Robert Orci and Alex Kurtzman Talk Star Trek Movie and DVD
posted by Jack Quan in DVD News at 03:07 PM on 2009.10.13
Reported by PK Eiselt
DIRECTOR J.J. ABRAMS’ PHENOMENAL REIMAGINING OF THE LEGENDARY ADVENTURE SOARS ONTO DVD AND BLU-RAY
$375 Million Worldwide Sensation Beams Up to a Single and Two-Disc DVD
and Three-Disc Blu-ray November 17, 2009
This year audiences thrilled at the triumphant voyage of the Starship Enterprise and her young and vibrant crew in movie theaters across the planet—and on November 17, 2009, the world will go where no one has gone before when STAR TREK debuts as a three-disc Blu-ray with digital copy, two-disc DVD with digital copy and a single-disc DVD from Paramount Home Entertainment.
In anticipation for the DVD/BD release writers Robert Orci, and Alex Kurtzman sat down for a candid round table discussion about working on the Star Trek movie, and the future of the franchise. JJ Abrams also dropped by and spent a little time discussing the release as well. Check back later this week for our interview with JJ Abrams!
Orci and Kurtzman Star Trek DVD/Blu-Ray pre-release Interview
Question: What was your approach to the special features, on Star Trek?
Bob Orci: We tend to sit down and talk very loosely about the experience of making the movie, and the differences are in the way that the movies were made, but not necessarily in the approach to the dvd extras. What’s really cool about the dvd extras is that in both cases they documented the things that we were all doing together from the minute that production starts until the day of release.
Alex Kurtzman: We try to be very open as possible (on the commentaries) and avoid comments like “I remember that day”
We grew up having nothing like this at all. For example, there was one screenwriting book when we were growing up. Only one. Now there are dvds, you can go online you can see everything. There is so much out 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 to give as much to the dvd extras as we can.
Question: How important was Leonard Nimoy’s involvement in the writing of the Star Trek film?
Kurtzman: We couldn’t have made the movie with out Leonard. We knew early on that so much of what was going to be required, when re-imagining Star Trek and also in staying true to everything that came before it was going to hinge on Leonard and his blessing us to move forward. It was also a way of telling the audience that it’s ok, you can make this transition now, I’m here to help you. We knew that with out him, we would never be able to have a movie.
Orci: We didn’t agree to do the movie until we had the idea that we could get Leonard to be in the story. There had to be a way of pleasing old fans and gaining new ones. Spock is the soul of Star Trek. So we needed his blessing. And it wasn’t until we hit upon that that we thought that we might know how to do it. His involvement was pivotal for us, we couldn’t have done it any other way.
Kurztman: Pitching the role of Spock to Spock was a little unnerving (laughs)
“So then you’re planet blows up – how do you like that? Huh? But it was great, and actually he gave us the confidence to move forward. He didn’t commit right away, but he liked the direction we were going in. But I think creatively and in our hearts, what we wanted the movie to be, and what it eventually became could not have happened with out his involvement.
We took a big risk, we spent 5 months writing it with him in it and not knowing if he’d say yes.
Question: Did you find it difficult to write the scene where Spock explains to Kirk what’s happening?
Orci: We are drawn to story structures that are very mysterious for at least an hour, or hour and fifteen minutes. As an experience for the audience, I always like to be wondering “What’s happening, I don’t understand and yet it’s really intriguing. What’s the punch-line going to be” But when you incur that debt, you then need a payoff. And the payoff is always a moment when someone comes and says, “Okay, here are some of the answers to the questions you’ve been asking for the last hour.” And the trick with those kinds of scenes is to make them interesting and very character driven. Because what you don’t want is a scene where someone is just telling you plot and that’s very boring. I think the audience tends to check out. But the goal for us, our ace in the hole was that we knew that there was a very emotional story for Spock to tell. His planet was just destroyed. And he was talking about his responsibility in that.
Kurtzman: And there was the Mind Meld; which is not just a dump of information but an artistic element of Star Trek.
Orci: Yes, and there’s this new Kirk who doesn’t like Spock and yet is learning that Spock is this much wider character than he ever knew. So we were very lucky in that case to have so much character stuff infused in that scene. And we wouldn’t change it.
Question: How do you structure your time, when you are juggling so many projects at any given time?
Orci: For starters, there’s two of us, and that helps to structure our time. But we kind of have a rule that we never “break the soul” of any two stories at the same time. Once we break the outline and really understand what we’re going to do, then we can start a new project. Once you have a real road map of where the story is going you can start a new road map. You can’t be working on two road map’s at the same time.
Kurtzman: Television taught us a lot about multitasking. Because you are Breaking story, while you are writing an outline, while you are writing a script, while you are shooting a show, while you are posting a show. So you have 5 episodes going at once. So you learn the discipline of focusing very clearly on each thing as you go. In our partnership what we’ve found is that we really like the energy that comes off of doing a lot of things at once. Because you can step away from a problem, focus your brain on something else and then come back to it with a fresh perspective.
Orci: Which is better than just sitting around and thinking about it.
Kurtzman: We like to let as many voices into the process as possible because it creates a system of checks and balances. You never want to be like “It’s gotta be this or it’s gotta be that”. You never want to be dictatorial. It is a very open dialog, especially for something like Star Trek or Transformers, there are so many voices in that process, you have to let it in and let it be a part of what you do.
Question: For the Star Trek sequel, is it more interesting to you to come up with a brand new adventure for this characters, or to reinterpret and revisit a previous episode or a previous situation? What would be more rewarding for you?
Kurtzman: Every franchise has a different need, so you have to look at them differently, based on whatever the mandate is there. In the case of Transformers it was very important for us to have a sequel idea that stood on its own. You need to be able to not have seen the first movie to appreciate the second one. But, I think for us, it’s always about going back to the sequels that we loved as kids and asking ourselves why we loved them.
So, Empire Strikes Back, Superman 2, Aliens, Terminator 2, Star Trek 2. What do all those movies have in common? Well, they’re amazing stories, all on their own. You didn’t have to see the first movie, and there was some incredible, emotional test of character in all of those movies. Superman has to give up his powers for love. The Spock and Kirk relationship, being tested by Khan. or Ripley finding a daughter. All of those things are such big ideas in and of themselves, and you really can’t tell those stories in
movie one, because movie one is very much about establishing a world?
Orci: How would you classify the first movie? As an original or as a riff on an old story… or both? We’d want some kind of similar balance with the second one.
Question: When Writing Star Trek what was the first moment that you felt you had found the right?
Orci: You get it twice, you get it once when you know you’ve found the right story. And I think we felt very strongly about it while writing it and the “Ah-Ha” of having Nimoy in it was key for us. But then you get it again when you are casting these icons. And you get on set and hope that its going to look cool and not like a Saturday Night Live skit. But, I think when we saw the first cut… So once when we wrote it, and once during the screening for the first cut. And we thought, wow these actors are great, and the production design looks great. We saw it all come together in that moment.
Kurtzman: Writing Star Trek was probably the most emotional experience we’ve had in the actual writing part of it, because you are dealing with these iconic characters and this responsibility to explore this world in a new way and also tell a story that’s emotional.
Orci: Exactly, its like you have to take this thing from your childhood and make it part of someone else’s childhood, and that’s very daunting. That’s the kind of thing where you have to tune everything else out and we literally locked ourselves in a hotel room for weeks and weeks and just went through it scene for scene, line for line and we don’t always have the luxury, at the pace that we work at, to go through every dot and comma but in the case of Star Trek it really was that. So we really loved that.
Question: Are there any concepts or notions, things you wanted to squeeze into the first Star Trek that you couldn’t, that you would like to revisit for the sequel?
Orci: We had a few characters in early drafts, [Nurse Christine] Chapel, maybe some friends at the Academy. But in terms of big concepts, there is nothing where it was "oh, we are not going to be able to fit that in."
Kurtzman: We kind of threw it all in, in the first one.
Question: Is there anything from Enterprise or Next Generation or Deep Space or elements, like the Borg, Cardassians, Bajorans, anything on the top of your list that you might want to throw in to the next movie?
Orci: I think we’d think about it, just because we do love The Next Generation…I think our instinct would be to first look at The Original Series, before we considered that. But, all that is on the table.
Question: When you are writing characters that are that iconic and well established, how do you capture that voice with out falling into the some of the traps of 60’s television dialog?
Orci: We were lucky with this one, when we came up with the idea we knew that it was going to be about this crew turning into who they would become. So there is this very natural arc for the characters that starts at the beginning and goes until the end of the movie. It was very much a “growing up story”
Kurtzman: But also because these characters were so ingrained in our minds from childhood. They were already alive in our heads in some sort of way. So once we were sitting down to actually write dialog – its like listening to your childhood voice coming back up to you, and that becomes your best compass when writing dialog. We knew that there were certain key traits for each character 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. And finding a way to make them fit.
Orci: We also read a lot of the Star Trek novels.
Question: What was your first experience with the world of Star Trek?
Orci: For me it was sitting with my uncle and hearing for the first time the theory of relativity. Like why going faster than warp was kind of an insane crazy cool concept. And I remember that was the first time I heard the name Einstein and I realized there was a larger physical, scientific, magical, world.
Kurtzman: The original series was already in reruns when I was growing up. I liked that, But the big bang for me was Wrath of Kahn. Watching that, in the theater and seeing the slug go into Checkov’s ear and thinking Oh god what is this? And then the friendship between Kirk and Spock was so beautifully drawn in that movie and it was a huge compass for what we wanted to get out of this movie.
Question: It has been reported that there is an idea of doing the 2 and 3 Star Trek movies back-to-back? Is there any possibility of that?
Kurtzman: It’s very, very important to us to make sure that each movie is good, not “Hey, let’s do as many as possible,” but make sure they’re good. We feel like we’ve inherited this incredible honor and this mantle of Star Trek, and the most important thing is to make sure that we’re protecting that first. So, if the studio wants more than one, great. But, our thinking is going to be very much about the story and whether the story prescribes that 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. Right now, we’re not thinking specifically about making 2 and 3. It may come up, but it’s not where our heads are at right now.
Question: Recently Bob, you and JJ talked about allegory for the sequel and going back to that Original Series notion doing an allegory. I think you alluded to torture. How are you going to balance the allegory and still keep the positive future?
Orci: The torture thing was just a for instance. Someone asked, “Modern day issues like torture?,” and we said, “Yeah, sure, modern day issues,” but, we’re not doing a story about Gitmo as I read on some site that it was going to be about Guantanamo Bay. But, now that we’ve established the characters, we can have a more philosophical allegory, where what’s happening in the future represents our world, like the best versions of it in the ’60’s did, representing women’s rights, racial equality, progressive issues.
Question: How does music play a part in your writing process?
Kurtzman: It’s always the first thing actually. I don’t have anything in my ipod or my car that isn’t a soundtrack. It’s sad but its sorta true. It’s like how the ideas get dreamt up and all of Michael’s (Giacchino – composer for Star Trek) stuff is on there too, along with a million other composers. So all day long, I drive and day dream.
Question: You guys and JJ like surprises in your movies. What surprises you in the movies?
Kurtzman: I was very surprised by District 9. I was surprised by it for a number of reasons. It was not the movie that was marketed, and I thought that was very bold. If I had read that script, I would have said there is no way this is going to work. Where it goes, it is going to be impossible to execute, and yet it was executed so brilliantly and so emotionally and I think that was my studio notes training, because a studio would never have allowed that movie to exist the way that it did. Yet, it became this massive success. I think that those kind of break-outs are truly surprising because they give you hope that you still be doing something different and be doing genre. It was an incredibly bold and great movie.
Question: Has the economy changed your confidence or the types of projects you take? Does it affect the content of your writing?
Kurtzman: It affects the content in a global way, which is in the movies that are being selected to be made have to be, right now, very escapist; fun forget your life sort of stuff.
Orci: We aren’t seeing a lot adult drama. So the minute you’re writing “Transformers” you have to accept that genre. But the studios also want to be more conscientious budget wise, so yes they do want more robots but they cost, you have to make sure you do it at the right level.
Kurtzman: So what that means is hopefully your characters’ story are strong enough to sustain the affordability factor, which his that you might not get to have a robot/alien/spaceship in every shot.
Question: As fans of The Original Series and mythology, have you given any thought as to how you could incorporate Khan?
Kurtzman: Where we’re starting is, “Okay, where are our characters now? What are interesting complications that we can put in their lives? What feels like an organic emotional place for us to get to? How do we want to test them?” And then, you look at everything and start asking, “Who would be the best foe?”
Orci: There are mental exercises we play. You can’t be a fan of this and not sit around and wonder.
Kurtzman: But, the short answer is that we haven’t landed on anybody yet.
Question: Is your relationship at all similar to Kirk and Spock?
Kurtzman: We were in the middle of writing the fight scene on the bridge after the destruction of Vulcan, and we realized we were writing about ourselves. Kirk is saying we have to go after Nero and Spock is saying, no we have to regroup.
Orci: I realized that a lot earlier. (Laughter) I think Alex is Kirk, I’m Spock.
Question: How do the two of you work together? Do you have specific roles?
Kurtzman: Our writing is a dialog; it’s a process of debate back and forth. We sit across the table from each other with our computers and we decide what’s the right line…
Orci: And I think that process ended up in the Star Trek script moreso than any other we’ve done.
Kurtzman: We write everything together. We might tinker with our own stuff on the side, but we go over every line together. In a room like an office.
Orci: We started writing together, pre-internet, so we’d be on the phone like this (mimes cradling a phone and awkwardly typing) And that’s how we’ve developed our voice. And that voice became the way we still write.
Question: With Spock Prime in the new film’s timeline, and is that going to be a problem in terms of allowing the new crew to explore?
Kurtzman: No because Spock came back into a timeline in which everything is unpredictable. The planets might still be where they were, but the circumstances of how things are on those planets could be entirely different than they were.
Orci: Spock might decide it would be wrong to tell us anything.
Kurtzman: Even coming back in time was a violation of the Prime Directive for him, so he’s probably not going want to violate that anymore.
Question: Have you guys decided how much time will have passed between the first Star Trek film and the sequel? Are they still going to be new on the job, or will they have some experience?
Orci: We’re actually debating that.
Kurtzman: We don’t have an answer yet.
Question: Do find that ideas bleed between projects?
Kurtzman: We try not to. When we pitched Star Trek as a Time Travel thing, Damon Lindoff (Lost producer) said oh I don’t want to hear about it. But that was inadvertent. We tend to have the same themes in our work, technology, advancement, it can be good or it can be bad depending on humanity. But we’re pretty good at separating it out, once you find what the good emotional content is – like the minute you know that Star Trek is a “brother story” its going to lead you different places than if it were a different story.
Question: What is your involvement with Fringe this season?
Orci: We come in about once a week, and then we’ll oversee two or three episodes during the season, where we work with another writer. We all divvy up overseeing part of the staff, to generate episodes. We all sat around for weeks, early on in this year, to figure out what the overall season would be, and then we check in once or twice a week and oversee a couple episodes.
Question: Does JJ Abrams have the same schedule?
Orci: Yeah. We switch off. He’ll check in and oversee another episode when we’re not around. That way, there’s a constant stream of us consulting and helping the great showrunners that we have, Jeff Pinkner and Joel Wyman.
Kurtzman: The credit really goes to them, honestly. Jeff and Joel are carrying the show right now, in an amazing way. They’re in there seven days a week. They’re there all the time, 24 hours a day.
Question: The opening sequence of Star Trek was so powerful, how did you come up with that approach?
Kurtzman: Interestingly, the first scene in the movie was not the first scene in the script that we wrote. It was actually the second scene originally. The first scene, which is on the DVD was the birth of Spock. I think that we knew that the way these characters were born was going to define everything that they become. Knowing that Kirk was going to be a renegade, and that he would have Father issues, and that he was going to be lost, and that he was going to be coming into his own as captain. This prescribed a series of things that allowed us to think “What would create a man like that?” And rising to the challenge of are you going to be as good as your father who literally died in service of keeping you alive. Are you going rise to that challenge? That’s a very emotional story.
Also one of the things we’d heard a lot, is that women don’t like scifi, because there is no emotion. We were offended by that. Lets show them how wrong they are at the get go, everyone can cry and then we can move on from there.
Orci: My wife was in tears during that sequence in the theater, and that was the goal.
Question: And can you give a status update on where you are with the story and the script, etc?
Orci: We’re still just brainstorming, internally and are going to get together soon and bust our riffs out and see what happens, and start putting it together.
Question: So, you haven’t figured out a story yet?
Orci: No.
Check back with ENI later this week for the Follow up Interview with JJ Abrams!
The STAR TREK DVD and Blu-ray will boast out-of-this-world special features to take viewers even further into the new universe of the rousing space adventure. The two-disc DVD and three-disc Blu-ray include in-depth explorations of the reimagining of the franchise, the phenomenal cast, the spectacularly real action sequences, the powerful score and the captivating aliens, commentary by J.J. Abrams, the writers and producers, a gag reel and a digital copy of the film. Additionally, the discs feature compelling deleted scenes that reveal a side story involving Nero with a first-ever look at Abrams’ version of the infamous warrior Klingons.
The STAR TREK Blu-ray boldly ventures beyond the final frontier with over three hours of sensational bonus footage including branching pods that allow for enhanced exploration, more fascinating features on the starships, planets, props, costumes and sound of STAR TREK, as well as a Starfleet Vessel Simulator and access to the latest NASA news about real-life space exploration via BD-Live.
The two-disc DVD and three-disc Blu-ray will also offer a home entertainment first: groundbreaking augmented reality technology. Using a webcam, a Star Trek visual cue will morph into a 3D holographic tour of the U.S.S. Enterprise on the screen, providing a unique immersive and interactive experience.
DVD:
The STAR TREK two-disc DVD is presented in widescreen enhanced for 16:9 televisions with Dolby Digital English 5.1 Surround, French 5.1 Surround and Spanish 5.1 Surround with English, French and Spanish subtitles. Special features are as follows:
Disc 1:
Commentary—By director J.J. Abrams, writers Robert Orci and Alex Kurtzman, producer Damon Lindelof and executive producer Bryan Burk.
A New Vision— J.J. Abrams’ vision was not only to create a Star Trek that was a bigger, more action-packed spectacle, but also to make the spectacle feel real. Every aspect of production—from unique locations to the use of classic Hollywood camera tricks—was guided by this overall objective.
Gag Reel—Bloopers featuring the entire principal cast.
Disc 2:
Digital Copy
Deleted Scenes with Optional Commentary
Spock Birth
Klingons Take Over Narada
Young Kirk, Johnny and Uncle Frank
Amanda and Sarek Argue After Spock Fights
Prison Interrogation and Breakout
Sarek Gets Amanda
Dorm Room and Kobayashi Maru (original version)
Kirk Apologizes to the Green Girl
Sarek Sees Spock
To Boldly Go— Taking on the world’s most beloved science fiction franchise was no small mission. Director J.J. Abrams, writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, producer Damon Lindelof, and executive producer Bryan Burk talk about the many challenges they faced and their strategy for success.
Casting— The producers knew their greatest task was finding the right cast to reprise these epic roles. The cast, for their part, talk about the experience of trying to capture the essence of these mythic characters. The piece concludes with a moving tribute to Leonard Nimoy.
Aliens— Designers Neville Page and Joel Harlow talk about the hurdles they faced creating new alien species, recreating the Romulans and Vulcans, and designing the terrifying creatures on Delta Vega for the new Star Trek.
Score— As a fan of the original series, composer Michael Giacchino embraced the challenge of creating new music for Star Trek while preserving the spirit of Alexander Courage’s celebrated theme.
DVD-Rom:
STAR TREK? D-A-C Free Trial Game for XBOX 360?
Weblink to the STAR TREK? D-A-C Free Trial Game for PC
Weblink to the STAR TREK? D-A-C Free Trial Game for PlayStation? Network
Blu-ray
The STAR TREK three-disc Blu-ray is presented in 1080p High Definition with English 5.1 Dolby TrueHD, French 5.1 Dolby Digital and Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital with English, English SDH, French, Spanish and Portuguese subtitles. Special features are as follows:
Disc 1:
Commentary—By director J.J. Abrams, writers Robert Orci and Alex Kurtzman, producer Damon Lindelof and executive producer Bryan Burk.
NASA News— This BD-Live feature gives viewers access to the latest NASA news about real space exploration. Learn about new mission developments and check out featured imagery from around the universe.
Disc 2:
To Boldly Go—See description above.
Branching Pods:
The Shatner Conundrum
Red Shirt Guy
The Green Girl
Trekker Alert!
Casting—See description above.
A New Vision—See description above.
Branching Pods:
Savage Pressure
Starships—Abrams and production designer Scott Chambliss were careful to pay tribute to the design of the original Enterprise, but they also wanted to make it futuristic and cool for a modern audience. This chapter focuses on the unique stories behind the creation of the film’s starships.
Branching Pods:
Warp Explained
Paint Job
Bridge Construction Accelerated
The Captain’s Chair
Button Acting 101
Shuttle Shuffle
Narada Construction Accelerated
Aliens—See description above.
Branching Pods:
The Alien Paradox
Big-Eyed Girl
Big Bro Quinto
Klingons
Drakoulias Anatomy 101
Planets— From the frozen landscape of Delta Vega to the desert plains of Vulcan, Scott Chambliss and the art department had a number of radically different planets to create. Abrams’ desire to shoot on real locations whenever possible led the production team to a number of strange and surprising locations.
Branching Pods:
Extra Business
Confidentiality
Props and Costumes— Property master Russell Bobbitt had the unique challenge of designing props that were both true to the original series and pertinent to today’s technology. Likewise, costume designer Michael Kaplan talks about how he designed costumes that paid homage to what came before yet were relevant and timeless.
Branching Pods:
Klingon Wardrobe
Ben Burtt and the Sounds of Star Trek— When famed sound designer Ben Burtt was hired to create sounds for the first Star Wars film, he took his inspiration from the original “Star Trek” series. Burtt jumped at the opportunity to pay tribute to the sounds that sparked his career with the sounds he created for the new Star Trek.
Score—See description above.
Gene Roddenberry’s Vision— J.J. Abrams, Leonard Nimoy, previous Star Trek writers and producers, and scientific consultant Carolyn Porco describe and commend the optimistic and enduring vision of Gene Roddenberry.
Deleted Scenes with Optional Commentary—See details above.
Starfleet Vessel Simulator—Explore extensive data on the U.S.S. Enterprise and the Romulan ship, the Narada. Submerse yourself in breathtaking 360° views and close-ups and review detailed tech information.
Gag Reel—See description above.
Disc 3:
Digital Copy
STAR TREK? D-A-C Free Trial Game for XBOX 360?
Weblink to the STAR TREK? D-A-C Free Trial Game for PC
Weblink to the STAR TREK? D-A-C Free Trial Game for PlayStation? Network
The STAR TREK single-disc DVD is presented in widescreen enhanced for 16:9 televisions with Dolby Digital English 5.1 Surround, French 5.1 Surround and Spanish 5.1 Surround with English, French and Spanish subtitles. The single-disc DVD includes the commentary, “A New Vision” and the gag reel.
STAR TREK DVD
Street date: November 17, 2009
Runtime: 127 minutes
U.S. Rating: PG-13 for some intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence and brief suggestive content
Canadian Rating: PG for violence
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Question: How do you structure your time, when you are juggling so many projects at any given time?
Question: It has been reported that there is an idea of doing the 2 and 3 Star Trek movies back-to-back? Is there any possibility of that?
