Corona | Coming Attractions

There's very little news surfacing about the project at this stage of its development, so when one of the actors from last summer's Star Trek mentions the start date for the sequel, it gets noticed. Such a comment came from Bruce Greenwood when he told Hollywood.com that the plan is for filming on the Star Trek sequel to begin in January 2011. Greenwood didn't know if he would be coming back to reprise his role as former Enterprise captain Christopher Pike but he did say that he was "husting for it."

Backstage at the Saturn Awards, writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman were interviewed by Collider and asked as to the progress of the next Star Trek movie. The duo said they are about halfway through writing the story, and when the big question popped up about whether they had identified who or what the villain will be in the movie, Kurtzman said that they are still "circling" that conundrum.

June 29, 2012. That's when we can expect to see the new cast of Star Trek return for their second cinematic adventure. With the announcement Paramount is the first to claim a prime spot in the summer of '12, the weekend directly in front of the Fourth of July holiday.

No other details were released by the studio. All of the seven principal cast members making up the Enterprise bridge officers have signed on for two sequels, so expect them to stick around for at least another mission.

Coming Soon has posted a rumor they've heard from unidentified sources that, if the sequel to 2009's Star Trek were to go into production today and if the of Khan Noonian Singh were to be in the sequel, that the part would be played by Nestor Carbonell.

The connection between J.J. Abrams' camp and Carbonell is there. On Lost the actor has played the enigmatic character of Richard Alpert, one of The Others who doesn't seem to age.

The site stresses that no decision has yet been made as to whether the new Trek movie will even feature the character of Khan in it.

There's two new bits of talk from people associated to the Star Trek sequel to report from this weekend. A the 2009 Screenwriting Expo screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman were asked by Coming Soon's Heather Newgen how things were going on the second movie's storyline. "We're rereading some of our favorite Star Trek novels now and watching the original series again," Orci told the reporter. "The honest answer is we don't know yet. We think it's going to be a 2012 release, but I'm not sure."

Over at the Scream 2009 awards Collider's Steve Weintraub spoke with Karl Urban and asked him the same question. The actor who plays Dr. McCoy said that he believes the plan is to shoot the movie "mid to end next year," and that it would be "great to have another Star Trek out by 2011."

Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman spoke with Coming Soon and gave the latest on what's in their minds for the next Star Trek movie's storyline, which they're working on:

• On bringing in villains like The Borg to fight Kirk: "I think we would think about it, because we do love The Next Generation."
• On making the next two Treks back-to-back: "Whether the story prescribes there will be more than one. Part of what is great about Star Trek is that it's a continuing adventure so you naturally think that there will be many, hopefully. But we only focus on what comes next and then build off of that. So, right now we are not thinking specifically about making two and three. It may come up but it's not where our heads are right now."
• On introducing Khan into the altered Trek universe: "There are mental exercises we play with them – in fact ,we even at one point had one conversation I think was all about the first movie. It could have ended on '…and then the Botany Bay floats by.' You can't be fans of this and not sit around one night and go 'What if we…?' So we've gone through probably whatever you've gone through in your minds."
• On what a Star Trek sequel has to live up to: "You need to have been able to not have seen the first movie to appreciate the second one. I think that for us it's always about going back to the sequels that we loved as kids and asking ourselves why we loved them. Empire Strikes Back, Superman 2, Aliens, Terminator 2, Star Trek 2, what do all of those movies have in common? Well, they are amazing stories all on their own. You didn't have to see the first movie. There was some incredibly emotional test of character in all of those movies. Superman has to give up his powers for love. The Spock and Kirk relationship is being tested by Kahn. Ripley finding a daughter, essentially. All of those things are such big ideas in and of themselves. And you really can't tell those kinds of stories in movie #1, because movie #1 is very much about establishing a world."

For those of us searching for any little clue about what to expect in the next Star Trek movie, Zoe Saldana gives us our first true hard fact (if what she was promised pans out.) While talking to a reporter Saldana said, "[With Star Trek] I had so much fun but the boys got all the action. J.J. [Abrams] promised me that in the sequel [Uhura] will have at least one little fight scene. I'm like, 'Just let me kick a guy in the groin or something.'"

In an email to Ain't It Cool News, J.J. Abrams answers a rumor that Jack Black is the guy that is being considered to play the reimagined version of con man Harry Mudd in the Trek sequel. "Yes, talking to Jack Black about doing something -- but not Mudd," wrote the director. J.J. was quick to add that no one has had a meeting yet to discuss story ideas for movie #2 but that "I think that we should have a shitload more lens flares."

With J.J. Abrams Star Trek a proven hit (and a total domestic gross of $147.6 million in ten days so far) talk about the sequel's possible story direction is heating up. Abrams spoke with MTV after the good news about his film and, for the first time, had someone involved directly with the shaping of the sequel's storyline comment on possible ideas -- including the rebooted version of Khan Noonian Singh.

"It'll be fun to hear what Alex and Bob are thinking about Khan," Abrams told the website. "The fun of this timeline is arguing that different stories, with the same characters, could be equally if not more compelling than what's been told before ... [Khan and Kirk] exist — and while their history may not be exactly as people are familiar with, I would argue that a person's character is what it is.

"Certain people are destined to cross paths and come together, and Khan is out there ... even if he doesn't have the same issues."

Abrams also talked about the possibility that William Shatner could make an appearance in the sequel playing an older version of Kirk, one from the new timeline that's been established. "The point of creating this independent timeline is to not have the restrictions we had coming into this one. And one of those restrictions was that Kirk was dead," the director said, confirming that Kirk's death in Generations is out the window for the newly rebooted Trek's universe.

"It'll be fun to hear what Alex and Bob are thinking about Khan," Abrams told the website. "The fun of this timeline is arguing that different stories, with the same characters, could be equally if not more compelling than what's been told before."

While talking with Coming Soon, all three writers for the next Star Trek film were asked what, if any, work has been done on the storyline for the next Trek film. While Damon Lindelof, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci said that they have been waiting to see what the box office is like for the about-to-be-released film first before putting on their hard hats, they did say that they will be looking to the original series' 79 episodes for ideas for what we could be seeing in the next movie.

"We HAVE to look back," said Orci. "We are going back and getting a refresher course again."

"A lot of what you see in the movie there is a lot of crossover in terms of what happened in their lives. I think we see this new timeline as in harmony with the old timeline. You'll see a lot of the characters through a slightly different lens," added Kurtzman.

When the interviewer suggested Oscar-winner Javier Bardem as someone who could play Khan if the writers decide to use that established Star Trek character, Lindelof said "Come on. That's a no-brainer. That would be the most amazing thing ever. Who would even what to see these [new] guys then? That's the problem. You would just watch them for scenery."

Could the older Spock once again appear in a Star Trek movie? The man who originated the character more than 40 years ago is very open to the notion of donning Vulcan ear prosthetics again for a movie after J.J. Abrams about-to-be-released Star Trek reboot.

"If J.J. Abrams calls me, I answer the phone," Nimoy is quoted as saying on the Hitfix website. "I don't say 'never' anymore."

Nimoy indicated that it's still too early to talk hard mechanics of how a subsequent Star Trek movie adventure would find a way to bring back his character but he's very happy with the place where he last left Spock. "The character I portray in this film is much more like who I am today, personally. I am as close as possible to the character as I could ever be."

Paramount Pictures has asked Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman and Damon Lindelof to write a screenplay for a proposed sequel to their newly rebooted Star Trek franchise. Star Trek director J.J. Abrams and Bryan Burk will produce the second film underneath their Bad Robot shingle while Orci, Lindelof and Kurtzman will also receive full producer credit on the new picture. The script is expected to be turned into Paramount by Christmas and already the studio is thinking of a summer 2011 release for the second (and overall twelfth) Star Trek movie.

Lindelof said two comments worthy of note to Variety. "There's obviously a lot of hubris involved in signing on to write a sequel of a movie that hasn't even come out yet," he commented to the trade outlet. "But we're so excited about the first one that we wanted to proceed."

The second remark addresses where the sequel's storyline could go. "Obviously we discussed ideas, but we are waiting to see how audiences respond next month," said Lindelof. "With a franchise rebirth, the first movie has to be about origin. But with a second, you have the opportunity to explore incredibly exciting things. We'll be ambitious about what we'll do." [Full story]