Simon Pegg on The Future of Star Trek

[Armus]

"The fact is, Star Trek movies don’t make Marvel money," Pegg, promoting his latest movie Lost Transmissions, said. "They make maybe $500m at the most, and to make one now, on the scale they’ve set themselves, is $200m. You have to make three times that to make a profit."I don’t feel like the last one… They didn’t really take advantage of the 50th anniversary. The regimen at the time dropped the ball on the promo of the film. And we’ve lost momentum. I think losing Anton [Yelchin] was a huge blow to our little family, and our enthusiasm to do another one might have been affected by that. So I don’t know."

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/simon-pegg-future-star-trek-180129999.html

https://www.gamesradar.com/simon-pegg-interview-star-trek-mission-impossible-7-star-wars/

It's insane that Star Trek movies have to make that much money just to break past even.

 

[captainkirk]

If they tell a smaller scale story with a lower budget, then they won't have to.

 

[Mage]

If they tell a smaller scale story with a lower budget, then they won't have to.

Exactly. Pegg is comparing it something he shouldn't. Make the next Star Trek film what it should be; Star Trek. Don't try to fight with something it's not even related to.

 

[F. King Daniel]

If they tell a smaller scale story with a lower budget, then they won't have to.

Who's gonna spend extra money on a cheap looking theatrical Trek when the stuff on CBS-AA looks so amazing?

As a die-hard Kelvinverse fan, I'd watch them in a classic Doctor Who-level production. But really, who else would?

 

[Guy Gardener]

A whole movie set during a poker game.

 

[Relayer1]

Who's gonna spend extra money on a cheap looking theatrical Trek when the stuff on CBS-AA looks so amazing?

As a die-hard Kelvinverse fan, I'd watch them in a classic Doctor Who-level production. But really, who else would?

It wouldn't take that much downgrading. Just bin the enormous CG fests like the swarm destroying Enterprise and Yorktown base. Cut down the gratuitous effects shots but do the ones that are necessary to a good standard.

 

[Malaika]

How easy it was for Pegg to have critical thinking about stid (that ironically is more successful than his movie) once he was hired as a writer, and yet how impossible it is for him to do the same with his own movie.
JJ himself admitted stid had issues , and he did the same with his star wars.
Pegg, on the other hand, is still entirely blaming beyond's fails on promotion only. .which is lame. Yes, promotion contributed to it, it absolutely did, but it isn't like everyone who watched it loved it and negative reviews don't exist. It's disingenuos. Even the dvd sales, last time I checked, were less successful than for the first two. He should ask himself why many kelvin trek fans were disappointed by beyond, but that would mean having to take responsibilities.

Promotion is interviews by the creative team too and honestly, Simon, you guys ( especially Lin) didn't do a good job with that either. For one, promoting it as a movie that was ditching what jj&co did, thus ignoring the first two, wasn't the best way to make existing kelvin trek fans excited. You maybe attracted the temporary favor of some of the haters and tos nostalgia fans, but you alienated a side of the audience that maybe was the one that made the first two successful..
The posters weren't great, but at least they featured women too. Their interviews, the big fan event and Dubai event..were a dudes only fest ..who is responsible for that?

Lastly, the 50 years anniversary. .how to really take advantage of that for Beyond? Honestly, who cares about such things beside the old fans? many of those wouldn't like beyond either way because it isn't tos and they hate every new trek iteration no matter what.
I mean, it couldve helped sure but... how much?

 

[F. King Daniel]

It wouldn't take that much downgrading. Just bin the enormous CG fests like the swarm destroying Enterprise and Yorktown base. Cut down the gratuitous effects shots but do the ones that are necessary to a good standard.

So what's going to make this movie special enough for people to pay extra to see it on top of their CBS-AA/Netflix+Amazon subscriptions? Take out the effects and the action and you have... Long Treks.

 

[The Wormhole]

Pegg, on the other hand, is still entirely blaming beyond's fails on promotion only. .which is lame. Yes, promotion contributed to it, it absolutely did,

The movie did have piss-poor promotion. No one outside of Trek circles was talking about it at all until Anton Yelchin's accident a month prior. It's kind of distressing to wonder when Paramount was going to start drawing attention to the movie if that hadn't happened.

Lastly, the 50 years anniversary. .how to really take advantage of that for Beyond? Honestly, who cares about such things beside the old fans? many of those wouldn't like beyond either way because it isn't tos and they hate every new trek iteration no natter what.
I mean, it couldve helped sure but... how much?

Well, just compare the way BBC pimped the hell out of Doctor Who's fiftieth anniversary in 2013 to how Paramount basically squandered Trek's fiftieth, and how Day of the Doctor benefitted while Beyond didn't.

 

[captainkirk]

Who's gonna spend extra money on a cheap looking theatrical Trek when the stuff on CBS-AA looks so amazing?

As a die-hard Kelvinverse fan, I'd watch them in a classic Doctor Who-level production. But really, who else would?

There are many levels between cheap-looking and $200 million. An $80 million movie would still look good and allow for some impressive scenes, but more time can be spent on story and character than extended action sequences that exist more for their own sake than because they serve the story.

 

[Tenacity]

So what's going to make this movie special enough for people to pay extra to see it on top of their CBS-AA/Netflix+Amazon subscriptions?

The completely lack of the Burnham character?

 

[Relayer1]

So what's going to make this movie special enough for people to pay extra to see it on top of their CBS-AA/Netflix+Amazon subscriptions? Take out the effects and the action and you have... Long Treks.

You don't take out ALL the effects and action. You concentrate on plot, character, that sort of thing and save the big bucks for when it's really needed.

I don't just go to the cinema for effects and action. I enjoy them, but there's a lot more required than that.

 

[Tenacity]

The overly obvious use of CGI is increasingly a turn off for me in the theater. I'd rather see a well executed fist fight, than a thousand meaningless CGI whatevers engaging in battle.

I found whole sections of Endgame boring.

Now I'm not saying the complete elimination of special effects, but there are many movies made every year that have a limited number of special effects.

if a team is going to beam down, once a character announces that this is going to take place, why is it necessary to show it? Okay in a space drama (not a space action movie) there still going to be some shot of the outside of the ship, establishment shots, and some weapons fire, and some what-not.

Another way of reducing the cost of the movie would be hiring actors who don't make several hundred thousands/millions per movie.

 

[Jayson1]

Who's gonna spend extra money on a cheap looking theatrical Trek when the stuff on CBS-AA looks so amazing?

As a die-hard Kelvinverse fan, I'd watch them in a classic Doctor Who-level production. But really, who else would?

When you think about it though if they can do top notch special effects on a CBS budget then what they could do with a $100 million dollar budget would still be awesome. The good thing these days is even with modest budgets you can still do amazing looking things which would fit well in Star Trek's wheelhouse IMO.


Jason

 

[Tenacity]

When you think about it though if they can do top notch special effects on a CBS budget then what they could do with a $100 million dollar budget would still be awesome.

Or you could not waste time on top notch special effects and instead use that same period of time to advance the story, have little character moments, and develop the main villain into something more than a cardboard cutout.

 

[Malaika]

The movie did have piss-poor promotion. No one outside of Trek circles was talking about it at all until Anton Yelchin's accident a month prior. It's kind of distressing to wonder when Paramount was going to start drawing attention to the movie if that hadn't happened.

Promotion wasn't the best but then again, how to improve that? Beyond is still the same movie regardless promotion and the general audience didn't respond to it the same way they did with the other two. What did the movie provide that could help them promote it more effectively?

You say no one outside trek circles cared but that's the point. Pegg&co were themselves promoting the movie as something for old fans only. Not only THEY didn't make any attempt to attract more audience thus non-fans too, they kind of discouraged existing kelvin trek fans too by making it seems it wasn't a real sequel because they were ignoring the first two. They gave that impression. And it backfired.
When the movie came out, it was receiving a good word. .by old fans and mostly those who hated the first two. Why the rest of the audience should have cared about a movie that is liked by just old fans who promote it as an extended tos episode full of nods and nostalgia.

You can't make a move for just the people inside trek circles and then complain it doesn't make marvel money. You can't blame promotion only when it's the creative team themselves that made it hard for people outside trek circles to care.
Losing JJ as a director also is an issue because they didn't really replace him with a big name or someone who was particularly charismatic in interviews.

just compare the way BBC pimped the hell out of Doctor Who's fiftieth anniversary in 2013 to how Paramount basically squandered Trek's fiftieth, and how Day of the Doctor benefitted while Beyond didn't.

But the anniversary is still something only those in trek circles will care about. The general audience for the most part hadn't even watched tos and it's certaintly also hard to celebrate the anniversary just with a movie that after all, is about a different universe than the original series.

 

[shapeshifter]

I am still struggling to believe the "Beyond wasn't promoted properly" case for its failure. It reeks of being pulled out of somebody's ass because from my POV that just wasn't the case at all.

It had multiple TV spots in primetime on every show I watched.
It was plastered on busses and trolleys all over town and had radio spots. It even had a freaking music video by popular star for pete's sake.

So Mr. Pegg, isn't it time to stop beating around the bush, just throw in the towel and admit the film simply fell short of general audience expectations of what was started in ST09 and STID, leading to an opening weekend death.

 

[Khan 2.0]

Ideally the 50th anniversary movie needed to appeal to the hard core fans and the general audience. Something that the 20th ann movie did, as did the 25th ann movie (although not on the same scale as IV but still a major win after V) and even the 30th ann movie did.

imo after the recent revelation of the early Orci ST3 draft by the Thor/Xmen writer (The Doomsday Machine meets Balance of Terror) maybe melded that with the later Shatner/chance to change the timeline draft (and maybe the Hemsworth ST4) and had the romulans find a time travel device instead of the doomsday machine (say.. the Guardian of Forever?) that would enable them to attempt to prevent their future destruction as foretold by Nero and that would enable Shatner to come back as Kirk - but obviously messing about with the timeline causes all manner of problems/potential cataclysmic events and the kelvinverse characters would have to decide between saving their universe/everything they've known against the chance to stop nero/save Vulcan/GeorgeKirk/Amanda. and Shatner Kirk would be somehow there in the middle of it in a vital role probably involving a heroic end sacrifice to enable the kelvinverse to prevail (and to make up for his death in VII). basically City on the Edge meets Yesterdays Enterprise tying heavily back to 2009s timetravel/alt reality plot (as general audiences dig time travel Trek films and especially 2009) but with the guardian/shatner etc (for the TOS fanbase/50th ann) probably get the klingons in there too as a background threat (they mustve been way pissed after STID) taking advantage of the federation/romulan conflict – leading to an end cliffhanger where a Klingon fleet invades starfleet command (klingon leader takes off his helmet – Khan lol) then theyd HAVE to have done a ST4!

 

[Guy Gardener]

Does Chis Hemsworth have a puppy, or a far less important Hemsworth the equivalent of a puppy, that we could kidnap and hold ransom for services rendered?

I assume that that is how Men in Black International was made?

 

[MNM]

Well, just compare the way BBC pimped the hell out of Doctor Who's fiftieth anniversary in 2013 to how Paramount basically squandered Trek's fiftieth, and how Day of the Doctor benefitted while Beyond didn't.

My memory of that time is that most Who fans complained the BBC didnt do anything near enough to celebrate it.