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Posted: 09:46:12 on November 11 2002
By: Steve Krutzler
Dept: Star Trek: Nemesis

Producer Rick Berman talks in the latest issue of the Star Trek Communicator, a special STAR TREK NEMESIS edition available now and on the way to subscribers this week. The magazine sends along word that due to a new computer system there may be a slight delay delivery to subscribers. In the mean time, the Communicator provided TrekWeb with an exclusive preview of this issue's Rick Berman Update with Dan Madsen.

The interview took place as NEMESIS was nearing the end of the scoring and finalization processes and the seventh episode of ENTERPRISE was shooting. Berman says rumors of a new ending being devised for the film are outright false: "The picture has been locked for over a month," he told the mag. "We are in the final days of our last scoring session with Jerry Goldsmith. This film has got four more days of dubbing, and then we go into dub review and then print mastering. We’re all done and there are no changes and no simplifying. Whoever spread those rumors is just spreading rumors."

Berman says the lack of familiarity of director Stuart Baird with the STAR TREK universe only helped produce a unique film: "I don’t think Jonathan Frakes or David Carson or Nick Meyer or Leonard Nimoy looked at these films as 'Star Trek films' as opposed to just a film," he said, referencing reports of Baird's need for STAR TREK guidance. "I think that Stuart’s lack of familiarity with Star Trek has necessitated a lot more time on my part in keeping everything on track—something that he has been terrific about. But I think just the fact that he has had a lot of experience, both as a director and as a film editor in doing big action/adventure movies, has helped. He has taken John Logan’s very action-packed—but, at the same time, very characterdriven and emotional—script, and turned it into a very unique film. I think people will accept it across the board."

The producer and co-writer of the tenth TREK pic gave the Communicator an idea of what he plans to do on the nervous opening day of the film: "Anybody that tells you they don’t look at the box-office returns is lying," he revealed unsurprisingly. "The day it opens,what I have tended to do for the last few pictures is to get into a car and drive from theater to theater and just check out the larger theaters in L.A. I see what the lines are like and what the reactions are like. I try to slip into the theaters and stand in the back and see how people are reacting. You don’t get many chances to see a packed house reacting to a new movie. Then what happens is that when a film opens, at least for the first couple of weeks, I get calls two or three times a day from people here at Paramount letting me know how the picture is doing. It’s a little nerve-wracking—you go through all the reviews as well."

Berman has so much confidence in NEMESIS that discussion of whether there will be a "next STAR TREK film" has completely been replaced by discussion of "when."

"My guess is that this film will do really well," he told Madsen without reservation. "The biggest enemy that this film has is the Christmastime opening. We’ve got James Bond and Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings and Solaris and Gangs of New York and a dozen big movies that are opening between Thanksgiving and the end of the year. That’s our biggest competition—just the fact that there are so many movies. My guess is that this film will do very well and, as a result of that, I will probably be hearing from the powers-that-be at Paramount sooner than I hope to in starting to put together an idea for the next film. That’s not to say ideas are not already percolating."

On the ENTERPRISE front, Berman says he and writing partner Brannon Braga are always trying to find good material for all their new prequel-era characters, but if one had to be singled out, it'd be Connor Trinneer's: "I would say that the actor that I just can’t get enough of and whom we are constantly looking for stories to develop and focus around is Connor Trinneer. I think Connor is just a remarkable actor. I think that if there is anybody who hasn’t been given enough focus, in terms of stories centered around their character, it is probably Trip."

But don't expect any long-term pre-planning on the series, he cautions: "I think that, perhaps, on Deep Space Nine there were times where we had discussions about where we wanted to go with the war, the Founders and where that whole arc was going to take us. That was never more than a half-season ahead, though," he said when asked about how much architecture is already in place for ENTERPRISE. "On this new series, there has been a lot of thought and discussion about the Temporal Cold War and where we are going to be taking that, but not anywhere near the degree you are talking about. We’re not sitting and planning out arcs that will envelop the entire second season, not to mention the third, fourth or fifth."

Check out issue #142 of the Star Trek Communicator on newsstands now or in your mailbox soon for the rest of the interview and more NEMESIS coverage, including a TNG cast pull-out poster featuring an image from the film. The issue includes interviews with Patrick Stewart, Marinia Sirtis, Michael Dorn, Levar Burton and Ron Perlman and an extensive article on the new ships and vehicles for the film. You'll also find a tribute to the 35th anniversary of "The Trouble With Tribbles" and a feature on scanning the TREK actors for their Art Asylum action figure likenesses.

If you're not a Communicator subscriber, join today and support TrekWeb by purchashing your subscription through Amazon. The Communicator also makes a great gift this Holiday season and your purchase helps support this site.

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