TEN Gossip

J.J. Abrams Insists he Loves William Shatner

Posted by Jessica Rae on April 29, 2009
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J.J. Abrams was interviewed by Jimmy Kimmel on his show, Jimmy Kimmel Live, tonight. The interview just finished airing,  for the East coast, as I’m writing this. Abrams is promoting the new Star Trek movie. Kimmel called Star Trek a ‘sacred world’, which I suppose it is. I wouldn’t really know, not having ever seen an episode. You would be fair in assuming I’m not their target audience! If I see this movie it’ll only be because of Zachary Quinto’s involvement. I’m not really a Sci-Fi type of person.

Kimmel said he liked the movie, and he thinks the ‘hard core trekkies’ will really like the movie. Ironically, Abrams wasn’t a huge Star Trek fan growing up. “We are sort of genetically coded to know that Kirk is Captain Kirk,” he joked.

Kimmel said, “Everyone’s happy except William Shatner, huh?” Why? Abrams said he wanted to be consistent, and his character died in one of the films. Shatner didn’t want to do just a cameo, so Abrams couldn’t rework everything to bring Shatner in the movie. But Shatner is NOT mad, Abrams insisted. “I love William Shatner.” Kimmel said, “I’d hate to see what you do to people you don’t like.”

“Star Trek fans are obviously a rabid bunch. Are you scared of him yet?” asked Kimmel. Abrams said he did the movie because they’ve kept the fandom alive.

“Did you shoot on location, or on the planet earth?” Kimmel wanted to know. I won’t reveal the truth! Okay, apparently one of the places they shot was a beer factory. “It was gleaming clean,” Abrams said. “Were you guys drunk all the time?” Kimmel had to ask. But no, they weren’t. Or so Abrams SAYS.

Star Trek will be released May 7th, 2009. Will you be in line?