Damon Lindelof Discusses the Secrecy of STAR TREK and how he Works
I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm incredibly excited for J.J. Abrams' Star Trek sequel. I loved the first film, and I can't wait to see what they are going to throw at us this time around. One thing we know about the film for sure is that it will be shrouded in secrecy and nothing will leak unless Abrams wants it to. Screenwriter Damon Lindelof recently did an interview in which he talked about the secrecy behind Star Trek, as well as how he likes to work when he writes.
Lindelof talks about what writing is like for him in the post-Lost era:
I function best in collaboration so I have sought out writing partners….On Trek 1, I produced it, but was obviously very involved in the story process with JJ [Abrams], Bob [Orci], and Alex [Kurtzman], so that was great. For Trek 2 I am actually writing, but again it functions a lot more like a TV show. We are all sitting in a room together throwing ideas around and seeing what sticks…I do not like sitting by myself staring at the blank page.
Lindelof talks about the secrecy on Lost and Star Trek XII:
It’s tough. JJ is really good at secrecy and really good at playing the game because ultimately people want to know but they don’t want to have stuff spoiled for them. … We are working on Trek 2 now and there is such an expectation that it is top secret, because everything we do is top secret. And with that expectation comes this idea that "they are going to do something that is totally mind-blowing that is going to friggin’ fry our brains!" Because we are keeping it such a secret. As opposed to the fact that we are just keeping it a secret because we don’t want the audience to know too much going in. The fact that people went to go to see Trek and they didn’t know we were going to blow up Vulcan. They might have known that time travel was involved and they knew that Nimoy was in the movie, but they didn’t understand how it all worked so when you get to that point in the movie it’s cool because you get to emotionally experience it without being primed for it. It requires a tremendous amount of – there are only so many people you can include in your circle of trust.
I do love how successful Abrams has been at keeping the details of his films secret. Hopefully he can keep it up.