Will Star Trek Be Cool Again?
Entertainment Weekly sent over a look at their Star Trek issue. I've always been a Star Wars guy myself but I've never been opposed to Star Trek. There's room to like both. I think it's great that the franchise is getting re-booted.
There's been some...controversy about Shatner's lack of a cameo. I think cameos are great but need to be done discretely. I think, if possible, they should be done out of respect to whatever did the property first. It should not be done in a way that would distract or harm the new version. Having Shatner do a cameo would be hard. How can you look at him and not think about Captain Kirk. He claims to have been left out but has stated he wasn't interested. You can't have it both ways.
The time is right to add some new life to this franchise.
After 10 often dismal movies, Star Trek had turned into a pop culture punchline. Even people who’d built their entire careers around Trek could see the writing on the wall. “Star Trek,” says Leonard Nimoy, “had run its course.” But director J.J. Abrams believes he can make the franchise cool again. This week’s issue of Entertainment Weekly has the inside scoop on Abrams’ surprising, idealistic odyssey, which could become next summer’s multiplex juggernaut.
“I don’t think people even understand what Star Trek means anymore,” says Abrams. “All my smart friends liked Star Trek,” he says. “I preferred a more visceral experience.” Which is exactly why he accepted Paramount’s offer in 2005 to develop a new Trek flick; creatively, he was engaged by the possibility of a Star Trek movie “that grabbed me the way Star Wars did. I think a movie that shows people of various races working together and surviving hundreds of years from now is not a bad message to put out right now.”
You can read more here, including Abrams' response to Shatner's youtube video.