J.J. Abrams Boldly Talks Star Trek DVD and Blu-ray

J.J. Abrams Boldly Talks Star Trek DVD and Blu-ray

J.J. Abrams explains a scene to Zoe Saldana

Without a doubt one of the most exciting and invigorating things to happen to the sci-fi genre in years happened this summer when fans got to finally see director J.J. Abrams' re-imagining of the Star Trek franchise, with his hit film simply titled Star Trek. By all accounts, the director hit a home-run by pleasing hard-core fans with all the character nuances and sci-fi gadgets they expect while giving new audiences an exciting and heart-felt plot that they could follow. The film, which cost an estimated $150 million to make as grossed to date nearly $384 million world wide and with it's release on DVD and Blu-Ray today, is on track to add more money to it's impressive total. We caught up with fan-favorite director J. J. Abrams, the man behind Mission: Impossible III and the popular TV show's Lost, Alias and Fringe, at a Paramount event in Santa Monica in October and he gave us an inside look at what extras fans can expect from the new DVD and Blu-Ray.

"I'm always thinking about the DVD part of it because I'm a fan of the DVD," stated Abrams. "So I want to make sure that we are doing stuff that is going to be beneficial. So if its about getting video crews in as early as possible to document moments that might seem insanely mundane or unimportant but in context show how things got made," the director explained. "The crew of a movie like this, especially this crew who work so hard and they did such incredible work, they're usually the invisible person. If they do a great job you're not really thinking about the costume. If they're doing a great job you're not really thinking about that visual effect, that prop or that set and its even more reason that it should be celebrated," he continued. "So what I love about the special features is people like Michael Kaplan, Scott Chambliss, Michael Giacchino or any of these people get to take the stage, talk about and document the amazing work that they do and often get credit for but don't get screen time. So its' really a nice thing to see them front and center," Abrams concluded.

Chris Pine stars as James T. Kirk

One deleted scenes in the film that fans will get to see on the DVD and Blu-Ray takes place on a Klingon prison Planet. The sequence would have happened after Nero's destruction of the USS Kelvin. It would reveal that after this event, Klingons seized his ship and that he and his crew had been captive in the Klingon prison for twenty-five years awaiting the return of Spock "Prime," which would eventually allow for their revenge. "It's one of those things that I hated to cut for a number of reasons," the director explained. "I loved the design, I loved the world, I loved the story and that moment was really cool so I'm excited for people to see these scenes. But also Victor Garber, who is one of my favorite actors, played a Klingon. He was in the movie, wore a ton of make-up, very heavy, hot costume and I had to call him and tell him that his scene wasn't in the film. A huge conciliation for me is that it will live forever on the DVD and Blu-Ray so I'm excited for people to see that," Abrams finished.

Finally, the director spoke about how some of the logic of the actual events in the film had been plotted out and why decisions were made to cut some explanation scenes. "There are elements in the special features and deleted scenes that address the storyline and the logic of it," Abrams said. "For example, one of the things people had issues with was, 'Oh come on, Kirk is going to run into an ice cave and he's going to find Spock 'Prime'? That is the dumbest thing I've ever heard," mocked the director. "Granted, you know, unlikely but in the scene where they are in the cave, there was a sequence that is on the DVD that was cut from the movie, where Spock speaks to that and he talks about how this is sort of the timelines way of trying to repair itself and it is as much about fate as anything," he stated.

Director J.J. Abrams (center) discusses a scene with actors John Cho (left, as Sulu), Anton Yelchin (center left, as Chekov), Zachary Quinto (center right, as Spock), and Chris Pine (far right, as James T. Kirk) behind-the-scenes

"It's a funny thing when we were working on the script, frankly it was one of those moments where I was like, how in the name of God are we going to figure it out. One of the genius moves that Alex (Kurtzman) and Bob (Orci) did is that they just did it," Abrams explained. "They made it about inevitability. They made it about Kirk and Spock. The movie is about this family that nothing will keep apart. It's about that kind of friendship that will endure anything. So there was kind of genius in taking the most unlikely moment, a coincidence that I never in a million years would have bought and just hang a huge lantern on it and say that it is faith working. You just kind of go, okay. So to me it was one of those moments where I thought we could loose that definition that you now see on the DVD because it really in my mind didn't need to be explained away. Although I think people who have seen it have said, 'that was really good because it helped explain why that unlikely thing happened.' So for example, I think people might find that added sequence helpful, by filling in a piece that was missing," Abrams concluded.

Star Trek was released May 8th, 2009 and stars Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Leonard Nimoy, Eric Bana, Bruce Greenwood, Karl Urban, Zoe Saldana, Simon Pegg. The film is directed by J.J. Abrams.

Sources: Jami Philbrick

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NattyBumppo
@brew1701: 1) Oh, sure, it reads "seized." NOW. It sure as Hell didn't read that way yesterday, though. ;)
2) I directed my comment at Jami Philbrick, who quite obviously corrected the wording AFTER I posted. I'm baffled as to how you could possibly believe that I thought Abrams wrote the article...
2 years agoby @nattybumppo Flag
brew1701
Hey genius it did say "seized", in the interview and also JJ abrams didn't write the article he was interviewed!!
2 years agoby @brew1701 Flag
keyboardman
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2 years agoby @keyboardman Flag
NattyBumppo
Klingons ceased his ship? Ceased?! How about "seized," genius. You're a writer. You use words for living. You should know better.
2 years agoby @nattybumppo Flag
slysnide
They could easily retitle it: "Spock Movie."
2 years agoby @slysnide Flag