According to this interview with William Shatner, it sounds like he and Leonard Nimoy may be making an appearance of some kind in the next Star Trek movie:
IGN: JJ Abrams is working on the new Star Trek film, which is reportedly about a young Kirk and Spock. How do you feel about possibly watching someone else play that character?
Shatner: Well, it’s going to happen. It’s not so much the character. You know, it’s that old adage about, “Get me a young Shatner.” I’m at the “Get me a young Shatner” moment.
IGN: Have you spoken to JJ Abrams about the project?
Shatner: Actually, I did, and they’re working very hard on a story. They seem to be going in the direction of putting in [Leonard] Nimoy and myself. But in order to do that, it’s a difficult story to write. So they’re in the midst of wrestling with all of that.
IGN: So they’re looking to put the two of you in, in a framing device, or in some way?
Shatner: I’m not sure what they’re going to do. But in order to entice Leonard and myself into the movie, it has to be meaningful in some way, so I don’t know what they’re gonna do.
Quite honestly, there hasn’t been a decent Star Trek movie since Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country and there’s some hope that this movie may revitalize the franchise. If the do something gimmicky to bring Shatner and Nimoy into the picture, though, it could be the end of the end rather than a new beginning.
H/T: Gone Hollywood
January 7th, 2007 at 11:44 pm
“there hasn?t been a decent Star Trek movie since Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country”
Surely, you have forgotten Star Trek: First Contact.
January 7th, 2007 at 11:52 pm
Heh, no James, the only possibility here is that Doug never saw it.
Still, Doug is right. The Next Generation films were somewhat (though not entirely) disappointing, never feeling as epic as the first six and underutilizing some characters. The best thing to do is go in with no expectations; we might not leave disappointed this time.
January 7th, 2007 at 11:57 pm
James and CR,
I did see First Contact and, though I a was a big fan of ST:TNG, the movie just didn’t live up to what I thought it was going to be and, as CR said, none of the other Next Generation movies even came close…….and damn if I wasn’t holding out hope for Nemesis because I’ve always looked forward to a movie with the Romulans as the adversary. But, crap, was I disappointed in that one.
The reason I cite The Undiscovered Country as the last “great” Trek movie is simple. It’s Nick Meyer. The same guy who brought us The Wrath of Khan. And the writing, quite honestly, was great. Allusions to Shakespere, and Nixon.
But, alas, the Next Generation films didn’t have Nick Meyer. They had Rick Berman.
I will always hate Rick Berman for never giving Patrick Stewart the big screen show as Picard that he deserved.
January 8th, 2007 at 9:57 am
Interesting analysis. I agree that Wrath of Khan was probably the best of the Star Trek movies — the novelization of the “Space Seed” episode that I bought as a child predicted that movie, as there was a line at the end about “coming back in 100 years to learn what has grown from the seed planted” — as you suggest in your comment. However, Undiscovered Country was too cartoonish for my tastes (not as bad as The Final Frontier, but close), even though the guest cast (David Warner and Christopher Plummer) was amazingly strong. Plus, I have serious problems with the political overtones (Nick Meyer has said “Gorkon is Gorbachev”), though that “old Vulcan proverb” about “Only Nixon can go to China” was hilarious. Maybe my skepticism was just because the original cast was just getting too damn old.
Fortunately, I married a woman as much of a Trekkie as I am, and she has given me two sons well on their way in that regard. Last Christmas, they gave me the entire Enterprise series.
In an interesting little aside, Walter Koenig filmed a movie in the town in which I attended high school a few years back.