Simon Pegg spoke to reporters at CinemaCon Monday night about the tone of Star Trek Beyond, how it will create its own stories and canon while still fitting into the franchise’s 50 year history, and how the story’s villain, played by Idris Elba, will be ostentatious and interesting. Pegg also noted that Beyond won’t be a rehash of Star Trek’s “greatest hits” moments but will instead focus on original story telling.
Simon Pegg and JJ Abrams both appeared at CinemaCon Monday night as part of Paramount’s 2-hour convention opening presentation in which they showed off just about every franchise they own… except of course, for Star Trek.
Any newsy tidbits we did get from the event came from, primarily, the mouth of Simon Pegg. Pegg talked to CinemaBlend about the care they took when writing Beyond to make the film appealing to both fans and non-fans alike and fitting the story into existing canon while writing new, original stories. When asked if Beyond will be largely nods to earlier Star Trek works, Pegg explained:
No [it’s not a Greatest Hits], but it’s a later iteration, obviously. I think for real fans of Star Trek, they’ll get a real kick out of the fact that it very much is Star Trek in its DNA. We’re at pains to maintain the canon that we’ve created and the canon that exists for Star Trek.
Pegg went on to say that, while Beyond won’t be a rehash of old material, it will focus on Star Trek’s key themes and inclusive ethos.
“I think it’s just knowing what’s gone before, in a way, but at the same time understanding that this is a story which and always has been open to everybody. This is a universe that is so inclusive; no one is not welcome in Star Trek. So it has to embrace the fans that have been there for 50 years, and it has to embrace the people who go, ‘Oh, Star Trek, what’s that?’ Hopefully it gives them a chance to find out!”
Simon Pegg (mostly) and JJ Abrams also spoke with MTV News about this struggle to keep Beyond relevant to all their target audiences saying:
“It was something that we thought about a great deal going into the writing process… We always had agreed that… [we would be] making a film that lots of people could go and see and say, ‘Hey what’s this Stark Trek?’ And then go back 50 years. For the people that have been there for 50 years it was fun to make something that they would see as part of that continuum.”
Click to play the video at MTV News
Pegg also spoke about Idris Elba’s role as the villain of the story, saying that he is “ostentatious” and that Elba brought his own ideas to the development of the character.
“Idris had so many good ideas to help shape it. He’s the actor you want to work with. He’s collaborative, and he does what he’s told.”
Bring on a new trailer already!!
3 frames set in a volcano. Anything.
I’d be OK with that.
I don’t know what any of that means. Just promise us you didn’t really destroy the damned ship again.
Sorry, man :( Big E gonna bite the dust.
Read the comments Justin Lin made in a story that trekmovie posted a couple of days ago. Enterprise is most certainly getting destroyed.
“Destroyed” isn’t the right word … lol….
Ill be honest, I dont mind them destroying the ship if 1) its a good and worthy destruction (like in TSFS) 2) the purpose of said destruction is to give us a BETTER Enterprise
Better “looking” Enterprise?
@Capt – yes, better LOOKING Enterprise, inside an out. Might be hard to make it more similar to TOS Enterprise (missed that opportunity with the Kelvin) but closer to Enterprise from TMP or Enterprise-A would be great.
Always those few that want to constantly complain about the Enterprise design – and for that matter anything about Star Trek that isn’t exactly like it was in TOS. The current design is amazing and looks awesome. It really calls back to the TOS Enterprise while incorporating a more modern design for today’s more sophisticated audiences. Very well done. Better would be amazing if they can pull it off, but nothing wrong with the current version. Making it look more like the old designs would be dumb.
@Jay No… An amazing design would be the refit constitution or galaxy class or sovereign class or defiant class… Not this self proclaimed “hot rod” design for the constitution class of the JJ-verse.
I like BR Enterprises’s outer design more than any other Enterprise. However, the inside’s lighting always seem a bit too harsh and I hate narrow corridors. Too claustrophobic! The narrow corridors were seen in the TOS films, so there is nothing new there.
Too late….besides, blowing up the Enterprise has been a grand tradition throughout the franchise.
No-no. It’s not Stark Trek. Granted, I could see Tony making a massive star fleet of advanced red and gold plated starships that possibly fly themselves.
It’s good that Pegg wants this movie series to be largely new stories and concepts. Even with that intention in mind, it’s still not going to please everyone. On the one hand, you have the fans that want to see something new that they haven’t seen before. On the other hand, there are the fans that just want the old Trek. The ones in the middle are the general sci-fi fans that won’t really care, so long as it’s a good movie.
JR Jimmy,
Not only that but MTV, which published the “Stark Trek” typo, is part of PARAMOUNT’s television wing. Doh!
“Thank you Viacom News for interviewing these Viacom representatives for this new production from Paramount, a Viacom company.”
Clearly political non answers that do NOTHING to give fans hope that this film isn’t a steaming hot turd the studio has absolutely no confidence in.
Sounds promising. I’ve seen a lot of Simon Pegg’s previous work and have a lot of respect for him as a writer. As far as I’m concerned, July 22nd can’t come fast enough.
Pegg can’t write very well without Wright or Stevenson.
Ibling Caesar,
Hmmm…you mean there’s other partnerships he’s had where the writing came to less than with either of those two? Can you cite an example?
Simon, in Paramount’s trailer for your film, I thought I counted 64 of the greatest hits that took down the Enterprise before I lost count?
And no one asked Pegg or Abrams *why* there was no “Beyond” footage? Or does the media not ask questions in this kind of format?
These interviews would have taken place before Paramount’s panel.
@Kayla Iacovino,
Perhaps Trekmovie should try to get a short interview with Pegg? From what I’ve seen so far, Pegg seems available to various media outlets, not just the trade magazines.
I’m pretty sure all of the press restrictions are starting to lift. I got assigned to cover BEYOND this week and didn’t hear any of the ‘hold and we’ll get back to you’ stuff that happened with Paramount on CLOVERFIELD before they finally nixed b-t-s coverage.
There seems to be a glaring lack of interest in STB by the media, bloggers etc. No leaks. No rumors. No questions being asked. Nothing.
“No leaks. No rumors.”
And what a blessing that’s been.
““No leaks. No rumors.”
And what a blessing that’s been.” – Keachick
@Rose – why is that? No one makes you read rumors (but you do anyway). Some of us love spoilers.
But they are NOT spoilers. They are just rumours.
A rumour may or may not turn out to be true. However, my understanding of a spoiler is that it is already part of a film, that if shared with those who have not seen all of the film, will give away pertinent aspects of the film, in terms of theme(s), plot, character etc. There is also a good chance that such information could be taken out of context.
In the STB trailer, we saw Kirk flying on his bike – a rather unexpected but exciting scene, but not a spoiler. The spoiler could be the scene preceding or following the bike ride in that either could tell the audience whys and hows etc of the bike ride scene. They are NOT rumours as such are actually part of the film and not just thought/believed/imagined by someone to be part of it.
The only way to undo that horrible engineering section is to destroy the ship so they can get a new one. Bring on a more traditional enterprise 1701-A.
True though I gotta admit, the engineering in STID was infinitely better than ST09
Its better than the set on the old 60’s show.
No, for me honestly it isn’t. The forced perspective aspect in TOS engineering really worked on a small TV back then, and the emergency manual monitor ‘on stilts’ set added a lot of visual and production value too.
no its not
Of course it is. Those were cool sets for their time and very limited budget, so I appreciate them for that. But there is no doubt that the current ship design blows those sets away. No one with any sense can argue that with a straight face. Some people unfortunately act like if something doesn’t look exactly like it did in 1963 on a tv show that it’s wrong or bad. They will never be happy because no one would ever try to do that in a modern movie or tv show version of Star Trek. There is no point in that.
Using 20th century facilities (or 21st) to represent the 23rd is a lot more backwards thinking design-wise than pretty much any other way of handling it. They didn’t even cover the concrete floor on the brewery.
Simon looks like he is going to an audition of AMC’s Preacher!
I trust Pegg did a good job. I just want the next trailer. It’s been a while, you know?
“It won’t be another rehash” is essentially what you’re saying. Except that’s what was said about Into Darkness, and look what happened there. it was a lie, and we found out it was a Wrath of Khan rehash. A GOOD rehash, mind you, but still a rehash.
Reusing old lines is not good writing, in my opinion. If this was more of a new story, same villian thing I would ok with STID.
I REALLY wish that Cumberbatch played Garth of Izar. That would be something I would have rallied behind. But no, he was Khan. He didnt remotely SOUND like Ricardo Montalban.
if he had been Garth that may have been so much better
I’m guessing that the Leonard Nimoy tribute will involve news of Spock Prime’s death as part of the story.
And that will be nice way to acknowledge Leonard Nimoy’s passing.
Would be disappointing if they didn’t. But what of Shatner? I wonder if there’s any way to acknowledge his contribution to the franchise for the 50th Anniversary?
Im still clinging to the rumor that went around awhile back of a planned use of archival footage in the film… perhaps something as simple as an end-credits montage of 50 years of Star Trek?
I’m not feeling the killing of his character off as some sort of appropriate “tribute”. There’s certainly no precedent for it in the death of any other Trek actor, and how could any offhand mention of Spock’s death have as much or more resonance than an in memoriam clip of the fine death scene the actor delivered for the character, himself?
The obvious tribute will be some sort of acknowledgement of his passing in the screen credits. Having the character expire on screen would be appropriate, particularly so if Qunito could reminisce of him in character with some of the emotion he has shared in real life…
The STB trailer is coming out NEXT month!
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Next ‘Star Trek Beyond’ Trailer to Premiere at Fan Event in May
With questions looming on Twitter as to why Paramount didn’t promote the upcoming film, I decided to do some digging and discovered the real reason why director Justin Lin’s sci-fi adventure was missing from their presentation: the fans.
It ends up Paramount is saving a lot of the marketing for the movie, including the next trailer premiere, for a fan event being held in Los Angeles next month. While I’m not sure who will be in attendance at this time, I’ve confirmed with Paramount the event is happening and the details, including how to attend and which of the cast and filmmakers will be attending the event, will be revealed soon..
http://collider.com/star-trek-beyond-new-trailer-fan-event/
Good news!
I almost said I wasn’t going to read the comments but after watching that video, I HAVE to read the comments. Let the games begin.
A little OT but for some reason I’m just not digging the new uniforms for some reason. Cant explain why. Just a little nitpick sorry.
For me, they’re too formal, and not in a utilitarian way the TWOK uniforms were. They remind me of the TOS dress uniforms, which really did seem formal and uncomrfortable, not appropriate for day use. Add to that these new “field” uniforms with the faux epaulets which seem unnecessarily festooned and costume-y. Oh well, at least the female officers now have rank insignia.
Sort of a shot at STID.
Trek fans are the worst
There are many trek fans that are not, so picky but yes you are right there are many more that are the worst as you put it.
not as bad as defenders of mediocre summer blockbusters. I mean, even the creators apologize for them.
How dare this very loyal group of fans of a 50 year old franchise demand a quality film. Shame on them!! Just shut up and eat what we feed you and be glad we feed you at all!
A very vocal few are, no doubt. Like most Trek fans I enjoy watching the franchise evolve and I can enjoy all the different versions of it and different ideas. Since TOS was canceled, Star Trek has constantly been changing and evolving. But for some reason a few fans really hate that and will complain about everything because it’s not an exact copy of TOS. Makes no sense. There is no point making new Star Trek if it is exactly the same as what’s already been done.
Where is William Shatner? The series is about to celebrate its 50th anniversary and we don’t see the old Kirk? Along with Leonard Nimoy (my sincere respects), that would be a gret homage to the series.
My guess is Miami.
Simon Peg was hired to write a less Star Trekky and more Guardians of the Galaxy type movie, now he’s taunting this film as having Star Trek DNA in it that the fans will love….this is sounding more and more like the Republican National Convention chalked full of lies and baloney for the fans to show up and be insulted once again.
Face it Paramount, you removed the hard core supporting fans to reach a greater audience that doesn’t care that your presenting Trek as an hip hop rocker action/super hero movie.
What you don’t understand is that if people want to see a super hero films, they go to Marvel or DC.
If people want space wars, they go to Star Wars.
If the want mature brain thinking outer space adventure, they used to go to Star Trek…now they watch their old TV DVD’s that you keep repackaging over and over again.
So tell me where you went wrong….