What if... William Shatner was in STAR TREK?

Yes, of course he was in the TV show and seven feature films of 'Star Trek', the franchise, but what about the new movie?

From TrekMovie:

"Most fans can remember that one of the biggest debates around J.J. Abrams' Star Trek movie was about if it would (or should) include William Shatner. The film makers spoke of how they tried to find a way, but in the end felt it wouldn’t work. However, J.J. Abrams revealed that Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman did write a scene for Shatner, and today we have that scene for you to read.

Putting Shatner into Star Trek
TrekMovie received the scene below from one of our trusted sources and it has been verified to be the scene written for Shatner (but never shown to Shatner). The 'Alternate Scene B' actually creates alternative versions two scenes from the end of the movie: the moment between Spock Prime (Nimoy) and Spock (Quinto) in the hangar, plus the award ceremony with Kirk (Pine), Pike (Greenwood) and the Commandant (Tyler Perry).

Shatner would have played Kirk, but would have appeared as a recording. The timing of the recording is not stated, but would have have been before Star Trek Generations and therefore not violate the canon that Kirk was killed in Generations. J.J. Abrams has often noted that dealing with Kirk’s death was one of the hindrances of including him in the new Star Trek.

The Scene
Here it is…

—————————

ALTERNATE SCENE B

SPOCK PRIME
Then I ask that you do yourself a
favor… put away logic, and do what
feels right. The world you’ve inherited
lives in the shadow of incalculable
devastation… but there’s no reason you
must face it alone.

And from around his neck, he removes the PENDANT that
until now, we’ve only caught glimpses of. Places it on
the table beside his younger self. The feeling in his
eyes is profound…

SPOCK PRIME (CONT’D)
This was a gift to me. Representing…
a dream. One we were unable to fulfill.
(softly)
The way you can now.

And moves to the door. Stops. Offers the VULCAN SALUTE:

SPOCK PRIME (CONT’D)
As my customary farewell would appear
oddly self serving, I will simply say…
good luck.

Their eyes hold. Spock turns, disappearing into the
corridor. Young Spock stares at the empty doorway a
beat, his mind a jumble of thoughts. Looks to the
pendant… and realizes it’s a HOLO-EMITTER. After
considering a beat, he hits an activation button and a
MOVING HOLOGRAPHIC MESSAGE materializes before him:

CAPTAIN JAMES T. KIRK. WILLIAM SHATNER. As always,
brash, wry, confident — and SINGING:

KIRK/ SHATNER
Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to
you…
(stops, grins)
I know I know, it’s illogical to
celebrate something you had nothing to do
with, but I haven’t had the chance to
congratulate you on your appointment to
the ambassadorship so I thought I’d seize
the occasion… Bravo, Spock — they tell
me your first mission may take you away
for awhile, so I’ll be the first to wish
you luck… and to say…
(beat, emotional)
I miss you, old friend.

… and we’re PUSHING IN on Young Spock, taking in the
image of Kirk’s future self, the message, but above all —
the clear, unquestionable friendship these two men had…

INT. CORRIDOR – CONTINUOUS

As Spock Prime walks off down the corridor, he passes
right by a man conferring with a nurse — the man pauses,
turns… it’s SAREK. Suddenly overcome by a feeling that
the stranger who’s just passed him is… oddly familiar.

KIRK/SHATNER (V.O.)
I suppose I’d always imagined us…
outgrowing Starfleet together. Watching
life swing us into our Emeritus years…

INT. STARBASE ONE – HANGAR – ETERNAL NIGHT

MUSIC BUILDING — glass walls reveal THE ENTERPRISE at
dock, UTILITY CRAFTS floating around it, repairing.
Standing at attention in rows, THE ENTERPRISE CREW —
over four hundred of them wearing DRESS UNIFORMS — TRACK
DOWN the faces, all proud:

KIRK/SHATNER (V.O.)
I look around at the new cadets now and
can’t help thinking… has it really been
so long? Wasn’t it only yesterday we
stepped onto the Enterprise as boys?
That I had to prove to the crew I
deserved command… and their respect?

And we STOP ON YOUNG KIRK. Composed, focused, proud. A
man. And to every fan’s delight, finally wearing his
YELLOW SHIRT. The FEDERATION COMMANDANT stands at a
podium:

COMMANDANT
This assembly calls Captain James
Tiberius Kirk…

Kirk breaks from formation, pivots, marches down the
hangar — past UHURA… SULU… CHEKOV… SCOTTY. All
Beaming. Notably absent, is Spock. Kirk ascends the
stairs, snaps to attention:

COMMANDANT (CONT’D)
Your inspirational valor and supreme
dedication to your comrades are in
keeping with the highest traditions of
service and reflect utmost credit to
yourself, your crew, and the Federation.
By Starfleet Order 28455, you are hereby
directed to report to Commanding Officer,
USS Enterprise, for duty as his relief.

Kirk turns. Walks to… PIKE. In a wheelchair now,
wearing an ADMIRAL’S UNIFORM. Overnight, his hair’s
turned totally grey — but despite his trauma, his
pride’s overwhelming. They SALUTE each other:

KIRK
I relieve you, Sir.

PIKE
… I am relieved.

He opens a BOX in his lap — glorious in repose, a MEDAL:

PIKE (CONT’D)
And as Fleet Admiral, for your… unique
solution to the Kobayashi Maru, it’s my
honor to award you with a commendation
for original thinking.

Pike containing a smirk, pins the medal to Kirk’s
chest…

PIKE (CONT’D)
(a touch choked)
Congratulations, Captain.

KIRK
Thank you, Sir.

Kirk turns to the crowd. Eyes shining. WILD APPLAUSE.
OUR MUSIC SOARS. Bones leans in to Sulu, rolling his
eyes:

BONES
… Same ship, different day.

As Kirk rejoins his crew for hugs and congratulations, we
go to the BACK of the hangar… SPOCK PRIME. Watching.
Moved beyond words. He turns and leaves them to it… as
he goes…

KIRK/SHATNER (V.O.)
I know what you’d say — ‘It’s their turn
now, Jim…’ And of course you’re
right… but it got me thinking:

INT. STARFLEET HOSPITAL – EARTH – DAY

Our montage comes full circle as we END on Kirk’s
transmission:

KIRK/SHATNER
Who’s to say we can’t go one more round?
By the last tally, only twenty five
percent of the galaxy’s been chartered…
I’d call that negligent. Criminal even —
an invitation. You once said being a
starship captain was my first, best
destiny… if that’s true, then yours is
to be by my side. If there’s any true
logic to the universe… we’ll end up on
that bridge again someday.

Stops, grins. Because this is the part he needs to say
most…

KIRK/SHATNER
Admit it, Spock. For people like us, the
journey itself… is home.

Young Spock’s face. Lost in feelings that flood through
him.

—————————

But would Bill have done it?
Even if the Abrams team had decided to go ahead with this scene, there is no guarantee that Shatner would have done it. He had stated he 'does not do cameos' and the above scene appears to fall into the cameo category. Abrams had also stated that this 'no cameos' position of Shatner’s was part of their decision process not to include him in the film. Now that the scene is public, maybe Bill will make another one of his video blogs about it. One thing is for sure, this is not the last word on Shatner and the new Star Trek… there is still the sequel."

'No cameos'? Huh? What about Showtime and Fanboys? You're telling me those are starring roles?

Anyways, this would've been a poignent scene, if Shatner had shot it. Not that the actual ending of the movie is not as good or better. I think the one you see is better, faster and leaves the viewer (especially non-Trek fans) wanting more (ala Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home).

STAR TREK 2 coming 2012?

From ComingSoon.net:

"Star Trek was one of this year's biggest movies and left fans eagerly wanting more. Unfortunately, it looks like audiences will have to wait a few more years for the sequel to hit theaters.

At the 2009 Screenwriting Expo which is being held in downtown Los Angeles this year, ComingSoon.net asked Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, the writers of Star Trek, if they could give us any updated info as to where the storyline will be going in the next film. While they're still very much in the beginning stages and couldn't give us many details, they did give a possible release date year.

'We're rereading some of our favorite 'Star Trek' novels now and watching the original series again. The honest answer is we don't know yet,' Orci said. 'We think it's going to be a 2012 release, but I'm not sure,' he continued.

'Originally we thought we were going to have to have the script in by Christmas, but the release changed so certainly within the next eight months I'd say,' Kurtzman told us.

We tried to find out where the two writers would like to see the story go and Orci said: 'They're established now in the second movie and they're finally a crew so it will resemble what you see in terms of they are already who they are.'

The pair have focused their attention towards feature films the last few years, but recently returned to TV to work on 'Fringe' with their old friend J.J. Abrams, who they wrote for on 'Alias'. They admitted it was for partly selfish reasons.

'When J.J. said he wanted to create a show with me it's like 'Screw you buddy,'' Orci joked. 'Also he had studio commitments to Warner Brothers and we wanted him to direct Star Trek. We feared he wouldn't be able to do it if we didn't help fulfill those obligations so we did,' he continued.

'We wanted him to be as focused on it as he could be on that so we're like, we'll absolutely help you. We would have done it anyway, but also it freed him up to do Star Trek.'

More from Kurtzman and Orci!

From TrekMovie:


"Today we have the rest of the Q&A, with discussions of the Star Trek movie, the DVD, their writing process, and a bit more on the sequel as well.

Question: Now that you have Spock Prime who has actually boldly gone everywhere, is that going to be a problem with the exploration of the next film because you have a character that can say 'if you go that way you will hit the Denobulans, and if you go that way…'?

Alex: 'No, because Spock came back into a different timeline where everything is….the circumstances on those planets could be entirely different than what Spock is aware of.'

Bob: 'Spock may decide it is wrong to tell them everything.'

Alex: 'Even going back in time is a violation of the prime directive for him.'

Question: Does the success of the first movie sort of embolden you guys to take more liberties as you’re coming up with ideas for the next one? Or does it put more pressure on you to go further to explore canon?

Bob: 'I think it is the exact same pressure as the first one. It’s like, 'Great, I’m glad we had a nice victory, but now we’ve gotta do it again.' There’s the same amount of trepidation and reverence for Trek.'

Alex: 'But, the excitement is knowing that we have everything in place. Going into the first movie, we had no idea what the actors were even going to look like. Now, knowing what the feeling was and who’s playing the parts, will definitely be helpful.'

Question: In Star Trek, you hear Greg Grunberg as the stepfather, but you don’t see him. Will you see him on the DVD?

Alex: 'You will see the stepfather on the DVD, but not Greg. You’ll see a scene there that we ended up losing.'

Bob: 'Greg wasn’t originally cast as that, and then he came in as the voice. There is a scene that was shot with another actor.'

Question: Is there room for Greg Grunberg to fit into the Star Trek sequel?

Alex: 'There is always room for more Grunberg. It’s whether or not he can find the time. He’s one of TV’s heroes. We’ll see how that goes. If he has the time, we’d love it.'

Question: Grunberg wants to play Harry Mudd, what about that?

Bob: 'Maybe, he can fight it out with Jack Black.'

Question: JJ [Abrams] spoke earlier about the importance of Leonard Nimoy’s involvement in Star Trek, so I was wondering, from a writer’s point of view, how important was his involvement.

Alex: 'We couldn’t have made the movie without Leonard. We knew early on that so much of what was going to be required in re-imagining Star Trek, and also in staying true to everything that came before it, was going to hinge on Leonard, in a way, blessing us moving forward. And telling the audience that it is OK, you can make this transition now, I am here to help you. And we knew without him, we were never going to be able to have a movie.'

Bob: 'We didn’t agree to do the movie until we had the idea that if we could get Leonard to agree to be in the story, that is a way to do both pleasing old fans and having him him, the soul of Star Trek, be the plot reason for the changes. So we we needed his blessing…it wasn’t until we hit upon that, that we said 'now we know how to do it.' So, it was pivotal for us.'

Alex: 'Pitching the fate of Spock, to Spock, was a bit unnerving. [Bob interjects 'and then your planet blows up, you like that?'] But, it was great and actually gave us the confidence. He didn’t commit right away, but he gave us the confidence to move forward, knowing that he liked the direction we were going in. So I think both creatively and in our hearts where we wanted the movie to be could not have happened without his ‘OK’'.

Bob: 'We took a big risk. We spent five months writing it, with him in it, without knowing if he would say ‘yes.’'

Question: Someone sent me a letter saying that the fact that Spock had to stop the movie to explain to Kirk was some sort of break point script-wise. Do you agree with that? That you had to stop and explain to the audience, everything that has happened?

Alex: 'I think that we tend to be drawn towards structures that are very mysterious, for at least and hour, or hour and fifteen minutes. As an audience member, I always really like to be wondering, 'What’s happening here? I don’t understand it. It’s really intriguing. Where is the punch line going to go?' But, when you incur that debt, then you owe the pay off, and the pay off is always the moment where someone comes in and says, 'Okay, here’s some of the answers to the questions you’ve been asking for the last hour and fifteen minutes.' The trick with those kinds of scenes, is to make them really interesting and to make them very character driven, because what you don’t want is a scene where someone is just telling you plot. That’s really boring, and the audience tends to just check out. The ace that we had in the hole there was that we knew that it was a very emotional story for Spock to tell, because he was telling the loss of his planet and he was talking about his responsibility in that.'

Bob: 'And it is a mind-meld. It is not just an information dump. It is an artistic element from Star Trek.'

Alex: 'That’s right And it’s literally a new Kirk, who doesn’t like Spock, realizing, 'Oh, wait, Spock is a much broader character than I ever knew.' So we were very lucky in that case, to have so much character stuff infused in that scene.'

Bob: 'We wouldn’t change it.'

Question: Can you talk about, with Star Trek, what was the first moment, whether in the writing or once you start to see it come together in the editing room or on set, where you began to feel you had it?

Bob: 'You get it twice. You get it once when you know you have the right story, and I think we did feel that that, very strongly, as we were writing it. The 'Ah-ha!' of having Leonard Nimoy in it was big for us. But then, you have to actually shoot it, and cast it. Can you really replace icons? What’s that going to be? Even in the middle of shooting, when you go onto a set, you’re hoping it’s looking cool and not like Saturday Night Live, or something. I think it was after we saw the first cut, probably. So, once when we wrote and once when we saw the first cut and realized, 'Oh, man, these actors are great, and the production design actually looks great.' We saw it come together then.'

Alex: 'I think that writing was probably the most emotional experience we’ve had, in the actual writing part of it, because you are dealing with, not only these iconic characters, but the responsibility that you are suddenly bearing, of bringing them back to the world in a new way and then telling a story that is deeply deeply emotional.'

Question: You are fans right?

Alex: 'Exactly. It’s like, take this thing from your childhood and make it someone else’s childhood. It is very daunting. That is the kind of thing where you have to tune everything out. We literally locked ourselves in a hotel room for weeks and weeks and just scene for scene, line for line. You don’t always get the luxury at the pace that we work at, to luxuriate in every dot and comma, and in Star Trek it really was that and we really loved that.'

Question: When you’re writing characters that are that well-established and on the other hand, but with 'Star Trek: The Original Series', some of that dialog is a little iffy. How do you capture the sound of it, without having dialogue that is 60’s clunky?

Bob: 'We were lucky in this one when we came up with the idea, because we we knew it was going to be them young and them turning into who they are, so it prescribed a very natural arc that they don’t arrive at the people you see in the series, until the end of the movie, so it freed us up to not have to mimic them exactly, and be able to tell a growing up story. '

Alex: 'Also, because these characters were so ingrained in our minds from childhood, they are already alive in your head, in some way. So, once you are sitting down to actually write them, you’re listening to your childhood voice, coming back up for you and that becomes your best compass when you are writing dialogue because we all knew that there were certain key traits about all the characters that had to be represented, but the question became, 'How are you going to do it in a new way?' We hadn’t cast any of the actors that we had in the movie, when we were writing the first draft, so it was very much about knowing their personalities, but then finding a way to make it fresh. '

Bob: 'And, reading the novels helped, a lot of Star Trek novels.'

Question: The opening sequence of Star Trek was very surprising. How did that evolve, and how did you approach that?

Alex: 'Interestingly enough, that was not the first scene of the movie that we wrote. That was the second scene of the movie, and the first scene of the movie is actually on the DVD. The first scene of the movie was the birth of Spock. We knew that the way these characters were born was going to define everything about who they would become. Knowing that Kirk was going to be a renegade, knowing that he was going to have father issues, knowing that he was going to be lost, knowing that he was going to have to come into his own as captain, prescribed a series of things that allowed us to think about, 'What would create a man like that?' Rising to the challenge of, 'Are you going to be as good as your father, who literally died in the service of keeping you alive? Are you going to rise to that challenge?', was a very emotional place to begin.' Also, one of the things that we heard a lot was that women do not like sci-fi because there is no emotion. We were like totally offended by that and thought, 'Well, okay, that’s bull[spit]. Let’s show them how wrong that is, from the word go, and then everyone will be equalized. Then, we can all go forward from there.''

Bob: 'I think the first kernel we had of that was that we thought, 'Kirk should be born in space. He’s on his dad’s ship, and he’s in battle.' It started that he should be born in space…and not Iowa.'

Question: You spoke about your childhoods. Do you have any specific memory of the first time you encountered 'Star Trek', as a child?

Bob: 'For me, it was being with my uncle and he did the kid’s version of relativity, why going faster than warp was a crazy cool concept. I just remember, that was the first time I heard the name Einstein, and I just realized there was a larger physical, scientific, magical world, and it was through family, my uncle.'

Alex: ''The Original Series' was what I knew, it already in re-runs on KTLA, when I was growing up. Then the big bang–I liked that, but I didn’t lock in, in the same way that I did when I saw Wrath of Khan. Watching that, in the theater, and watching that Ceit Eel go in Chekov’s ear and going, 'Oh my God, what is this?' And the friendship between Kirk and Spock, that was so beautifully drawn in that movie, it just touched me then and it was a huge compass in terms of what we wanted to get out of the movie.'

Question: JJ talked about taking the opportunity [on the DVD] to sort of explore or examine some of the logical questions that even fans of 'Star Trek' had. Was that important to you, or was there even a possibility, with Star Trek, of sort of making some of the logical leaps or logical explanations for the story on the DVD?

Bob: 'Yeah. As we said earlier, we tried to be open about what we’re aware of at the moment. Certainly, some of the decisions that we made, scientifically, in terms of canon, and all that are there, yeah. That’s what the whole movie is about. Is it canon or isn’t it? And where do you fall on it, if you’re a fan? You can’t avoid that conversation.'

Question: 'There’s a lot of deleted scenes on the Star Trek DVD, and there were even scenes deleted from the script before it was shot. What was the hardest scene for you guys to lose?'

Bob: 'There wasn’t anything because our original script didn’t include the scenes that ended up getting cut.'

Question: What about the whole Klingon thing?

Bob: 'We added that later. We knew it might be long, but we just went for it. So ,we were fine with exactly how it ended up.'

Question: Can you talk about some of the the differences in your approach to the Star Trek DVD and the special features on the [Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen] DVD? Is there a difference in overall approach?

Alex: 'No, we tend to sit down and talk very loosely about the experience of making the movie. I think the differences are in the way that the movies were made, but not necessarily in the approach of the DVD extras. What’s really cool about the DVD extras is that, in both cases, they documented everything we were all doing together, from the minute that it started, to the minute the movie was released. So, tt’s pretty extensive.'

Bob: 'We tend to try to just be as open in how we came to things as possible. It’s not just, 'I remember that day.' It’s more of an interpreting of what we did.'

Alex: 'We grew up having nothing like this at all. For example, there was one screenwriting book when we grew up. Only one! Now, there are DVDs, you can go online, and you can see everything. There is so much there. I think we feel like, 'How cool is it for people to actually have the thing that we didn’t have?' So, we try and give as much to the DVD extras as we can.'

Question: What was the screenwriting book you grew up on?

Alex: 'Well, there was actually one screenwriting book that was interviews with screenwriters, and one that was just format.'

Question: How did you learn your craft?

Alex: 'A lot of writing badly for a long time.'

Bob: 'We met in high school in senior year and we just just wrote in every year in college. And by studying movies. We would watch a movie and write down every scene and stare at it and outline it to see what are the structure looked like on paper and you reverse-engineer from that.'

Question: JJ has this great working relationship with Michael Giacchino, and I was wondering if music was a critical part of your writing process and at what stage?

Alex: 'It is almost the first thing, actually. I don’t have anything in my car or my iPod that isn’t a soundtrack, which is very sad, actually. It is how the ideas get dreamt up. All of Michael’s stuff is on there, along with a million other composers.'

Question: How do guys work with each other? Who comes up with the ideas? Do you have roles between the two of you?

Alex: 'Our writing is a dialogue. It is a process of debate back and forth. I’ll be like 'what if we did this, or did that?''

Bob: 'We sit across table from each other, both at computers, and we decide what is the right line.'

Alex: 'We started writing pre-Internet, with both of us on the phone, and that is how we developed our voice. That back and forth became how we write.'

Question: With the relationship between Spock and Kirk, does it resemble your relationship?

Alex: 'We were in the middle of writing the fight scene on the bridge, after the destruction of Vulcan, and realized that we were writing about ourselves.'

Bob: 'I realized that a lot earlier.'

Alex: 'Yeah, but Bob didn’t say anything.'

Question: Which one of you is Spock and which one of you is Kirk?

Bob: 'I think Alex is Kirk and I’m Spock.'"

As Spock himself would say, "Fascinating."

Kurtzman and Orci talk new TREK also!

From ComingSoon.net:



"Finally, a couple of Hollywood screenwriters that are treated like rock stars – or at least gurus of geek chic. Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci are easily the hottest name-brand writing team in Tinseltown after a year of major hits including Star Trek, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and their producing efforts 'Fringe' and The Proposal.

ComingSoon.net played the third wheel as the duo weighed in on what's about to come forth from their dual computers.

On building a brand new adventure or borrowing and tweaking more 'Star Trek' canon for the highly anticipated Star Trek sequel:
Alex Kurtzman: 'Every franchise has a different need. So you have to look at them differently based on whatever kind of a mandate is there. But in the case of Transformers it was very important to us to have a sequel idea that stood on it's own. 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 II, Aliens, Terminator 2, Star Trek II, 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 Khan. 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.

On the things on their Star Trek wish list that didn't make it into the first film that might be revisited in the second:
Roberto Orci: 'You know, we had a few characters in early drafts. [Christine] Chapel – maybe some of the friends in the Academy. But in terms of big concepts? No, nothing that was like 'Oh, not going to be able to fit that in.''
Kurtzman: 'Right. We kind of threw it all in the first one!'

On the possibility of introducing concepts from the various 'Star Trek' sequel series - like The Borg, for example - into the relaunched franchise:
Orci: 'I think we would think about it, because we do love 'The Next Generation'.'

Do they have a priority or any particular element of those sequel series that they most would like to put into the movie?
Kurtzman: 'I think our instinct would be to first look at the original series before we would consider that, but all of that would be on the table for us, it is on the table.'

On the possibility of doing Star Trek 2 and 3 back-to-back:
Kurtzman: 'I think we tend to look at this as it's very, very important to us to make sure that each movie is good. It's not 'Hey, let's do as many as possible.' But rather 'Let's make sure that they are good.' I think that we feel like we've inherited this incredible honor, in this mantle of 'Star Trek' and the most important thing is to make sure that we are protecting that first. So, if the studio wants more than one, then great, but our thinking is going to be very much about the story.'
Orci: 'The story.'
Kurtzman: '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 adding an allegorical element to the plot of the second film – including an Internet-rumored Guantanamo Bay metaphor:
Orci: 'The Gitmo thing was just a for instance. We're not doing a story that is going to be about Guantanamo Bay. Now that we've established the characters we can have a more philosophical allegory where what is happening in the future represents, like the best versions in the '60s did it – represented women's rights, racial equality, and progressive issues. We're still just brainstorming internally and going to get together soon and bust our riffs out, see what happens, and start putting it together.'

On whether the success of the first film will influence their storytelling decisions on the sequel:
Orci: 'I think it's the exact same pressure as the first one. Great, I'm glad we had a nice victory but now we have to do it again. Same amount of trepidation and reverence for 'Trek'.'
Kurtzman: 'But the excitement of knowing that we have everything in place. Going into the first movie we had no idea of what the actors were even going to look like, so now knowing what the feeling was, and who is playing the parts, will definitely be helpful.'

On the potential for adding pre-established 'Star Trek' elements, such as Khan Noonian Singh – into the sequel storyline:
Kurtzman: 'Where we are starting is 'Okay, where are our characters now and what are interesting complications that we can put in their lives? What feels like an organic emotional place for them to get to? How do we want to test them?' Then you look at everything. You look everything and start asking 'Who would be the best foe?'
Orci: '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.'
Kurtzman: 'The short answer is that we haven't landed on anybody yet.'

On collaborating on their next film, Cowboys & Aliens, with director Jon Favreau:
Kurtzman: 'It's the greatest.'
Orci: 'We just started and we're getting along really well. We actually sent ourselves back to school and we're watching Westerns together, analyzing them, and just kind of getting into it.'
Kurtzman: 'Yeah, we had a lot of these Westerns in our heads but Jon is an incredible fountain of Western knowledge.'
Orci: ''Star Trek' was pitched originally as a space Western anyway. So Star Trek was a nice lead up to this project.'
Kurtzman: 'I think also that Jon comes from a very similar emotional place. Because he's an actor and he knows what plays and what doesn't play very quickly. We're having an unbelievably good time working with him on that.'

On the status of The Defenders, the gaming-themed movie they're developing with 'Heroes' star Masi Oka:
Orci: 'We're still working out the story.'
Kurtzman: 'We actually can't say too much about it, but Masi is amazing. He's wonderful to work with.'
Orci: 'Gary Whitta is writing it.'
Kurtzman: 'Gary Whitta is writing it and he wrote Book of Eli which is coming out this year.'
Orci: 'He's developed a great story and we have to go pitch it to the heads of the studio. We'll find out what happens.'

On their latest toy-themed project, View-Master, which they'll be producing:
Kurtzman: 'Here's what is really interesting about that, because we've read a lot of the response – and a lot of the wildly cynical response – to it. Here's what I'll say. Some toys should be movies and some toys should not be movies. I like to believe that we know the difference between those toys. The movies that work, work when there is a story there that you can take the toy out of, but then when you put the toy in it because an even more amazing experience for whatever reason. Brad Kane, who is a writer for us on 'Fringe' came to us with an amazing idea that had absolutely nothing to do with View-Master, we loved it, thought it was fantastic, and then along comes...'
Orci: 'We said 'It's missing one thing, I don't know what that thing is…''
Kurtzman: 'Then along comes View-Master, right? It felt like a perfect marriage of ideas. It's because we started with a story that felt like it could be told all on it's own before that came along. So in some ways its like 'Bring it on, if you want to be cynical about View-Master then great.' We're so confident in where it's going to end up going that we feel like in some ways there is nowhere to go but up. Brad is finishing a script and then he's going to start writing.'
Orci: 'Actually, Spielberg told us once that his first draft story of E.T. didn't have an alien in it, but it was a family drama about a kid missing his father. So that's always stuck in our mind as 'Wow, you have to be able to take out the thing.''
Kurtzman: 'Take out the giant robots and what's the story you have left over?'

On how they won't likely be returning to pen a third Transformers film:
Orci: 'We've been working on Transformers longer than I was in college. I think we have our degree in Transformers now.'
Kurtzman: 'I think it's just a question for us of, the franchise is so wonderful and it deserves to be fresh all the time. I think we just felt like we had given it a lot and didn't have an instinct for where to go with it next. We said 'You guys should do it right.''
Orci: 'The studio said 'Oh yeah, if you guys want to come back, come back.' But we never want to do that unless we have an idea. We always think that the best idea should win. That means opening it up to everybody.'"

VIEW-MASTER: The Movie?

From ComingSoon.net:

"'Fringe' co-producer/writer Brad Caleb Kane will be writing a movie based on the View-Master toy, which first came on the market in 1939. He announced... that after he's done penning the sci-fi action-adventure Uprising for director Wolfgang Petersen and Columbia Pictures, he will take on the project for DreamWorks Pictures. Kane says Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci ('Fringe,' Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Star Trek) are behind the film and that it will be "like the old 80's Amblin movies: Goonies, Young Sherlock... In that vein."

Okay, this has me stumped. How on Earth do you make a movie about a toy that has no mythology to it (ala Transformers and G.I. Joe)? Let's hope that Kurtzman and Orci can work their magic on this toy.