Friday, March 31, 2006

Star Trek XI continues to go nowhere


From Sci-fipulse, '"What are the chances of an 11th Star Trek movie? That is the question which has Star Trek fans world wide sitting on the edge of their seats with there ears wide open listening for any rumour that makes sense.

As we’re all aware the box office failure of ‘Star Trek Nemesis’ was a terrible blow to the Star Trek Universe and when you add to that the premature cancellation of ‘Star Trek: Enterprise’ the prospects for a new series or movie do not look great.

Yet as fans we will grasp at straws and hold our esteemed heroes up in the air and float on every word they say. Well some of us will anyway, the rest of us will probably bang our collective heads against the walls of a white padded cell.

The last news we heard about the proposed 11th Movie from Rick Berman was that the paramount suits were still looking at the Erik Jendresen Prequel script which was titled ‘Star Trek: Beginnings’. A matter of weeks went by and Patrick Stewart boldly announced that some Paramount executives had approached him about the possibility of him starring in the 11th Star Trek movie, which would probably feature cast members from all the different modern Star Trek shows. This in turn spawned fan speculation about the movie being based upon William Shatners failed Mirror Universe pitch, which was rejected in favour of the ‘In A Mirror Darkly’ episode of ‘Star Trek: Enterprise’.

So we have heard plenty of rumours but no actual news. Actors who have been involved with Star Trek are of mixed minds about the franchise. Jonathon Frakes is of the opinion that the market place for Star Trek is saturated, i.e. no more room in the Star Trek Inn, and feels that Enterprise’s cancellation was somewhat inevitable given the current trends in television.

“One of the problems with Enterprise was that there has been four Star Trek series' before it. Even the strength of the real hard-core Trekkers isn't strong enough to carry a show in this marketplace. I have a feeling that some time will allow everyone to have a little more hunger for a new Star Trek endeavour.”

It turns out that Doug Mirabello PA to Rick Berman claims that Paramount pretty much feels the same. In a statement made on line recently Mirabello revealed that the Jendresen script has been canned. Though as yet there hasn’t been any comment directly from Rick Berman to either confirm or deny this. Berman has however talked briefly about Patrick Stewarts claims about having been approached. In fact Berman in a brief statement to the official UK Star Trek Magazine said he was taking the rumours with a pinch of salt.

“If you notice, the stories say ‘names important people in Hollywood,’ but that’s not people at Paramount, I don’t think,” said Berman. As to Patrick Stewart reprising the role of Captain in the rumoured movie. “I have no idea what that’s all about. I’ve read that he says he’s open to doing another movie and then I’ve read he’s said ‘I’m too old to do another movie.’ So I have no idea what that is. And anything I’d say to speculate would be silly.”

It is of some note that Berman did not confirm or deny the report from his PA that the Jendresen Script had been canned. So my guess is as good as yours.

One person who does sum all the rumours up well is Star Trek Expert Larry Nemecek who explained that Star Trek would never die. The amount of rumour and speculation about new movie projects as well as TV projects is probably just the tip of the iceberg. As we all know many media outlets especially in the mainstream had wrote Star Trek off. However Nemecek in his regular column for Star Trek Magazine summed up with the following closing statement.

“Star Trek is far too valuable to hibernate forever, both commercially and, thankfully, culturally… as long as it stays true to Gene Roddenberry’s vision.”

“So stay tuned folks – Hollywood has a notoriously short memory, and profits are measured quarter by quarter. The push for Star Trek’s return will come sooner rather than later; our only concern is who will be in charge and how much clout they will wield on the project, for good or ill – based on how much background and fan concern they bring to it.”

So in closing I like all the other fans out there will still have to speculate on all the rumours until something official comes out via Paramount.'

3 comments:

Octopunk said...

What's weird is that the idea of Trek taking a break for a while has been in discussion (at least among my friends) for some years now, but the actual process of lying down to rest is taking FOREVER.

JPX said...

Good point! It's weird because they have been taking a break but you'd never know it because every week we get a new report about the status of Trek. I say wait 5 years.

Anonymous said...

They have no idea what the hell they're doing.

The basic problem, as I see it: On the one hand, Star Trek is good; Star Trek is great. We all like Star Trek. It's historically significant; it's part of our childhoods; it's a high-water-mark in the history of sci fi because of how it popularized something that previously had a fringe following.

On the other hand, do we really need to keep watching every week as the captain makes a log entry, a spaceship model orbits a planet, everyone falls out of their chairs on a round set with a big phone screen in the front, and all the guys with rubber masks on their faces introduce their phoney-baloney problem (the solution of which involves phasers, transporter, talking a lot, and gizmos that play your heartbeat through a speaker)? Isn't it all, I mean, kind of played at this point?

Malevolent

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