J.J’s Trek Trailer

[thomasaevans]

http://www.paramount.com/startrek/

Its seriously good. And Im no trekkie!

Simple and effective! Really looking foward to this.

Topic

[Jonathan Capps]

Oh my God, that sounds like the lamest thing in the entire world.

[Baz]

Old Spock: No, look. I’m you from the future. I’ve come to warn you, in three million years you’ll be dead.

Young Spock: Will I really?

Old Spock: Yes. unless you do something about it now.

Young Spock: Well, what do you suggest, give up white bread? More roughage?

Sorry, couldn’t resist it…

[pfm]

> Oh my God, that sounds like the lamest thing in the entire world.

That’s J.J. Abrams for you! His story idea for Superman was to make Lex Luthor a secret Kryptonian and loads of other crazy bollocks. Mind you, it might have been better than the dull, but expensive, Superman Returns…

[Ben Paddon]

Clawing forth from the depths of Hell itself, Jimbotfu opened his gaping maw, and he spake…
***SPOILERS***

I’d be very interested in hearing your source for this. I may well find myself calling some of my contacts at Paramount this afternoon to see if there’s any credence to it.

[ChrisM]

I think Jimbotfu might be pulling our legs actually.

That being said, I wouldn’t be completely surprised if such a storyline occurred.

[Ben Paddon]

There is a hrorible tendency for Star Trek writers to fall back on the ol’ Time Travel thing. It’s for that very reason that I have banned Time Travel in Jump Leads.

[Seb Patrick]

>Mind you, it might have been better than the dull, but expensive, Superman Returns?

NO. NO NO NO. JJ ABRAMS WANTED TO KILL OFF SUPERMAN AND THEN HAVE HIS DAD UP IN HEAVEN “PERSUADE” HIM BACK TO LIFE. IT WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN BETTER THAN SUPERMAN RETURNS WHICH IS GREAT ANYWAY.

[Dave]

From the pen of JJ Abrams:

On the planet Vulcan, Sarek launches a spacecraft containing his infant son, Spock towards Earth, a distant planet with a suitable atmosphere, and where his dense logic will give him superhuman patience. Moments after launch, the sun explodes and Vulcan is destroyed.

The ship crashes in an American farming town in Iowa, where little Spock is found by Jonathan and Martha Kirk and raised as their own son.

Later he dons a costume bearing an “S” symbol, is exposed to Vulcanite the only substance known to cause him harm and wishes he’d been Batman.

[Ben Paddon]

Batman could totally beat Spock in a fight if he had time to prepare.

[ChrisM]

I actually read a Star Trek story where on travelling back in time to the Old west (I think) spock was wounded and lost his memory of who he was, where he was from etc.

[penny]

>I actually read a Star Trek story where on travelling back in time to the Old west (I think) spock was wounded and lost his memory of who he was, where he was from etc.

You’re mixing him up with Data.

[Andrew]

> IT WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN BETTER THAN SUPERMAN RETURNS

This is certainly correct.

> WHICH IS GREAT ANYWAY.

This is certainly wrong.

[ChrisM]

You?re mixing him up with Data.

No I’m not, but I understand where you’re coming from, I watched that next generation episode too.

I’m referring to a book I read, something that never made it to TV so likely wouldn’t be considered canon. For one thing the original series (humanlike) Klingons made an appearance.

It was an interesting read though. And the 2 stories have strong similarities. That whole crashland-lose your memory etc has become a bit cliche hasn’t it? I’ve saw an episode of New Adventures of Superman that had a similar premise. I think they might have done it in Smallville too.

[pfm]

It might not have been BETTER than Superman Returns but it certainly would have been more interesting AND made more money for the studio! I don’t know what Bryan Singer was on after making the excellent X-Men 2.

[Baz]

>I?m referring to a book I read, something that never made it to TV so likely wouldn?t be considered canon. For one thing the original series (humanlike) Klingons made an appearance.

Think that story was in one of “The New Voyages” books, edited by Sondra Marshack and Myrna Culbreath. I got these.

Searches.

No, I tell a lie, it was “Ishmael” by Barbara Hambly, I got this too.

[Anonymous]

Clawing forth from the depths of Hell itself, Jimbotfu opened his gaping maw, and he spake?
***SPOILERS***

I?d be very interested in hearing your source for this. I may well find myself calling some of my contacts at Paramount this afternoon to see if there?s any credence to it.

Reviews and talks of the script have been abound on the interweb for quite a while now. Specifically, the description of the story appeared on aintitcool.com and darkhorizons.com a while back.

Will find a link…

[Anonymous]

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/33832

– original rumours

http://www.aintitcool.com/?q=node/35208

– script review of what appears to be the same story.

[Anonymous]

Regarding Superman Returns – one of the funniest things I’ve ever heard is Kevin Smith talking about the time when he was approached about making a Superman movie…and the only stipulations were that he dropped the idea of Superman flying, he couldn’t hava a cape and at some point he had to fight a giant mechanical spider.

Found a link to it! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgYhLIThTvk

Spanish subtitles for some reason.

[Andrew]

> but it certainly would have been more interesting

Braver with the source material, maybe, I’m not convinced that’s necessarily positive. Was MI3 actually any more interesting for giving Hunt a girlfriend? Hardly.

> AND made more money for the studio!

Wow, that I DEFINITELY disagree with. Coverfield (which Abrams neither wrote not directed) may be making cash, but he’s nobody’s idea of guaranteed box office.

[Seb Patrick]

What’s barely remembered is that Superman made an absolute shitload at the box office, particularly internationally. But it didn’t have an amazing opening weekend (apparently the barometer for “success” as far as media reporting is concerned), and it didn’t make a massive profit compared with other films of its type. But that’s because the budget factored in the almost twenty years of development (including countless Pay-or-Play deals for people like Burton and Smith), so was unnaturally inflated.

And yes, the Kevin Smith “Superman Lives” story is absolutely brilliant – watched it many, many times. You know what else is brilliant? The script that he ended up writing, even with all the giant-spider-wisecracking-robot bollocks that Peters made him put in. He found a neat way around the “I don’t want to see him fly” thing, as well – just have him fly incredibly fast everywhere.

[Andrew]

> What?s barely remembered is that Superman made an absolute shitload at the box office

I remembered! I remembered! :-)

It wasn’t the BO that sank the film, it was the production and promotion costs. (Inflated, as you say, but also pushed up by a demanding filmmaker looking at some very tricky FX and saying “We need to find a new way to do this – let’s start from scratch.”) It made STACKS of cash, but no profit.

Not that ANY movie makes a profit, technically…

[Anonymous]

But it did, though! It recouped its budget plus $120 million. A sequel is also planned titled the Man of Steel. Cast is all signed on, but it still needs a directos cos it seems Brian Singer is unlikely to return.

And I’d say that J.J. Abrams was pretty hot property at the moment, which is why his name figures so heavily in promotional material for his films.

I mean…Lost, MI:3, Cloverfield, Star Trek on its way…these are pretty big properties which have been closely associated with their director.

[Andrew]

> And I?d say that J.J. Abrams was pretty hot property at the moment, which is why his name figures so heavily in promotional material for his films.

“Pretty hot” isn’t “guaranteed money”.

Pre-Cloverfield he was only “More hot than anyone else involved in that film”. What else did they have to market it on? Glossy production values? Not really. Famous actors? Nope. And a script by a TV staffer. What else COULD be done but to try and grab the Lost audience?

Lest we forget, Serenity was sold the same way – on the basis of Whedon and his TV fame. And it didn’t work. TV name doesn’t equal movie name.

Abrams wasn’t guaranteed money, I’m sorry. He just wasn’t. Stating that an Abrams Superman flick would have made more money – fact – is nonsense. His involvement alone was no guarantee – certainly no more than having Singer post X2.

As to putting his name on Trek – it’s designed to get an old fanbase back with ‘coo, that’d be interesting’. It’s hardly “Ridley Scott’s Star Trek”. Regardless, as I say, he’s hotter thanks to Cloverfield, no question. But SR was made a long time ago now and he wasn’t so huge then.

> But it did, though! It recouped its budget plus $120 million.

Based on which released figure? Taking into account the $100 million-plus marketing?

But even with released figures my point is still the same – that NO film goes into actual, on-the-books profit. Movie accounting is labyrinthine and designed to never, ever present an actual net (not gross) profit. Studios can post all they like about the take, but the business is infinitely more complex.

> A sequel is also planned titled the Man of Steel.

Planned isn’t greenlit.

> Cast is all signed on

Yeah, cos they were so busy otherwise, and there’s no such thing as contractual obligation.

> but it still needs a directos cos it seems Brian Singer is unlikely to return.

Plus they might not go there due to the JLA movie…

[Seb Patrick]

I think I’ve said this before, but if the JLA movie ever actually happens, I will eat my hat. Or, at the very least, I will eat a Justice League comic. Not one of the Giffen/deMatteis ones, though, I love those.

[ChrisM]

And I?d say that J.J. Abrams was pretty hot property at the moment, which is why his name figures so heavily in promotional material for his films.

I’ve heard Stephen King gave him the rights to the filming of The Dark Tower too.

Whether or not it happens though is another thing. Part of me hopes it doesn’t… Not because of JJ Abrams. (I quite liked Lost although I wished they dropped the flashback thing and moved the story along.) I’m just not sure how well it would translate to film.

[Ian Symes]

(I quite liked Lost although I wished they dropped the flashback thing and moved the story along.)

As someone who couldn’t be arsed with Lost in the slightest a month ago and is now halfway through season three, it’s utterly ludicrous to say that the story doesn’t move along. By the opening scene of season three, you’re watching a show with a *completely* different premise to that of the first season.

[Andrew]

> (I quite liked Lost although I wished they dropped the flashback thing and moved the story along.)

Preach it brother!

Ian’s half-right from my POV. Sure, the thing creeps along and evolves (I wouldn’t say ‘completely different’ at ALL, though), but the FBs are padding more times than they are relevant plot/character work. The show constantly mistakes screen-time for substance.

But I bang that drum every few months. There’s no need to get started again. Especially since I quit after 50 shows.

[ChrisM]

I guess I was exaggerating Ian. They do move it along but very very slowly, and half the episode told in flashback doesn’t help.

As for the flashbacks, I found them interesting to start with, but it just got too repetitive. And padding as Andrew said.

There are exceptions of course. One of the last episodes I saw (before Sky was removed from my broadbanc) was the one where you find out more of the Scottish guys story. (You know the original keeper of the underground computer thing? Who reset the countdown?)

The flashback for him was genuinely intriguing, and what we find out about him. Then they took the show away….

Still I’ve noticed that they’re showing seasons 1-3 on TV on demand now so I might give it a look. My memory is really rusty at the moment so I guess I’ll need to start at the beginning….

Of season 3 I mean. I’m not going way back to number 1.

[Antipodean]

Y’know, it really annoys me when I see people saying “Bah Lost is rubbish nothing ever happens they never answer any questions it sucks… oh yeah, and I stopped watching two years ago.” Want to take a guess WHY you don’t get it?

And I don’t accept the opinion that the flashbacks are a waste of time… except for the “Jack’s tattoos” one, that wasn’t really important.

As for the new Star Trek movie – Ain’t It Cool News is the shittiest excuse for an entertainment news website I’ve ever seen. And a lot of the rumours about the movie seem to be a garbled mash-up of what the movie actually is about and “Star Trek: Of Gods and Men”.

[Pete Part Three]

> Y?know, it really annoys me when I see people saying ?Bah Lost is rubbish nothing ever happens they never answer any questions it sucks? oh yeah, and I stopped watching two years ago.?

Surely, if they were to keep on watching and calling it rubbish; the reply would be “Don’t watch it then!”?

I’m still watching Lost after 3 seasons and 2 episodes and am running after the bandwagon but still confused at the endless enthusiasm towards it. I find it exceptionally well-produced with mostly good acting. My problem with it is that it seems a show designed purely about the mysteries with the focus always on “the next episode” rather than the current one. I’m not sure if I could ever re-watch 95% of the episodes, simply because so much of it seems irrelevant (Anna-Lucia flashback, anyone?) in the grand scheme of things. And the solutions, when they come, will never truly satisfy.

Incidentally, when Lost attempted a stand-alone story (Expos?) which had no delusions about being connected towards the main mystery, I rather liked it and the online fan community hated it…

[Jonathan Capps]

> Incidentally, when Lost attempted a stand-alone story (Expos?) which had no delusions about being connected towards the main mystery, I rather liked it and the online fan community hated it?

Don’t talk pants, man; any member of the ‘online fan community’ with half a brain loved that episode to bits and I’ve seen loads more praise for it than hate.

[Pete Part Three]

Maybe I mistook “Online Fan Community” for “What some people wrote on Wikipedia about Nikki and Paulo”. Whoops.

[ChrisM]

Y?know, it really annoys me when I see people saying ?Bah Lost is rubbish nothing ever happens they never answer any questions it sucks? oh yeah, and I stopped watching two years ago.?

Surely, if they were to keep on watching and calling it rubbish; the reply would be ?Don?t watch it then!??

Erm, if that was directed at me, please reread my post. I never said Lost was rubbish. In fact I said I liked it. I did say that I got fed up with the flashbacks (which is true) and that I wished they’d moved the story along quicker, but that’s not the same as saying I hate the show. And yes, I would have continued watching it if Sky hadn’t been removed from my box. (In fact I started rewatching series 3 last night on Virgin on demand.)

It’s interesting how people will take one part of a post and blow it right out of proportion isn’t it? Point is, it’s possible to like a show and not like everything about it.

[pfm]

Lost entertains me with every episode, that’s all I care about. I’m not one of those people who gets frustrated and wants to kill the writers for not answering questions. If they answer questions the show will be over. I like the mystery that surrounds the story, that’s what makes it so good.

This is not a 2 hour film it’s a 6 season long television series with a continuing story.

[Dave]

>Y?know, it really annoys me when I see people saying ?Bah Lost is rubbish nothing ever happens they never answer any questions it sucks? oh yeah, and I stopped watching two years ago.?

But Lost is rubbish: nothing ever happens, they never answer any questions, it sucks and I did stop watching two years ago.

[Jonathan Capps]

I honestly don’t mind people not liking Lost for whatever reasons they chose, but the Internet seems to be full of people clamouring to point when they stopped watching it and how they hate it for exactly the same reason as everyone else. They’re like smug ex-smokers who never stop fucking talking about quitting smoking.

[Ben Paddon]

I like that analogy. It’s a good analogy, largely because it implies that watching “Lost” is bad for you.

[Andrew]

> I like that analogy. It?s a good analogy, largely because it implies that watching ?Lost? is bad for you.

*APPLAUDS LOUDLY*

[Anonymous]

> They?re like smug ex-smokers who never stop fucking talking about quitting smoking.

Haha! “I hate non-smokers. I’d quit smoking if I didn’t think I’d become one of you.”

[Ian Symes]

Yeah, but smoking is cool, interesting, clever and hard.

[pfm]

> smoking is cool, interesting, clever and hard.

I saw that on a gravestone once.

It was my own…in the FUTURE!! cue dramatic incidental music – *duh duh DUH*

Though I don’t smoke now so presumably I must take it up at some point. Or maybe it was my son’s grave… Damn those fake Future Echoes-inspired dreams!! Yeah, I’m just itching to start forking out an extra ?40 a week to slowly kill myself to death…with SMOKE!! *duh duh DUH*

Seriously, people shouldn’t smoke. My great aunt died of throat cancer brought on by 40-a-day for 40 years. Not good. I find it slightly amusing that my dad still smokes after that happened. Slightly.

[ChrisM]

I’ve been on a Lost (season 3) watch fest these last 3 days. I’ve now got to the episode I originally missed due to the dropping of Sky 1… and I have to say this is a pretty awesome season.

I stand by what I said concerning the amount of flashbacks in that it would be nice to have some episodes without them, but they haven’t bugged me that much this time round.

I think part of what bugged me was them (season 2,3 spoilers ahead)..

Building up new characters in season 2 (the other half of the plane) then proceeding to kill most of them off at the end of season 2 and the start of season 3.

On sticking with it though, it’s gotten very intriguing. Last one I watched today was the one where Juliette helps cure Claire from a mystery disease…

And the one with the two newbies and the paralytic spiders… warped but interesting.

[Jonathan Capps]

I think the biggest problems people have the show is related to what they see as padding, which itself is a side effect of the writers not knowing how long they need to tred water. From season 4 onwards they know exactly how many more episodes they have, so it should be less of a problem.

[Andrew]

> which itself is a side effect of the writers not knowing how long they need to tred water.

Wasn’t it always a five year plan? I know they’re looking at shorter seasons now, but it’s not like they were flying blind in the first two years.

But then, it’s not that I object the the flashbacks per se, it’s just how rarely they’re used for genuinely interesting or insightful reasons. When they are (blah blah, sites Walkabout, blah blah), ’tis fine. But I could count those times on one seriously-injured hand.

[pfm]

I always find the flashes off island very insightful (EVEN the Jack tattoo one as it showed a different side to him). They are so essential for character development. For example, what the hell would we know about Juliet if it weren’t for her flashbacks? Also, just how amazing was Ben’s flashback?!!? You can’t be far off that, Marbloid. Top episode that.

Season 2 was definitely a ‘stopgap’ season. Not much that happened in it has had a long-term effect on the show. All the numbers stuff amounted to nothing. They got bogged down in it to try and delay telling too much of the proper story. Bringing in Desmond and Ben were the best things about season 2. Bringing in the tail-section characters was the biggest waste of time.

[Jonathan Capps]

> Wasn?t it always a five year plan? I know they?re looking at shorter seasons now, but it?s not like they were flying blind in the first two years.

I think any plan JJ, Lindelof or CUse had at that time would still’ve been up in the air as they would’ve had to idea (or, at least, no set in stone confirmation) of how long ABC would want the show or if they’d even want it to go on too long.

[Andrew]

> They are so essential for character development.

Yeah, cos shock revelations such as ‘the married couple once met and fell in love’ and ‘the drug addict band member once played in a band and became addicted to drugs’ really gave us a new understanding. :-)

> I think any plan JJ, Lindelof or CUse had at that time would still?ve been up in the air

Fair point. But that’s not a reason to make your show run SLOW, if anything it’s a reason to speed it up to maintain interest.

[Jonathan Capps]

> Yeah, cos shock revelations such as ?the married couple once met and fell in love? and ?the drug addict band member once played in a band and became addicted to drugs? really gave us a new understanding. :-)

Ahh, c’mon Andrew, over simplifying things to prove your point is pretty cheap! Watch:

Yeah, cos shock revelations such as ‘all these intelligent people who all work for the President and won an election for him once all got recruited and won an election for him’ really gave us new understanding. :-)

The flashbacks are part of Lost’s core formula and they need to be there (in whatever form) for every episode. Without them the whole thing would be lacking any real structure and it just wouldn’t work as a mainstream network drama. I’m not saying they’ve not been used for padding before, but literally every show in the entire universe uses it’s core formula to allow them to easily pad a season out. It’s what happens. The reason Lost gets stick for it is because people get pissed off that they’re not being told things as fast as they want, which isn’t really the flashbacks fault. At their best, flashbacks raise the show to a whole new level (Andrew’s already mentioned Walkabout) but at their worst they at least add a little more character understanding and take that burden away from the island storyline, which I think is far more important than people give them credit for.

> Fair point. But that?s not a reason to make your show run SLOW, if anything it?s a reason to speed it up to maintain interest.

Well, if you speed it up then you reach one of your milestones too quickly and before you know it you’ve finished your entire plan and the network still wants three more years. I’d argue that interest was sufficiently maintained in the first three series, as it wasn’t cancelled and ratings were always solid, if not impressive.

Either way, this whole ’48 episodes to go’ thing is fantastic news for everyone as even the most staunch Lost defenders will concede at this point that it’s definitely time for the show to pick up pace and start showing some balls to the wall intent.

[Jonathan Capps]

Damn, we’ve fallen back into Lost hole against, haven’t we?

[ChrisM]

I just finished season 3 today. Definitely a good season with definite revelations (and more questions but that’s a good thing!)

Spoilers:

Interesting to find out the twist in the flashback for the last 2 episodes. It seemed to be one of those flashbacks that didn’t have much to do with the current storyline… which is pretty much what it was… except for that twist right at the end when Jack meets a special person… and it’s not actually a flashback at all. Makes me wonder how the next series will pan out.

I can’t help thinking that certain characters sometimes act out of character though. Particularly Locke. (I’m referring to the satelite phone scene at the end of the last episode.) I mean, I know he has a hard side, but didn’t that seem rather extreme? I sometimes think modern dramas want to bring in the shock factor to bring in a bit of spice to the series, but it it’s not believable then it comes across heavy handed and crass.

Anyway, probaby should have stuck this in the Lost thread but I delayed that as I figured most of that would be speculation for season 4 and I might get spoiled for the series I was watching.

[Author]

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