JJ Abrams Talk Star Trek

21-11-2008 09:06

JJ Abrams, director, executive producer and co-creator of Lost, Alias and Mission: Impossible III, unveiled 25 minutes of explosive and never-before-seen footage from his upcoming movie Star Trek last week in London for a select audience. We were lucky enough to sit down with the director afterwards and talk about his Trek vision, which he describes as more of a 're-invigoration' than a re-boot.

'The idea is really to re-introduce these characters in a different way, but they are the characters from the original Star Trek. It’s not a complete re-imagining I figure if you re-imagine something you should just imagine something else.'

The latest Trek movie certainly doesn’t drift too far from its roots. That’s not to say this is for Trekkers only (The term Trekkies is no longer P.C) With Abrams at the helm and an all-new younger cast, there are hopes that the movie will have an appeal beyond its niche fanbase, pushing it towards more mainstream cinema-goers.

'I think the idea was really to show this movie as an origin story and be as connected to reality as possible, not just this inside joke that people who have seen the other ten movies will get.'

But bringing Star Trek to the masses and turning it into a blockbuster is no easy task. Aside from the 1986 movie, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, no Star Trek film has ever achieved that elusive mainstream appeal.

Perhaps the other movies were perceived as too geeky, or perhaps they seemed to lack action too much lengthy dialogue and not a lot going on? Well, rest assured, judging from the 30 mins of footage recently screened in London, action is something this picture won’t be lacking!

'I do think that there is a level of action and excitement that will be unusual and unexpected to a lot of people’’ the director explains. On first impressions, this seems to be no understatement on Abrams’ part.