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Small Screen, Big Screen: Star Trek

Hollywood is a pretty lazy town.  Rather than seek out new and innovative stories to tell they’d usually rather just make a quick buck bringing old television series to the big screen.  Some recent examples include STARSKY AND HUTCH, THE DUKES OF HAZARD, and CHARLIE’S ANGELS.  Pretty consistently these movies have all sucked, but they turned a profit, and that’s all that matters to Hollywood in the end.  Many critics are barking about this situation like it’s a new problem, bit it really isn’t.  It may be more prevalent now than it has in a while, but TV shows have made the move to the big screen for many years.  Perhaps the most notable series to make the move to the big screen is STAR TREK.  STAR TREK represents the best and worst of what can happen to a television series making the move to the big screen.  STAR TREK 2, 4, and 6 are classic sci-fi films and tell stories as strong, or stronger than any that were told on any of the STAR TREK television series.  Recent films in the franchise have been failures with NEMESIS being the worst, and the one responsible for nearly putting the franchise in a coffin.  But, Paramount needs some cash, so the franchise is being re-launched with a new cast, new writers, and new producers.  With that in mind STAR TREK seemed like the best place to start with this new series where we will discuss all we know about a film being made from old television series and make predictions about its success or failure. 

It’s been all over the news for sometime that writer/producer J.J. Abrams will be taking the reins on the new film in the franchise and that he’s being given more control over the story than any producer has in years.  Not that having more control would have helped the last film, look at ENTERPRISE, Brannon and Braga were given plenty of rope in that series and they hung themselves and the fans.  Abrams got the gig based on his last film for Paramount MISSION IMPOSSIBLE III.  Obviously it wasn’t based on the box office success of the film because while it made money, it wasn’t the tent pole that the studio had hoped for.  He got the gig based on the fact that the movie was good and that Abrams did a great job producing the film as well as directing it.  I think that film was a failure because Cruise has shown himself for what he is; a total nutcase.  MISSION IMPOSSIBLE III was easily as good as the first film in the series. 

Film may be the perfect medium for Abrams, who seems to get tired of television projects too quickly.  His method is to work hard to start a new series, make it some of the best TV on TV, and then leave it wither in the wind while he starts something new.  This happened with ALIAS and it seems to be happening now with LOST.  With a movie, or even a movie franchise he gets to make the movie and go on to other things, maybe returning years later if it’s a successful franchise.  Before LOST and ALIAS Abrams had a successful run as a writer on the television series FELICITY and he wrote screenplays or the story for ARMAGEDDON,  FOREVER YOUNG, and REGARDING HENRY.  So, as good as LOST and ALIAS were he isn’t infallible.  I feel like Abrams was honing his skills on those less than stellar films to bring him to where he is today.  Abrams seems to be better suited to writing and directing action or sci-fi because his latest endeavor, SIX DEGREES a new television series was not a success.  Even with his failures I have become an unabashed Abrams fan.  I loved the early seasons of ALIAS and of course the first two seasons of LOST were fantastic.  After ALIAS I decided I’d give anything he did, that was some sort of action/sci-fi thing anyway, a chance.  That’s how I originally discovered LOST and that’s why I actually went to the theater to see MISSION IMPOSSIBLE III and I wasn’t disappointed. 

Abrams has brought along two old friends to help write and produce the film; Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci.  As a producer Kurtzman was involved with XENA: WARRIOR PRINCESS, JACK OF ALL TRADES, and finally ALIAS.  So, no producing experience on major motion pictures but he has written for some.  Kurtzman penned the story and screenplay for the upcoming Michael Bay summer blockbuster TRANSFORMERS.  It’s too soon to tell if this film will actually be good or not but you can expect it too look really cool, and possibly be a bit shallow based on the Director’s track record.  Kurtzman also wrote MISSION IMPOSSIBLE III, the screenplay for THE LEGEND OF ZORRO, and THE ISLAND for the big screen.  Well, at least one of these films is good.  His track record, on the surface, concerns me.  There’s not a lot of really great filmmaking going on here.  THE ISLAND started off quite good before devolving into a Michael Bay typical blast fest.  I can’t comment on THE LEGEND OF ZORRO as I haven’t seen that one.  Based on what he’s done for film and TV it does seem that he can give a director what he wants though.  He and Abrams have a great working relationship too.  STAR TREK should feature some great space sequences but it’s not a twisty action film as ALIAS was on TV, so can he bring us something new to a genre he has previously failed at?  I do have more confidence in Abrams than Bay as far as being able to pick a script and spend time working with Kurtzman to make it good rather than just taking whatever Kurtzman writes and figuring out how many sepia tones and booms he can work in.  Roberto Orci has virtually the same credits as Kurtzman with again the bright spots being ALIAS and MISSION IMPOSSIBLE III. 

The executive producers working with Abrams are again people he’s worked with before either on LOST or ALIAS.  Stratton Leopold is a producer that Abrams worked with for the first time on MISSION IMPOSSIBLE III.  He has produced a number of big budget films such as PAYCHECK, THE SUM OF ALL FEARS, and BLESS THIS CHILD.  Looking at his career so far on IMDB won’t get you excited though, everything is pretty bad to mediocre. 

Some of the old crew is still in place for this film, and for the most part that’s a good thing.  I think had I seen the names Brannon or Braga I might have lost it, but happily they are long gone.  Jerry Goldsmith however is doing the music for this film as he has done since the very first film.  Herman Zimmerman is back on production design.  He’s been doing this job for STAR TREK since the NEXT GENERATION TV series.  I’m sure he’ll be bringing along the same crew that he used for previous films in the franchise too.  While the series definitely needs revitalizing and re-inventing, as a fan of some of the previous series and films, the familiarity in score and art design is comforting. 

There’s almost no real information out there about the story for the film.  There’s a pretty significant rumor that Abrams and crew are keen to revamp and reboot the franchise by starting with a new Captain Kirk.  Many fans and critics believed that the rumor of Matt Damon taking the part was a done deal but it’s not.  Damon recently said that he was interested and is looking forward to reading the script. So, the only thing we know to be true regarding the story is that Matt Damon wants to read the script, well so do we.  In a recent financial statement Paramount released to investors, they say that the film is scheduled for release in 2009.  Earlier reports stated that the studio had planned a summer ’08 release.  We haven’t heard that the production is already behind so it’s a little odd that the release date has been pushed so far up, especially since Abrams doesn’t have anything else on his plate at least as far as feature films anyway. 

The Prediction 

Sadly, the only person I have faith in at this point is Abrams himself, but the fact that he has enough faith in the team he has built gives me hope.  It’s been proven that he can get great things from these people even if when they work separate from him they seem to only be capable at mediocrity or total badness such as PAY CHECK.  Also, with the release of the last STAR TREK film and TV series I don’t see how the franchise could do any worse.  I have faith that Abrams will wrangle this crew into doing something that at least gives the franchise a positive reboot.  As he goes into the process of finalizing the writing and production of this film I hope he looks to Bryan Singer’s SUPERMAN RETURNS as an example of how horribly things can go if you worry to much about owing to what came before and not striving to do something completely new.