J.J. Abrams: 'Star Trek' must escape the shadow of 'Star Wars'
EXCLUSIVE: This is the second part of an interview with J.J. Abrams about his cinematic voyages aboard the Starship Enterprise. Today he talks about his concerns that "Star Trek" is "clearly in the shadow" of George Lucas. He also addresses premature talk of a "Trek" sequel: "I'm in the middle of lunch and someone asks, 'What do you want for dinner?' "
You can read part one here.
"Star Trek" is back. The 11th film in the storied franchise returns to theaters in May and this time the director is J.J. Abrams, who was just 2 months old when the original television series premiered in 1966. Abrams has conceded that he was never an impassioned fan of "Trek" but his take on the mythology promises to be intriguing considering his television success with "Alias," "Lost" and "Fringe" as well as his work as director of "Mission Impossible III." He talked to Hero Complex about navigating his movie through the neutral zone that lies between hard-core "Trek" fans and average summer moviegoers.
GB: Is it your sense that you are winning over skeptical fans to this point?
JJA: You know, I would think that especially fans of "Star Trek," which is an optimistic universe, a universe about working together and the possibility of the human endeavor, you would think that people who appreciate that wonderful portrait of the future and that universe would be open to literally going to a place no one has ever gone before. I'm very optimistic that fans of the show, even the purists, will be willing to embrace the spirit of Roddenberry and once they see these actors doing this extraordinary work, I think they will not have to intellectualize it all, they'll simply enjoy the experience. It's a cliche now to say "Where no man has gone before" because it has been the vernacular now for more than 40 years but if you actually think about it -- and actually remind yourself that we live on this planet and we are creatures inhabiting in this space with undefined limits and with technology that will invariably come -- "Star Trek" is positing a future that is incredibly inspiring. If you can get past the cliche and make it real and relevant, there's something very exciting about that. This is not "Star Wars" which happened a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. This is us and our future.
GB: Can you talk a bit about the story of this film?
JJA: This story is ultimately about a guy who is full of unbelievable potential but he is aimless, he is lost. He ends up finding a path that takes him beyond his wildest dreams. It helps him find his purpose. That's a great story in any situation, in any culture. There is something about that spirit of innovation, collaboration, possibility, adventure and optimism that is inherent in what "Star Trek" was.
GB: How much did you go back to the various "Trek" shows, films, novels, etc., to research the mythology? I imagine at some point sifting through all of it would become a counterproductive exercise.
JJA: I looked at a lot of the episodes of all the series that came after the original "Star Trek" but because we are focusing on the original series I didn't really need to know every episode of "Deep Space Nine" or "Voyager" or even "Enterprise." But, yeah, I watched episodes, I read up a lot, I watched the movies, I talked to people, whether it was our "Trek" consultant or one of the two writers [Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci] about what it would mean to do what we wanted to do. We have one producer, Bob [Orci], who is a complete Trekker and another in Bryan Burk who had never seen an episode of the show ever. And it was a great balance. We could make sure it passed the test of the ultimate fan and the ultimate neophyte and make sure that it was equally entertaining to both parties.
'Star Trek' director J.J. Abrams on tribbles and the 'Galaxy Quest' problem
EXCLUSIVE: This is the first part of an interview with J.J. Abrams about his cinematic voyages aboard the Starship Enterprise. Read part two here.
Gene Roddenberry had this notion in the early 1960s about a television show that felt like "Wagon Train" in space, a frontier tale with groovy sci-fi imagery and a proud parable spirit. And just look what he started. In May, the pop culture phenomena of "Star Trek" proudly returns where it has gone before -- the movie theater -- with the 11th film in the franchise. This time the director is J.J. Abrams, a creative force in television with "Alias," "Lost" and "Fringe" as well as the director of "Mission Impossible III." He talked to Hero Complex about navigating his movie through the neutral zone that lies between hard-core "Trek" fans and summer moviegoers. This is part one of the interview.
GB: As franchises move into new eras it's interesting to watch how they change -- or don't change. "Battlestar Galactica" could hardly be more different than it was in the 1970s while "Star Wars" is essentially the same. With "Star Trek" you seem to be pursuing a revival like we've seen with Batman and James Bond, which holds on to core mythology but recalibrates the tone.
JJA: I think I benefited because I came into this movie as someone who appreciated "Star Trek" but wasn't an insane fanatic about it. The disadvantage is I didn't know everything I needed to know immediately at the beginning and had to learn it. The advantage though is I could look at "Star Trek" as a whole a little bit more like a typical moviegoer would see it; it allowed me to seize the things that I felt were truly the most iconic and important aspects of the original series and yet not be serving the master and trying to be true to every arcane detail. It let me look at the things I knew were critical.
GB: What are some of the things that made that "critical" list?
JJA: The characters was the most important thing in it. We needed to be true to the spirit of those characters. There were certain iconic things -- if you're going to do "Star Trek," you've got to do the Enterprise and it has to look like the Enterprise. If you're going to do "Star Trek" you have to do costumes that feel like the costumes people know. You have to be able to glance at it and know what that is. Even the text, the font of "Star Trek" has to look like what you know.
The phasers, the communicators, the Starfleet logo -- there are all these things that are the touchstones, the tenets of what makes "Star Trek" "Star Trek." If you're going to do this series those are things you don't mess with. And yet, they need to withstand a resolution that "Star Trek" has never had to withstand before. And I don't just mean IMAX -- though it will have to work there too -- but what I mean is that audiences are so savvy now and they've seen every iteration of "Star Trek," "Star Wars," two separate versions of "Battlestar Galactica," they've seen "Alien" and "Aliens," they've seen countless science fiction movies. They've seen it all. And even worse, they've seen a movie as "Galaxy Quest" that completely mocks the paradigm in its entirety.
GB: That's very true, you can't afford any accidental "Galaxy Quest" moments on your ship's bridge.
JJA: The trick is how do you use a ship like that, uniforms like that, characters who look like that and the name "Star Trek" and make it feel relevant and legitimate. the challenge is to take the familiar -- for better or worse -- and embrace the elements that make it unique but be sure the master you're serving is the making of the most entertaining movie possible. You can't look backward and try to make sure that every decision you're making is true to the past. that's not to say that we weren't true to the past, but that wasn't our guiding principle.
GB: You know that no matter what you do, you'll get an earful from hardcore fans.
JJA: The key is to appreciate that there are purists and fans of "Star Trek" who are going to be very vocal if they see things that aren't what what they want. But I can't make this movie for readers of Nacelles Monthly who are only concerned with what the ship's engines look like. They're going to find something they hate no matter what I do. And yet, the movie at its core is not only inspired by what has come before, it's deeply true to what's come before. The bottom line is we have different actors playing these parts and from that point on it's literally not what they've seen before. It will be evident when people see this movie that it is true to what Roddenberry created and what those amazing actors did in the 1960s. At the same time, I think, it's going to blow people's minds because its a completely different experience than what they expect.
'Star Trek' in Rome, 'The Watchmen' and Omega in Everyday Hero headlines
Today's edition of Everyday Hero, your handpicked headlines from across the fanboy universe....
When in Rome, do as the Romulans do: Reporter Ariel David of the Associated Press has this report from the Italian capital regarding the new "Star Trek" film: "Director and producer J.J. Abrams visited the Eternal City on Friday to give a sneak peek of the early years of Capt. James T. Kirk and the other characters who warp around the galaxy in t
he upcoming 'Star Trek' movie... 'I want fans of Star Trek to come watch it, but the truth is I made the movie for future fans,' Abrams said at the presentation in a Rome theater...the preview and four 'Star Trek' scenes were strictly controlled, with security keeping out cameras and other recording devices. This much we can say: The brash and womanizing Kirk had a less than glorious start to his career, since the film introduces him as a bar-brawling biker in 23rd-century Iowa. The movie follows the young troublemaker, played by actor Chris Pine, as he meets up with his future crew, getting off to a rocky start with most of them, including Zachary Quinto’s edgy and hostile Spock. The peek given Friday also featured plenty of action sequences, including a hair-raising space dive and a sword duel at high altitude above an alien planet as the crew battle the villains led by Eric Bana. The movie is also likely to enthrall fans with inside jokes, including a scene that pokes fun at the accent of Russian character Chekov, as well as a cameo by Leonard Nimoy, who reprises his original role appearing as an aging, time-traveling Spock." {Associated Press, via Yahoo]
"Watchmen" on the witness stand?: This upcoming Sunday the Calendar section of the Los Angeles Times is dominated by a huge image of Rorschach -- I have an advance copy here on my desk right now and its startling to see this familiar image by Dave Gibbons printed sooo large. Right above the blank-faced hero is a strip of photographs of just some of the Hollywood players who had a stake in the "Watchmen" property at some point in its long, messy trip to the screen. The accompanying article by John Horn is the most comprehensive explanation to date of the legal issues that entangle the Warner Bros film planned for next March. An excerpt he begins with a quote from director Zack Snyder: " They haven't stopped us,' Snyder said in early October, after he had shown dozens of journalists some footage from his film and was asked about the lawsuit. 'We are just acting like we're making a movie.' Even now that the movie is in postproduction and is stirring intense anticipation, 'Watchmen' presents other challenges for its distributor. Its R rating will keep out some younger moviegoers who made multiple trips to the PG-13-rated 'The Dark Knight.' And it very well may be hard to build a franchise like 'X-Men'; the 'Watchmen' movie has an ending that, like a comic-book version of 'Titanic,' hardly encourages a sequel no matter how good the grosses. A prequel certainly could be made but Snyder, a devoted fan of the graphic novel, has called it a terrible idea and vowed to oppose it. As Snyder hurries to finish the film and 'Watchmen's' release date approaches, the Fox and Warners lawyers continue battling over documents, depositions and the film's script, which Fox says Warners won't share. It's unclear if Fox can really prevent Warners from releasing the film. Warners will likely ask [U.S. District Court Judge Gary] Feess to dismiss the case once all the evidence is collected, a motion Fox is certain to oppose. The more likely outcome is Fox studio chief Tom Rothman or Warners' head Alan Horn striking some sort of compromise deal in which the studios share the movie's costs and proceeds. But because Warners already is sharing the portion of the film it didn't sell to Paramount with financing partner Legendary Pictures, the studio doesn't have that much to divvy up..." [Los Angeles Times]
The "Omega" force: The crossover between "legitimate" literature and comics continues. David S. Ulin, the books editor of the Los Angeles Times, has a review of the new Marvel collection "Omega: The Unknown," which has an intriguing pedigree: "It's fitting that 'Omega: The Unknown' (Marvel: unpaged, $29.99), Jonathan Lethem's first foray into comics, should come with a blurb from Michael Chabon. Chabon, after all, is the only other literary novelist I can think of who has made the jump to writing superhero comics -- with 'The Escapist,' which grew out of his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel 'The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay.' Unlike 'The Escapist,' 'Omega' isn't an original creation; it's based on a little-known Marvel series from the 1970s. (It lasted just 10 issues.) For Lethem, though, 'Omega' was influential, helping to inspire his 2003 novel, 'The Fortress of Solitude.' He's a fan, in other words, as is his collaborator Karl Rusnak, and that's a defining factor in their 'Omega,' which also ran for 10 issues, in 2007 and 2008. Gathered for the first time in one volume, it is a strange and wonderful hybrid: a superhero comic that reads with all the ambiguity of fiction, set in the Manhattan neighborhood of Inwood and -- like "The Fortress of Solitude" -- merging the fantastic with the most mundane aspects of teenage urban life." [Los Angeles Times]
Credit: Photo of J.J. Abrams by Dan Steinberg/Associated Press. Dave Gibbons art from "The Watchmen," courtesy of DC Comics.
Batman sues Batman, the new Enterprise and James Bond in Everyday Hero headlines
The latest edition of Everyday Hero, your handpicked headlines from the fanboy universe...
Who is this Joker? Next year marks the 60th anniversary of Batman, one of the most potent pop-culture creations from the world of comics, having spawned seven live-action films, a prime-time television show, scores of cartoons, novels, movie serials, radio shows and enough toys and t-shirts to fill the Grand Canyon. But, apparently, Turkish politician Huseyin Kalkan never heard of the Caped Crusader until now and he wants a cut of the action. Ali Jaafar has the story, which I'm hoping is a gag: "Batman has a new adversary: Batman. The mayor of an oil-
producing city in southeastern Turkey, which has the same name as the Caped Crusader, is suing helmer Christopher Nolan and Warner Bros. for royalties from mega-grosser 'The Dark Knight.' Huseyin Kalkan, the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party mayor of Batman, has accused 'The Dark Knight' producers of using the city's name without permission. 'There is only one Batman in the world,' Kalkan said. 'The American producers used the name of our city without informing us.' Undoubtedly the fact that 'Dark Knight' is about to pass the $1 billion mark at the B.O. played a part in stirring the ire of the Turkish hamlet. The mayor is prepping a series of charges against Nolan and Warner Bros., which owns the right to the Batman character, including placing the blame for a number of unsolved murders and a high female suicide rate on the psychological impact that the film's success has had on the city's inhabitants." No word yet whether the Bolivian village of Harrypotter will also be pursuing legal action against Warners. [Daily Variety]
An Enterprising filmmaker: Jeff Jensen has a first-look photo of the new starship Enterprise (and it looks great) and short story that goes with it that reveals director J.J Abrams' favorite thing about Robert Wise's 1979 film "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" (and no, it wasn't the bald lady): "Abrams wasn't a huge fan of the original "Star Trek" TV series as a kid, but he does have one unabashed gee-whiz Star Trek memory: watching the first feature film and marveling over the big reveal of the Enterprise during a long sequence in which James T. Kirk takes a slow-boat tour around the iconic starship. 'The coolest thing about it -- maybe the coolest thing in the movie -- was when you flew around the ship, you could see all the different panels that made up the ship,' says the director of the forthcoming Trek reboot, slated for a May 8, 2009, release. 'It was the first time I had ever seen that level of attention, that love of detail, given to the tangible, practical reality of the ship.'" [Entertainment Weekly]
A "Quantum" leap falls short: Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan was left cold by the icy new James Bond film, "Quantum of Solace," which opens Friday: "Outside of its title, 'Quantum of Solace' offers little solace for fans of the venerable James Bond franchise. All dressed up with no particular place to go, this 22nd Bond film tries hard but ends up an underachiever. ... Bond's superior, the redoubtable M (Judi Dench), is worried about the consequences of Bond being blinded by inconsolable rage. 'If you could avoid killing every possible lead,' she grouses at one point as only Dench can, 'it would be appreciated.' It's not only M who should be worried about Bond, it's audiences as well. For the vengeful secret agent is dangerously close to an automaton, a creature of such icy single-mindedness that even an actor of Craig's great ability has trouble making him recognizably human. That tendency toward detachment is enhanced by the change of directors. 'Casino Royale's' Martin Campell, an expert at this kind of glossy adventure filmmaking, has been replaced by Marc Forster, a cooler director who likes intense emotions ('Monster's Ball') but had trouble warming up even a natural heart-tugger like 'The Kite Runner.' 'Quantum of Solace's' script also seems rather tired and uninviting, and while its true not even critics go to a Bond film for the emotional moments, the story has to involve us for the elaborate action sequences to resonate the way they should." [Los Angeles Times]
Chip Kidd in town: Graphic designer and author Chip Kidd will be at Meltdown Comics and Collectibles (7522 Sunset Blvd.) tonight at 7 p.m. to talk about his book "Bat-Manga: The Secret History of Batman in Japan." There's been a dust-up in the comics community in recent weeks over the suggestion that Kidd's book, which collects up some 1960s work of manga writer and artist Jiro Kuwata, doesn't give Kuwata as much prominent credit on the project as he is due. It'll be interesting to see how Kidd handles that tonight. [Meltdown]
Bet on the Dark Horse: No comic-book company has had more success developing films out of new characters the way Dark Horse Comics has over the past 25 years with "The Mask," the "Hellboy" films, "300" and "Sin City." The biggest Marvel films are based on characters created in the 1960s, and DC's key box-office properties date back even further. So what's next from the Oregon publisher? Patrick Lee has this update from publisher Mike Richardson: "The most immediate is "R.I.P.D." ... David Dobkin ['Wedding Crashers'] is directing. We're doing it over at Universal Studios. We have a great script by [Matt] Manfredi and [Phil] Hay. R.I.P.D. stands for Rest in Peace Department. It's based on a graphic novel by Peter Lenkov. It's about dead cops that died in the line of duty that are sent back, basically, to get people who don't want to come peacefully, people who stayed behind. It's a lot of fun. ... It has a few of the elements of something like a 'Men in Black,' except this one has real scares in it. It's not sort of cartoon scares. A lot of humor, but real scary stuff going on.' Dark Horse is also developing several other films: 'Emily Strange,' based on the character created by Rob Reger and his company, Cosmic Debris Etc. 'I will say we'll have a good announcement coming up very shortly,' Richardson said. 'I'm working with Rob. Yes, we've set it up with a studio, ... but there'll be an official announcement coming up soon. ... [There's a] very interesting story that we've come up with, too. It'll add background to Emily.' And 'Freaks of the Heartland,' based on the graphic novel by Steve Niles ('30 Days of Night'). 'We just set up 'Freaks of the Heartland' over at Overture, with David Gordon Green ['Pineapple Express'] directing. And the writers just started working on that.' [Sci Fi]
-- Geoff Boucher
"The Dark Knight" photo courtesy of Warner Bros., photo of Daniel Craig in "Quantum of Solace" courtesy of Columbia Pictures. "Bat-Manga" image courtesy of Pantheon Books.
William Shatner has a message for J.J. Abrams
Bill Shatner sat down for coffee with the Hero Complex a few days ago and made it clear that he feels left out because he wasn't invited to be in the new "Star Trek" film. So I was surprised when I read this quote from J.J. Abrams, the director of the new film, who was asked about Shatner's ire during an interview with AMC.com.
"It was very tricky. We actually had written a scene with him in it that was a flashback kind of thing, but the truth is, it didn't quite feel right. The bigger thing was that he was very vocal that he didn't want to do a cameo. We tried desperately to put him in the movie, but he was making it very clear that he wanted the movie to focus on him significantly, which, frankly, he deserves. The truth is, the story that we were telling required a certain adherence to the 'Trek' canon and consistency of storytelling. It's funny -- a lot of the people who were proclaiming that he must be in this movie were the same people saying it must adhere to canon. Well, his character died on screen. Maybe a smarter group of filmmakers could have figured out how to resolve that."
This quote got back to Shatner and he has responded via video in an interview with his daughter, Elizabeth:
Clearly, Shatner is smiling through gritted teeth. He's trying to chide Abrams but also sweet-talk the director into finding a last-minute spot for him in the film. I don't think it's going to happen (principal photography was completed in March) and it's going to be an awkward situation for Abrams, who certainly doesn't really need a 77-year-old Shatner in a film that follows young Kirk and his crew in their earliest adventures when they are fresh from Starfleet Academy.
-- Geoff Boucher
July 2008 photo of J.J. Abrams by Dan Steinberg/Associated Press
'Fringe' review: New show is 'uneven but promising'
"Fringe," the new show from J.J. Abrams, premieres Tuesday night (8 p.m., Fox) and Abrams has been pledging for weeks that it will be easier to follow than some of his other shows, which he believes left some viewers feeling, well, "Lost."
How does "Fringe" compare to his past work?
Is it too derivative of shows such as "The X-Files" or his own baby, "Alias"?
Here's the lowdown from Los Angeles Times television critic Mary McNamara, who has a mixed-bag review of the show:
The poor airline industry. As if rising gas prices, increased security measures and constant cost-cutting were not enough, now there’s another J.J. Abrams pilot. Travelers who have finally shaken the anxiety-provoking images of cult-inducing “Lost” can look forward to a whole new set of phobias thanks to the opening moments of Abrams’ new show “Fringe.”
As lightning crackles around an international flight to Boston, a wild-eyed passenger injects himself with something one can only hope is a tranquilizer and then next thing you know ... well, I don’t want to spoil anything for the 19 people who haven’t seen the pilot online, but it results in the assemblage of every law enforcement agency in the country donning hazmat suits.
Because comparisons are unavoidable, it must be noted up front that this is not the same sort of jaw-droppingly, what-the-heck-kind-of-show-is-this pilot that “Lost” had. Frankly, we know what kind of show this is going to be. “Fringe” stands for Fringe Science, which includes everything from mental telepathy to reanimation, so much of your enjoyment will depend on how much you still miss the “The X-Files.”
While “The X-Files” told us the truth is out there, “Fringe” posits the equally vague notion that “Everything is Part of a Pattern.” So, if you’re the type of person who needs every little thing, or indeed any little thing, to make sense in a pilot, then you should probably watch “Fringe” in solitude, preferably with the door closed, so the rest of us can enjoy it for what it is — an uneven, but promising jumble of horror, thriller and comedy that is not afraid to reference SpongeBob and “Altered States” in practically the same scene.
Let the games begin.
Comic-Con: Big bags, 'Fringe' and the floor
It's just the preview night, but the 'exclusives' sellout frustration, shoulder bumps, stroller trips and aisle clogging fun is already in full stride. A few highlighted items, besides the crowds and $5 pretzel dogs:
-- Every year, there's THE bag. The prized big bags that patrons will most likely carry around throughout the Con and are often completely given out by Friday. Bags from Warner Bros. (a vintage WB network bag with "Smallville," "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Veronica Mars," and "Gilmore Girls" pictured (below), and a Wonder Woman bag), Little Big Planet, BET Animation, and a big frakkin' bag from the Sci Fi Channel were the ones making the rounds on the floor. Bag, you say? While it may not seem like much, they are coveted, as evidenced by the fact that many sported last year's well-received Warner Bros. "Smallville" bag.
-- Hot booths included the California Browncoats (fans of Joss Whedon's "Firefly") booth which had an exclusive "Serenity" comic book and were the only booth to sell t-shirts from Whedon's recently released Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along blog); the NBC-Universal booth, which sported two-headed Hiro "Heroes" dolls and a sold-out "Battlestar Galactica" toaster; the Mattel booth, the DC booth (showing the "Watchmen" trailer ad infinitum; the"Star Wars" booth because ... it's "Star Wars"; and the Sideshow Collectibles booth, which showcased some alternative looks at Darth Vader among other things.
-- Wednesday's preview night is usually reserved for shopping the floor exclusively, with no TV or film programming, but in a first for Comic-Con, new TV show "Fringe" had a 6 o'clock airing in the huge Ballroom 20 area. J.J. Abrams sent along a personal video introduction in which he congratulated the crowd on seeing the "first not illegal, unleaked, evil internet screening" of the much-hyped show. A harrowing opening few minutes involving planes, mysteries, government agents in bed and melting faces left some of the sparse crowd gasping.
-- Jevon Phillips
Why some lady on the web thinks you should shut up and watch 'Fringe'
This post in from Christie St. Martins, blogger extraordinaire of Funny Pages 2.0:
Every year, I check out the fall line-up and pray that maybe I'll get something to fill in the gap between my lost and beloved "Star Trek" series and of course the lulls between "Battlestar Galactica" seasons and their often questionable TV-made movie attempts. Every year, I see a few potential hopefuls that are always squashed for me by cynical bloggers getting the scoop before I see the pilot. You know that, OR I find out that the sci-fi show I was excited about was produced in Canada. Either way, every year I lose a little more hope.
You would think, with the success of the box office for the last eight years for graphic novel film adaptations that they would really try to up the ante for prime-time television. "Heroes" sure, thank you Fox, but guess what? We rather patient and loyal geeks have to wait months and months with only awful reality TV ("So You Think You Can Dance," excluded. Whatever. Mock me all you want, it's great.) to keep us company.
This brings me to the potential ray of light in my sad geekless televised world, "Fringe." "Fringe" is the fourth TV series created by J.J. Abrams, of most recent "Lost" fame, that aims to explore mysteries of the paranormal as well as the relationships between the characters while steeped in yummy mythology. I was even one of Abrams loyal viewers with "Alias." (Yeah, I loved "Felicity" too, but this isn't a sleepover so I'll keep my mouth shut. Sort of.) Although, I am not particularly proud of the "Alias" years. After the fourth person died, but didn't really die, because, oh look, they are back in Sydney's life again, it was just a bit too much. Then "Lost" came around, oh happy day! Plane disaster stories. Delicious.
