Why was young Kirk listening to 'Sabotage' in Star Trek?

This buzz falls in to the category of I don't care if it's true, because it's just too cool!

In the beginning of the Star Trek film, young James T. Kirk has stolen his stepdad's car, and is racing across a field in Iowa, blasting some 'old school' tunes. I didn't catch the song at the time, but it was the Beastie Boys' "Sabotage". Why would that be meaningful, you ask?

Because William Shatner famously cannot pronounce the word 'sabotage'. He says it like sabotaage with the "a" sound like in the word 'at'. Must be a Canadian thing. There is a hilarious audio clip of someone trying to correct him in an voiceover session:

I'm going to choose to think that J. J. Abrams purposefully chose that song to give a little nod to Shatner.

Others wonder if sending a 60's car over a cliff might have other meanings. From /Film:

Abrams chose a 1960s Corvette. Some reports even say it’s a 1966 Corvette, the same year that Gene Roddenberry’s television series began to air.

Could it be that the corvette represents something more than just a fast car? I believe that by throwing the 1960’s era car off a cliff, Abrams was making a statement - “this is not your father’s Star Trek movie” - we’re throwing all that stuff away, off a cliff no less. This is the new Star Trek.” It’s worth noting that my theory originally appeared on the site in November 2008 with the same exact wording, “not your father’s Star Trek movie”, before that line was made the focus of the film’s television campaign.

Hat tip: Cinematical

Star Trek - Movie Review

In a word, Star Trek was "Awesometastic," or at least that's what my 16 year old son called it. He has only the vaguest idea of who Kirk and Spock are, and I'm not sure he's ever seen a full classic episode. He loved it, and that shows that J. J. Abrams has a huge success on his hands. This, unlike many past Star Trek films, is not just for the diehard Trekkies who know all the inside jokes. It's an origin story and a prequel, so while there are plenty of fun Easter eggs for the long time fans, it's a film easily accessible to all the new fans that J. J. Abrams just made for the franchise.

I really have to hand it to the writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman. While J. J. Abrams admits that he was not a huge fan of Star Trek, they both obviously are. They have honored the history, while coming up with an ingenious solution to how to revitalize Star Trek. Time Travel and paradoxes are traditional for Star Trek, but I just loved how they worked it to show us these characters we've known for so long, and yet tweak things just enough to make it really interesting. I'm sure the fans will have lots to chew on discussing all the differences from the "canon". They also included all those iconic lines that fans want to hear, but they happened in a very natural part of the story, and never felt forced ("Fascinating"). This movie has fast exciting action, but it's all about the characters and that is what made it really entertaining to me.

Focusing on the origin of Kirk and Spock and their relationship -- totally inspired. Both Zachary Quinto and Christopher Pine had tough jobs and big shoes to fill. I have to say I was really impressed with Christopher Pine. He did not do an impression of Shatner, but made Kirk his own capturing the essence of the character.

But the actor who really surprised me was Karl Urban as Bones. He was just great as Dr. McCoy from that very first scene with Kirk. They took all his history, the divorce, his fear of flying, and just gave him a great cantankerous entrance to the story. Loved it! From the limited films I've seen Urban in (LOTR, Bourne, etc.) I just never would have pictured him doing such a good funny Bones. "I may throw up on you!"

Each main character gets a little moment to shine, and Simon Pegg was my husband's favorite as Scotty. "I like this ship. It's exciting!" Eric Bana's evil Nero was good, but not great. But then, who can match Ricardo Montalban as Khan or the Borg.

Three and a half stars. Huge thumbs up! My husband is a big fan. He even has two phaser rifles and an honest to God Klingon desk from the Christies auction. He loved the movie and believe me, he's a harsh critic. For super fans like him, we just looked at each other several times during the film at the little gifts the writers gave us. Captain Pike was the captain of the Enterprise in the original series pilot and features in the episode "The Menagerie" which has Pike in a wheelchair, and Spock as his former first officer. So cool that Pike was in this origin movie, and at the very end, we noted that he was in a wheelchair in the final ceremony. Just tons of cool touches like that, but still lots of exciting action, too. As the writers said in a recent interview:

I think in its simplest form "Star Trek" has been about naval battles, essentially submarine battles in space, so everything was a bit slow, which is great. It is a wonderful staple of Trek because that forced storytellers to come up with amazing ways for the bridge crew to deal with these problems. Star Wars was about World War II dogfights. As a kid, I loved Trek for the characters, but I loved Star Wars for the speed. But there is no reason why those things should be mutually exclusive. Also, at a practical level, if we going to be introducing Star Trek to a new generation of kids, and given what kids are used to now with Star Wars and Transformers and Iron Man and the speed of those movies, it was going to be very hard to bring them back to a slow naval battle. So we thought must be respectful to the naval battle aspect of the franchise, and yet we can bring something else to it.

I'm looking forward to seeing it again to catch even more Easter eggs! Star Trek has always been about hope and optimism in the future. I think the producers lucked out by releasing this movie at the beginning of Obama's first term. It's a time we could use some more hope and optimism, just like the sixties when the series premiered.

Also, the writers have really opened things up for sequels. Star Trek had gotten rather ossified with over 40 years of history. Now, they could even face familiar situations with different outcomes. Javier Bardem as Khan, anyone?

Trivia note -- J. J. Abrams has been friends with actor Greg Grunberg (Heroes) since high school and finds a way to put him in everything he does. Greg is the voice of Kirk's stepdad on the phone early in the film.

J.J. Abrams' Mystery Box

J. J. Abrams' talk at the TED conference. All about the mystery -- which is certainly a theme in his work!

Buckle Up...The Wait Is Over - Star Trek Trailer Is Here!!

I have been counting down the hours till I could watch this awesome new trailer for Star Trek in high quality again rather than the camcorder bootleg found on YouTube this weekend. Oh, happy day, it is Monday and it's here, the wait is over. It blew my socks off before Quantum this weekend.



Find it here in high quality, on Apple's Trailer site in Quicktime. Watch it in HD, it's worth it!

How do I love this new trailer? Let me count the ways. J. J. Abrams, you sly devil. The trailer starts out with a speeding 20th century convertible, in chase by with sirens blaring. The kid jumps out of the car at the last minute while the car careens over the cliff. Only then, when we switch to the view of the cop, who appears to be a robot with an air motorcycle, do we realize this is sci-fi. The kid says, "My name is James Tiberius Kirk!" and I whooped inside because now we know it's the Star Trek trailer. Only then do they play the Paramount and Bad Robot logos. One of the coolest openers to a trailer anywhere, and just brilliant.

So many cool flashes go by in quick succession. Simon Pegg as Scotty, "I like this ship. It's exciting!" LOL! Kirk arguing with Spock, "Why don't you make me!" The trailer ends with the very cool and evil looking Eric Bana saying "The wait is over." No, the wait ends in May when this movie finally comes out!

Yes, the movie could still suck, but I am hopeful. I am so hopeful, and whoever edited this trailer together is a genius. I've watched it half a dozen times already!

Update: Finally found the embed code on Awards Daily, and this hilarious comment.

350 years from now, no real progress beyond the Wonderbra. Or the male need to sneak a peek at one. Fascinating.

Harry Knowles sees some Star Trek footage

Harry Knowles of Ain't It Cool News was invited by J. J. Abrams into the editing room of the new Star Trek movie. He saw about seven minutes of footage, and especially loves the casting of Karl Urban as McCoy and that of Spock. Read the whole thing here.

I got a sense of what JJ is up to. He’s very much reinventing it – the way Robert Wise did – and at the same time – he’s directing the actors with an energy and an aliveness that we haven’t seen. This was exciting, yet strange and it felt somehow… real.

From NY Times article to movie deal in 5 days

J. J. Abrams presented a NY Times article to Paramount studio execs, and five days later had developed a deal to produce Mystery on Fifth Avenue.

The Times feature, which ran Thursday and was written by reporter Penelope Green, describes an Upper East Side luxury apartment on Fifth Avenue that the occupants had redesigned to include hidden compartments, messages, puzzles, poems, codes and games for their four preteen kids.

The parents, Steven Klinsky and Maureen Sherry, are Wall Street financial experts and purchased the 4,200-square-foot, 1920s co-op with views of Central Park in 2003 for $8.5 million. Soon after, they hired young architectural designer Eric Clough, who devised an elaborately clever "scavenger hunt" built into the apartment that involved dozens of historical figures, a fictional book and a soundtrack. (Many of the secrets were included without the parents' knowledge, either.)

J. J. Abrams reinvents Star Trek

J. J. Abrams, creator of TV shows Lost and Alias, recently interviewed for the DVD release of Cloverfield, shared some words about his upcoming Star Trek film:

"It was an opportunity to take what I think has been a maligned world _ to sound crass, a franchise _ and treat it in a way that made it something that I wanted to see," said Abrams, who recently finished shooting on "Star Trek," due in theaters May 8, 2009. "To take the characters, the thoughtfulness, the personalities, the sense of adventure, the idea of humanity working together, the sense of social commentary and innovation, all that stuff. To take it and apply it in a way that felt genuinely thrilling."

While he enjoyed the TV show about Capt. Kirk, First Officer Spock and their Enterprise crew mates, Abrams said he was not a rabid fan.

In this age of make-or-break opening weekends, the revival of the franchise seven years after the last movie ("Star Trek: Nemesis") flopped may depend on introducing a new generation to the exploits of the 23rd century explorers rather than just hooking old fans.

"The whole point was to try to make this movie for fans of movies, not fans of `Star Trek,' necessarily,'" Abrams said. "If you're a fan, we've got one of the writers who's a devout Trekker, so we were able to make sure we were serving the people who are completely enamored with `Star Trek.' But we are not making the movie for that contingent alone.

"You can't really make a movie for them. As soon as you start to guess what you think they are going to want to see, you're in trouble. You have to make the movie in many ways for what you want to see yourself, make a movie you believe in. Then you're not second-guessing an audience you don't really have an understanding of."

Abrams' "Star Trek" takes the franchise back to its beginning, with a young cast re-creating the Enterprise crew: Chris Pine as Kirk, Zachary Quinto as Spock, Karl Urban as Dr. McCoy, Simon Pegg as engineer Scott, John Cho as helmsman Sulu, Zoe Saldana as communications officer Uhura and Anton Yelchin as navigator Chekov.

"It's a chance to see what Kirk and Spock would look like done now," Abrams said. "What's thrilling about it is how great the cast is, how remarkably talented and funny and just spot-on they all are."

Nimoy also reprises his role as the older Spock, though Shatner _ whose Kirk was killed at the end of the seventh movie, "Star Trek: Generations" _ does not appear.

Abrams would not share plot details, saying only that the movie would remain faithful to the original while breaking new ground in action, drama and visual effects, which are being crafted by "Star Wars" creator George Lucas' Industrial Light and Magic outfit.

"I feel like this is so unlike what you expect, so unlike the `Star Trek' you've seen. At the same time, it's being true to what's come before, honoring it," Abrams said. "I can say the effects for `Star Trek' have never, ever been done like this. ... I can only tell you the idea of the universe of `Star Trek' has never been given this kind of treatment."