Talking with
The Hollywood Reporter while promoting his directorial debut,
People Like Us, screenwriter Alex Kurtzman managed to make time for some
Star Trek-related discussion. He shares a few new details regarding the upcoming sequel to J. J. Abrams' 2009 reboot, although the main focus of the discussion is the evolution that the crew of the Enterprise will undergo after their formation in the first movie and how the character of James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) will bear the responsibility as the new captain of the ship.
"I can say the assumption that we did not want to make was that just because he's in the chair and they're on the bridge together that they're the crew that you remember from the original series. They're not -- the crew from the original series had gone on many, many journeys, they were a well-oiled machine in terms of how they function, and these characters are still figuring out who they are and who they are to each other. And I did not want to jump so far ahead that we missed a really important emotional connection to that transition for them."
"[Jim Kirk] inherits the Enterprise at the end of Star Trek but that doesn't mean he fully understands what it means to be Captain. It just means, oh, he has the Enterprise now -- so now what? He's never sent men and women to their deaths before, so what's going to happen when that kind of question comes up for him? I guess I normally look at it from a place of pure character."
Additionally, Kurtzman also explains why he is supportive of the decision to push the movie's release date back and how it is highly advantageous to the process of writing the story.
"We were supposed to be out this year in theaters, and part of why we all collectively said we really shouldn't do this is because we put a lot of love and time and effort into making this without violating canon, and yet bring something totally new to the table when it came to Star Trek. The last thing we wanted to do was destroy that by letting a speed mandate mess up our storytelling, and we just felt we weren't ready. So we wanted to take more time with the story to make sure that the story is as true to everything that keeps you watching one episode a night before bed. And you can't do that when you're rushing at a production level, either; the studio wanted us to shoot in 3D which is awesome, but what you don't want to do is rush through 3D. You want your storytelling and the sequences that you design and everything you conceptualize to be totally organic to the storytelling. And when you see a movie that is like that, that gives you that whole experience, you feel it -- you always feel it. And God bless [J.J. Abrams] for saying, 'We need another year.'"
Be sure to follow the link below to check out the full interview where the screenwriter also discusses
Prometheus criticisms (which is written by the movie's co-writer, Damon Lindelof) due to the plot's quizzical nature, and how it feels to be a part of a big franchise such as
Star Trek.
In the currently untitled sequel to J. J. Abrams' 2009 Star Trek reboot, actors Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, Anton Yelchin, John Cho, and Simon Pegg will return as the crews of the ship U.S.S. Enterprise to face a threat posed by a new mysterious villain. With Benedict Cumberbatch joining the cast as the main antagonist, the movie is set to be released on May 17, 2013.
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