XPost: alt.startrek, alt.tv.star-trek, alt.tv.star-trek.enterprise   
   XPost: rec.arts.startrek.current   
   From: spam@wonderful.spam   
      
   Shatner Leaks Trek XI Details   
      
   William Shatner revealed to SCI FI Wire that the upcoming 11th Star   
   Trek movie will indeed, as rumored, deal with the early years of Capt.   
   James T. Kirk and Spock - and that he will definitely appear in the   
   movie if director J.J. Abrams can find a place to use him. Shatner,   
   who originated the role of Kirk in the original Trek series and   
   several subsequent films, said in an interview that he was invited to   
   meet with Abrams (Mission: Impossible III), who is also co-writing the   
   movie.   
      
   "I met with J.J., and they told me they would like me to be part of   
   their film, but they have to write the role," Shatner said in an   
   interview promoting his new SCI FI Channel film, Alien Fire.   
      
   As for the many rumors concerning the sequel's story, Shatner said   
   that Abrams will explore Kirk and Spock during their Starfleet Academy   
   years. "Yes, we know the story is based on young Kirk," Shatner said.   
   Up until now, everyone connected with the film has maintained strict   
   silence about the storyline, though rumors have run rampant that they   
   concern Kirk and Spock's first missions.   
      
   As for Shatner's place in that storyline? "They need to figure out how   
   to put the dead captain in with the young captain," he said. "It's a   
   very complex, technical problem of how to write the character in, and   
   I'm not sure how they will solve it." It sounds like Shatner may play   
   an older version of Kirk.   
      
   Coincidentally, the Starfleet storyline is one Shatner is already   
   working on for his latest Trek-based novels. "I'm writing with Gar and   
   Judy Reeves-Stevens two books on the academy, with the young Kirk and   
   the young Spock," Shatner revealed. "We've submitted the first book to   
   the publishers, and I think it will be out in the beginning of 2008.   
   It's got a working title of The Academy, but I don't think that will   
   stick."   
      
   Meanwhile, Abrams told Entertainment Weekly that a draft of the Trek   
   XI script is done and will be trimmed sometime soon. The sequel will   
   be targeted, "on the one hand, for people who love Star Trek, the fix   
   that they will get will be really satisfying," Abrams told the   
   magazine. "For people who've never seen it or know it vaguely, I think   
   they will enjoy it equally, because the movie does not require you to   
   know anything about Star Trek. I would actually prefer [that] people   
   don't know the series, because I feel like they will come to it with   
   an open mind."   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)