Abrams Star Trek Has Majels Blessing
Written by Ian Cullen on February 10, 2009 – 11:00 am -
Richard Arnold speaking to the fans at SF Ball 15
By Ian M. Cullen
At weekend I attended the Fifteenth SF Ball and on hand to talk with the fans was Richard Arnold, who of course did his usual charity auction and chatted to fans about Star Trek and many other things.
During the tail end of his annual auction Arnold spoke of his time with the late Majel Roddenberry on the set of JJ Abrams Star Trek movie. He very briefly related a conversation he’d had with Majel about Abrams and his style of directing and producing.
Arnold told the gathered fans that he and Majel felt that the set of J.J. Abrams Star Trek was very much reminiscent of the collaborative spirit of a Gene Roddenberry set. The general feeling and good will on set was infectious. According to Arnold Majel congratulated Abrams on the good feeling atmosphere he’d created for the film and Abrams being the humble person he is said that he could not take sole responsibility for the good feeling. To which Majel commented to Arnold that Abrams was “doing a Gene” because the late producer and Star Trek creator was also often refusing to take credit when it was given, and would often shy away from such accolades saying that it wasn’t all him.
Richard also talked a little bit about his brief stint in the movie as a Romulan.
On Sunday afternoon Chaz Evans from Paramount joined us and talked a little about the methods, which were used by Paramount to research what everyone thought about Star Trek. Some of the findings he revealed from the seven international markets, which were surveyed were somewhat comical to many of us in the audience. Where as certain other points were fairly valid.
Representatives from one marketplace said that they were turned off from Star Trek because the FX was kind of cheesy, and they felt that the show took its self far to seriously. While representatives from another country felt there wasn’t enough skin on show in the movies. Australian moviegoers told Paramount that they would not go to see a Star Trek movie, for fear of being labelled as geeks and not cool.
So the research did turn up a number of reasons why much of the mainstream support has dropped away from the Star Trek Universe, and Paramount are hoping to bring that mainstream support back to Star Trek and retain the support of fans.
The research however has on occasion put the Paramount Executives at odds with J.J. Abrams. Because J.J. has a very a definite vision. Which means that the relationship between Paramount and Abrams regarding Star Trek is a very carefully choreographed balancing act, which involves a fair bit of give and take between Abrams and the Paramount executives who want to make a hit movie.
Chaz also revealed that a big meeting had been set up between execs and abrams for Tuesday to discuss when they plan to release the next trailer. The trailer spot, which Paramount would like is on Watchmen, which is released worldwide in March, but it seems unlikely to happen this close to the movies release.
No spoilers for the movie were revealed. Evans revealed that he’d seen the final complete cut of the movie twice, and teased fans about the scene in, which the young Kirk is on the ice planet, but revealed very little about the movie. All he did confirm was that the movie had a lot of action, a lot of plot, a lot of drama, and was an origin story for Captain Kirk.
After the talk we were shown the television commercial spot, which was run at the Super bowl over weekend. And if you thought it looked cool on your televisions, it was much nicer on the big screens.
Related posts:
- Abrams Offers Two ‘Star Trek’ Premiere Tickets For Charity Auction
- Wil Wheaton Reacts To JJ Abrams Star Trek Comments
- Abrams Explains Lack of Trek at Comic Con
- Simon Pegg Geeks Out For J.J Abrams Star Trek
- Star Trek Movie True To Past
Tags: Richard Arnold, Star Trek
Posted in SF-TV & Movie News | 8 Comments »
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- Aug 20, 2009: TrekToday » Blog Archive » Arnold On Barrett-Roddenberry
By Yike on Feb 11, 2009 | Reply
I’m sorry to hear that Richard Arnold has been given a role in this film. I feel he did a LOT of damage to the Star Trek publishing license before he was finally removed from his position.
By Future Guy on Feb 12, 2009 | Reply
To be fair, most of the stuff Mr. Arnold did was at Roddenberry’s behest. Roddenberry didn’t want to look like the bad guy, so he would send folks like Richard Arnold to do his bidding.
By OkieScribe on Feb 12, 2009 | Reply
Re: “Majel commented to Arnold that Abrams was “doing a Gene” because the late producer and Star Trek creator was also often refusing to take credit when it was given, and would often shy away from such accolades saying that it wasn’t all him.”
Talk about revisionist history! Anyone who’s ever read anything about Roddenberry written by anyone other than his family and hand-picked biographer will know that’s the biggest load of crap. For years there’s been nothing but complaining about how Roddenberry tried to take the credit for everything.
By Ian Cullen on Feb 12, 2009 | Reply
Have only ever read the unofficial biography, which read like it was written by someone with a serious grudge. That said have never read the official account. Either way you can either believe that Gene Roddenberry was the guy who created Star Trek and made it into what it is, or you can believe the other account, which claims that he nicked everyone elses ideas. There will always be two sides to every story, and we the fans will never actually know the truth of it all. Only those that were there will know the truth of it.
Fact is he died back in 1991 so everything we’re hearing now is past tenths. Which isn’t to say it’s all true. But it is in the past, and perhaps that’s where some of it should stay.
Star Trek is moving on as of May of 2009. Perhaps we should all do the same. As apposed to sniping about stuff thats been done and dusted, which we can’t change anyhow.
By OkieScribe on Feb 12, 2009 | Reply
“past tenths?” I guess you meant “past tense.” And yes, you’re right, there are two sides to every story; in this case it would appear to be the Roddenberrys and their paid biographer on the one hand, and everybody else on the other. Don’t get me wrong, I am a fan and give full credit for the original concept to Roddenberry; it’s just that so many other people came along later (Gene Coon, Dorothy Fontana, D.L. Black, David Gerrold, even Nimoy and Shatner) and made their various contributions only to see Roddenberry (especially during the last decade of his life) claim credit for them – or credit them to some fictional “cousin in Cleveland” or wherever. Kind of like Bob Kane taking sole credit for creating Batman all those years while rarely mentioning Bill Finger or Jerry Robinson.
By Ian Cullen on Feb 12, 2009 | Reply
Dang it. I’m hanging my head in shame. Past Tenths indeed. You know whats funny. I typed in past tense the first time, then changed it because I wasn’t sure lol. Should have went with my initial instinct on that one hey?
Trouble is with most TV series, Corporations and that. It’s always going to be the guy at the very top that will automatically recieved credit. Not because he or she rakes in the credit from others, but because the media will often make it seem that way.
Walt Disney is a case in point. He is largely credited with having created Mickey Mouse and many of the early animated movies, yet he could barely draw. All he did was a basic sketch and the artists working under him filled in the blanks. Hence the Walt Disney Company was born.
I’m pretty sure that had Gene Roddenberry not have made Star Trek for Desilu, which went on to become a part of Paramount and CBS in later years, that had he had the money and the backing behind him. Roddenberry works or such and such a company would have been born.
For now though. I’m looking to the future of Star Trek, and I hope that J.J Abrams has a hit with this movie. Because I love Lost, I rather liked Alias though I wasn’t a massic fan. Abrams is a good choice. I don’t think it would have worked has they given Trek to someone like Ron Moore. Nor do I think Ron would have took it on.
So come May 6th, I’m down that theatre. And you can bet good money that I will report back here on what I liked and disliked about the movie.
By OkieScribe on Feb 12, 2009 | Reply
Agreed – and your point about Disney is spot on, as well.