Pegg updates on script

[ralph]

what is Star Trek-y?

 

[Mudd]

During an interview with Radio Times, the 45-year-old ‘Star Trek’ actor revealed that he thinks modern cinema is dumbing down… and he seems to blame it all on ‘Star Wars’.

“Before Star Wars, the films that were box-office hits were The Godfather, Taxi Driver, Bonnie And Clyde and The French Connection – gritty, amoral art movies,” he said. “Then suddenly the onus switched over to spectacle and everything changed … I don’t know if that is a good thing.”

“Obviously I’m very much a self-confessed fan of science fiction and genre cinema but part of me looks at society as it is now and just thinks we’ve been infantilised by our own taste. Now we’re essentially all consuming very childish things – comic books, superheroes. Adults are watching this stuff, and taking it seriously.”
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“It is a kind of dumbing down, in a way, because it’s taking our focus away from real-world issues,” he added. “Films used to be about challenging, emotional journeys or moral questions that might make you walk away and re-evaluate how you felt about … whatever. Now we’re walking out of the cinema really not thinking about anything, other than the fact that the Hulk just had a fight with a robot.”
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...he goes on to explain that he was hired to rewrite the upcoming ‘Star Trek 3’ script as the original version was “a little bit too Star Trek-y.”

His solution? To make a more mainstream film – such as a Western or a thriller or a heist movie – and then populate that film with ‘Star Trek’ characters, in an attempt to reach an audience outside of the usual genre crowd.

Does this mean we’ll see a far more mainstream ‘Star Trek 3’? For now, we’ll have to wait and see. But I hope Simon Pegg tries to remember what he used to love about science fiction.

He's right, of course.

God bless him, I like the way he thinks and am more optimistic about the next movie than ever.

 

[Malaika]

I always had the feeling that Orci's script got rejected because it was too trek for the studios. Which really can mean many things: too much like tos? too many references? fan pandering? a stid redux? Maybe the studio wants this to be more its own thing and they felt like while it's an alternate reality with new characters and all, they still can't claim this as their own trek? who knows. After all, Orci, Kurtzman and JJ were pretty much the ones who made the reboot their own trek, created the alt reality and made some very bold moves with the story and characters so I don't think Orci's script would be something made to please only a side of the star trek fandom that he himself knows (and had said so) doesn't represent the whole fanbase, let alone the whole audience that watched and enjoyed the movies. But speaking on a more grey area, I think it's possible that him being a star trek fan himself made him fall in some nostalgia trap (take the rumor about Shatner) and the studio didn't like that.

Pegg always says that they want to keep the spirit of the original series so I suppose the studio doesn't have a problem with that.

as for his talk about modern day blockbusters 'dumbing down', lol I don't know but I feel like he's trying to prove people that he isn't just the 'guy who writes comedy' and silly stuff and that he likes movies with more depth and such.. and yet some of his statements contradict him because he seems to suggest that star trek needs dumbing down too to become more accessible to this modern audience that likes certain movies. Also, wasn't him the same who, in the other interview, said that stid was too serious and gritty and 'embraced itself' too much? He seemed to think that trek should definitely be more light and fun and less drama.

I dunno, I just want to see what his trek 3 is about because all these interviews are just a bunch of words without meaning at this point.

 

[Mudd]

He's right about the general dumbing down and infantilizing of movies, though. If you've watched this as it's happened over the decades it's hard to miss.

If there's such a thing as adult storytelling in mass culture these days it's mainly to be found on television.

 

[Jedi_Master]

another better version of the interview
http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2015/may/19/simon-pegg-criticises-dumbing-down-of-cinema

He said he had been asked to make the new Star Trek film “more inclusive”.

“They had a script for Star Trek that wasn’t really working for them. I think the studio was worried that it might have been a little bit too Star Trek-y,” he said of the original draft.

“Avengers Assemble, which is a pretty nerdy, comic-book, supposedly niche thing, made $1.5bn dollars. Star Trek: Into Darkness made half a billion, which is still brilliant.

“But it means that, according to the studio, there’s still $1bn worth of box office that don’t go and see Star Trek. And they want to know why.”

He added: “People don’t see it being a fun, brightly coloured, Saturday night entertainment like the Avengers,” adding that the solution was to “make a Western or a thriller or a heist movie, then populate that with Star Trek characters so it’s more inclusive to an audience that might be a little bit reticent”.

I can feel the fanboi rage building and burning!


But in the end, the studio wants a film that fits their financial goals, not some creative vision.
So we are looking at another big tentpole style film with bright colors and splashes of amazing, just with Kirk and Co instead of the Avengers.

That actually works for me, and the idea that the new Trek film will be gloriously technobabble/conference room chatting free is quite thrilling.

 

[Khan 2.0]

I agree the superhero genre has gotten abit out of control (Marvel). the whole 'Shared Cinematic Universe' thing with sequels/spin offs planned for about 10 years in advance. it seems to be spilling over into other genres now. prefer movies to be movies not so much expanded tv shows on the big screen

but like everything that gets overexposed it will come to an end one day soon (see Berman Trek)

 

[Jedi_Master]

I don't think Paramount has any "shared universe" plans when it comes to Star Trek. Right now they seem to be content to turn out a single film every so many years.

 

[martok2112]

I'm not worried about a "shared cinematic universe" for Trek either... I think it's doing fine/will continue to do fine on its own.

....but ya' do have to admit, this "shared cinematic universe" is indeed what is keeping a lot of folk coming back to the movies.

Marvel, and now the upcoming run of Star Wars movies..... I've got a pretty good feeling about this.

I think the only Marvel movie I've not seen in theaters was "Guardians of the Galaxy." I wasn't interested. But I have it on blu-ray...and am just working up the mood to watch it.

 

[Malaika]

I agree that we are a bit overexposed to the genre of movies Pegg is talking about, but to say that current cinema is limited to those movies only seems to be disingenuous. Maybe it's Pegg's own choices that are limited, perhaps, because if he really wants to watch something different he doesn't have to try so hard to find serious adult movies but comparing apples to oranges is not the way to go.
Of course, summer blockbusters are bigger at the box office and they get hyped on the internet but that's a given. Some movies are made to be just fun and entertaining and it's what the audience they are made for wants. It's not a wonder they can reach a wider audience too. This doesn't mean that those are the only movies made right now or the most prominent, even if they make a ton of money and are very talked about. It also doesn't mean that some things are mutually exclusive because there are definitely some blockbuster movies, even nowadays (and the last trek movies are an example) that have interesting character arcs and moving moments that make the audience relate to these characters and not just care about the flashy special effects and action scenes.

It's like complaining that people like Pizza too much instead of the other more sophisticated dishes from italian cuisine, as if italian restaurants never serve them and you can't eat other things beside pizza for a change.

 

[Khan 2.0]

Peggs responds
http://simonpegg.net/2015/05/19/big-mouth-strikes-again/

 

[Franklin]

Pegg may be right to an extent, but he's cherry picking a bit, too. There are plenty of recent intelligent "make you think" and "gritty" movies that do well (although not $400 billion well, but well). I'd see this more as a passing trend in the popularity of comic book characters, too many sequels, playing to foreign markets, and over-reliance on brand-name franchises than a dumbing down of the movies. After all, when the Godfather movies were out, lighter and escapist movies from various genre were just as popular at the box office as they are now: disaster movies were big, the Planet of the Apes franchise, James Bond, Mel Brooks movies, the Pink Panther movies, Rocky movies, and so on.

Just my opinion.

 

[Jedi_Master]

What a great blog post. He's a smart gent.

 

[mos6507]

He's right about the general dumbing down and infantilizing of movies, though. If you've watched this as it's happened over the decades it's hard to miss.

Which includes STID.

 

[lurok]

What a great blog post. He's a smart gent.

+1

 

[Visitor1982]

Interesting to see that shooting of the film has been postponed again, to July now.

First it was to be late 2014, then it became February 2015, then March, then April, then May... then we got TPTB claim it had to be filming in June and now it's pushed back to July...

Remember the press releases about shooting in Korea, Karl Urban claiming he read the script, Bill Shatner being in it... All just nonsense and now we don't even have a script at all.

First Pegg claimed he had a script, now just a draft, which means his first script was not approved...

Mark my words, this movie isn't shooting in July either.

I'd rather have them push back the release date if that means we'll be getting a decent movie...

We'll see what happens.

 

[fireproof78]

He's right about the general dumbing down and infantilizing of movies, though. If you've watched this as it's happened over the decades it's hard to miss.

Which includes STID.

Certainly not as much as many other films out there. The film gets less credit than it deserves.

As to Pegg's point, if he makes Star Trek Beyond more like a Western, I'm all for it. You don't get much closer to Star Trek's roots than that, and I think that could work very well to satisfy the studio execs while still making a fun movie.

Also, it's funny how a Star Trek movie gets defined. The quintessential Trek film is TMP, but that isn't a film that is very accessible, with new characters that get little in the way of background, and have more lines that some of the TOS regulars. But, that's the film that GR wanted.

TWOK is not a Star Trek film in terms of its origins and yet that is the film that everyone keeps trying to emulate, with two TNG films adopting a similar formula. So, the definition keeps on changing.

So, I still have confidence in Pegg and his team that they have a sense of what the studios want, what worked with the last two films and what did not work. If it is more of a Western, then I am all for it, because that is closer to TOS.

 

[Mudd]

Pegg may be right to an extent, but he's cherry picking a bit, too.

Not at all.

Just because one can come up with counter-examples doesn't make him wrong - the commercial film industry is driven by and financially dependent upon one kind of movie, now. Whatever else might get done only gets done because the studios are willing to invest a little of their billions in things that buy them some prestige and/or mollify the talent.

He's right about the general dumbing down and infantilizing of movies, though. If you've watched this as it's happened over the decades it's hard to miss.

Which includes STID.

No dumber than most oldTrek. A great deal less dumb than some of the amateur efforts that trekkies engage in and praise unreasonably. It's all part of the landscape.

TOS Trek borrowed heavily from TV westerns and the war movie genre for plots and mass appeal. I'm sure Pegg can make what worked for Roddenberry and Coon work pretty well for Star Trek now.

 

[JWPlatt]

I take "too Star Trek-y" as requiring too much knowledge of Star Trek lore to be accessible to potential new fans.

 

[Mudd]

The idea of our prolonged youth is something I’ve been interested in for a very long time. It’s essentially what Spaced was about, at least in part.

One of the things that inspired Jessica and myself, all those years ago, was the unprecedented extension our generation was granted to its youth, in contrast to the previous generation, who seemed to adopt a received notion of maturity at lot sooner. The children of the 70s and 80s were the first generation, for whom it wasn’t imperative to ‘grow up’ immediately after leaving school. Why this happened is a whole other sociological discussion: a rise in the student population, progress in gender equality, the absence of world war; all these things and more contributed to this social evolution. What fascinated Jess and I was the way we utilised this time. For Tim and Daisy, not having to grow up in the way their parents did, simply meant a continuation of their childhood. For Daisy, it was the pursuit of her girlhood dreams and fantasies. For Tim, he channeled his childhood passions into his adult life, cared about them as much, invested in them, the same level of time, importance and emotion. His hobbies and interests defined who he was, rather than his professional status.


In the 18 years since we wrote Spaced, this extended adolescence has been cannily co-opted by market forces, who have identified this relatively new demographic as an incredibly lucrative wellspring of consumerist potential. Suddenly, here was an entire generation crying out for an evolved version of the things they were consuming as children. This demographic is now well and truly serviced in all facets of entertainment and the first and second childhoods have merged into a mainstream phenomenon.

Link

Pegg is one smart, observant guy and a good writer.

 

[Jedi_Master]

Interesting to see that shooting of the film has been postponed again, to July now.

First it was to be late 2014, then it became February 2015, then March, then April, then May... then we got TPTB claim it had to be filming in June and now it's pushed back to July...

Remember the press releases about shooting in Korea, Karl Urban claiming he read the script, Bill Shatner being in it... All just nonsense and now we don't even have a script at all.

First Pegg claimed he had a script, now just a draft, which means his first script was not approved...

Mark my words, this movie isn't shooting in July either.

I'd rather have them push back the release date if that means we'll be getting a decent movie...

We'll see what happens.

Hmm... this failed argument with lots of weasel words and "predictions" seems very, very familiar.