Posted on 04/21/2006 8:23:26 PM PDT by Panerai
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - More than three years after the last "Star Trek" movie crashed at the box office, the venerable sci-fi franchise is being revived by the director of the upcoming "Mission: Impossible" sequel, Daily Variety reported in its Friday edition.
The as-yet-untitled "Star Trek" feature, the 11th since 1979, is aiming for a fall 2008 release through Paramount Pictures, the Viacom Inc. unit looking to restore its box-office luster under new management, the trade paper said.
The project will be directed by J.J. Abrams, whose Tom Cruise vehicle "Mission: Impossible III" will be released by Paramount on May 5. Abrams, famed for producing the TV shows "Alias" and "Lost," will also help write and produce.
Daily Variety said the action would center on the early days of "Star Trek" characters James T. Kirk and Mr. Spock, including their first meeting at Starfleet Academy and first outer-space mission.
The paper described "Star Trek" as Hollywood's most durable performer after James Bond, spawning 10 features that have grossed more than $1 billion and 726 TV episodes from six series.
The 10th film, "Star Trek: Nemesis," bombed at the box office on its December 2002 release, earning just $43 million in North America. Last year, Viacom-owned broadcast network UPN pulled the plug on the low-rated series "Star Trek: Enterprise" following a four-season run.
Nemesis was pretty good. Its just that not many saw it.
Ronald D Moore would be an excellent choice for a writer/director.
How about coaxing J. Michael Straczynski away from writing bad Marvel Comics and have him try his hand at Trek? :-)
The best ST was when RDM was behind it.
The best Trek was TOS. When it comes to 1980s and 1990s first class SF, the name of the place is Babylon 5!!!! :-)
I like B5. But the best ST was DS9 and RDM.
Just a matter of taste. There was an episode of B5 where they open up a gift shop and market the hell out of the space station. Ivonova protests and makes it a point to note that 'this isn't some deep space franchise!' ;-)
Well, there you go!
Too close to the bad stuff of the last few incarnations (even if his stuff was good)
* Star Trek: First Contact (1996) (screenplay) (story)
* Star Trek: Generations (1994) (screenplay) (story)
* Star Trek: The Next Generation - All Good Things... (1994) (TV) (written by)
Plus way too many Branon Braga ST shows.
Someone new needs to come in an revive the franchise. I like the JMS idea, but I doubt he'd do it.
How about letting Niven and Pournelle loose on the Trek universe? Or invite William Gibson to take a crack? How about Michael Crichton? The mind boggles.
Now, what would John Ringo do with Star Trek? Or David Weber. Or we might go full goose bozo and go old school and turn the franchise over to someone like David Gerrold. And Nicholas Meyer is still around. He saved the franchise once...
Let Joss Whedon do it. Only now, the Federation are the bad guys and our heroes are fringe-folk just trying to stay alive and keep flying. It could be action-adventure, comedy, and still talk about the human condition, just like Star Trek is supposed it.
Oh, wait... we had that show. Fox killed it.
Yeah...and it still makes me sick to my stomach to think of it.
Cut David Weber loose, he can do long series work and not lose his audience.
Now, what would John Ringo do with Star Trek?
Probably start a war between the humans and every other Star Trek race. That might not be a bad thing.
Can you imagine a Star Trek Warship named Bun-Bun?
Let's Rock Vulcan-boy!!
Star Trek First Contact was the best of the NG movies, who are you kidding?
With Abrams running the show?! Cool! Now THAT is someone I can get behind. Just keep Rick Berman and Brannon Braga as far from it as humanly possible.
That's not saying much. In fact, it's a bad TV movie blown up to big screen size. The only real action is at the beginning, and then it's excruciating as we go throug hthe "the hero wasn't really a hero" thing showing how Cochran was a drunken jerk. The Borg stuff is SO OLD, it's the one idea on Next Generation people liked, and the reason was it wasn't like the rest of the show--you just had to keep shooting at them and find a way to blow them up, as opposed to spouting liberal pieties and winning "aliens" olver. Didn't it occur to them that they were cramming their advertisements with spaceships and explosions and fights, while the shows were filled with talk, and talk, and more talk? Next Generation is the most overrated TV show ever, to me, because it wasn't about telling dramatic stories, merely setting up little paper tiger arguments and yapping about it for an hour.
The only good thing about First Contact was the score. I was at a performance of it at Carnegie Hall and it was just magnificent.
I don't think ST should be revived, but the LAST thing I'd want is for it to continue in the tradition of anything post-Original Series.
What makes this such a bad idea is that the whole series idea is basically not very original, it's the combination of actors, photography, good TV writing, music, and all the other elements that MADE it good, from an idea that had been used a million times in books and magazines.
What needs to be done is to reconfigure this series OR come up with a new, similar one, that attempts to take a more serious point of view. Examples: They need to come in contact with ALIEN aliens, not just humans in makeup; don't just toss off the problems they would encounter on these missions, like FTL and language barriers with "Oh, we have a transaltor" or super-duper engine.
The galaxy has to not be so damned SMALL. I tuned out of Next Generation very early because it made space exploration as boring as a day at the office; there was always someone who could back you up handy when needed, and they were always dealing with stupid political crap within The Federation.
And, the BIG one...characters have to be killed off not because the actors contracts are up, but to make the point that space exploration is dangerous. When you know the regulars will be back next week, you're losing all kinds of dramatic tension and story possibilities. I think this is a taboo that will one day be broken, as the formats of such shows as Sopranos, Lost and others show, you CAN mess with the Unbreakable Laws and win ratings.
Did you know Bun-Bun comes from the Sluggy Freelance online comic? Most Ringo fans do but Bun-Bun is too cool to take the chance you don't know. The writer of Sluggy would write cool Trek too, but if we're going for web comic writers, the guy who does Schlock Mercenary would write better Trek.
I was kinda hoping for DS9 movie myself. I think DS9 had some of the best secondary actors ever in a TV series.
ugh. let it rest.
Nooooooo!!!!!
For Pete's sake - STOP BRINGING BACK THAT ACCURSED STAR FLEET ACADEMY IDEA!
Look, you keep proposing it every few years, and it keeps getting shot down. Again and again. By many different sets of studio executives. Do you get the picture? It's not a good idea. The suits don't like it. The fans don't like it. (Good lord, don't get them started on the continuity errors that this would cause.) The general public seems luke warm on it. Just do something else. Anything else. Hell, give Peter David a few bucks and have him write something. But leave this idea on the wate heap.
BTW, for those saying "Great! JJ Abrams is writing it." Abrams is also the person who wrote a Superman script that had Krypton not exploding, Superman doing kungfu (because "it looks cool") and Luthor as a Kryptonian. He doesn't seem to play well with other folks' creations.
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