Recently Star Trek’s new Mr. Spock Zachary Quinto sparked a lot of discussion when he talked about how the script for the Star Trek sequel currently in production had been evolving. Now he is saying that the actors had some input into this process.
Quinto: Star Trek Sequel Is ‘Bigger and Bolder’ + Actors Collaborated With Writers
Star Trek’s new Mr. Spock Zachary Quinto gave some comments to NBC LA’s Popcorn Biz. First up Quinto talked about what it is like getting everyone back together for production:
Getting back together with everybody was amazing. It was a little bit awkward because we’ve been away for four years, so for all of us to kind of find our footing again, just in relationship to shooting the movie [was a challenge]. But there’s such a great connection between all of us that we were able to find our way pretty quickly.
While he of course can’t divulge details, the actor did talk about the story in general:
Well, it’s bigger and bolder. And I think in some ways more dynamic. And it’s so exciting to be back. And the first time there was a writer’s strike when we were shooting the movie so nothing was able to be changed – the script was locked. And this time Bob [Orci] and Alex [Kurtzman] and Damon [Lindeloff] and J.J.[Abrams] are really getting in and working on the story and sort of allowing it to expand and evolve – and bringing us into the process. So there’s a real collaboration that wasn’t even legally permitted the first time that I feel really grateful for. We’re having a really great time.
More from Quinto on his life outside of Trek, including American Horror Story, at nbclosangeles.com.
Zachary Quinto with director JJ Abrams filming 2009 Star Trek movie – says actors have been able to collaborate with writers for sequel
OMG, stop giving us photos from the 09 movie and give us ones from the new movie, holy crap.
Despite the lack of pictures its still good to hear from Quinto on this… The most anticipated movie of 2013! Can’t wait!!
@ #1 – I hear ya.. but it’s nice to be able to see parts of the 09 movie that we couldn’t actually see in the movie itself. You know… without the lens flare. ;)
Interested to see how the actor collaboration and the constant revision affects the character of the script. Wasn’t it Karl Urban who came up with the great ‘all I got left is my bones’ line?
I can hardly wait, I’ve been dreaming of a sequel to the prequel ever since I saw the prequel. Is that confusing? Well I’m a Trekkie, & I’ve got it bad.
4. Hadn’t heard that before? Awesome if true… Urban rocked it in the last one…
Well, I’m a purist and while I wasn’t much of a fan of this reboot / prequel, Zachary Quinto’s Spock was spot on. I am looking forward to seeing what the writers have come up with.
Yeah, we remember the actors collaboration on the TNG movies: Data has emotions for more acting range, Laforge lost his visor so he could have better closeups, Riker’s role in the enterprise got smaller so Frakes could direct, Diana Troy goes completely out of character to be ‘herself’ (and drives the ship?!), and Picard becomes some sort of Bruce Willis in space. Not even Star Trek V got this bad.
The TNG movies almost ended trek for life because the actors played the producers/directors/writers roles, and they all seem to forget that not everyone is Nimoy, someone that knows heartily what Star Trek is all about… Nimoy was the exception, not the rule, just remember Shatner’s direction. This is bad news, folks.
Bigger and Bolder is fine and dandy, but it must also be Better. And I wish they’d stop blaming the writer’s strike for what they must view as story flaws.
Just please make a good movie, guys.
Agree with Shilliam (hee hee; love the name!);
Bigger/bolder is great, as long as there is the same standard of quality we saw before. Many a sequel has failed by assuming that a more epic, splashier movie equals a better story. Sadly, it does not….
I’m pretty sure that won’t be the case with ST 2.0, but I’m crossing my fingers too.
;-)
@8
This is why I love trek fans. NOTHING IS EVER RIGHT! Jeez, can’t we just be happy that we have new trek on the screen again? I mean, I don’t know ably you, but I was getting a little sick of watching the same movies over and over again.
He said it was in some ways MORE dynamic than ST.09?
How is that possible?
#12
Maybe there are even fewer, or none, scenes like Pike and Kirk in the bar. No dialogue scenes, just fighting scenes. You know, like every other movie…
The last Star Trek was the first decent Trek movie in 15 years and yet still some find cause to complain.
I loved the last trek film, so many great moments and a return to the great characters of Star Trek. Who could have asked for more.
Of course we all want more but more movies, not more from the last one.
“Bigger, bolder, more dynamic”…..pavlov drooling to the max!
11. Thank you. Exactly.
Bigger and bolder?
So they’re going to blow up the galaxy in this one?
Well, I have mixed feelings about ‘bigger and bolder’. So much of what holds up about Trek over decades comes from introspection by the characters, particularly Spock. Trek was willing to do this while so much of contemporaneous broadcast science fiction was not.
Action is the backdrop across which the journey of the characters is written. Special effects and bold stories lend energy to the events, but what true challenges and life changing experiences (not just ‘foes’ and space anomalies) will the individuals face? Even the small screen was able to revisit this ground many times. I hope the movie remains true to the characters and keeps ‘bigger and bolder’ in perspective.
19. Right with you.
Bigger and bolder is great, in my book.
I would welcome a sense of grandeur in this new movie, and an idea of the scale of the Federation and Starfleet.
Events are overtaking our previous conceptions of reality. Whereas a mere decade ago, it was unclear how many planets there were in our Galaxy alone, now it is thought that there may be many millions, including several candidates for what in Trek would be called “M Class” planets. The reality of an interstellar alliance could be far more spectacular than we had dared hope.
By the 23d Century, in the universe of Trek, there should be all manner of indicia of the expansion of humanity into the stars. Interstellar conveyances should be to the current century what airline travel is to the 19th. Not a single 19th Century author accurately predicted the sheer ubiquity of airline travel; it would have boggled the mind of even Jules Verne that more commercial aircraft take off in a single hour around the world than all the passenger steamships and all the airships ever to have crossed the Atlantic, by orders of magnitude. The numbers of people travel by air EACH YEAR exceed the total population of the entire Earth up until historical times.
Starfleet, to say nothing of the Federation, should be a place full of activity, full of starships and star travelers, and a place of wonder and wonders.
The magic of the future can be conveyed by the magic of theater. Bigger and bolder is one road to that end.
@21, agree with you, and the vision you describe can coexist with great character development as dark or radiant futures, look for example at Philip K. Dick or Arthur Clarke. Or if you are patient :-) Stanislaw Lem.
Hoping Trek will keep its rudder in the deeper currents and not fully accede to the comic book trend in current SF/fantasy movies, fun as that is.
Indeed, character development is part of the quintessence of Trek. Excellent point.
The Wrath of Khan was essentially a “submarine movie,” with two ships dueling it out in the dark. And yet we correctly see it as one of the best SF movies of its time. Why? Kirk, Spock, and Khan. How they interacted touched us, moved us, angered us, and made us better for it.
Bigger. Bolder. And best of all, still Trek. That’s all we want.
bigger ideas
bolder charactors
i would go with that
however not with
bigger fx
bolder fight scenes
given its been shown in 3d i guessing the later
21. Hat Rick
Gawd, you are one eloquent bastard!
And, of course, I mean that in the best sense of the phrase.
There is certainly room for Trek to open a peek into one or two doors of where the next cycle of SF could go. Its true that Asimov’s Multivac has long been surpassed, and I suspect many folk today see virtual reality as ‘why is it taking so long’. Events catch up with the fiction we know so quickly. What insight to the future might be offered in new Trek? A bit of it would be very cool.
As far as a grander Federation, I guess we are still flying on speculation there. Lots of planets yes, but lots of consciousness which can find common ground in how they identify what matters? Jury still out. And I often wonder if there are so many conscious beings out there, why none of them seem to have modulated their solar winds to show a bit of intelligent signal over a few thousand years. Perhaps we will see detectable planets in orbits which are obviously artificial, since planetary detection seems to be a capability that comes long before interstellar travel.
All I know is I am super stoked for Benny-baby playing the villian. That alone makes this my most anticipated film (after the Avengers.)
Quinto ‘helps’ with the script? Can we expect to see Spock die falling down a Turbo-Lift shaft just as Joey did in Friends when he let slip that same line? :D
#29
That happened to Dr. Pulaski, you know:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ov7aTXqMKfY
@23 yes twok had lofty themes, but no matter how you spin it, when you hold it up against all the trek movies before the reboot, it (along with first contact) are essentially the action/adventure films of the bunch and coincidentally the top two picks. makes a point for the bigger & bolder approach. oh and since nobody else said it, everybody’s taking the “big & bold” thing too far. wait for at least a trailer before making some of these comments.
Let’s have a reality check, shall we?
Production is still in its early stages, and Quinto is an ACTOR. So, ZQ is not talking about explosions, he’s talking about the characters. Okay, to some degree, the script may involve relevant big events (e.g. destruction of Vulcan), but from his point of view, “bigger and bolder, … more dynamic” is more likely to refer to the scope of the action and the depth of the characters.
Notwithstanding all the “big” stuff that happens in ST2009, a lot of the runtime is occupied (albeit entertainingly) with all the characters’ origin stories (mostly Kirk’s & Spock’s but the others’ too), which are by their nature more personal.
If ST2013 is more like wall-to-wall main plot storyline, then there’s more time for the Enterprise to, I don’t know, maybe go out and explore something!? That’s the kind of bigger, bolder and more dynamic I’m hoping for.
@32, good point. And the fact that ZQ says they are having a great time collaborating does suggest they are *not* spending that time coreographing a Borg invasion fleet, but digging into what they care about :-)
#30 i’d forgotten about that. I quite enjoyed LA Law but surely it was before your time?
With no writers strike at least we should get a stronger story this time.
Of course sacrifices to what we love about Trek have to happen unfortunately to keep the damn mainstream interested I am hoping that Star Trek XII will have a bit more Trek to it.
Too bad they are putting more of the Spock and Uhura relationship in there, all I can ask is pleae don’t make Uhura a bitch like in that scene were she manipulated Spock to get her assigned to the Enterprise.
#36 or that scene where she made herself look like a slapper in the Turbo-lift. The funny thing about it was she could have pawed Spock all she wanted but he was still 4 years away from Pon-Farr. So no nudey prod for a while i’m afaid Uhura. I’d look elsewhere love. ;) Maybe Scotty? lol
29lol!
“We’ve been away for four years”.
This is a real problem Hollywood has. Production times and gaps between movies get longer and longer, but the human ageing process has not changed. How many new ST movies will we get before we’re back in the jokes about Old Men In Space? Remember, there was only ten years between the end of TOS and TMP, and the “too old” jokes were being reeled out right back in 1979. Ten years further on, some of the cast were looking positively ancient and the series was ended.
Take a look at the original James Bond franchise in the 1960s; there was virtually a movie every year. You can pack in a lot of stories before you’re thinking about recasting. Nowadays, it seems you can manage a trilogy at best before it’s time to start again; a good example is Spiderman. Three movies, and we’re back to a reboot and, oh lawks, another retelling of the origin.
I just don’t understand why it has to take this long. I am sadly not a fabulously wealthy Hollytwood producer, but if I were I’d be trying to get a production line mentality going. One movie being shot while the previous one is in post-production. We’d all happily pay to see a movie every year, like we did with Bond. And, it means each movie has less pressure on it. If one is a bit of a miss (like, for me, Thunderball or Moonraker), not to worry, there’ll be another one along shortly.
It’s going to be all wigs, corsets and botox again before we know it. I’m really looking forward to the sequel, but I really do feel I should have seen it by now. How many more can they do with this cast? Two, maybe? It’s not enough, is it?
#38
Hey bob…any chance of giving us any form of wee hint about something in the new movie please??
Just for lolz???
In other words bigger explosions & bolder lens flare. Nothing else.
@boborci
I wonder when is the timeframe for a trailer to be released?
How long in adwance of a movie releas is it common to release a trailer?
i remamber that the teaser trailer for trek09 was out long befor ther movie was.
Sounds like Mr. Quinto has been talking a lot to Leonard Nimoy.
Nimoy is always tweeting about them seeing each other and having dinner together a lot. I guess he’s kind of adopted him as a godchild.
And I can guess he’s been telling him about HIS contributions to the Spock character. In his memoirs Nimoy writes a lot about all the memos he sent to the producers about the integrity of his character, blah, blah, blah.
According to Solow and Justman’s book, Gene Roddenberry’s response was most of the time to listen but do nothing. For although many of Nimoy’s suggestions were very good, this self-directed Method actor had from time to time some really bad ideas. So after being ignored, Nimoy would then go to Mr. Justman who would then listen and take his case back to Mr. Roddenberry. Roddenbery would make changes to the script sometimes, but grudgingly. This led to some real everlasting enmity between Nimoy and Roddenberry.
This is the wisest course, rather than lock the actors into a set script, let them explore their characters up front. They will feel a greater investment in the characters and later they won’t have too much to complain about.
I have no idea what it must be like to be an actor. I don’t think as an adult, I could adjust to being given orders to jump and saying “How high, boss?”
Most of us are just not used to being treated that way, and Hitchcock famously remarked that actors should be treated like sheep. Many actors have written that the relationship is more like being children. Not all directors feel this way, though.
Sounds like Mr. Quinto has been talking a lot to Leonard Nimoy.
Nimoy is always tweeting about them seeing each other and having dinner together a lot. I guess he’s kind of adopted him as a godchild.
And I can guess he’s been telling him about HIS contributions to the Spock character. In his memoirs Nimoy writes a lot about all the memos he sent to the producers about the integrity of his character, blah, blah, blah.
According to Solow and Justman’s book, Gene Roddenberry’s response was most of the time to listen but do nothing. For although many of Nimoy’s suggestions were very good, this self-directed Method actor had from time to time some really bad ideas. So after being ignored, Nimoy would then go to Mr. Justman who would then listen and take his case back to Mr. Roddenberry. Roddenbery would make changes to the script sometimes, but grudgingly. This led to some real everlasting enmity between Nimoy and Roddenberry.
This is the wisest course, rather than lock the actors into a set script, let them explore their characters up front. They will feel a greater investment in the characters and later they won’t have too much to complain about.
I have no idea what it must be like to be an actor. I don’t think as an adult, I could adjust to being given orders to jump and saying “How high, boss?”
Most of us are just not used to being treated that way, and Hitchcock famously remarked that actors should be treated like sheep. Many actors have written that the relationship is more like being children. Not all directors feel this way, though.
Gee, I don’t know why my post got duplicated. I must be in the Matrix.
I hope the writers dont add in lots of vanity moments for the actors. Having said that if they beef up Cumberbatch’s role I’ll be happy.
So Bob just how much of this script did you come up with?
What with us being ‘Consultants’ and the actors apparently writing their parts I really do have to wonder!
Let me guess, you are doing the title? Take yer time buddy…. ;-)
Good luck with finishing that script once the fights and blackmailing over what actor wants to do what and how much screen time it should take start. =) Like in the good old days.
I hope Bob wrote the script with Kirk being a proud Libertarian. ;)
All joking aside I think TOS Kirk was very much in that vain. A freedom fighter for sure.
#39 It’s going to be all wigs, corsets and botox again before we know it.
That’s a little rough but I know how you feel. A lot of time was wasted not using the TOS cast. As a ST fan I used to have to defend the franchise using them as they changed appearance and aged, to non ST fans. The new cast is all in their prime an all considerably talented. I hope the powers-that-be can at least see the sound business decision of producing stories with this fine cast with less time between films. Perhaps film 2 back to back.
On the other hand it must also be understood that productions today are far more involved than decades ago. The number of episodes of an entire season of a show is half what it was in the TOS era. I am so grateful for more ST, I just hope for more in a bit less time.