopped watching after the pilot.
Season six starts after the castaways detonate a nuclear bomb in the seventies and are whisked to a “parallel” universe. NOT. Psyche job. Sideways World was purgatory. Spoiler. We find out that Sideways World was a place that the castaways made so they could find each other. What? So why would Sayid make a miserable existence for himself?. Shouldn’t he make his world where he’s the king of Iraq? But I digress. It’s contrived so the castaways could be brought together for one sappy ending.
Lost heaped one mystery after another. What is the Island? What is this war that Jack Widmore was fighting? Why couldn’t the castaways remember their past lives in Sideways World? When Jack entered the Cave, why didn’t he turn into a smoke monster? And on and on. When you dump one mystery on another without any urge to answer them, why should the audience care?
Now smitten Losties have said you bring your own intrepretation to the show. Really? That means you could write any junk and say to the audience it’s up to you for the answers. So I can interpret Locke’s miraculous cure from paralysis by saying that magic fairies came out of the Smoke Monster and healed him. It’s a masterpiece.
A bad TV series finale can kill a whole series. I’m not interested in watching “Lost” again. Don’t care. But this is a Star Trek site. So, when I read on this site that you and the Supreme Court want to take the next Star Trek deeper, I’m excited to see it. Star Trek looks like it going to come out in 2013 so it’s going to be a long wait.
I was never under any doubt the last Star Trek film owed more to George Lucas than it did Gene Roddenberry. Anybody dedicated to his universe would’ve adhered to the history (often just vaguely referred to or even contradicted) and found a way to focus on the drama in that… Rather than make wholesale changes, in order to avoid doing the homework.
off topic – sounds like another Trek reference in TF 3:
“Leonard Nimoy, meanwhile, gets to recycle his “needs of the many” speech from Wrath Of Khan in his role as the reawakened superbot Sentinel Prime. Now that was a sequel…”
http://www.totalfilm.com/reviews/cinema/transformers-3
so TF 1 had Uhura voice cameo, TF3 has Nimoy and Shia making Trek references )plus i read somewhere Nimoy as Spock appears on tv or something)..i forget but did TF2 have any Trek references?
#17. Basement Blogger:
What? So why would Sayid make a miserable existence for himself?. Shouldn’t he make his world where he’s the king of Iraq?
Why would he, he is an Indian, but he can pull off Pakistani, so i think he would rather be king of Pakistan.
Drove me insane every time they called him and Iraqi, I mean Sawyer saying is one thing, but come on, Muslim does not an Arab make.
Anyway I am way off topic and of course i am talking about the actor, not the character.
Meh
Yes, I was a gigantic, huge, massive, obese LOST fan. Reading the Lost news sites/Lostpedia daily, getting more and more eager to see the final season & finale. Ab Aeterno, great. Man if only all of season 6 was held to that standard. Then comes the finale…on my birthday. A few seconds after it was over…just confused…”is it really over? Like that?”
I have read a few times that the writers were excellent at crafting a mystery and dropping clues, but they failed at providing an adequate ending. I agree, unfortunately, and I have tried to defend the final season…but…it is just so anti-climatic compared to the week-by-week building of anticipation for years of seasons 1-5
Damon, please stick with the pseudoscientific explanations…that is what wrapped everyone into the story…the finale just…bleh…. emotional, sure, but logical versus the scope and questions posed by the 5 season buildup? No, dude.
I know it must suck to hear so many diehard fans disappointed…you can pretend to take it in stride, but you really need to apply the lesson to your current & future work. Not trying to be supercritical, but I did invest years into LOST and watched seasons 1-5 about a dozen times, haven’t watched season 6 or bought the dvd for season 6, either…it WAS that disappointing…
#15 LOL! Dude you just made my day!! :) :)
The opening remarks and anecdotes, on Peter Falk, were great .
“…As a kid, I was obsessed with Columbo…” , I (so) sympathize with the host of the show…
Otherwise, hearing Damon Lindelof talk about his work as a writer was truly
captivating, to me. I, especially, enjoyed the segment on “Lost” , at the beginning.Along with the many references to the show ( which I never really watched ) , throughout the interview. Very informative.
Mr. Lindelof, if I may, keep being “accountable to yourself” as a writer.
And, last, but, not least ; nice earring.
Olivia! Nice to see you!
#17. I disagree. I’m one of those Losties who absolutely loved the sixth season and finale. I found it perfectly in line with the show’s themes and spiritual/emotional core. I cried like a baby.
#23. Aurore it’s good to see you too!! And I’m with you there,I’ve never really watched Lost at all,but,I’ve heard it’s very confuseing!! :) No,I’m sure it’s alright;I must say as well that I think Damon is a great writer. But I must say,I love Bob’s work quite alot.
I don’t really expect to hear anything big about Star Trek 12 until September.
24
I cried like a baby too following the Lost finale…. because it was such a letdown. The fans guess it in season 1, they say no way , that’s not what it is, then in season 6… that’s WHAT IT WAS! Oh well. All of the good shows on TV — 24, Battlestar, Lost — went down the tubes near the end. At least “24” and “Battlestar” pulled it out with decent finales.
25.Olivia.
During the interview , Damon Lindelof said something that might be of interest , to you.
Try asking him about the status of the script for the Star Trek sequel , seven times ( in a row ) , and , see what happens.
I don’t guarantee anything though. It’s merely a suggestion. I want to help .
:)
I enjoyed the season finale of Lost, by the way… but now I’m interested in Trek 2… “clarifying things”…
… and although I like the work of the guys I’m not here “to praise for them” all the time …
:-) :-)
Actually, I’m NOT interested in seeing the movie “clarify things”… I think the best thing to do is just to proceed forward with the sequel story and leave all of that alternate time stuff alone. The Berman Years(TM) explained the hell out of everything and I never found technobabble all that satisfying. Explaining it too much leads to either fans nitpicking it to death or general audiences just tuning out.
But that’s just my opinion…
it is so apparent that Trek is not a priority among the principals that I’ve started to lose interest. If and when it comes, it comes, but the double-secret brinksmanship (whether intentional or merely a consequence of the relevant creative folks just being spread too thin) is now just tiring.
We were told that some announcement would be coming that was speculated to at least confirm the long-expected formalization of the delay everyone believes is coming, but even that’s come and gone as an empty notion; then we heard Abrams say Trek was “six months behind…” It just seems, unfortunately, that Trek will get done when everyone else has nothing better to do.
Apologies if it sounds sour grapes, but to watch Paramount et al completely waste the amazing momentum and favorable media captial earned with the 09 reboot into this “script isn’t done, it’s almost done, no it isn’t, Abrams will direct, no he won’t, maybe he will, but its six months behind” nonsense is just exasperating.
I think it would be disingenuous not to continue with this being an alternate timeline to the Original Series. Destroying Vulcan has to have ramifications or it’s pointless and exposed as show of strength by the New Management – We don’t get this part of Star Trek’s legacy… so out with the bathwater it goes.
To suddenly tell a story that could effectively have happened in the past canon… exposes that Star Trek (2009) could just as easily have been a straight-forward prequel like X-Men First Class or Harve Bennett’s unmade Star Trek The First Adventure could’ve been (production design not withstanding).
Either that or say it’s a no-nonsense reboot, like Battlestar… and not involved Nimoy in the first place.
I really liked the end to Lost and BSG, but I watched them after they had both concluded.
Netflix basically allowed me to watch season after season with out week long breaks between episodes or months long breaks between seasons so I never had all of the build up or hype as an influence on my viewing.
Watching them in that way the shows finales came off soooo much better to me then what I read online.
There’s just something about Damon Lindelof I don’t like. Perhaps it’s because he’s so smug in all his interviews. He seems to think he’s a genius. Far from it. I have absolutely no interest in watching 2 hours and 40 minutes of him. Wow! That’s a long interview. I, too, was a lost fan for Seasons 1-5 and was so upset with Season 6. Stayed with until the end and then–whamo–what a mess of an ending. I’ve learned that the Abrahms crew is great with ideas, but very seldom are they able to conclude anything in a reasonable manner. It may also be because they are all so busy doing other thing that they can’t focus on all of their projects. Which makes me wonder about ST 2012. I loved ST 2009, but the way things are going, I think we are all up for a big let down.
@ 20
Rah, I might have the gist of your post wrong but did you say Sayid of Lost was Pakistani? Because in the show he was Iraqi. Remember he was a member of Republican Guard in Iraq. Link. So I got it correct that in the show, his character was Iraqi.
I was making a facetious comment about “king” of Iraq. Maybe I should have said that if the castaways were making a world for themselves, he should have made himself a big Hollywood star and rich. I can barely write the “make a world” for themselves without groaning.
Sayid was revealed to be Iraqi and in the Republican Guard.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sayid_Jarrah#Season_2
The interview is worth it for the insight about how modern television and movies are made. Lindelof has some great “How did I get here” stories.
Trek Movie. Com ?
Right?
Am I in the wrong place?
#29,Aurore,I thank you for wanting to help me,and I could try that,but I would put money on the fact that he would say,”We’ll tell you all some big news soon!” And I would be like,”But that’s what JJ said!!” And he would say,”Well,I guess you should go ask Bob then.” And I would only sigh and come back here for any bit of happy news I could find.
39.Olivia .
Well…… At least, I tried…
:))
@ 38
NXO1, no you are not at TrekMovie.com, right now you are in an Internet purgatory. It’s a place that Anthony Pascale made so Trekkers could find each other.
#36.
The character was Iraqi, the actor is actually Indian (East) but could pull off Pakistani way before Iraqi.
Different color, Different language, Different culture, same religion.
Drove me insane, its like the old days when you had James Doohan (British Canadian), Bill Shatner (Ukrainian Jewish Canadian), and Leonard Nimoy (Ukrainian Jewish American) playing Native Americans.
Anyway, way off topic, and your right the last episode of Lost was ridiculous, I felt they did a last second change, its not that they intended in the beginning of the season to make the flash sideways the purgatory, they just wanted to not let all the internet prophets be right all the time.
I felt they did that in lost a lot, they took a look at what the net groups were saying and took a U-turn on what they were thinking about the future of a character or object.
Sorry to all those purist who will now tell us that this is a Star Trek site.
Amen
Come STAR TREK II
The Wrath of JJ
Lost finally jumped the shark in the season six episode, “Across the Sea.” That’s whent the show became “The Ghost Whisperer.” All that science fiction stuff? Fuhget about it. It was all red herrings.
Lost would have been much better if the show stuck to its quasi-Hindu religous stuff. The use of the word “Dharma.” “Nameste.” If the Island wasn’t real, the whole show makes sense. Who cares if the castaways were dead. It would have made sense if they were dead when they got to the Island. What they did in their past lives was compelling. I’m guessing fear of fans figuring it out, delayed the “they were dead” stuff and they decided to make the Island real. And get this the Island is now a place where magical things happen. Maybe fairies flew out of Jacob’s butt and saved the castaways from the nuke.
Anyway, disappointed Losties, let’s laugh about it. Here’s some funny videos on the end of Lost. And they’re a lot shorter than Lindelof’s interview. Funnier too. Nameste.
1. A comedian in his garage reviews the “Lost” series finale.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38HEQAKuY1w
2. Angry about the “intepret it your way” defense for Lost? Well select how Hurley will eventually die. The funniest pick is to choose Magneto.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1P42e8TmHY
Nothing on the new Trek film. Urgh. Not surprising. I’d almost prefer to see the film come out in 2013 instead of getting destroyed by The Dark Knight Rises or delayed until Dec to get rocked by The Hobbit (and not learn lessions from Nemesis, which tried to take on The Two Towers).
Still, very lame at how long this flick is taking to just get going. Hope that it does not take a hit in the quality.
#43
Ugh, I can’t stand that “interpret it your way” argument writers sometimes use at the ending of a series. Like with the Sopranos: Tony looks up. Cut to black. THE END. But that’s not an ending. It’s just lazy writing.
If people wanted to come up with their own stories—using that wonderful thing called an imagination—they wouldn’t be watching television in the first place, would they? They would be writing their own scripts, producing their own shows, which, given the current entertainment landscape, doesn’t sound like a bad idea after all.
I don’t really understand why so many people prefer Star Wars over Star Trek. Perhaps it’s the war aspect, or the merchandising…
And, when it comes to war, well… I mean war is exciting and the bigger the explosions the bigger the mess, the better it is film wise. Just look at the latest Transformers movie. Now they’ve got earth’s moon involved; these autobots are everywhere, happily destroying high-rises in cities everywhere or so it appears.Just more of the same f*cking shit that is part of almost any high-budget blockbuster movie today.
There may be a reason why Damon Lindelof prefers Star Wars over Star Trek and that is because he does not have to think much with Star Wars, whereas with Star Trek, as one of the writers and producers, he does. Star Trek is also a bit more complex and more of a challenge than some people think, possibly even those in the Bad Robot team. And yes, any good Star Trek movie does require a good beginning, middle and end. Events etc do need tying together. I guess some people can’t help themselves when it comes to making everything convoluted, who like to throw “red herrings” here, there, everywhere etc. It does not necessarily make for great storytelling, often quite the reverse.
However, there is a lovely little word called “simplicity” and it is NOT the same as simple.
Beauty and simplicity of storytelling could be what Star Trek is about and that is what could give to an audience what is truly thought provoking, emotionally engaging and inspirational.
Beauty! Simplicity! A *simple* Star Trek story told beautifully.
LOL… hmmm… seems, that I could not clarify anything… whatever… a purgatory?… yes today is looking … +LOL…
:-) :-)
No Trek information? How is this news, and why do we care?
So apart from Bob Orci the ‘supreme court’ as they like to be called prefers Star Wars over Star Trek.
I guess the Star Wars vibe was needed to get the mainstream on board but Star Trek and Star Wars are two totally different things. Wars was the popcorn while Trek was the meat and potatoes. I like popcorn but I love my meat and potatoes.
Anyway do a good story that would make Gene happy, not Lucas.
#49
Exactly. And as Chris Nolan and Duncan Jones have proven recently, a mainstream summer movie need not be a loud, messy string of special effects sequences and dumb pop-culture references to get people into theaters. It CAN be smart and exciting. And Star Trek can do better… on television. Earth to CBS… Earth to CBS…