Copyright © 2009 by Paramount Pictures
Time travel and parallel realities are big themes in Star Trek, but another franchise you write for -- Fringe -- also plays with those same topics. Do you research academy and scientific papers, or is a lot of it made up on the fly?
We do a lot of research. We immerse ourselves in the latest theoretical musings on the subject. In Star Trek we didn't use the classic time travel ideas from the '50s with the great time travel paradox if you run into your own mother that you could affect your own birth. That sci-fi convention of time travel has been around forever, and it's great. But we wanted to do the more recent quantum mechanically-based idea of parallel realities when you travel back in time there are no paradoxes. Then if you kill your grandfather you're just creating a new timeline in which the man who would have been your grandfather is dead from your universe. So it was fun to play with a new kind of time travel. We couldn't fall on the old tricks for drama in this movie. None of the stakes in the movie are based on anyone vanishing or anything like that. It was fun to find a new twist on the time travel story.
Having Leonard Nimoy appear both on Star Trek reprising his role as Spock, and on Fringe as William Bell, -- and having them both play with the idea of time travel and parallel realities -- is an interesting crossover. Why did you want him to play such a pivtal role in Fringe?
It's an idea that Bryan Burke had when we were screening Trek in Austin, and we were there with Leonard Nimoy for a day or two. And Burke thought that the character of William Bell that we'd been building up on Fringe should be Nimoy. We already asked him for so much, and J.J. emailed him and he was interested. There's a certain logic to it. Bell is supposed to be one of the smartest men in the world; like Bill Gates meets Howard Hughes. So Nimoy's credentials as one of the smartest characters in the history of the world is already established through Star Trek. It's interesting to see him as a potential ambiguous, evil figure.
Is Leonard Nimoy the new Slusho?
The next time we see him on screen we should have him drinking a Slusho. Maybe we'll make Slusho a subsidiary of Massive Dynamics. [laughs]
Copyright © 2009 by Paramount Pictures
Since you and Kurtzman are both producers, as well as writers, for Star Trek and Fringe, does that mean the writers essentially get to call the shots on the set? How much more control do you get over a production since you serve in both roles?
Alex and I come from TV were the writers are often the producers, so when we made the transition to movies, it became very apparent to our collaborators that it would be very stupid not to use our expertise in production. We talked and acted like producers, so we became producers. [laughs] It's great because we get to protect our work, we get to go to marketing meetings and we give our notes on the toy line. On the other hand, we have to make sure that doesn't get in the way of the writing.
Is there any facet of filmmaking you haven't tried that you wish you could?
I wish I could compose music for the soundtrack. How much fun would that be to be John Williams for a day?
Copyright © 2009 by Paramount Pictures
What has been the weirdest or geekiest question you've gotten about the new Star Trek film from the hardcore fans?
No, because I'm a fan, so I can't say that.
I can give you one that I've heard online that made me wonder. Why are there no handrails on Niro's ship? Isn't that kind of dangerous during sudden stops?
[laughs] I would argue that there are invisible force field handrails.
Yeah, we use the Force as an excuse too. As a Star Wars fan, how would you reboot the Star Wars franchise?
I'd love to go back to the time in between the movies A New Hope through Return of the Jedi, and see other planets and the people who live on them, and how they see the war like we're following the war in Iraq. It would be interesting to see other people respond to finding out there's a base on Bespin.
To get more behind-the-scenes stories about making Star Trek and Fringe, check out An Evening with Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, May 26 at the Writers Guild Theater in Los Angeles. More information can be found here.
Stay tuned to Star Wars Rocks for more interviews from some of your favorite bands and celebrities.
