Movie News | Upcoming Movies | Movie Reviews | Celebrity Interviews | Movie Posters | Movie Forum | Movie Trailers | DVD News | TV News
|
||
 |
 |
|
Star Trek XI Stands Still
Posted by: Jerrica After ten movies, five television shows, and too many novels to count, "Star Trek" has run the gamut of Gene Roddenberry's universe. The last series, "Enterprise," went where no "Trek" has gone before, basing its premise entirely on the original Enterprise and its crew, taking us back in time rather than forward. "Star Trek XI: The Beginning" was primed to follow suit with the series, but with "Enterprise" having fallen far short of hopes attached to it, it is almost a harbinger of trouble for the eleventh "Trek" film.Writer Erik Jendresen told SyFy Portal that while enthusiasm around the project was high because of the exciting premise, the chance to tell the story behind the events that started the Romulan War, the movie is now stuck in studio limbo. Jendresen does not seem happy about the stall, commenting that they were going to finally cover the untold tale. "We [had] a chance here to fill in the canon, and to create a continuum ostensibly from the beginning from 'Enterprise' all the way out to the future."
The latest installment in the movie franchise was intended to be a trilogy that could be likened to the hype and cult level of the "Star Wars" prequels. The three films were to take place in the chronological gap left between the years 2164 and 2233. It would have followed the ancestor of James T. Kirk, Tiberius Chase, through the Romulan War in all its excessive violence that supposedly would have been too graphic for "Enterprise," which would put Jendresen right in his element since he also wrote "Band of Brothers" for HBO. Also, out of the bloody and horrific war was to emerge the United Federation of Planets.
But, why the past tense? This project is trapped in production stasis, but it is far from being officially dead. Though, Jendresen gives the impression that this may as well be the case. The real status of "Trek XI" rests in the hands of the new command at Paramount. The former co-president of the studio David DeLine had been leading the prequel movement. However, once Jendresen finished the script, there was a new woman by the name of Gail Berman steering the ship, leaving "The Beginning" lost in the shuffle. Neither Berman nor Paramount is abandoning the trilogy proposal, but they are trying to explore all their options for the next step made by one of the largest franchises in entertainment history.
The last "Trek" movie to hit theaters, "Nemesis," pulled in $67 million worldwide. Since that was back in 2002 and this is first time in a long time that the franchise can't claim at least one running television show, another "Trek" film is sure to be on its way soon enough. Whether or not it will be "The Beginning" is just too soon to tell. But, the concept of this trilogy is different and significant enough, delving into an untapped region of this universe's history with Kirk's ancestor leading the way, that it may be the smartest way to invigorate the existing fans and beam up some new ones.
