Damon Lindelof On 'Star Trek XI' Date Change And Its Effects

Paramount Pictures and Bad Robot Productions moved the opening date of the J.J. Abrams directed Star Trek XI film from the original date this Christmas to a May date the following year. There have been different reasons given as to why the sudden move of the opening dates that range from script rewrites that need the writer's strike to end first to the simple reason that the cast and crew just needed more time to meet the deadline.

Star Trek XI producer Damon Lindelof, who also is co-creator and head writer of the hit Television show Lost, took time to give his opinion on the change in dates.

"Moving Star Trek XI from December 2008 to May 2009 will have positive benefits, says Star Trek XI producer Damon Lindelof.

As reported by Trekmovie.com, according to Lindelof, based on Paramount's growing understanding of the movie, Star Trek XI was more appropriate for a summer release.

"It was being presented to J.J. [Abrams]," said Lindelof, "and I have been hearing the same thing from the studio, that based on the dailies they have been seeing and hanging out on the set and seeing and beginning to understand what the movie is, I think that they are starting to look at it as a big summer crowd-pleaser as opposed to a very sci-fi, not-as-accessible-to a-wider-audience Christmas release. So the reason that they have moved the release date is for their ability to market the film and sort of position it as the Pirates of the Caribbean for next summer."

There are other benefits to the later release. "On a budgetary level probably the most significant effect it will have is that we will not have to rush our post [production]," explained Lindelof. "As you might imagine there are a gazillion effects shots. I have seen some of the early work being done by ILM and [visual effects supervisor] Roger Guyett and it is nothing short of astonishing. So they’ll basically have more time to render those effects than they would have if we had to release it by Christmas. So that will probably make the movie a little less expensive to produce."

Lindelof also talked about how the move would affect the release of a full movie trailer. "Obviously the schedule is now going to change to accommodate the new release date," he said. "My guess is that the strategy will turn more into a slow burn. But at this point we also have to be cognizant of once the film is done, and the more we shoot the more likely it is to invite spoilers if we are holding everything back. So we still want to release those images. As far as for the first trailer trailer, I heard we were still on for the summer to have a full trailer for the movie. But I would not be surprised if they decide to hold that back."

Those working on Star Trek XI wanted to make the movie appealing both to long-term fans and yet attract a new audience. "When we all sat down and started to talk about whether or not we wanted to take on Trek, the question was very simple and that question has remained the same: do we think we can make it good?" said Lindelof. "And there is a way to make that movie where the fans will feel that literally four decades of storytelling and canon is not being ignored, but you make the movie so there is an access point for people who want to come in and hear the band for the first time, as it were. We talked about that and kicked some story ideas around and became totally infected with it." (source)