J.J. Abrams on Star Trek The Motion Picture, Star Wars and William Shatner

Star Trek: Year Zero 33 years after its creation - and after an unlimited series of movies, sagas and related - the most loved series of the history is reborn and has a new life with the JJ Abrams remake that talks about the first interstellar cruise of the legendary USS Enterprise and its great crew, starting from two young Kirk and Spock. Here is the story of a phenomena.

In Obama’s era of hopes, the “Lost” creator reviewed the pacifist and multiracial universe of the 60’s tv show by tainting it with the modern action rythm of Star Wars.

Braveness vs inconscious During the European road show (when they presented the movie to the press) a preview of some scenes from the movie has been shown and the director JJ Abrams started his speech saying “I’m not a Star Trek fan” . Ciak overheard him saying that in Paris, and we can say that he managed the situation only because the room wasn’t filled with that many Trekkers (the most correct way to define the fans of the saga. There is also the term Trekkies but this one seems a little denigratory and parodistic: it talks about that from 20 years now). This JJ Abrams sentence has been immediatly published on the internet. Today the director explain “I saw the first movie from the tv show, Star Trek - The Motion Picture from the director Robert Wise, in 1979, I was only 13 years old when my father, who worked at Paramount in the same studio where I’m finishing to edit the movie. My best friend loved it, I … can just say that I respected it, but nothing more. My problem is that I can’t identify myself with Kirk, and definetly neither with Spock. This is the key of the new Star Trek: I want to do a Movie where the audience doesn’t look at the actor from the outside as I did, but a movie where people can identify with the characters.

Star Wars Connection On the other side, Abrams is a Star Wars fan since when he was 11. The reason is simple, the leading man was an average man who, one day and not intentionally, finds himself in the part of the hero. This is the same with another saga, the Matrix ones. “Even though someone described it as “obscene”, the idea of mixing up Star Trek and Star Wars (Beatles and Rolling Stone could ever sing together?) I tried to do that. Star Trek philosphy mixed with Star Wars action. There are lots of dialogues but also duels, fistfights and action.

Cast There was a moment where word got around that Abrams was searching for famous actors: even Adrien Brody (for the role of Spock) and Matt Damon (for the role of Kirk). The truth is that the director has always searched for young actors. The only famous names in the cast are Eric Bana (Who is unrecognizable under all those tatoos of the “wicked black”, the Romulan humanoid comes from the future. The only other actor that Abram would have accepted for this role was Russell Crowe) and Winona Ryder; the human mother of Spock, even though she’s just six years older than the actor that plays him, Zachary Quinto.

Auditions “I thought it would have been hard to find Spock , Abrams said “but is has been the first character that has been casted, even before the official auditions. The last one was Kirk. But honestly I auditioned hundreds of actors”. Zachary Quinto, one of the lead men of Heroes (he plays the serial killer Sylar) directly auditioned for the part of Spock by going to Abrams with trimmed eyebows and coloured hair. His young Spock, respecting the classic one, has to fight and Quinto, Pine (Kirk) and John Cho (Sulu) trained hard for months with martial arts, swords and bare hands fights.

Predecessors All the new actors try to encounter their predecessors. Just one is into the movie, Leonard Nimoy, the stoic Mr. Spock that, thanks to temporal jokes and parallel universes, is able to meet his younger self. The other actors just gave beneditions and suggestions. George Takei (Sulu) for example, suggested to his heir John Cho to transform the mediatic power that he’ll surely have into something good for the society and, together they went to do propaganda against “Proposition 8″, that had the purpose to restrict the marriage of gay couples (Takei some years ago declared his status and last year he married the man that has been his boyfriend for 20 years). Nichelle Nichols (Uhura), talked with Zoe Saldana about the interracial kiss with William Shatner (the first kiss seen on tv). There will be in this movie too, but surely it will not create the same ruckus. Zoe, who stars also in the James Cameron movie Avatar, tried to ask Abrams to let her fight with the boys but is was useles. “This time it wasn’t possible but I hope in a sequel”. The only one who doesn’t say much was Shatner, that pretended his role and he doesn’t want a cameo. “The problem”, explain Abrams, “is that his character died in the seventh movie, Star Trek Generations, and it was really difficult to resume it in a credible way”.

Fan In a referendum on the set, the cast declared to be more fans of Star Wars than Star Trek, except Eric Bana, who watched it in Australia and Zoe Saldana who not only has a mom that is a huge fan of the series but also played a Trekkie in the Steven Spielberg movie Terminal, who did the famous vulcanian farewell, the one with the fingers open as a V, to her admirer Diego Luna. Zachary Quinto learnt it too binding his fingers together with band aids.

It’s not true but I believe it Respecting the other movies that have a progressive number, the title of this one is simply “Star Trek”. It has been done to show that we’re starting from the beginning (like in Batman Begins), but also to avoid the so-called number curse, that said that uneven numbered movies go wrong and this would have been the 11th.

Obama “We’re lucky that Star Trek is reborn in the era of the new president”, Abrams said. He talks about hope and this is well related with the Star Trek philosophy that, in the times of Cold War, predicted the union and coexistence between different races and the possible survival of the society between the unkown. “The new Star Trek has the same enthusiasm of the new America of Obama, after the frustation, the depression and the shame of the old one, the George W. Bush one” .

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