Star Trek co-writer/producer Damon Lindelof is doing the rounds of press to promote Prometheus, which comes out next week. In a new interview Lindelof talks about one of the advantages they had by shooting on larger stages for the sequel. He also talked about the Benedict "iconic" performance. Watch the video interview below. [UPDATE: Lindelof in talks for WB deal to create new TV series]
Lindelof on the newly interconnected Enterprise sets & Benedict Cumberbatch
Damon Lindelof spoke to Collider from the set of Prometheus about the new Star Trek movie. Lindelof explains how shooting on the larger Sony stages helped them with making the film, specifically the Enterprise sets…
There’s certainly an instinct to just go bigger in the second movie and one of the things that we did was we connected all the sets, so you can just basically follow the actors off the bridge, into a turbo lift, down, walking through a plaza, into the med bay as opposed to [having to] cut every time you do that, because when we were shooting on the Paramount stages we just didn’t have the money to connect all the sets.
Lindelof also saying the praises of Benedict Cumberbatch:
"Benedict Cumberbatch, I can already say with a certain degree of confidence that he is gonna give an iconic film performance and one of the best sci-fi performances that I’ve ever seen. And not even having seen the movie yet, just sitting there in video village with the headphones on. So I’m really psyched.”
Watch the full video with more Trek and Prometheus…
TrekMovie also interviewed Lindelof on both Star Trek and Prometheus. Look for that interview soon.
UPDATE: Lindelof finalizing TV Deal With WB – To create new TV series
In other news on Damon Lindelof that broke later on Friday, the writer is reportedly in talks with Warner Brothers Television to create new TV shows. Since he finished up with Lost (a show he co-created with JJ Abrams) two years ago, Lindelof has been focused on films. Now he says he is ready to return to TV. By joining WB, Lindelof would be under the same umbrella as Abrams, who also has his TV deal with the studio.
As for what kind of shows we should expect from Damon at WB, first it wont be anythign to do with Star Trek. Not only is that a CBS property, but Lindelof has stated in the past that he is not interested in working on any other established franchises for TV work. More specifically he also appears to be leaning against heavy sci-fi. Here is an excerpt from the report in Deadline:
“I think certainly film-wise, I’m spaced out, I think I’ve got the robot-spaceship future bug out of my system.” On the TV side, “I probably won’t be the guy who creates the next Mad Men or Breaking Bad, though I love both of these shows,” he said. “What I love about television is character-based storytelling, and I want to continue to explore fantastical way of doing it where characters live in a world that is a little skewed.” But don’t expect a new Lost from him. “I won’t be the one that would come up with the next Lost,” Lindelof said, adding that he has no interest in doing more shows with “wackadoo mythology.”
I wish they would have connected an actual engineering set instead of using that stupid brewery.
IT’S STAR TREK TWELVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THERE HAS ALREADY BEEN A TWO IT WAS CALLED WRATH OF KHAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So are we getting a teaser trailer attached to Batman or what?
Yep, drop the brewery and get a real warp core in there!
That would be a massive “interconnection” to my narrowed visual Star Trek perception. ;)
But hey, it’ll never happen…and why the frack should it!
‘..best sci-fi performance I have ever seen..?’ Hmmm. Of course, the question to be asked is what performances have you seen? Is it fair to say that Cumberbatch’s performance will surpass everyone’s memory of the late-Ricardo Montalban’s Khan? Interesting, indeed. Sounds like the film will be Trektacular all right. :)
With all the money that was budgeted for the reboot, one would think that there was money to join the set pieces together like the TOS sets were. I know they struck those sets years ago since the future of Trek was an unknown at the time. I believe when they made TMP the sets were joined together.
As for ‘Prometheus,’ I am thoroughly looking forward to it in the next weeks. If only there was a Trek II teaser to go along with it…
Oh, and cannot wait for Prometheus.
I am sure it’s going to be awesome.
These are the interviews I’m going to look back on after I’ve seen the next Trek movie and hopefully say “The hype was legit.” because right now they seem to be praising Cumberbatch an awful lot.
I’ve been assuming given the Batch’s mad talent that this would be iconic and blow everyone’s mind (whatever character) so it’s nice to hear an insider say it so clearly. And no he is not just hyping the movie! There’s no reason to be that superlative if he didn’t really feel that way. And yeah I bet DL has seen his share of Sci Fi.
Yep, looking forward to Promethues. Looks smart. And it was shot in 3D. Getting tired of conversions. I must have seen thirty to forty 3D movies. and the best ones are those shot in 3D and not converted from 2D.
So they moved all the sets from Paramount to the Budweiser plant?
Cumebrbatch is a great actor. The praise was what I expected. Any fan of his work knows he’ll blow everyone away with his performance.
Can we PLEASE stfu about the brewery? Whine whine whine. After all hat fake background bull in the Star Wars movies, I’ll pick a real location liek that any time. And if you saw the concept art for the CGI engineering, you knowit wasn’t much better.
Besides, it’s hardly original: Red Dwarf and Doctor Who shot a lot in refineries and factories, and heck, they shot the inside of one of the giant robots in Power Rangers in a battleship.
If i leave trek out of the equation…great sci fi performances…Micheal Rennie in tdess…Siqounie in Alien….Chris Reeve in Superman…seems most great sci fi is a group effort.
At some point I expect Abrams and Co. to get so tired of hearing about the brewery that they push back and start filming their engine room sequences in, say, an old linotype shop. It would have a certain charm.
#12
But the brewery set sucks. It looks like a brewery. It has vats of beer. It doesn’t look industrial or futuristic. If they had shot the engineering scenes in a more scientific looking facility they might have pulled it off.
But it’s a brewery. And it looks like a brewery. Did I mention the vats of beer?
Great Trekmovie guys… I’m waiting for the interviews…
….. I WANT to see Captain Kirk wearing his yellow… WOW… ;-) :-)
I love when movies have extended shots without any cuts in them. It can make the scene more interesting rather that cutting back and forth so many times.
The crew walks through a plaza, which connects to the med bay (aka sickbay). What the hell does he mean with a shipboard plaza.
Lots of gr8, interesting, intriguing talk of the next release. Waiting not so patiently for its release. Sure, were not aware of ‘characters’ that will be portrayed in this one either, but isn’t that always true? Will Kahn be involved, or maybe a decendant of equal or near genetic bad assivness? I’ll settle for a reminder of the release date again for now.
I was somewhat blown away when i found out they were on the Sony (former MGM in Culver City) lot to shoot Trek. With the exception of the original pilots I do believe every Trek was shot at Paramount. However the original was shot in Culver City, so it’;s come full circle…
Star Trek 2: The Wrath of the Search for the Voyage Home
Anyone having any doubts about Cumberbatch’s talent apparently hasn’t seen him in the BBC’s updated Sherlock (Holmes) series… believe me HE CAN ACT!
Yeah, I’m sick of the brewery complaints as well.
But, I’m surprised no one is complaining about how they dropped the use of the name “sick bay.” Really! Every incarnation of Star Trek always called the medical area “sick bay” since the 60s, why did JJ stop using it? Lindelof just called it “med bay” above, and that just sucks. Eff you very much, too, JJ.
Speak for yourself, I know plenty of Trekkers of more than 50 years of age who enjoyed the hell out ST09. I also know several who would tell you to leave them out of your opinions.
#23.
“Yeah, I’m sick of the brewery complaints as well.
But, I’m surprised no one is complaining about how they dropped the use of the name “sick bay”. Really! Every incarnation of Star Trek always called the medical area “sick bay” since the 60s, why did JJ stop using it? Lindelof just called it “med bay” above, and that just sucks. Eff you very much, too, J.J.”
I really hope you’re being sarcastic….because your post comes off as two-faced and uncalled for.
And 25 is the expert in those ;) I kid, I kid!
25, RDR: Yeah, you’re right. My Bad! It was too much. I blame it on the alcohol.
Wow I wish we could edit our posts!!!!
23:
And Chekhov used “Away Team” instead of “Landing Party” in ST09. It’s just one disaster after another! And where was the “No Smoking” sign in the Transporter Room? What were they thinking?
I’m holding Lindelof to the “iconic” Cumberbatch performance description. Cumberbatch is certainly gifted enough to pull it off.
Connecting the sets is genius.
OK, here’s a positive: It’s cool how the sets are actually connected. Anyone see the set lay-outs from TOS? The Art of Star Trek has many pics of the model Matt Jefferies did, and they actually had the sets connected! One could walk out of SICK Bay, walk down a corridor, and go into crew quarters or transporter room.
Of course, that pales in comparison to the promenade sets from DS9. Now those were majestic, and they were really connected!
I have a thought. He’s not playing Khan but another super soldier who awakes before Khan and kills him.
I’d tone down those expectations for Prometheus. Saw it today, baffling stuff, plot holes everywhere, and that’s the least of it’s problems. It does look good though. That might be fine for some but I think most Star Trek fans will come away with an empty feeling after seeing it.
I wonder if they fixed those super turbo lifts that took you from the hanger deck to the bridge in 3 seconds. That bothered me most of all in Trek 2009. Again, how much thought was put into making the Enterprise feel “real”?
I like landing party. Never loved away team.
Not sure why, but not using sick bay didn’t bother me at all — and that surprised me (that I didn’t care, because I hold on to the past more than Will Loman). Medical Bay somehow sounded better to me, which is wierd. I wonder if they’ll have those dyson hand dryers in sickbay (or whereever) this time.
32. Prometheus comes with ridiculously high expectations. Was it watchable at least? Would it work as a stand alone flick if (I know, this is highly speculative) you had no Alien expectations and weren’t under the delusion that every single thing Ridley Scott makes is a masterpiece (no slagging Scott)?
I’ll say the unspeakable — but was the bigger part of what was great about Blade Runner just that we hadn’t seen anything that looked like it before. Yeah, yeah, it was about identity and all that — but it was really just a police procedural… (arguably). Alien was great — because it wasn’t treated like a run-of-the-mill slasher, and had terrific atmosphere… but…
33. CanOpener1256 – June 1, 2012
“I wonder if they fixed those super turbo lifts that took you from the hanger deck to the bridge in 3 seconds. That bothered me most of all in Trek 2009. Again, how much thought was put into making the Enterprise feel “real”?”
You’ve heard of the future, right?
Seriously, that was one of my favourite things ever — I’d been wanting to see a crazy fast turbolift since I was a kid.
Lets see, you have not seen the performance, but are calling it iconic. I sure hope we are not being fed a load of bulls**t here…..
@2 Currently, my favorite Star Trek XII is Star Trek XII: So Very Tired. I think Star Trek 2 (XII) will change that.
There’s one upside to having engineering in a brewery…a very happy engineering staff…
@15. In your opinion, it sucks, just like in my opinion, it’s fine. Even if everything in the Trek universe came out of a replicator, you still need the magic box itself, storage tanks for the raw material it uses, and a big ole hunking power generator for all the power it will take to convert last nights captains log into this mornings breakfast. Silly me for assuming that the Enterprise is a self contained biosphere, and they recycle everything. And a means of conveyance to get all this stuff from one place to another. I guess i just described pipes and tanks and machines….how bout that.
@12 Speak it, brother!! Could not agree more!!!!!
Im sorry but IMHO ANYONE who defends the brewery is merely an apologist. It was horribly out of place and looked exactly like what it was. It was a lazy decision based on lack of money not some stroke of ‘creative genius’. The Emperor has no Engineering set…it is merely a godawful brewery. Intelligent discourse is one thing but trying to justify a clearly poor choice indicates a lack of critical thinking. Dont apologize ask for better! from the space nazi costumes its apparent that the design on this movie is going to be just as haphazard and off the mark as the last one. I trust the performances will make up for the productions lack of a grasp on what Trek traditionally looks like.
I don’t like the brewery either, but there’s no use in complaining about it. J.J is doing what he thinks works best whether we agree with it or not. There was plenty of the last movie that I did like so I was able to get over my disdain for the brewery.
NEINER NEINER NEINER!!!! I SAW A MINDNIGHT SHOWING OR PROMETHEUS!!!
*ahem*
Foolishness will now cease. It was most awesome. Messers. Scott, Lindelof and Spathis, another please.
@37
Correction, I mean this is Star Trek XIII. lol
New trailer for Star Trek II is out
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=vBpwPfW1Lsw
39 – Yeah, the old matter reclamation or waste extraction jobs for all the knuckle draggers below decks… But as soon as we can figure out how to turn shite into gold the skys the limit. lol
Go Cumberfreak! Win us an oscar!
Awesome!
@44. Nice trailer. I hope not.
Well, Chris Pine and Alex Kurtzman were in Chicago today promoting the film “People Like Us” … and Alex said they finished filming Star Trek 2 … but then he corrected for the “next Star Trek” … ;-) :-)
here:
http://windycitylive.com/episodes/Chris-Pine-and-Alex-Kurtzman/8685084
Yeah, Lindelof. Looking forward to an ‘iconic’ sci. fi. performance and to seeing Kirk in his yellows.