Lindelof Says Trek XI Will Focus On Character – Possibly Revealed Summer 08 Release Date? [UPDATE: did not reveal date]

| January 15, 2007 | By: Anthony Pascale 171 comments so far

Damon Lindelof (pictured with Abrams winning Emmys for Lost) is Star Trek XI’s ‘other producer’. We don’t hear much from Damon who is still busy working on Lost day to day, but iF magazine caught up with him and got him to talk a little Trek XI. Although Lindelof gave the usual company line, he did repeat Abrams comments about a wide audience and a focus on character…and he may have inadvertently announced a release date.

"We’re not giving out any information about Trek at all,…J.J. and I are producing it and Alex Kurtzman and Bob Orci are writing it.Paramount has announced a release date of [July 2] 2008. That’s all that’s official."

Back to summer again?

TrekMovie.com had originally reported that Paramount were wanting a summer release, but subsequently we reported that by Abrams and his team preferred winter (Abrams said this himself in his interview with TrekMovie.com). Recently we reported the debate had swung to winter, but maybe it has swung back to summer. One thing we are sure of, Paramount have not ‘officially announced’ anything beyond ‘2008’. If this is true it would put Trek XI in some head to head competition with some big films in July 08. It is possible that iF Magazine inserted the date without any legit sourcing…making this a moot point. TrekMovie.com has inquires out to both Paramount and iF to clear this up.

UPDATE: Nevermind iF Magazine have updated their story and removed the date. Paramount tell TrekMovie that July 2 is not the ‘official date’ for Trek XI and that there is nothing more specific than ‘2008’. Sources inside the studio still believe it will be in the winter. More here

Trek XI is for his mom in New Jersey too
Lindelof also approached the subject of how Trek XI will be for both Trekkies and non Trekkies, saying

we are trying to write a movie that Trekkers and my mother in New Jersey will all understand and love

Feel free to now take this out of context as proof that he hates all Trekkies, or maybe all people from New Jersey. 

It’s all about character
In the past Abrams and the writers have talked about how they want to emphasise character and drama. Lindelof emphasised this point:

the fundamental J.J. Abrams approach to storytelling is one I highly subscribe to which is character, character, character and we’re applying that same model on to Trek,,,I think fundamentally to set a movie in space and the future where crazy things are happening and they’re all aliens is not as engaging as ‘how are the people involved?

what no aliens?  (that is a joke…don’t read too much into these things). That being said the character focused approach can be seen in Abrams works like Alias, Lost and M:I:3 (where he have Ethan Hunt a wife and more back story). It is safe to say that Trek XI will really ‘flesh out’ the character of Kirk, and we will find out what really makes him tick. 

Abrams still not confirmed to direct
One last bit of ‘non news’ is that Lindelof stated that it is still ‘not confirmed’ that Abrams will direct. Last we heard he is waiting for the script to be approved to his liking…a bit of studio politics. This does bring up the topic of what will Lindelof’s role be on the film. If Abrams ends up as the director, then it might be reasonable to assume that Lindelof would take the brunt of the producing, especially during filming. This would be a big move for Lindelof as Trek XI is his first feature film (the rest of the team have all worked on at least one film). Also his comments about ‘we are writing’ is intriguing. Lindelof is an accomplished writer (for TV) and this might indicate that he has a hand in the script or maybe the story. 

check out  iF Magazine for the full interview 

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Wow… that’s on my 41st Birthday… how cool is that. :)

well at least J.J. Abrams is doing something what George Lucas didnt.

Thats a biiiiig weekend, Independence Day weekend. That date would also be a Wednesday. One of the biggest weekends of the year. Maybe they will have to move it if something like Indiana Jones or another POTC wants that date though.

There is also a Will Smith movie coming out on that date.

ok I have slightly reworded the headline and section on release date to make it more \’iffy\’ I have a suspicion that Lindelof just said \’2008\’ and for some bizarro reason iF magazine stuck \’July 2\’ in there. I am trying to get this cleared up.

I’m not very happy with Will Smith and here’s why. OK, first of all, he killed his first wife and took the kid. What kind of OJ thing is that??? THEN, he made the kid have Jada Pinket as a stopmom which, I guess OK until Will Smith knocked HER up a few times, now guess who is the red-headed stepchild getting treated like crap with no REAL mommy around to run away to? THEN Will Smith does a movie with one of the Jada Pinkett babies and this first kid is out in the cold.

That’s why I’m not too happy with Will Smith. Dudes like him have no code, no character. I frown on that.

best!!

=h=

Well, it’s nice to see how many *other* people check their TrekMovie.com RSS feeds at least once every half-hour.

There’s a Wikipedia update in my future, after many a long dry week.

James…do not change the release date yet.

as of now I am sticking with ‘winter’ until iF mag confirm their quote or Paramount confirm it.
i think they fucked up…could be wrong

BIG DAWG AP DROPS THE F-BOMB!!!

very very very shatner in the pants, AP. officer thinking.

best!!

=h=

I like the fact that their will be emphasis on the characters. I think that’s good. Prehaps the relationship between Kirk and Mitchell and how the vampire cloud profoundly affected the young Kirk. No aliens? I was wondering. If Klingons are represented in this movie, then will they look like the Klingons from TOS or the Klingons from STTMP and beyond. Previous Star Treks written has explained this difference in appearance.

“BIG DAWG AP DROPS THE F-BOMB!!!

“very very very shatner in the pants, AP. officer thinking.

“best!!

Hitch — you are BIGDAWGAP inthepants ;-)

Dave… Dave…. Dave…. oh Dave.

Dude… There’s not going to be Gary Mitchell or the Salt Monster or Carol Marcus or even the Scalos chick that Shat laid down with the other night there on the remaster.

He’s making the movie so HIS GRANDMOTHER would understand it.

Did you read that part?

Oy Vey.

=h=

Gary Mitchell can still be in the film, being fundamental in Kirks younger years. The Salt Monster is in fact an interesting character. The only one that was left in the universe, if I am correct. However, I don’t believe JJA will include this in the storyline, no matter how interesting. But an interesting thought Hitch.

Hmm, 07/02/08 is on Wednesday. Is this generally a date for films to start? In Germany films often start on Thursday.

#14: The Two Towers opened on a Wednesday, IIRC.

Tony: I won’t change the formal date yet. I will put down a reference to it in the article, though, and we’ll see how things develop. I do *not* want WP to become the new iMDB of random Trek XI rumors.

That release date is extremely stupid. Trek XI is going to be directly competing with The Dark Knight, a movie that is very highly anticipated. Change it to winter for the bigger numbers.

I dont recall correctly if past Star Trek Films have done well during a summer release or not….but anything is possible at this point. I think the last Summer movie was The Final Frontier which wasn’t very much loved by the critics or some fans for that matter.
I agree its too soon to say what date this movie should be released. Early spring might be better for Trek XI or early fall. Summer would be suicide.
Its hard counting on a non fan audience you dont have.

I can’t believe Abrams and Lindelof are spelling out what their approach to the movie is and yet some of the continuity fetishists still aren’t waking up and smelling the coffee. Heck, even hitch gets what Lindelof is saying….

Dave, Lindelof’s mother in New Jersey doesn’t give a frack about the salt vampire. And when Lindelof quotes Abrams and says, “character, character, character,” and then says the movie’s not going to be all about the aliens, that doesn’t mean the movie is going to be all about fleshing out the salt vampire as a character–in fact, it means the opposite.

This movie is not going to be some continuity porn fest. And before people start protesting about how you can have both good characters and continuity–ask yourselves when the writers of any Star Trek were ever all that focused on continuity (4th season of Enterprise excluded). Face it, nobody cares about continuity issues anywhere near as much as some of you hard-core types, and it’s not enough to make a movie that just connects the continuity dots. That’s not storytelling–that’s just fanwank garbage.

Shatner’s powerful girth and bloated red faced, swollen countenance just magically appeared to me from the year 2037 where he is adorned with a laundry list of well deserved titles and accolades, not to mention being synthetic and eternal, like plastic.
He calmly broke it down for me- his most humble accolyte, to spread the gospel that the film will actually open June 3rd, 2008, will be critically recieved but not make a spectacular splash at the Box Office, the fans will be very warm to the film, yet the shit stain of Berman era Trek is a powerful stench to overcome no matter how you try to sugarcoat any post Berman era Trek endeavor. Shatnertron stated the film earns a tolerable 72 million domestic take with a 240 million international take, coupled with DVD, HD, and Blue Ray sales, impressing the suits enough that a sequel is greenlit, and a new series is spat forth from Shatnercron’s mighty posterior region.
As fate would have it, the Shat suggested that due to the uplifting ofthe stem cell research ban, and cloning, James Doohan and Deforest Kelley are revived from their slumber under the clause that they can only live to perform in Trek films.
The Shatenstein says Trek XI is but the tease for Trek XIII, the REAL film fans have been waiting for.
Shatmeister says Trek XII wasn’t all it was hoped to be as Lucas interfered with the story by having Kirk NOT kill Obi-Wan Kenobi as was originally and contractually agreed upon.
After having recieved the Nobel and Pulitzer prizes for Trek XIII, Shat-NOR
states rather clearly he departs the motion picture industry to pursue photographing nude Fat women in honor of Leonardo Nimoy’s groundbreaking world peace bringing creative endeavor popularized by such groundbreaking DVD’s as “Homegrown Hotties” and “Real women have curves.”
The transmission was interrupted unfortunately by a Gamma ray burst, but just prior to deteriorating into a mound of burnt flesh Shatmandu stated rather eloquently that fans of Star Trek have nothing to be concerned about, as Rick “The hachet” Berman was tried for crimes against humanity in an international tribunal overseen by the Shat himself in Spring 2009.

Oh yes fellow Trekonauts, good times ahead, damn good times.

I can’t believe Abrams and Lindelof are spelling out what their approach to the movie is and yet some of you here still aren’t waking up and smelling the coffee. Heck, even hitch gets what Lindelof is saying….

Dave, Lindelof’s mother in New Jersey doesn’t give a frack about the salt vampire. And when Lindelof quotes Abrams and says, “character, character, character,” and then says the movie’s not going to be all about the aliens, that doesn’t mean the movie is going to be all about fleshing out the salt vampire as a character–in fact, it means the opposite.

Before people start protesting about how you can have both good characters and continuity–ask yourselves when the writers of any Star Trek were ever all that focused on continuity (4th season of Enterprise excluded). Face it, nobody cares about continuity issues anywhere near as much as some of you hard-core types, and it’s not enough to make a movie that just connects the continuity dots. That’s not storytelling–that’s just continuity-porn drek.

Oh, and Star Trek The Motion Picture was released in Winter 79
The Wrath of Khan and Search for Spock Summer 82 and 84,
The Voyage Home if memory serves summer 86, The Final Frontier summer 89, and the Undiscovered Country winter of 91.

I think there may have been another film or two afterwards but, they mattered so little I honestly forgot. ;)

I can’t believe Abrams and Lindelof are spelling out what their approach to the movie is and yet some of you here still aren’t waking up and smelling the coffee. Heck, even hitch gets what Lindelof is saying…..

Dave, Lindelof’s mother in New Jersey doesn’t give a frack about the salt vampire. And when Lindelof quotes Abrams and says, “character, character, character,” and then says the movie’s not going to be all about the aliens, that doesn’t mean the movie is going to be all about fleshing out the salt vampire as a character–in fact, it means the opposite.

Before people start protesting about how you can have both good characters and continuity–ask yourselves when the writers of any Star Trek were ever all that focused on continuity (4th season of Enterprise excluded). They’re all much more focused on trying to come up with good character arcs,dialogue and plots.

Face it, it’s not enough to make a movie that just connects the continuity dots, for regular people. That’s not storytelling–that’s just fanwank trash.

P.S. I used to go by Trekweb Forever!!! but my posts wouldn’t go through anymore. Why the censorship, Anthony? :(

19 – Voyage Home was a winter release.

I’m still holding out hope that they premiere Trek XI on the first Friday in December. The Wednesday before July 4th is going to be a *crowded* weekend. I would also humbly point out that three of Trek’s biggest B.O.’s were winter releases: movies #4, 6 and 10.

Are you quite certain 22?

I seem to recall seeing it at the Drive In, and I can’t imagine a Drive In being open in Winter hmmmm.

Trek’s biggest box office was Christmas 1979.

Star Trek -The Motion Picture is still my favorite of the films, quite epic and BIG.

Anthony, what happened to movie reviews? Did I miss “The Voyage Home?”

^^^ D’OH! How could I forget ST:TMP?! Yep, that was also a Winter release.

21 – Indeed, why the censorship? It is not logical. We’re your CUSTOMERS and we can go somewhere else if you want us to leave. also, why not post an email address or general forum where we can send story leads, compliments and complaints? That way, we won’t get off-topic. Unless you don’t care about your customers/readers… The Federation would never censor it’s citizens and it’s not an honored custom in the USA either. The soviet union’s a different story… When we make a comment you don’t like, don’t kill the messenger. Profanity and blatant rudeness are the only things that should get someone banned. Power corrupts… Don’t let it corrupt you, cause a lot of people actually LIKE this site.

#1 – My brother turns 51. Three weeks later, I turn 46. It’s cool. It also means I’m old. Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

Josh T. ( Tesla Coil ) Kirk Esquire’±®… you’re full o’ negativity. But your posts made me laugh. So good job, just try an kick er down a notch next time. I enjoyed your posts immensely. You have alot to offer and bring much to the table in terms of caring for the subject matter and knowledge.

Humble Trek Fan™ AKA Trekweb Forever!!!© Again, my personal perspective is that all view points should be not only represented, but also repsectah’d as me Ali G say. THE IDEA being that IF what you are arguing against is strong enough, it will hold up to the criticism. I think that the new Trek movie WILL. I think it’s going to be awesome, so having poopypants around to poop on it is fine by me and I think that IF you were banned, BIG DAWG AP should rethink that. And don’t lose faith in AP, I never did. Lookit, today he dropped the F-bomb and all that. He’s a good guy. Please dont come here with adversarial intentions from that other site. It’s a grate site, but this site is better. endofstory®.

And to ALL: Just because the dude says that he wants his grandmother to watch the friggin movie and they’ve both said that they want it accessible to the masses DOES NOT mean that they are going to neglect the core audience. Please not let me be misunderstood on this. I’m just saying understand that the particulars that YOU want may not be what makes the movie.

I like BIG DAWG AP’s clipboard perspective. Don’t worry.. the movie will be grate!

best!!

=h=

this sites comments are protected by something called the askimet spam filter…your post got caught in that. perhaps another site flagged your ip or ip range as a spammer

the system is automated

but thanks for the assumption that i maliciously am censoring each and every of the hundreds of post made here ever week

by the way hitch…I have never claimed that Trek XI ‘will be great’ (or grate)

i have only said it can be great

if trek xi bites the big one…this site will be the first to say it.

re; movie reviews
well those were ‘filler’ for weekends without a TOSR episode. there will be more as more repeats happen.

if there is a clammoring….maybe i can speed up the process

BIG DAWG AP… I wasnt quoting you, man. I was quoting ME.

TREK XI will be grate. THIS I GUARANTEE. Like Namath with a Super Bowk win.

This site will never have to say that it sucked, because it will not suck.

AP, I’m here singing your praises man. I am sorry if that made you uncomfortable. Take it with grace, brother. You’ve got an awesome site and deserve the credit.

and to the naysayers…..

TMP WAS NOT a character driven movie.

Trek II WAS a character driven movie.

Thats the level of excellence that you can expect from Kurt Russell and crew. BUT don’t expect that what you played out on the RPG Saturday night or fan fiction attention to canon will be happening. In between is a nice expectation, aye?

=h=

I guess Lindelof’s mother represents mainstream viewership, since its now part of the “official” record that (1) connecting with a mainstream audience is important and (2) writing the movie so his mother can enjoy it is an example….

Lord of the Rings was a supremely character driven show and a box office hit. How much of that was parents taking children to see the movie? There was violence, but I wouldn’t necessarily call it gratuitous. The Star Wars Prequels I & II were character driven and both sucesses, quite a bit more (gratuitous) violence, but still a lot of parents taking children to see the movies….so what is mainstream…mainstream adult…mainstream kids…what…

If I were a gambling sort, I’d wager that Lindelof’s 45-65 y/o mother probably isn’t into gratuitous violence and shallow plot shoot-em-ups, so I suppose that’s a good sign. Yet I still wonder (and often times fear) exactly what the definition of the term “Mainstream” is.

Anthony, you don’t read every post?… certainly you read ALL of mine. (Don’t read this one.)

And definently Josh T.( Tantrum) Kirk, Jr.’s no doubt.

JOSH, buddy… R. Berman called and asked me to relay a message (he seemed confused that you were screening your calls)

The message…

“Josh, I cannot understand why you hate me like you do. It would seem that I’ve hurt you somehow. But until you can find it in your heart to tell me why you ran… why you drag my name through the mud like you do… I’ll never know. Please call… I am always here for you.
Your loving father, Rick Berman”

OMG… my eyes are tearing up…

#28 you owe Anthony an apology.

Sorry, Josh,…. had to do it. LOL

Don’t know what’s been said yet in these comments but consider a couple things regarding the release date

-Release dates change.

-Magainze interviews are usually completed a month or more ahead of time [unless this is an online-only magazine?] because of printing. It’s possible that at the time he gave the interview, Paramount was set to make a release date public but something in their plans have changed (hence when we heard about it moving to winter); at the same time maybe the magazine hit publication ahead of schedule and we should be expecting an announcement in the next few timeframe.

Star Trek XI news. Yawwwwwwwwwnnnnnnnnnn.

and why the need for the F word?

#39 the name of the site is TrekMovie…. thus the XI news.
Stanky…if you don’t care… why read the movie related news stories?

FRANKFURTER!
FUDGE!
FEINBERGER!

You’ve got a point.

“Feel free to now take this out of context as proof that he hates all Trekkies, or maybe all people from New Jersey. ”

yeah, ok i will
lol
im DOUBLEY offended cuz im a Trekkie AND from New Jersey

Xai you should know better, being a faux Vulcanian and all, how has Xon been by the way? Alright now im gonna have to have a Andy Griffith moment with ya now and sit you on my knee…… ;)

You have clearly seen through my facade, I attend BA meetings, Berman anonymous. The man vandalized my Trek stash and collection then proceeded to Shinzon mind rape me, Im suing for damages. Not to mention his perpetual roaming crossed eye.
I personally think if his eye hadn’t of been crossed, and his vision distorted, his vision for Star Trek wouldn’t have been distorted and skewed. ;)

It isn’t anti-Berman vitriol I speweth, My Gods, we are talking about a man whose entire producing credit prior to Next Gen was the “flaming red donkey” or whatever the childrens show was called, and this genius of creativity was never, EVER, bestowed by Roddenberry to be the bearer of Trek’s future.
One of the books out now reveals this exquisitely. Don’t make me track it down and actually corroborate my claim.
He slimed and slid into the role as any professional worm does, a powerful corporate hatchetman.
I love Star Trek.
Rick Berman did not love Star Trek. He viewed it as a paycheck. A new car. A cushy house.
I am not alone in my dislike for Rick Berman and his direction for the Star Trek story.
Ron Moore, Jeri Taylor, and the bald guy with the blue goatee, forgot his name, have all expressed reservations about working for and with Rick Berman.
He is the great Turd of the Galaxy, not the great bird.

Gene Roddenberrys’ rotting, stinking corpse wants revenge against Rick Berman, that’s why he manifested J.J. Abrams to avenge his most precious creation. If it ends up sucking Andorian ass, trust me, Roddenberries will have Abrams ass too.

Great Birds of the galaxy shall not be doublecrossed or trampled upon, there’s just too much vengeance awaiting the fool that dares n’ doing so.

Why would you open a movie a few days after the 4th of july weekend? Maby the weekend before but not after. OMG! How much can they suck from the Trek teet?

Darth “on the chin” Ballz

Yes, I’m sure that Lindelof’s mother in New Jersey doesn’t care about the salt creature. I just said that I thought it would be an interesting storyline and I thought it was an interesting thing that Hitch brought up…. I think most Trek fans would agree. I have always wondered about the story behind the salt creature and why exactly so many of them died. I guess that is the wonderful thing about Star Trek, is that there’s alwyays so much to write about and discuss. Which is why I LOVE IT. Who knows, prehaps JJA is thinking about this storyline?

31 — I wasn’t implying you were personally going through every single post before allowing them to go through.

When I wrote my earlier message, I kept changing it when it wouldn’t post, thinking that might be the problem. And this isn’t the first time this has happened.

Ultimately, what allowed the post to go through was changing my name. Everything else was kept pretty much the same but this time it went through. I figured maybe you just didn’t like me mentioning a competing site in my name (others here don’t like me mentioning it) so you had it put on the block list.

What made me unhappy was that if that was the case, I would have preferred you just simply request I stop mentioning the competing site in my name, before going to such lengths. But if you’re saying that’s not what happened, then there’s no problem.

Josh T. (Told ya so) Kirk Esquire’ ™.

Dude, you make-a-me larf.

Knee-jerk kinda stuff there. Witty, well-written… AS is the F-Bomb to BIG DAWG AP, SO is Josh T. (Told ya so) Kirk Esquire’ to the radical mindblowing post which is so full of controversy. I’ve ejaculated three or four times since I first said that Will Smith killed his wife.

It… was… fun.

Keep me laughing, and I shall not banish you to the alpha quadrant. Make it so, number one. I’m going to make a number 2.

Your strongest point: “The man vandalized my Trek stash and collection then proceeded to Shinzon mind rape me, Im suing for damages. Not to mention his perpetual roaming crossed eye.”

That got me, good good stuff. Shinzon mind rape I LOL’d.AND, does Berman really have a lazy eye? 2 kewl 4 skewl.

a weaker moment was: “Gene Roddenberrys’ rotting, stinking corpse wants revenge against Rick Berman, that’s why he manifested J.J. Abrams to avenge his most precious creation…”

that was kind of raunchy and mean, dude. But still.. a little funny?

best!!

=h=

Humble Trek Fan™:

perhaps it was the mention of the other site that was filtered?

I, too thought I was banned and have changed posts JUST as you said.. but through the process of elimination…… determined that it was the mentioning of an erectile dysfunction medication, rhymes with Niagra … that was the offending culprit.

WHICH would back BIG DAWG AP’s side of things.

I doubt that he’s out to get you. DO you take the pot, my friend? After some use, it has been known to cause paranoia. I would suggest a legal alternative such as alcohol.

Alcohol is the new fitness craze, doncha know?

best!!

=h=

36 – Don’t see what 28 needs to apologize for. We should be able to express whatever views we want to, as long as we do it in a way that promotes respectful discussion and doesn’t devolve into profanity and excessive rudeness. That shouldn’t be controversial.