[quote]
PARAMOUNT PICTURES, SKYDANCE AND BAD ROBOT
ANNOUNCE A FOURTH “STAR TREK” FILM
CHRIS PINE AND CAST TO BE JOINED BY CHRIS HEMSWORTH, WHO RETURNS TO THE BLOCKBUSTER FRANCHISE AS GEORGE KIRK
HOLLYWOOD, CA (July 18, 2016) – Paramount Pictures, Skydance and Bad Robot today announced that the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise will return to the big screen for another voyage.
In the next installment of the epic space adventure, Chris Pine’s Captain Kirk will cross paths with a man he never had a chance to meet, but whose legacy has haunted him since the day he was born: his father.
Chris Hemsworth, who appeared in 2009’s “STAR TREK,” will return to the space saga as George Kirk to star alongside Pine.
The remaining cast is expected to return.
J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay will write the screenplay. J.J. Abrams and Lindsey Weber will produce through Bad Robot Productions. David Ellison and Dana Goldberg of Skydance will executive produce.[/quote]
The probably could work around the Chekov absence, with a focus on Kirk, Bones, and Spock. And then cameo in Sulu/Scotty/Uhura somewhere. Whatever the do it will be interesting to see.
I’ve been watching the Trek series (TOS, TNG and Enterprise) a lot lately. I really like how they built a world where first we were flying around in what amount to a space submarine, didn’t know what the hell we were doing, but were out there exploring and meeting people. There is a great epiaode early on where they find a planet dying of a genetic condition and decide not to help them. There is no Prime Directive yet and they have to discuss what to do amongst the crew.
Then we move to an age where we are a bit more powerful and coordinated, and The Federation exists. Still the ship looks pretty barren and work like. Finally we arrive in the TNG time and humanity has got it pretty worked out. The ship is now a moveable city with children, a school, lots of recreation, and tons of science. It fills me with hope and wondwr that humanity might achieve this someday. This is the draw of Star Trek to me.
What Lin (and the other directors of the new series) has done is take this idea and thrown it all away in favor of big action set pieces. He’s thrown all of that rich history and optimism away and made grim dark blow up movies. I don’t mind blowup movies but couldn’t they have come up with a new IP? Why does Hollywood take IPs like Star Trek, Superman, etc. and turn them into mindless nonsense?
Benedict Cumberbatch is a phenomenal actor but he was wasted as Khan. They could have gotten anyone to play that role because of the way the story was written and the film edited.
I’m super curious what the series by CBS next year will be like. Will we return to exploring and themes about the dangers of racism, superstition and greed? Or will it be blow up time again. Again, I don’t mind mindless action and set piece drama but Star Trek is like the last bastion of intelligent sci-fi that is real sci-fi. Criticism of our civilization disguised in a fantasy setting. I miss old Trek. I wish there was something similar to watch today. I have to go back in time to get my fix.
Does that include the previous movies like Undiscovered Country, Nemesis, and First Contact? First Contact was literally an effort to make Trek more like an action movie and appeal to non-Trek audiences. All three of these movies have some arguably lunk-headed set pieces.
I think it’s the tone. Tone matters. In First Contact we had the theme of going back in time to see what humanity was like and the theme of a great man thinking he’s not so great. Hero worship laid bare. Then you had Picard’s anger and hatred of The Borg and him starting to lose his own humanity because of it. From that we get that wonderful scene with him and the Earth woman where she calls him Ahab and he balks. That movie was good because of the themes and tone.
I’d say VI was similar. We see the Klingons in a new light and most of the movie is a murder mystery. Yes they did have the part in the Klingon prison but there was no over the top action scene I recall. What I got from that movie is that when a large nation is threatened internally, there will always be people that try to make villians of outsiders and use that to try and rally the people and seize leadership. It’s more of a political drama than anything.
I think I saw part of Nemesis, I heard it was bad because they tried to make it an action movie. Give me solid themes in my movies! Let me walk away from a Trek movie thinkiing, not just amused and ready for another action movie. There are soooo many mindless action movie franchises (Fast and Furious being one of them). Yay for them! I likey Trek with a lot more depth and thought.
(Oh, and the Borg were pretty cool in First Contact… as was the creepy Borg Queen).
But the Borg Queen was a great big old retcon of established Borg society, in a similar way that the alien queen in Aliens was a big old retcon of the xenomorph lifecycle. Regardless of the fact that both were pretty cool.
Undiscovered and First Contact are two of my favorites from the Trek movie verse. Nemesis… not so much.
I’d rather have an attempt to make these a little more mainstream than leave them on the shelves collecting dust so the former fans can feel comfortable with what they love. You can still love the older stuff and enjoy the newer pieces for what they are. It doesn’t diminish what was.
I love the old movies. (Well, most of them.) But I’m enjoying the newest iteration of Trek as well. I don’t find the flaws in Kelvin Timeline Trek any more egregious than some of the clunky stuff in the Prime Timeline. I’ll take Into Darkness any day over Nemesis.
A bit too early to judge the new one, I think (unless you’ve seen it?). I’ve heard rumbles that there’s some meat on the bones there for Star Trek fans. We’ll see.
The Wrath of Khan + Undiscovered Country = An amazing Star Trek movie night.
