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This article is about the 2009 film. For the first Star Trek film, see Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

Star Trek
File:StarTrekComicConposter.jpg Combined Comic-Con International posters
Directed by	J. J. Abrams
Written by	Screenplay: Roberto Orci Alex Kurtzman Characters: Gene Roddenberry
Produced by	J. J. Abrams Damon Lindelof Bryan Burk
Starring	Chris Pine Zachary Quinto Karl Urban Simon Pegg Zoe Saldana John Cho Anton Yelchin Eric Bana Leonard Nimoy
Cinematography	Daniel Mindel
Edited by	Mary Jo Markey Maryann Brandon
Music by	Michael Giacchino
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release dates	May 7, 2009: Australia New Zealand May 8, 2009: United Kingdom United States
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$130–$150 million (estimated)

Star Trek is a science fiction film directed by J. J. Abrams and written by Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman. It is the eleventh Star Trek film and a prequel to The Original Series, featuring all of the main characters, portrayed by a new cast. Leonard Nimoy reprises his role as the older Spock, who meets himself via time travel, and Eric Bana appears as the rogue Romulan Nero. The film is scheduled to be released on May 8, 2009 in North America and the United Kingdom.

Cast

• Chris Pine as James T. Kirk. The actor dropped out of starring in a film adaptation of White Jazz to take on the role. Pine said he wanted to evoke Kirk's characteristics, but not completely replicate William Shatner's performances. He also cited Harrison Ford's performances as Han Solo and Indiana Jones as an inspiration because of his "absolute grumpy manner; the accidental hero. Not to say that I modeled my version of James T. Kirk on anything in particular but I think I definitely have wanted to bring that kind of Harrison Ford humor to Kirk." After being cast, Pine sent William Shatner a letter, and received a reply wishing him good luck. Before Pine was officially cast in the role, it had been widely rumored that Matt Damon would play Kirk in the movie. Damon, upon hearing the rumors (including William Shatner giving him a "seal of approval" for the role) contacted Abrams to ascertain the truth, only to be told that the Kirk in the film was a younger man and he was "too old" for the part. Damon commented that if sequels are made featuring an older Kirk than portrayed by Pine, he would be interested in playing the role.
  • Jimmy Bennett plays James Kirk as a boy.

• Zachary Quinto as Spock. For the role, Quinto shaved his eyebrows and spent three hours a day having pointed ears and large earlobes applied, so as to match Nimoy's appearance. Adrien Brody had discussed playing the role with the director before Quinto was cast. Quinto said, "One of the things that drew me to this character is that he is constantly exploring that notion of how to evolve in a responsible way and how to evolve in a respectful way. I think those are all things that we as a society, and certainly the world could implement."
  • Leonard Nimoy plays the old Spock. Nimoy befriended Quinto after being cast in the role. Had Nimoy disliked the script, production would have been delayed for it to be rewritten. Roberto Orci said Nimoy's presence would "resolve continuity issues" and give an "appropriate transfer" to the new version of the Enterprise crew. Nimoy was "genuinely excited" by the script's scope and its detailing of the characters' backstories, saying, "We have dealt with aspects of [Spock being half-human, half-Vulcan], but never with quite the overview that this script has of the entire history of the character, the growth of the character, the beginnings of the character and the arrival of the character into the Enterprise crew."
  • Jacob Kogan will play Spock as a child.

• Karl Urban as Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy. Like Pine, Urban said of taking on the role that "it is a case of not doing some sort of facsimile or carbon copy, but really taking the very essence of what DeForest [Kelley] has done and honoring that and bringing something new to the table". Urban has been a fan of the show since he was seven years old and actively pursued the role.

• Simon Pegg as Montgomery "Scotty" Scott. To perform Scotty's accent, Pegg was assisted by his Scottish wife. He described Scotty as a positive Scottish stereotype, noting "Scots are the first people to laugh at the fact that they drink and fight a bit", and that Scotty comes a long line of Scots with technical expertise, such as John Logie Baird and Alexander Graham Bell. Years before, Pegg's character in Spaced joked that every odd-numbered Star Trek film being "shit" was a fact of life. Pegg noted "Fate put me in the movie to show me I was talking out of my ass."
  • Chris Doohan, the son of the original Scotty, James Doohan, makes a cameo appearance in the transporter room. Pegg has e-mailed Doohan about the role, and the actor has promised him his performance "would be a complete tribute to his father". Chris Doohan previously cameoed in Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
  • Paul McGillion auditioned for Scotty, and he impressed producers enough that he was given another role in the film.

• Zoe Saldana as Uhura. Abrams had liked her work and requested that she play the role. Saldana never saw the original series, but agreed to play the role after Abrams had complimented her. "For an actor, that's all you need, that's all you want. To get the acknowledgement and respect from your peers," she said. She met with Nichelle Nichols, who explained to her how she had created Uhura's background, and also named the character.

• John Cho as Hikaru Sulu. Abrams was concerned about casting a Korean-American as a Japanese-Filipino character, but George Takei explained to the director that Sulu was meant to represent all of Asia on the Enterprise, so Abrams went ahead with Cho. Cho acknowledged being an Asian-American, "there are certain acting roles that you are never going to get, and one of them is playing a cowboy. [Playing Sulu] is a realization of that dream — going into space." He cited the masculinity of the character as being important to him, and spent two weeks fight training. Cho suffered an injury to his wrist during filming, although a representative assured it was "no big deal". James Kyson Lee was interested in the part, but because Quinto was cast as Spock, the producers of the TV show Heroes did not want to lose another cast member for three months.

• Anton Yelchin as Pavel Chekov: As with the rest of the cast, Yelchin was allowed to choose what elements there were from their predecessor's performances. Yelchin decided to carry on Walter Koenig's speech patterns of replacing "v"s with "w"s. He described Chekov as an odd character, being a Russian who was brought on to the show "in the middle of the Cold War". He recalled a "scene where they're talking to Apollo [who says], 'I am Apollo.' And Chekov is like, 'And I am the czar of all Russias.' [...] They gave him these lines. I mean he really is the weirdest, weirdest character."

• Eric Bana as Nero, the film's Romulan villain. Bana compared his screentime to a cameo appearance, but said, "It's a really well-written script, great part. Couldn't say no. I don't actually look at the size of parts ever." Bana is a fan of the franchise, since being "a huge Trekkie when I was a kid", and felt "if I get compared to any of [the classic villains], I’ll be doing well". His scenes were shot later in principal photography.

• Clifton Collins, Jr. as General Ayel, Nero's henchman.
• Bruce Greenwood as Christopher Pike.
• Chris Hemsworth as George Samuel Kirk, Sr., Kirk's father.
• Jennifer Morrison as Winona Kirk, Kirk's mother.
• Brad William Henke as Frank, Kirk's abusive, alcoholic uncle.
• Spencer Daniels as George Samuel "Sam" Kirk, Jr., Kirk's older brother, who appears in a scene with Jimmy Bennett.
• Ben Cross as Sarek, Spock's father.
• Winona Ryder as Amanda Grayson, Spock's mother.
• Greg Ellis as Chief Engineer Olsen.
• Faran Tahir as Federation Captain Robau, George Kirk's commander.

Rachel Nichols and Diora Baird play Orions. Tyler Perry is playing the head of Starfleet Academy. Pavel Lychnikoff has an unknown role, while and James Cawley appears as a Starfleet officer. Lucia Rijker will be playing a Romulan communications officer. W. Morgan Sheppard, who played a Klingon in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, appears in this film as a different alien. A tribble will make an appearance in the film.

In September 2007, Star Trek fan and Carnegie Mellon University professor Randy Pausch was given a short cameo in the film. Pausch, who suffered from terminal pancreatic cancer, gave a lecture to 400 students which became viral, and eventually a subject of worldwide media attention. Abrams was so moved by the lecture he offered Pausch a small role as an Enterprise crew member. At first Pausch thought it was a joke, but he ended up flying to Los Angeles, meeting the cast and crew, and filming his part, which included delivering a line of dialogue. He also got to keep his costume and earned $217.06 in pay for his part in film, which he donated to charity. Pausch died on July 25, 2008, nearly 10 months before the release date of the film.

William Shatner has repeatedly said he would like to reappear as the old Kirk, despite the death of the character in Star Trek Generations. He suggested the film canonize the novels where Kirk is resurrected, but Abrams argued, "You and I could come up with dozens of ways [to resurrect Kirk], but every way that we came up with felt like it was transparently fanboys trying to get Shatner in the movie." Nimoy disliked the character's death in Generations, but felt resurrecting Kirk would also be detrimental to this film. Shatner added he wanted to share Nimoy's major role, and did not want a cameo. Nichelle Nichols was offered a cameo as Uhura's ancestor. Greg Grunberg, who is Abrams's "good luck charm", had to turn down a part in the film because he was busy doing another movie. Abrams approached Timothy Olyphant for a part. Ricky Gervais was offered a role, but turned it down because he was never a big fan of the franchise.

Production

Development

Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry considered making Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) a prequel to the television series. He later opposed Harve Bennett's prequel proposal in 1991 after the completion of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. In February 2005, following the financial failure of the tenth film, Star Trek Nemesis (2002), and the cancellation of the television series Star Trek: Enterprise, the franchise's executive producer Rick Berman and screenwriter Erik Jendresen were developing a new film, entitled Star Trek: The Beginning. It was to revolve around a new set of characters, led by a man named Tiberius Chase. It would take place after Enterprise but before Star Trek: The Original Series, during the Earth-Romulan War.

Meanwhile in 2005, J. J. Abrams, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman were filming Mission: Impossible III, and Paramount asked Orci for ideas to revive the franchise: he also proposed a prequel. The trio, plus producers Damon Lindelof and Bryan Burk felt the franchise had explored enough of what took place after the series. Abrams had not seen Star Trek Nemesis, and felt the franchise eventually "disconnected" for him, and also confessed he preferred Star Wars as a child. However, Orci considers himself and Lindelof to be trekkies, and feels some of the Star Trek novels have canonical value, although Gene Roddenberry never considered the novels to be part of the Star Trek canon. Lindelof stated Orci is a "true trekker", while he ranks himself 5/10 on the "spectrum of Trekkers" and Abrams, Kurtzman and Burk below that. Orci has indicated that where issues of canonicity are ambiguous, a "Supreme Court" consisting of himself, Kurtzman, Abrams, Burk and Lindelof acted as the final arbiters and that they did not "sweat every little detail [...] either you buy [our interpretation] or you don’t". The two novels that served as inspiration were Prime Directive and Spock's World. They also read graduate school dissertations on the series for inspiration. Orci said creating a reboot would be disrespectful to those who maintained a strong continuity in the franchise in the past.

It's how a family comes together. And then more specifically, the story of two brothers, Kirk and Spock. It's the first time [co-writer] Alex [Kurtzman] and I got to really write about our friendship, in a way. So that was a big inspiration for us — the coming together of opposites in a partnership that takes you to places you can't even believe.

—Writer Roberto Orci on the film's emotional context

Orci and Kurtzman said they wanted the general audience to like the film as much as the fans, by stripping away "technobabble", making it action-packed and giving it the simple title of Star Trek (to indicate to newcomers they would not need to watch any of the other films). Orci also compared Kirk and Spock to John Lennon and Paul McCartney, and called Kirk, Spock and McCoy Shakespearian archetypes. Orci noted he wanted to introduce strong Starfleet captains, concurring with an interviewer most Starfleet captains in past films were cannon fodder written to simply make Kirk look great. Humor was an essential part of the script, as Abrams noted "Without comedy (my fave TOS eps had great wit), the audience finds their own places to laugh. And in a world of humans and aliens, that could be disastrous." Abrams, Burk, Lindelof, Orci and Kurtzman are all fans of the second film, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, while Orci stated they looked towards the first Romulan story, "Balance of Terror", for inspiration. The writers also noted the influence of Star Wars, particularly in terms of pacing.

On February 23, 2007, Abrams accepted Paramount's offer to direct the film, having been only attached as producer. Steven Spielberg had discussed the project with him while Abrams was visiting the Transformers set, and was impressed by the script. (Spielberg later visited Abrams on the Star Trek set and gave advice on the action sequences.) Abrams's wife Katie felt the script had strong female characters: Orci noted his, Kurtzman, Abrams and Lindelof's wives had consulted on the script to make the women as strong as possible, because "Trek is so much about equality and women’s rights." Abrams also signed on when he heard Orci and Kurtzman were lining up other directors, explaining "I would be so agonizingly envious of whoever stepped in and directed the movie and I just thought I've got to direct this", because "when the script came in, it was so well written, it was so emotional, it was fun, and big and I found myself unable to not direct it!" Orci and Kurtzman felt their aim had been to impress a casual fan like Abrams with their story.

Star Trek is the first film in the franchise where Paramount collaborated with other production companies to finance the film. J. J. Abrams' company, Bad Robot Productions, and Bill Todman Jr.'s Level 1 Entertainment produced the film with Paramount. The film's budget has been estimated at over US$130 million, with Leonard Nimoy indicating an approximate US$150 million final figure, the largest for any Star Trek film to date.

Filming

The Oviatt Library at California State University, Northridge was used for shots of Starfleet Academy

Filming began on November 7, 2007. The shoot was to last eighty-five days, taking place on eleven sets built at the Paramount backlot, as well as two weeks of location shooting in Iceland. Filming was also done at the City Hall of Long Beach, California; Vasquez Rocks (a location used in the classic episode "Arena"); and the California State University, Northridge (which was used for establishing shots of students at Starfleet Academy). A car park outside Dodger Stadium was used for a section of a Romulan drilling rig, and an industrial location was used for the Enterprise's engines (although the rest of the ship's rooms were built as sets). Principal photography finished on March 27, 2008, although second unit filming took place during early April in Bakersfield, California, standing in for Kirk's childhood home in Iowa.

Following the commencement of the Writers Guild of America strike on November 5, 2007, Abrams, himself a WGA member, told Variety that while he would not render writing services for the film and intended to walk the picket line, he did not expect the strike to impact his directing of the production. In the final few weeks before the strike and start of production, Abrams and Damon Lindelof polished the script a final time. The strike was stressful for Abrams during filming, as lines could never be changed, whereas normally the actors would have been able to improvise and collaborate on new ideas. Orci said there will not be any reshoots or rewrites after the strike ended. Lines may still be altered with dubbing.

The production team maintained heavily enforced security around the film. Karl Urban revealed, "[There is a] level of security and secrecy that we have all been forced to adopt. I mean, it's really kind of paranoid crazy, but sort of justified. We're not allowed to walk around in public in our costumes and we have to be herded around everywhere in these golf carts that are completely concealed and covered in black canvas. The security of it is immense. You feel your freedom is a big challenge." Actors including Jennifer Morrison were only given the scripts of their scenes. The film's shooting script has also been fiercely protected, even with the main cast. Actor Simon Pegg said "when I read [the script], I read it with a security guard near me – it's that secretive". The film is known within the industry by the fake working title Corporate Headquarters.

Effects

Abrams stated the difficulty of depicting the future was that much of modern technology was inspired by the original show, and made it seem outdated. Thus the production design had to be consistent with the series but also feel more advanced than the technology developed after it. The design work for the film was primarily done by Transformers designer Ryan Church and Trek veteran John Eaves. NASA Imaging Science leader Carolyn Porco is a consultant on planetary science and imagery for the film.

Industrial Light & Magic is creating the visual effects. Visual effects supervisors Roger Guyette and Sherri Hanson worked with Abrams on Mission: Impossible III. Abrams avoided using bluescreen and greenscreen as much as possible, with the exception of one scene, because it "makes me insane". Instead, he used special effects to extend the scale of sets and locations. For example, when filming at California State University, bluescreens were placed to hide palm trees, and a silver Aptera Typ-1 was placed in a corner of the location.

Actor Clifton Collins, Jr. described the film's faction of Romulans as being modelled after pirates. He stated he and other Romulan actors spent two to four hours applying make-up. The actors shaved their heads for the roles to differentiate them from Vulcans. Previous series in the franchise attempted this by designing the Romulans with ridged foreheads.

Music

Michael Giacchino, the composer for several other Abrams projects, is scoring Star Trek. He will keep the original theme by Alexander Courage. Giacchino admitted personal pressure in scoring the film, as "I grew up listening to all of that great [Trek] music, and that's part of what inspired me to do what I'm doing... You just go in scared. You just hope you do your best. It's one of those things where the film will tell me what to do." Scoring began in September 2008.

Release

In February 2008, Paramount announced they would move Star Trek from its December 25, 2008 release date to May 8, 2009. The move was not due to the end of the WGA strike, but to the studio feeling that more audiences would go and see the film during summer than winter. The film will still be practically finished by the end of 2008. The studio chose May 8 because it avoided competition with X-Men Origins: Wolverine and Angels & Demons, out in the same month. Paramount's decision came about after visiting the set and watching dailies, as they realized the film could appeal to a much broader audience. Even though the filmmakers liked the Christmas release date, Damon Lindelof acknowledged it would allow more time to perfect the visual effects.

Marketing

File:Star-trek-uss-enterprise-b.gif

The USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) under construction on Earth

The first teaser trailer debuted in theaters with Cloverfield on January 18, 2008. The teaser depicts the Enterprise being built on Earth, which Roberto Orci acknowledged would cause debates among fans regarding canon. Explaining that the concept came from their own creative license and the precedent set in Star Trek novels, he said that the idea that some things have to be constructed in space is normally associated with "flimsy" objects which have to be delicately assembled and would not normally be required to enter a gravity well. He said that this did not apply to the Enterprise because of the artificial gravity employed on the ship and its requirement for sustaining warp speed, and therefore the calibration of the ship's machinery would be best done in the exact gravity well which is to be simulated.

Abrams himself directed the first part of the trailer, where a welder removes his goggles. Professional welders were hired for the teaser. The voices of the 1960s which play over the trailer were intended to link the film to the present day; John F. Kennedy in particular was chosen because of similarities with the character of James T. Kirk and because he is seen to have "kicked off" the space race. Orci explained that: "If we do indeed have a Federation, I think Kennedy’s words will be inscribed in there someplace." A new trailer will be released in November 2008.

IDW Publishing will release a comic book entitled Star Trek Countdown on April 15, 2009, presenting Nero's backstory. The comic is created by Orci, Kurtzman, Tim Jones and Mike Johnson. Master Replicas will create collectible items for the film, while Playmates Toys will create action figures and toy ships for the film. Playmates had previously owned the toy license to Star Trek until 2000. Diamond Select/Art Asylum will still own the rights to items based on previous incarnations of the franchise.

External links

• Official website
• NCC-1701 Viral campaign
• Official website of the Star Trek franchise

• Star Trek at IMDb
• Star Trek at AllMovie
• Star Trek at Memory Alpha