The TREK XI Report: Taking a red pen to the IMDB entry for Trek XI

Taking a red pen to the IMDB entry for Trek XI
Friday, July 28, 2006

IMDB is a fantastic resource for fans and film industry people alike. For films that have been completed it extremely accurate and can be relied upon. But for films development that is another story. People should remember that IMDB is like wiki in that most of the content is submitted by users (just like you). And it appears that Trekkies are a bit overzelous in their contributions because the IMDB entry for Star Trek XI is riddled with wild speculation and rumors and it appears to be getting worse.

continue reading to get a full breakdown on what is real and what is myth...

Lets start with the Plot Summary and the Casting.
The first thing to remember is nothing is confirmed by anyone. Abrams has been consistent in saying it is a secret, but he along with StarTrek.com have made a number of 'indications'. That being said, whoever has been submitting at IMDB went way too far...here it is with my corrections:

Plot Summary
According to a report filed on a reputable website, Matt Damon is slated to play the role of Cadet James T. Kirk. The newest installment of the Star Trek franchise will be an Original Series Prequel, focusing on Kirk, Spock, and McCoy during their Starfleet Academy days.
Reliable reports indicate: a prequel to the Original Series Star Trek (1966) probably including the characters of Kirk and Spock.

Cast
Matt Damon....~~Captain~~ James T. Kirk (rumored)

Here is what was wrong and why it was changed:
1. Damon is not confirmed by anyone
2. how can he be both 'cadet kirk' and 'captain kirk' (especially as a 35 year old)
3. Academy plotline has been denied by Abrams
4. Mc Coy has never been even rumored to be involved
(really should have left it all blank to be hyper vigilent)

And the crew listings are riddled with errors as well
Here are the corrections noted in red

Director
J.J. Abrams (option) [Abrams has yet to commit]

Writing credits
Alex Kurtzman ...screenplay
Roberto Orci ...screenplay
J.J. Abrams ...screenplay [Abrams is confirmed as writer]
Gene Roddenberry ...characters
[NOTE:writers say they will use old characters so Rodenberry entry is OK]

Produced by
J.J. Abrams .... ~~executive~~ producer
Damon Lindelof .... ~~executive~~ producer
Bryan Burk .... executive producer
Alex Kurtzman .... executive producer
Roberto Orci .... executive producer
[NOTE: producer changes based on ST.com credits entry]

Original Music by
~~Michael Giacchino~~ [Regular Abrams colaborator, but only speculation as of now]

Special Effects
~~Industrial Light & Magic (ILM)~~ [have worked on Trek films before but as of now just speculation]

Budget
~~$100,000,000 (estimated)~~ [$100M is a good guess, but pure conjecture]

NOTE: my corrections have been noted in Star Trek XI: the FAQ, and (I fear) will be a continuing 'feature' for this site.

posted by Tony P @ 2:13 PM,

4 Comments:

At 4:01 PM, Anonymous said...: Nice job. I've been thinking about removing the imdb link from the Wikipedia article, and you caught a couple things I didn't notice. It dies now.
At 4:35 PM, Tony P said...: well I still have it linked in the Trek XI FAQ, but the faq also lists the errors.

We Report...they decide...and all that
At 4:44 AM, Anonymous said...: IMDB has always been wrong about Trek XI. For probably a couple of years it listed Nicholas Meyer as the director. I asked him about it in an interview, and it was news to him--though he seemed interested.

Neat site. See you back at Soul of Star Trek.
At 10:31 AM, Tony P said...: get of you to drop by Capt. Future. I am a big fan of 'Soul of StarTrek'.

Yes the old Star Trek XI page (retitled 'Star Trek: The Beginning') was rife with rumor and speculation. At one time it had Russell Mulcahy (Highlander) as the director. Meyer I can understand as Trekkie wishful thinking, but Mulcahay?

That being said that page was closed. The Trek XI page that is there now was a new page and actually to start off with was pretty accurate based on Variety and other reliable sources

...then the fanboys got to it and all hell broke loose

RE: Meyer interested
I am not surprised. his decade with Trek was probably the highlight of his career...and his two are still my faves.

Taking a red pen to the IMDB entry for Trek XI Friday, July 28, 2006

4 Comments:

Taking a red pen to the IMDB entry for Trek XI
Friday, July 28, 2006