Shatner Asked To ‘Keep Quiet’ About Star Trek 2016+ Orci Says Role Must Be ‘Worthy’

shatshut

Over the weekend William Shatner confirmed he had been contacted by JJ Abrams about how there "might" be a role for him in the 2016 Star Trek movie. Today Shatner has revealed that he has been contacted again and told to stop talking about Star Trek. Details on that below, plus how the media is covering Bill’s weekend revelation, and there are some new comments from Orci here at TrekMovie and Bill and Orci are also tweeting to each other.

Shatner asked (again) to keep quiet about Star Trek movie role

Today William Shatner was interview by the UK’s Daily Mail to promote this weekend’s appearance at Destination Star Trek in London and of course the issue of his possibly having a role in the upcoming Star Trek movie came up. However after confirming the rumors this weekend, it appears Shatner is now being told (for a second time) to keep quiet. Here is what he said:

"Here’s my dilemma, I was cautioned not to speak about this and the next day it was out all over Twitter. ‘So I talked about it and then I get another phone call telling me to keep quiet again! All I can say is that I’m very excited about the film."

By the way, the "I’m very excited" line is the standard thing that actors are told they are allowed to say with Bad Robot productions, including Star Wars and Star Trek.

shatnercall
Shatner got another call about Star Trek asking him to "keep quiet"

Shatner’s Weekend Comments Makes News Around The World

After he inadvertently confirmed the rumor of a possible role in the 2016 Star Trek movie, the ‘Shatner in Star Trek’ story has spread beyond the usual geekosphere blogs into the mainstream media. Many outlets that usually wouldn’t have run a story about a rumor are now reporting it due to Shatner’s confirmation (about speaking to JJ Abrams). And some that had run the rumor are now reporting that it has been confirmed by Shatner. Bill’s comments over the weekend have been reported at Entertainment Weekly, The Hollywood Reporter, Yahoo, E Online, Empire, The Wrap, Salon, USA Today and other newspapers (like the Philadelphia Inquirer)  and even overseas in Ireland, the UK, and elsewhere.

shatheadlines
Bill’s weekend revelation made news around the world

Orci: Role must ‘be worthy’

The director of the upcoming Star Trek movie Roberto Orci has again engaged fans here at TrekMovie.com and has dropped a couple of interesting comments about Bill over the last day. First was this exchange…

Ralph Pinheiro – September 28, 2014
If it is true, I hope it was a very good idea and as Shatner said: “If it is meaningful”.
I don´t want Bill or Nimoy coming back just with a good idea for sweep.

While the intention is good, It could potentially wreck everything.
—————————————————————————–

boborci – September 28, 2014
[@Ralph Pinheiro]. exactly.

I would never waste my hero’s time. Must be worthy of them if you’re gonna go for it.

And later, Bob added this (notably after some fans questioned if Bill was too old to play Kirk)

boborci – September 28, 2014
Shatner looks amazing, He is so full of life. I hope he can give us some of his secrets!

Shatner and Bob bonding on Twitter

Over the last week William Shatner and Roberto Orci have been exchanging tweets with each other in a bit of a love fest. For example, Bill offered Bob some friendly advice in dealing with trolls.

And after talking about his dog named “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” Bob used that as a chance to send Bill some appreciated love.

All quiet on the Nimoy front

Of course the original rumor and Shatner’s comments over the weekend were not just about his role, but also about Leonard Nimoy returning to again play Spock Prime. While there has been a lot of activity from Shatner, so far there hasn’t been a peep from Mr. Nimoy about the whole thing.

nimoymums
Nimoy remains mum about next Star Trek movie

As always, stay tuned to TrekMovie for all the latest on the upcoming Star Trek movie.

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I’m so excited about this.

Hope it all works out.

Shatner blowing a bluster again? Mr Nimoy seems to be much more reserved as befits the person he is.

Has to be meaningful. Not just a X Men Days Of Future Past Wannabe or fan service.

Nimoy was key to 2009’s plot.

Do that again.

Shatner is a lot more active than Nimoy and it’s far bigger news so he gets the questions.

I’m sure BR and Paramount are salivating. Look at what a few words from Shatner did…. Now imagine a real marketing push behind it. Shatters involvement is probably good for an extra $40 million. Hopefully Bill won’t want an unreasonable cut of that take.

Come on, who’s attorney called Shat and told him to shut the f**k up?

This is going to end up being much ado about nothing, and a real lesson on how a little candor can avoid a lot of bad press.

@4

I’m sure Bill will get his fee. No more no less. Unless he pulls an Alec Guinness.

I hope that they don’t write the absolute perfect part for both him & Nimoy and then one of them passes away.

Someone asked Shatner to keep quiet? Good luck with that.

What?? People are talking about Star Trek? oh no! :P shut it down! shut it down! lol

7. David Oakes –
“I hope that they don’t write the absolute perfect part for both him & Nimoy and then one of them passes away.”

I and a few others, I’m sure, are concerned about just that David as well. Fingers crossed things will go smoothly.

Love the Shat..but he’s up there in age and is prone to dementia and senility so I would advise filming any scenes with him mere days before the films release to assure he keeps quite.

Just kidding (a little)
I would still feel better if another director and writer was assigned this project other then Orci.

Could it beeeee…..Mirror Kirk?? ;-)

@12. Much more likely now, no Kirk.

Isn’t it a little bit tasteless to keep fingers crossed that two human beings don’t pass away before they make their “job” to please us viewers?

It sounds like: “let them shoot their scenes quickly so that we are happy fans. After that they may die.”

Even if actors are in a high age and such thought might come up, I think it is a little disrespectful to speculate about their death.

Why do you say that, Phil? He could conceivably come back as “future Mirror Kirk”. We don’t know what happened to that Kirk…

I am very excited about the possibility of William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy appearing together in the next Star Trek movie, if that is how it will be written in the screenplay. However, there have been rumors about Leonard Nimoy’s health. Will William Shatner need to lose some of the weight he has put on? I don’t mean to be indelicate, but maybe they should film the William Shatner scenes and Leonard Nimoy scenes during the first month of shooting and not wait for the last day of shooting. You need the cash cow.

Surely, with Mr. Shatner on the game, we’ll have fun months ahead …

I think you have it backwards. Shatner being told to keep quiet is a great sign that he actually is in the movie and this is going to happen.

We should all be like Shatner at 83.

How can Mr. Shatner not be included? He and Mr. Nimoy have made magic together in these truly iconic roles. You just can’t have one without the other. That is the way the characters were written. Having Mr. Nimoy portray Spock and not include Mr. Shatner as Captain Kirk is like asking for a Reese’s Cup with no peanut butter!

I can totally understand that Abrams and Orci don’t want rumours to be circulating but I beg them both to lossen the Vulcan Death Grip on the mystery box mentality regarding Star Trek, there needs to be a balance between revealing just enough as to not spoil the movie but more than has been revealed with the last two.

If one lesson is learnt from Into Darkness is that they should have come out and said from the get go, Khan was coming back.

Sorry, Shatner will always be the Captain Kirk to me, but I just don’t have this dire need to see him as Captain Kirk again. I was really looking forward to this finally being the film where the new cast gets to take off. But it looks as though that is not going to happen. Maybe the 6th or 7th film with this cast we’ll finally get to see them on their own.

And lets face it. Nobody here will be satisfied with “just one more time”. It will come up again and again. And God help Bob Orci and co. if Shatners role does not fit their expectations. All the same people saying “they have to do this” will be trashing the team for wasting their time.

My concerns are 2-fold. First, it will end up being a complete waste of time, a la Nimoy in STID. Can anyone honestly say there was any point to that scene. I thought STID was a great film, save for that scene and the blatant carbon copy in reverse of the end of TWOK (well and the whole British Khan thing–I mean Cumberbatch did a fantastic job as a villain, but I have a hard time buying he was the Khan we all remember).

Second, they will have to spend valuable movie time explaining his sudden resurrection, because contrary to what people want to believe, Shatner is not going to play some relative or aged version of Pine-Kirk. He will want what Nimoy got in Star Trek (2009). History has shown us that.

I was looking forward to a completely original story taking place during the 5 year mission. I’ll have to temper my expectations accordingly if this comes to fruition.

With all respect to Mr Shatner, his character died. That’s a pretty significant plot hole to fill. And simply, I would love to see this cast in a new movie all by themselves. You need to let the little birdie fly on its own someday, preferable before this cast moves on and we realize we never got a completely original story all by their lonesome.

Shatner as Kirk one last time with Nimoy as Spock is big news so by now someone high up @ Paramount must realise this is generating a lot of positive buzz & they are not even confirmed yet so imagine the buzz if they do get extended cameos not just a single scene or 2.

Who is the baddest mother in space?
Shat!
Shat yo mouth!
Can ya diggit?

I would love to see the Shat reprise his role as Kirk (and Nimoy as Spock for that matter). I was assuming that such a scene (or scenes) would take the form of a prime universe flashback, but – wouldn’t such a scene have to occur before Kirk died in Generations? And if so, how do you make Shatner look younger than he did in that film? Or would they somehow undo the ending to Generations, or move forward as if Generations never happened?

@ 5. Phil – September 29, 2014

“This is going to end up being much ado about nothing, and a real lesson on how a little candor can avoid a lot of bad press.”

“Bad press” ??

Are you BLIND ?

24–I doubt they would pretend Generations never happened. Abrams and co. have been careful not to “retcon.”

They noted that as being a hurdle to getting Shatner in a film as prime-Kirk. I think they are clear they are not going to ignore the events in Generations. I think should they go forward with this, they will have to deal with that in some fashion. I wouldn’t hazard a guess as to how, though.

@ 4. TUP – September 29, 2014

“I’m sure BR and Paramount are salivating. Look at what a few words from Shatner did…. Now imagine a real marketing push behind it. Shatters involvement is probably good for an extra $40 million.”

Absolutely. Look at the amount of media coverage, not just Sci-Fi sites but mainstream media as well from ABC, USA Today, International Business Times, China Topix, Irish Examiner, The Telegraph to the ones mentioned in this article & many more.

These are exciting time for Star Trek.

15-Wasn’t it implied that Mirror Spock was going to use the magic button to make him disappear. Since we know from DS9 that Spock did gain power, he probably did make Kirk disappear. Although, who knows. Maybe that machine actually sends people to the past of an alternate timeline in a mirror universe.

They wouldn’t pretend Generations never happened. I would hope they would address it directly.

It may be a hurdle, but it’s fixable.

Mirror Kirk is not a hero. It wouldn’t be mirror Kirk.

If the word on the street about Shatner is true, that doesn’t change my enthusiasm for the film. I’m ready (and hoping) to enjoy a good Star Trek movie no matter who is in it.
Sure, if it turns out that Shatner — and maybe Nimoy? — are both in it, that would be great for the 50th anniversary.
I think Bob Orci has had quite some time to think about a way to use Shatner in a story if that’s what he’s decided to do. And it will make sense and will be necessary.

@25. Hardly. Lets recap – JJ talked to Shatner, told him the conversation was confidential, and Shat headed off to the first open mike to spill the beans. So, in addition to pissing off the producer, he gets a call today to put a sock in it….I’ll bet that wasn’t JJ he was talking to. Bill’s being very slick that the conversation ‘got out on Twitter’…when he was the one who put it there.

Second, this ‘integral’ role is still ignoring either Nimoys COPD, or that in this instance, ‘integral role’ means these guys having a chat somewhere. Sorry, Stan Lee popping up in the Marvel movies is cute, but it’s not integral. There’s a reason Nimoy isn’t responding to all this speculation – because it’s just that, speculation.

Have you actually bothered to read some of these stories popping up in the mainstream press? Several are now asking the question, generally, is it a good idea to plug Shatner in, and more pointedly, are these producers capable of making a movie that isn’t fan service?

Orci, hopefully, has learned something. You can get away with cutsie double speak answers when you are the writer, not so much as director. A stock answer to any rumor moving forward should be ‘the rumor is unsubstaintated/untrue/false’….even if it is true. The media is going to do what it’s going to do, any individual can choose if they want to stir the pot or not.

I just totally hope this happens. Shatner is back, baby.

Shatner or GTFO

Kudos to Mr. Nimoy for not saying anything.
Especially since there is no finished script .

@31. Phil

blah blah blah blah

If Shatner has a role it’s a bad idea to keep it a secret. Notice how much of a secret it is NOT who is appearing in Star Wars Episode 7?

Get it out in the open and let people get psyched about and look forward to it. Let the interest build and build. That is good marketing.

To gag Shatner when the man is a one-man marketing machine would be negligent.

He should play a Klingon general! :D
Hegh……lu’ …..meH…..QaQ ……jaj……vam!

Mr. Orci and Mr. Abrams ,

My two cents … again… Over the last few days, Star Trek news … is NEWS. As a long time fan , the possibility that

William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy

would work together as Kirk and

Spock is Great news !! The story seems to be turning from ‘ Shatner might appear. .’. To. ‘ Star Trek movie Executives to Shatner … : Shut Up!..’..
If you have a way to produce some meaningful Kirk and Spock / Shatner and Nimoy …. Art. My hope.is that YOU will be able to see the Forest thru the Trees and produce a Great Film. I have a real appreciation for your 1 St two Films. I liked the first one the very much. I feel that the 3 rd

one Will be the charm ! ! You’ve. Got This ….

@29. BringBackKirkPrime,
“They wouldn’t pretend Generations never happened. I would hope they would address it directly.”

There’s absolutely no point. The new fans wouldn’t understand it, nor need it. All the audience needs to know is why Prime Kirk is showing up on screen, and hope it’s better than Prime Spock’s cameo in STID.

All that’s required for the hard core fans is for Prime Kirk to plausibly end up in the film (for the sake of the new fans). I can’t imagine how they could reasonably get an octogenarian character into the Alternate universe — the idea Prime Kirk would commandeer a ship to go after his friend is kind of silly. And I don’t see anybody at Starfleet letting him go it alone. So that leaves the most logical alternative which is a flashback, dream, or mind-meld transference (or my least favorite: a hologram since it allows for no interactivity). It’s also possible that they find a way to send Prime Spock back (then of course we have to have a reason to go to the trouble), after which we have a reunion scene in the Prime Universe with Prime Kirk.

But the explanation about the NEXUS is not needed. Kirk stepped out of the Nexus and resumed his life at a particular point, leaving his “echo” to defeat Soran with Picard. Canon fully supports this explanation.

_____________________
“Mirror Kirk is not a hero. It wouldn’t be mirror Kirk.”

Not only that but it’s highly unlikely Mirror Kirk would live to Shatner’s age.

@39. Good point, but if Kirk Prime can be resurrected, Mirror Kirk could be immortal…no sillier then any of the other suggestions floating around.

@35. I’m sorry, Ahmed, did you say something?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6p1Ck0ab80

It would be great to have Shatner in the next movie only if it makes sense in the fact that he is dead in the prime universe. If they just act like that never happened and screw up the prime universe history that would be the end of me with these Abrams flicks and that could pull other veteran Trekkers away as well. This would obviously take some creative writing which I have seen little of from the new regime.

@Curious Cadet. Guinan’s echo specifically told Picard that she could not leave the Nexus because she was already outside of it. Leaving aside the question of whether those who leave the Nexus voluntarily like Kirk and Picard even leave echos behind. As I have reminded others Guinan left an echo because she was ripped away from the nexus (her words) by the Enterprise B, Kirk and Picard left of their own accord. Add on the fact that Guinan’s echo specifically stated that it could not leave the nexus and you are left with the canon fact that if Kirk has an echo at all it is forever trapped in the nexus.

@41. Phil

LOL, that is the perfect clip to describe YOUR endless rantings against Shatner.

Give it a rest & go watch X-Men: DOFP. But be warned that the movie contains scenes with VERY OLD actors!

End Transmission!

Never underestimate the fans even the newer ones. No one is stupid. They will know that Kirk Prime had died. They can do an abundance of things with that. Orci, if he goes the way I’d like, will find a way to address Generations head on, in a way that wouldn’t necessarily require the movie to be seen, even if it involves clips from Generations, which I doubt they’d even need.

And by the way, I have to smile a bit at the comment about Starfleet not letting Kirk go after Spock.

Not that Orci will do that plot, but remember the first Star Trek III? It didn’t work out for Starfleet then.

Also, keep in mind that in Star Trek, someone can be quite useful and competent long past his 80s. I don’t need to see Kirk Prime throwing double fisted punches and nailing green chicks. Pine can do all that.

But Kirk’s knowledge, experience and uncanny ability to lead and inspire can absolutely be portrayed by Shatner at this age. It would be exciting.

I don’t want to just see Kirk Prime show up alive and well. I want him to do something cool with Nimoy. In the thick of the action, like he should be.

@44. I’ve not ranted against Shatner at all. Matter of fact, I’ve said repeatedly he’s a welcome sight on any TV programming commemorating the 50th anniversary of the show, along with the rest of the surviving cast. Appreciated his giving life to the character of Kirk. Not sure I’ve ever said anything negative about Patrick Stewart or Ian McKellen, now that I think of it…

Fact of the matter is, as far as the movies go, Shatners ship has sailed. Go plug in Generations to refresh your memory.

Shatner now understands. I think he saw what was plastered all over the net and sincerely thought the cat was already out of the bag as well and confirmed by Bad Robot. I don’t know why he thought this and it’s irrelevant, but he did. Subsequently, more calls were made, making him aware that the cat should still be in the bag. oops.

NOW, he understands the situation fully and I’d bet there won’t be any more slips from him other than the party line, because he wants to do the movie.

I don’t think there are any I’ll feelings between Shatner and BR…or at least there shouldnt be, as it was an honest, albeit frustrating, misunderstanding. Of course, the bad thing is, it will be the first question asked of the Shat in every interview for the next year and a half! lol. I hope it all comes together…looking forward to looking forward!

# 45
…. Good Post …. I agree completely ….

@42. Franco,
“It would be great to have Shatner in the next movie only if it makes sense in the fact that he is dead in the prime universe. If they just act like that never happened and screw up the prime universe history…”

Kirk didn’t die in Generations. The more I look at this it is his “echo” that died, which explains why he didn’t act like himself. So there’s nothing to screw up.

Guinan said : “I can’t leave here. I’m there already, remember?” Guinan didn’t say she couldn’t leave because it wasn’t possible, she said she couldn’t leave because she existed already outside the Nexus. So if Kirk was already dead outside the Nexus by the time Picard showed up, then his consciousness (or soul if you will) wouldn’t have been outside the Nexus either, and his echo theoretically could have left as it wouldn’t have been duplicating the original (conservation of matter and identical particle theories at work perhaps).

Whether you agree or not, it’s wide open for interpretation. Anything is possible, just like Khan could be a white British man with no explanation.

So no, Kirk did not die, his “echo” did. The Kirk that was snatched into the Nexus got bored very quickly, just as Picard did and left of his own volition and continued his life from where he left off — this is confirmed by Scotty when he was freed from the pattern buffer in TNG by his expectation that Kirk came to rescue him, having been snatched into the Nexus years earlier than Scotty’s retirement.

No need to explain anything. Leave that for the IDW comics.

46. Phil – September 29, 2014

You think Kirk’s fictional death is ironclad?

I can think of two very different science fiction-y ways of bringing Kirk back, both of which accept the events of Generations, both of which are built around interesting questions of personal identity, and neither of which involve time travel or alternate universes.