As Comic Con kicks off, JJ Abrams has been taking the opportunity to talk a little further about his plans for the new Star Trek film.
We previously reported that he hasn’t decided if he’s directing it yet, and while he still hasn’t made up his mind, he’s obviously taking the preparation seriously. He and his team – including writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman and producers Bryan Burke and Damon Lindelof have been slogging through the materials Paramount has provided, which sound like a fan’s dream.
"We've been provided with every published Star Trek work, whether it's original novels or analysis or companions to the series,” he informs Variety. "We don't want to become oversaturated with the pre-existing material. We're reading as much as we can, and as much as we need to, but we're also going to limit it. You want to remain fresh and be inspired."
According to Abrams, the team has varying levels of Trek fandom to call upon. Orci', apparently has "immediate recall of all things Trek”, while Burke is "relatively fresh to Gene Rodenberry’s universe”. "The beauty of that is we have all points of view," says Abrams. He describes himself as a “big fan”, and is clear about what he likes in episodes of the classic series. "Trek was always my favourite when it was a little bit scary, when they would deal with beaming something on the ship that was an incredible mystery or there was a clear threat. All of these things I loved about the series is what we're working to incorporate into the story for the movie.”
Just don’t ask him to speculate on what that story might be just yet: “It’s infinitely too early to be talking about" the plot of the pic.” But he is at least undaunted by the idea of taking on one of the biggest sci fi franchises in existence. "Maybe if I looked at it from the point of view of a TV analyst or an entertainment analyst, I'd be thinking it's too risky or scary. My reaction is always a gut reaction, which is, if there were a great telling of a Star Trek movie, it could be as thrilling and as fun as anything I could imagine.”