According to Trek Today:
Paramount Pictures announced today that Lost creator J.J. Abrams will co-write, produce and direct the eleventh Star Trek film, set for release in 2008.
According to an article in the Daily Variety, the new film will be a prequel to the original Star Trek series, featuring younger versions of characters like James T. Kirk and Spock. The movie will chronicle events such as their first meeting at Starfleet Academy and their first mission into outer space.
The as-yet untitled new film will be written by Abrams together with Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci. Abrams is the creator of television series such as Felicity, Alias and Lost, and will soon be making his debut as a feature film director with Paramount’s Mission Impossible: III. He’s also written the scripts for films such as Regarding Henry and Armageddon. Kurtzman and Orci cooperated with Abrams on the MI: III script, and were previously part of the Alias writing staff, as well as writing the scripts for films such as The Island and the upcoming Transformers movie.
This is an idea that’s been floating around for many years. I was never very enthusiastic about it when it first came up, and I’m not really any more enthusiastic about it now. On the other hand, the Trek movie franchise had been about tapped out. Indeed, I never went to see Star Trek: Nemesis or even rented the DVD (making it the only Trek film I haven’t seen multiple times), and that movie did very poorly at the box office for how much it cost to make. Clearly it needs a serious reimagining, but whether this is it I’m not so sure.
As for J. J. Abrams, I’ve tried to get into Lost, but never could, having watched a few episodes last season. In fact, I think the show’s overrated, at least from the episodes I did see. It sort of reminds me that I also think that The X-Files was a similarly overrated show with a huge cult following. It’s rather odd, given my love of SF. You’d think I’d be really into these shows. I’m not. I don’t dislike them, but Lost just doesn’t do enough for me to make the effort to watch it every week.
