Greetings, Trod-Upon Trekkers! ROBOGEEK here with a link to a truly superb and fascinating article by Robert Wilonsky from this morning's Dallas Observer.
As you've no doubt heard, Paramount Pictures - in an act of belated justice - has given legendary director Robert Wise the opportunity to at long last complete STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE. (Over two decades ago, Paramount took the film away from him and rushed it into theaters before he could properly finish it.)
With the help of producer David C. Fein, restoration supervisor Michael Matessino, visual effects supervisor Darren Dochterman and Foundation Imaging, the retired 84-year-old multi-Oscar-winning director of such classics as THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL, WEST SIDE STORY, and THE SOUND OF MUSIC has finally been able to complete the one work in his illustrious filmography he was both never satisfied with and considered unfinished.
Rather than a "restoration" or a "special edition," everyone involved seems to be approaching this as a completion of Wise's original vision for the film - finally giving audiences the chance to see it as Wise intended it back in 1979.
That means no revisionist history crap [cough-cough, Bastard-Lucas-Greedo-shooting-first, cough-cough], but the chance to follow through on original storyboards, production memos, etc. which never got translated to the released film. As Matessino says, their mindset is "it's 1979 and we have two months' more work on STAR TREK" - which is what Wise wanted (and needed) in the first place. As Fein says, "We're going back to the original storyboards and turning those ideas into reality."
And while there will be some previously unseen footage restored (most from the extra 12 minutes of the extended version), many scenes have actually been trimmed (redundant exposition, in particular), while new special effects (including a photo-real CG Enterprise) and sound mix has been added. (It's also interesting to note that the MPAA has rated this new cut a PG, compared to the original's G.)
As a former die-hard STAR TREK fan who feels abandoned and betrayed by the staggering mediocrity that is Rick Berman, I got chills reading Wise's closing quote in the article:
"When I did West Side Story, we screened it for the cast and crew before we took it to the Midwest for a couple of sneak previews," he recalls. "I'll never forget, Sam Goldwyn and his wife were there, and Mrs. Goldwyn said to me after the showing, 'The minute I sat down in the theater, I wasn't in that theater. I was in that film, all the way through it.' That's the greatest compliment you can pay any film. It grabs the audience from the very beginning and never lets them go. They forget they're looking at a film. That's what you try for. And I've finally done that with Star Trek."
