The Star Trek location shooting in Kern County continues to be big news for the local media. A new article in the Bakersfield Californian reports Paramount was trying to keep the filming a secret, but the cover was blown when the TV crews ‘found’ the film crew while covering a traffic accident (reported here on Monday). Another report has more video and a better spoiler picture from Monday’s filming.
Secret Iowa
The Bakersfield Californian also notes that the rural settings in Kern County (100 miles north of Hollywood) is being used to stand in for Iowa, quoting an unnamed Paramount official “Iowa usually looks pretty green, so that’s what we were looking for.” The crew had set up camp at a private farm and has now moved their activity away from the road (and from prying eyes). A Kern county official summed up Paramount’s desire for secrecy and need for using code names (the permit was for ‘Corporate Headquarters’):
Paramount doesn’t release to locals the movie they’re shooting. They shoot it in confidential mode, so this was no exception to that.
The official was also pleased to report that Paramount is pumping an estimated $2 million in revenue for the local economy benefiting restaurants, hotels and gas stations, but also including the hiring of ’10 to 15′ local craftsmen.
Guard keeps watch on Trek location shoot
More at Bakersfield.com
Google Earth view of ‘Iowa’ farm for Star Trek
SPOILERS
BELOW
Better shot of the vette + mystery tarp
Yesterday we showed video (from local station KERO) of a red corvette being used for the filming. Now in a new blog post (which quotes yours truly), Nick Belardes of KERO has put up a new higher res cap from the Corvette video.
Who is behind the wheel? (click to enlarge)
could it be either Jimmy Bennett (L- young James Kirk) or Spencer Daniels (R – young George Kirk, Jr.)
What is under the tarp?
Nick also has uploaded more video from Monday. It shows crew people peeking at some large thing under a tarp. They then put a security guy (and then a bus) between the camera crew and the object of interest. What could it be?
UPDATE: TrekMovie.com on the news!
Nick just sent in this video of his segment on tonight’s broadcast where he talks about how big the Trek news has been for ABC23 website…and how TrekMovie.com is fueling the mysteries of the Corvette.
Corvette — now that’s a Captain’s land vehicle!
I’d rather see him in a Hemi ‘Cuda … but that’s just me.
Let’s speculate what he would be doing in a ‘Vette. Is his family into antiques (classic cars)? Is it a time travel thing? Trek’s equivalent of Back to the Future’s DeLorean? (Nah.)
One wonders….
A corvette in the future? They must be making their own fuel on that farm. Corn gas I bet. This movie could be very down to Earth in sum respects.
Check out my star trek fan artwork at
http://artdak.dyndns.org
Tanks.
This tease is too much!
Maybe it’s a fantasy sequence.
Picard was into antiquities, and we know that Kirk had books in his quarters (if memory serves). His luxurious San Francisco condo in one of the Trek movies, was it (“Damn it, Jim, why’re you acting as if it’s a funeral?” — Bones, or words to that effect) had various items of ancient vintage.
Perhaps it ran in the family.
(What if the Kirk family had been videophiles? Would they have late 20th Century / early 21st Century DVD’s? If so, why not copies of episodes of a little show called Star Trek? Is there “Star Trek” in Star Trek? But I digress….)
Shatner is under the tarp!!!!
The tarp is hiding the nacelle that fell from space, of course.
I say,,,
Just let them do their job,
Im trying my best not to read or to look at these sorts of pics,,
Im going to watch this movie without knowing any spoilers and say WOW
If having him were in antiquiteit and we know that Kirk book. To be luxurioese in the Trek Film, was Jim, why’re function, on it?
The auto will show this!
— Manrum
One thing is clear: The producers have thought a lot about the backstory behind Kirk, and in a way that really hasn’t been explored too much in previous productions (mainly because such things haven’t been plot-critical, perhaps, but also because these details have hardly been noticed by the nonfan).
Ironically, the Iowa thing is actually one of the little bits of the Kirk backstory that’s better known, among the ranks of those that are, as a set, not that well known in general. Many people know that Kirk is from Iowa from his statement in STIV (“…I’m from Iowa. I only work in outer space.”)
Rambling on…. What better factoid to use in a movie than one that appeals to the American heartland and mainstream — literally!
Under the tarp? Obviously, a very sensitive weather experiment.
#10 – WTF?
Somebody get the redshirts in here. The back door was left unlocked again…….*grumble*
Why won’t they show us anything? what are they afraid of revealing? This is getting on even my nerves a little bit, This is nice but its not sufficient .
#11. Yes, I would suspect as much. Now it remains to be seen if the actual name “Riverside” will be heard as their hometown in Iowa of the 23rd Century. It was spoken by Kirk to someone on the main viewscreen in an episode of “New Voyages….” His line was something like, “If you believe that, I have some property in Riverside I’d like to sell you.” Or words to that effect. LOL!
We took a Backlot tour at Paramount when we were in LA
I saw this vehicle at Paramount…near Stage 18 I don’t think Im giving away any state secrets since you see it right there in the video…
Thats the car alright
#6 In the Star Trek universe, they have many seasons of Galaxy Quest, GQ: The New Generation, Babylon 9, and the big movie trilogy was ‘Lost in Space Wars’ done by George Lucas. ;)
#14 I agree about this. Non-script points wouldn’t hurt at this point. We know there’s a driving sequence now, but not the context. We know we’re getting to see a drier future Riverside, Iowa farm…. Releasing the “years” different scenes take place would be a great tidbit, that wouldn’t spoil the movie.
On the images… I’m betting that George Kirk Jr. decided to trek cross country from Iowa to attempt to go see the construction of the Enterprise out west. Jim Kirk was born in 2233? The Big E was built in mid 2240’s? If ‘Sam’ is about 6 years older than Jim, he’d be about 18 to Jim’s 12, and the two boys could be on a bit of a Road To San Francisco. 2243 then. In 2253 Kirk graduates from the Academy. In 2263 he’s assigned as next captain of the Enterprise. Then it makes sense. In 2233 we see a pregnant Winona Kirk. “Thirty years ago” “Twenty years ago” “Ten years ago”. Yep.
#7, Shatner is too chunky to fit under a tarp…
Anyways, I wonder why on Earth they have a Corvette. The last Corvette that I saw in a science fiction movie was the Rebel’s Corellian Corvette from Star Wars. And that’s not exactly an older car. Though… Tom Paris does have a holographic Camero.
was it…fun?
oh yah
It looks like a girl driving that ‘vette to me, but maybe it’s just a kid with long hair.
Gotta say, I like the idea of the two Kirk boys finding some centuries old car, fixing it up and going on a joy ride.
Kirk didn’t know how to drive. Spock told him on the TV show to stick with Starships. Somhow, I doubt young Kirk is driving a car.
be sad if we got…
“Its a fake”
here :)
-JT
It’s like Ewoks and droids cracking wise and baby Boba Fett! Send in the midichlorians! I guess there is a line in TWOK where McCoy tells Kirk to get a command back before he becomes part of his collection, but the ‘Vette just seems out of place.
This will be a six-second scene in the flick, most likely.
#18
Sigh. Another juvenile Shatner weight comment.
17, that would rock. Babylon 9 — a rip-off of DS5! ;-)
24, that’s the scene I was thinking of, in Kirk’s waterfront / SF Bayview condo. I like that scene, somehow. It makes the 23d Century seem positively down-homey, comparatively speaking.
Also, before that scene, who knew that the middle-aged Kirk had to wear glasses?
Speaking of which, that cracked lens was a nice touch — a classic cinematic trope. The time travel thing, on the other hand….
(In 1986, Kirk pawns his glasses which will be given to him three hundred years in the future. Question: Who originally owned the glasses before Kirk was given them?
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Introduction_to_Philosophy:Logic:Paradoxes)
“I hate temporal paradoxes….”
But I digress….
Hmm, perhaps converted to a hovercar?
#26:”Sigh. Another juvenile Shatner weight comment.”
Actually, Shatner was quite slim as a juvenile.
20. Sean, I was thinking the exact same thing. The hair seemed rather long for a boy, especially since every male child in the 23rd century that have been shown on screen has short, neatly-combed hair.
30, one set of exceptions might be:as in
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/20/STChildLead.jpg
“And the Children Shall Lead” (TOS). Hair not too short or neat.on two of the boys.
Honestly? The person in the ‘vette looks female. Maybe its some High School Sweetheart to meet ol’ Jimmy boy? Or perhaps she’s a Romulan. We can’t see her ears…
-The Doc
I just looked at the ‘Vette pic again and I must say that I agree that it’s probably a girl, not a boy, sitting in the back seat.
I was looking back on all those leaked pics with the shuttle-type vehicle and the guys in blue work jumpsuits and silver hard hats- there are hills behind some of those shots that look exactly like the hills around Bakersfield. I wonder just how long this shoot has been here.
12: LOL. Doc Emmett Brown would be proud.
Forgive me, but would it be so damn hard to take a small crew to Iowa for a week and shoot second unit? ILM has to paint all those mountains out of those shots now, and have us nitpickers point out crops and plants that aren’t native to Iowa. I am sure Iowa would have offered some tax credits, et cetera.
#35
After WWIII they had to repopulate Iowa with Californian planet species that weren’t mutated by radioactive fallout.
Woohoo! TrekMovie is on the teevee! :-)
I wouldn’t be at all surprised to learn that at least half of the “spy footage” and “spy shots” we’ve seen have been released deliberately by the production team after screening them for just the right balance of tease and lack of real substance :)
39, that would be using fans as the willing accomplices of the ultimate in viral marketing!
If so, sneaky — but effective!
(Although, one must acknowledge that if this were true in regard to the ‘Vette, the traffic accident in Kern County would have had to have been faked in order to get enough notice for people to investigate and find the production there, and how likely is that?)
I meant that last message for 38.
I’m a muscle car junkie (old ‘Vettes ranking a close second place on my all-time favourites list) so the car has me totally pumped.
The news video is funny. Makes you feel kind of special being one of “all the Trekkies” they talk, doesn’t it?
*talk about
#10 manrum
i know you are not english speaking…we have spoken before about slivovitsa, but i could not understand what you were saying this time, sorry.
#33
i agree. that looks like a female to me as well.
man, i gotta stop looking into all these potential spoilers
#39: Well, like I said, “at least half,” but not all :)
If that’s Kirk in the car than I’m the first one saying it … continuity error!!!
If Kirk was driving Corvettes as a kid than why was he such a bad driver in a “Piece of the Action”???
;-)
35. Red Shirt: Yes and more expensive than needed for an outtake scene. Sorry not to be crass but the only ones who will care or notice are people who live in Iowa or nearby. It’s just how it works. :)
Sex in the back seat if you ask me
The gay scene was under the tarp :-o
I am orginaly from Iowa. NW Iowa. I have been near Riverside and that area of the state. There are now big Hills located in Iowa. It’s the Great Plains for a reason. (Don’t think the Production staff has ever been to Iowa. :( ) \
Should have found flatter area with out the hills.
#49 – If they can CGI entire ships, planets, people, enviroments, de-age you by 20 years, don’t you think they could airbrush out mountains? ;)