New JJ Abrams interview

[Mach5]

Movies "made for Star Trek fans"=

Nemesis (point made)

IIRC, it was directed by a guy who knew nothing about Star Trek, cared nothing about Star Trek, and was a dick to everyone on the set.

Movies "made for everyone"=
The Wrath of Khan
The Voyage Home
The Undiscovered Country
First Contact

Star Trek

I don't think TUC was made for "everyone", and neither was FC. ST IV definitely WAS, though. Even more so than ST09. And it still remains my favorite.

 

[Sigokat]

I met JJ and the cast of ST09 when they came to Camp Arifjan, Kuwait to premiere the first movie to US Soldiers. After the movie (which you had to get a ticket for and luckily I got one) the cast and JJ did a questions and answers session. JJ seemed...well...kind of bored. I don't know, I just didn't get a vibe from him that he wanted to answer any questions.

Most people asked questions of Bana, Quinto, and Pine. One soldier stood up and asked Qunito if he wouldn't mind talking to his daughter on his cell. So this soldier called his daughter back in the states really quick told her to hang on a sec and gave the phone to Zach and he talked to her for a few minutes. It was pretty cool.

I did get to chat a bit with Zach and with Karl Urban who was really cool and down to earth.

Overall an awesome experience, but JJ was just kind of blah compared to the rest. Maybe he just doesn't like interviews?

 

[SalvorHardin]

I met JJ and the cast of ST09 when they came to Camp Arifjan, Kuwait to premiere the first movie to US Soldiers. After the movie (which you had to get a ticket for and luckily I got one) the cast and JJ did a questions and answers session. JJ seemed...well...kind of bored. I don't know, I just didn't get a vibe from him that he wanted to answer any questions.

Most people asked questions of Bana, Quinto, and Pine. One soldier stood up and asked Qunito if he wouldn't mind talking to his daughter on his cell. So this soldier called his daughter back in the states really quick told her to hang on a sec and gave the phone to Zach and he talked to her for a few minutes. It was pretty cool.

I did get to chat a bit with Zach and with Karl Urban who was really cool and down to earth.

Overall an awesome experience, but JJ was just kind of blah compared to the rest. Maybe he just doesn't like interviews?

I remember that Quinto incident from back in 2009. Pretty cool indeed.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Not everyone who works behind the camera or behind the scenes in the movie industry actually enjoys or does well with public attention. Real celebrity is the exception rather than the rule, even now, for directors and writers and producers. For someone in Abrams's position making the kinds of films he does it's doubtless a disadvantage if he doesn't enjoy the "selling" part of it - but not much of one.

 

[Nerys Myk]

It's necessary to promote the film beyond the "fanbase".

Yeah, because I'm an idiot who doesn't know that.

Shit, this has become tedious. I was "annoyed" by Abrams for like 35 seconds anyway.

.

Yet you keep banging away at it.

Movies "made for Star Trek fans"=

Nemesis (point made)

IIRC, it was directed by a guy who knew nothing about Star Trek, cared nothing about Star Trek, and was a dick to everyone on the set.

Alot of directors are dicks. IIRC James Cameron isn't exactly beloved by actors.

How much "love" or "knowledge" did guys like Wise or Meyer have for Star Trek? Its largely irrelevant to making a good film.

 

[Sigokat]

I met JJ and the cast of ST09 when they came to Camp Arifjan, Kuwait to premiere the first movie to US Soldiers. After the movie (which you had to get a ticket for and luckily I got one) the cast and JJ did a questions and answers session. JJ seemed...well...kind of bored. I don't know, I just didn't get a vibe from him that he wanted to answer any questions.

Most people asked questions of Bana, Quinto, and Pine. One soldier stood up and asked Qunito if he wouldn't mind talking to his daughter on his cell. So this soldier called his daughter back in the states really quick told her to hang on a sec and gave the phone to Zach and he talked to her for a few minutes. It was pretty cool.

I did get to chat a bit with Zach and with Karl Urban who was really cool and down to earth.

Overall an awesome experience, but JJ was just kind of blah compared to the rest. Maybe he just doesn't like interviews?

I remember that Quinto incident from back in 2009. Pretty cool indeed.

Did it makes the news or something? Or were you there as well?

Or maybe he did it for somebody else? I just ask because I didn't think it was "newsworthy" that anyone not in there would have known about that wasn't there.

What unit where you in at AJ?

(and I'm not trying to sound "accusing"....I've jsut never ran into another trooper on a message board that was somewhere I was at the same time)

 

[SalvorHardin]

I met JJ and the cast of ST09 when they came to Camp Arifjan, Kuwait to premiere the first movie to US Soldiers. After the movie (which you had to get a ticket for and luckily I got one) the cast and JJ did a questions and answers session. JJ seemed...well...kind of bored. I don't know, I just didn't get a vibe from him that he wanted to answer any questions.

Most people asked questions of Bana, Quinto, and Pine. One soldier stood up and asked Qunito if he wouldn't mind talking to his daughter on his cell. So this soldier called his daughter back in the states really quick told her to hang on a sec and gave the phone to Zach and he talked to her for a few minutes. It was pretty cool.

I did get to chat a bit with Zach and with Karl Urban who was really cool and down to earth.

Overall an awesome experience, but JJ was just kind of blah compared to the rest. Maybe he just doesn't like interviews?

I remember that Quinto incident from back in 2009. Pretty cool indeed.

Did it makes the news or something? Or were you there as well?

Or maybe he did it for somebody else? I just ask because I didn't think it was "newsworthy" that anyone not in there would have known about that wasn't there.

What unit where you in at AJ?

(and I'm not trying to sound "accusing"....I've jsut never ran into another trooper on a message board that was somewhere I was at the same time)

No I wasn't there,sorry. It just made the news on a few sites.

In fact, here's the article on Trekmovie.
http://trekmovie.com/2009/04/11/aba...roops-in-kuwat-report-pics-more-st09-tidbits/

 

[JonnyBoy]

Movies "made for Star Trek fans"=

Nemesis (point made)

IIRC, it was directed by a guy who knew nothing about Star Trek, cared nothing about Star Trek, and was a dick to everyone on the set.

Movies "made for everyone"=
The Wrath of Khan
The Voyage Home
The Undiscovered Country
First Contact

Star Trek

I don't think TUC was made for "everyone", and neither was FC. ST IV definitely WAS, though. Even more so than ST09. And it still remains my favorite.

1. True, but the script was written by a huge Star Trek fan, and a big TNG fan, especially.

2. TUC dealt with a central issue that reflected big, real world political events. And the marketing played to the general audience's familiarity with the Star Trek brand (a brand at the height of its popularity at the time). First Contact, by Ron moore's own admissions, was aimed squarely at the Star Wars/General Audience crowd, by using the most recognizable, fan-favorite elements from TNG, and the time-travel element that worked so well for TVH, the big box-office earner of the series (and one of my own favorites, as well!).

I think Gene Roddenberry was right that, in the right hands, creative minds could come along and take Star Trek into new and amazing frontiers. We are witnessing what he hoped would happen

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

I haven't heard anyone who actually works with Abrams suggest that he's difficult or a "dick." Very much the opposite.

Doubtless there are folks in the business who don't like him, though. That's always the case.

TUC is the epitome of a movie made for Trek fans. It didn't do terribly well, and put the final nail in the coffin of the TOS-based films.

Here's the thing: smart business people don't keep doing the same thing over and over until they lose money if they can help it. They look at the trends - is a product returning less money this year than last, how long has that been going on, what are our options for changing that - and then they make their business plans according. This is why, for example, TV shows are cancelled because of falling ratings despite the fact that on a given week the ratings don't look bad in isolation - because the bean counters see that given the ratings projections they used to sell the show to sponsors and based on the show's repeated failure to make those numbers they know that the show is going to cost them more and more in give-backs if they don't kill it.

By the same token, Paramount was smart in 1992 - TOS was still making them a little money, but not much, so they switched horses over to TNG before they actually lost money on a TOS-based film - and not so smart in 2003, when they made a fairly expensive film to follow up a fairly expensive film that hadn't done very well at the box office. They guessed wrong.

 

[Sigokat]

I remember that Quinto incident from back in 2009. Pretty cool indeed.

Did it makes the news or something? Or were you there as well?

Or maybe he did it for somebody else? I just ask because I didn't think it was "newsworthy" that anyone not in there would have known about that wasn't there.

What unit where you in at AJ?

(and I'm not trying to sound "accusing"....I've jsut never ran into another trooper on a message board that was somewhere I was at the same time)

No I wasn't there, it just made the news on a few sites.

In fact, here's the article on Trekmovie.
http://trekmovie.com/2009/04/11/aba...roops-in-kuwat-report-pics-more-st09-tidbits/

Wow that is cool! I never knew that it made the news on fan sites!

I think I see my head in that pictures labeled "Troops Gather to meet stars of Star Trek" over by Quinto or Urban.

Wow...seeing that theater again just brought back some memories LOL

Thanks for posting the link...too cool!!

 

[Mach5]

I haven't heard anyone who actually works with Abrams suggest that he's difficult or a "dick." Very much the opposite.

Good, because we were talking about Stuart Baird.

 

[SalvorHardin]

Did it makes the news or something? Or were you there as well?

Or maybe he did it for somebody else? I just ask because I didn't think it was "newsworthy" that anyone not in there would have known about that wasn't there.

What unit where you in at AJ?

(and I'm not trying to sound "accusing"....I've jsut never ran into another trooper on a message board that was somewhere I was at the same time)

No I wasn't there, it just made the news on a few sites.

In fact, here's the article on Trekmovie.
http://trekmovie.com/2009/04/11/aba...roops-in-kuwat-report-pics-more-st09-tidbits/

Wow that is cool! I never knew that it made the news on fan sites!

I think I see my head in that pictures labeled "Troops Gather to meet stars of Star Trek" over by Quinto or Urban.

Wow...seeing that theater again just brought back some memories LOL

Thanks for posting the link...too cool!!

It must have been quite the experience, meeting the actors and seeing the movie in Kuwait of all places.

 

[Sigokat]

No I wasn't there, it just made the news on a few sites.

In fact, here's the article on Trekmovie.
http://trekmovie.com/2009/04/11/aba...roops-in-kuwat-report-pics-more-st09-tidbits/

Wow that is cool! I never knew that it made the news on fan sites!

I think I see my head in that pictures labeled "Troops Gather to meet stars of Star Trek" over by Quinto or Urban.

Wow...seeing that theater again just brought back some memories LOL

Thanks for posting the link...too cool!!

It must have been quite the experience, meeting the actors and seeing the movie in Kuwait of all places.

It was cool and I'm glad I got to go considering it was in the middle of the duty day (I did go back and watch it a second time that same night but the cast wasn't there the second time, they were already on their way back to the airport).

They did give us free Rockstar drinks which was cool as well since usually you can't have anything but water in the theater room.

Meeting Qunito and Urban was cool. I really like Urban from LOTR and when I talked to him I felt silly but I told him that I loved his performance as McCoy and that DeForrest Kelley would have been proud of how Urban played the character. He said something like "Really? You think so? Thank you for saying so." and he was sincere so I think it meant something to him to hear that.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Urban is a big fan of TOS, and at an earlier point in his career even got involved in projects that were close to being sf fan films of one kind or another.

 

[DarthTom]

Paramount's businesspeople are quite able to read a balance sheet. What they're doing now works better than what they were doing before. Therefore, they'll continue to do it. Kissing the asses of a few thin-skinned fans is not on the menu, I'm afraid.

These two charts tell the business side of the story quite nicely:

Edited to add: It's surprising that Trek the motion picture still has bested all of them including Abrams.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

TMP has been around for over thirty years, is why. Give ST 2009 another five.

 

[DarthTom]

TMP has been around for over thirty years, is why. Give ST 2009 another five.

That's true. The two blue blips where TNG got 16 and 18 milion viewers which doesn't conform to the ratings trends must have been the Borg Episodes and the final one. Also, TNG was doing in syndication as well or even better than the The Walking Dead is today.

In any case, if Paramount was smart they'd hire Abrams to take over the franchise indefinately.

 

[Mach5]

In any case, if Paramount was smart they'd hire Abrams to take over the franchise indefinately.

(Almost) everyone has an expiration date. Plus, I doubt Abrams would be up for it. I don't think he'd want to be known as "Mr. Star Trek". He'll do a total of three or four movies, then pass the baton and move on.

 

[Franklin]

In any case, if Paramount was smart they'd hire Abrams to take over the franchise indefinately.

(Almost) everyone has an expiration date. Plus, I doubt Abrams would be up for it. I don't think he'd want to be known as "Mr. Star Trek". He'll do a total of three or four movies, then pass the baton and move on.

Let me complete your last sentence. "He'll do a total of three or four movies, then pass the baton and move on to direct a couple of "Star Wars" movies for Disney."

There.

 

[Nerys Myk]

In any case, if Paramount was smart they'd hire Abrams to take over the franchise indefinately.

(Almost) everyone has an expiration date. Plus, I doubt Abrams would be up for it. I don't think he'd want to be known as "Mr. Star Trek". He'll do a total of three or four movies, then pass the baton and move on.

Let me complete your last sentence. "He'll do a total of three or four movies, then pass the baton and move on to direct a couple of "Star Wars" movies for Disney."

There.

Then we can listen Star Wars fans bitching about movies being directed by that "Star Trek guy".