j j abrams Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Whenever J.J. Abrams, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman are pinned down, the talk inevitabley turns to the Star Trek sequel. They're only just beginning to toss around story ideas, but Hero Complex managed to pry a little more news out of Abrams & Crew, who hinted that Trek might start tackling contemporary issues.

"In many ways a sequel will have a very different mission. It needs to do what [Gene] Roddenberry did so well, which is allegory," says Abrams. "It needs to tell a story that has connection to what is familiar and what is relevant. It also needs to tell it in a spectacular way that hides the machinery and in a primarily entertaining and hopefully moving story. There needs to be relevance, yes, and that doesn't mean it should be pretentious."

Orci echoed Abrams, noting that it had been one of the biggest criticisms of the new Trek. "One of the things we heard was, 'Make sure the next one deals with modern-day issues.' We're trying to keep it as up-to-date and as reflective of what's going on today as possible. So that's one thing, to make it reflect the things that we are all dealing with today." When asked if "modern day issues" meant war, terrorism, and torture, Orci agreed that was "an approach" they were taking.

Continued below the jump

Curious about what's been happening at WonderCon in San Francisco this weekend? Me too! Let's see what the Internet says.

Cloverfield Sequel? J.J. Abrams acknowledged that ideas for a sequel "or at least a follow-up" to last year's big-grossing, doc-style monster movie Cloverfield are being kicked around. Insisting that a sequel "better not be a business decision," Abrams said: "We have an idea for something that's pretty cool ... It's something that would be related to Cloverfield and hopefully we'll do something sooner than later, because the idea's pretty sweet." Abrams appeared at WonderCon to premiere a new trailer for some space movie thingy. [Daniel Fienberg at HitFix.]

Terminator for Teens? Director McG continued to play the guessing game about the rating for Terminator: Salvation. Are they aiming for PG-13 or R? At a panel, he teased the audience with the prospect of a topless scene by Moon Bloodgood. (Alas, the new trailer does not include that scene.) Later, McG claimed that T:S was made without giving a thought to rating, while also referencing the Kate Winslet posing scene in the PG-13 rated Titanic. For her part, Ms. Bloodgood said: "I'm a woman, I have boobs, it's a beautiful shot." [Edward Douglas at Coming Soon.]

Green Lantern Goes Russian? Anton Yelchin, the Russian-born actor who has prominent supporting roles in both Star Trek and Terminator: Salvation, denied a rumor that he was being considered to play Hal Jordan in Green Lantern. "No one has said anything to me. I imagine I'm just too young. I mean, it's a great character but I don't know anything about it." Yelchin will turn 20 next week. [IESB.net]

After the jump: News on Disney's hand-drawn The Princess and the Frog.

The creator of Lost plans to shake things up again on the big screen. J. J. Abrams will produce a disaster movie featuring an earthquake for Universal Pictures, according to The Hollywood Reporter. It will not, however, be a remake of the 1974 Charlton Heston-starring Earthquake (pictured), which was directed by Mark Robson and released by Universal.

That movie led with an hour of soap opera before unleashing its monster quake upon Los Angeles. Coming three years after a real-life quake rocked the city and featuring Sensurround at selected theaters (imagine a sub-woofer under your seat turned up really really loud -- I thought it was a tremendous boon for cinema at the time), Earthquake is one movie that could be remade without much complaint. Trust me -- I've seen it five times.

Instead, Abrams is working with David Seltzer (The Omen and Lucas but also the abysmal Six Weeks, Table for Five and Punchline) to craft a completely unrelated yet still rockin' disaster. As is Abrams' wont, no plot details are being revealed, though THR says "relationships will be at the core of the project." We don't even know which city will be destroyed! But I'm guessing we'll wonder who will live and who will die, Cloverfield-style.

Abrams is, of course, finishing up his Starlost Star Trek remake, which is due out in May 2009. (And did you see those character posters?) Right now he only plans to produce the new earthquake movie.

Yesterday, we spent some time discussing the delay of Trek XI in the scriptwriting phase. Today's topic for discussion -- who plays Kirk? As we all know, the new flick plans to be a Young Kirk and Spock Adventures film, which of course means somebody out there has to play the famous screen icons. There's a big problem with this in my world (and I imagine the same is true with many of you), and in an interview with TV Guide, Shatner perfectly defined the problem in one succinct sentence: "I think it [the role of Kirk] is essentially uncastable." I'd probably extend the statement to cover Spock as well, but for the purposes of this discussion we'll stick with Kirk for now.

You know it, I know it, and if they're honest, the studio people know it too. William Shatner IS Captain Kirk. The role was not played by him, the role was him. Shatner so thoroughly embodied the character it is hard to imagine anyone else doing it. Sure, lots of people can do a fantastic Kirk imitation, and a number of actors are certainly talented enough to mimic the character very well, but we'd all watch it and know it just wasn't Shatner. Michael Vartan, an actor who has worked with director J.J. Abrams in the past, knows this to be true. Vartan said Kirk is "one of those roles you just don't touch."

Look, I'm not a big Trek fan. I like it, but I've never committed enough time or interest to really be considered a fan, so I'm not making this argument out of some weird fanboy loyalty. All remakes are tricky because of the recasting factor, and this time we're talking about recasting a very unique and recognizable role. It is going to be very hard ... but if this movie moves forward, it has to happen. Is there anyone out there who could fill Shatner's shoes?