Yahoo has just posted some comments from director/Lost creator JJ Abrams about his upcoming “reboot” of the Star Trek franchise.

“It was an opportunity to take what I think has been a maligned world — to sound crass, a franchise — and treat it in a way that made it something that I wanted to see,” said Abrams, who recently finished shooting on “Star Trek,” due in theaters May 8, 2009. “To take the characters, the thoughtfulness, the personalities, the sense of adventure, the idea of humanity working together, the sense of social commentary and innovation, all that stuff. To take it and apply it in a way that felt genuinely thrilling.”

Abrams would not share plot details, saying only that the movie would remain faithful to the original while breaking new ground in action, drama and visual effects, which are being crafted by “Star Wars” creator George Lucas’ Industrial Light and Magic outfit.

“I feel like this is so unlike what you expect, so unlike the `Star Trek’ you’ve seen. At the same time, it’s being true to what’s come before, honoring it,” Abrams said. “I can say the effects for `Star Trek’ have never, ever been done like this. … I can only tell you the idea of the universe of `Star Trek’ has never been given this kind of treatment.”

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Screenrant.com has posted some new details regarding the next Star Trek movie, directed by J.J. Abrams and coming out Summer ‘09. There was a Star Trek panel at Creation Entertainment’s 16th Annual GRAND SLAM: THE SCI-FI SUMMIT in Burbank, CA over the weekend and these are the key points:

• The budget on the film is far below $200MM.
• The film will be rated PG-13.
• The release date was pushed back to summer ‘09 because Paramount really wants it to be a summer blockbuster.
• The intent was to re-invent the Star Trek franchise, and that is why they went all the way back to start at the beginning.
• The script was written with Leonard Nimoy in mind. Nimoy read the script and liked it. It seems he’s so pivotal to the story that they would have had a big problem if he hadn’t liked it.
• Yes, the USS Enterprise will be assembled in space, although parts of it will be assembled on Earth.
• Orci revealed that originally Steven Spielberg read the script and talked to J.J. Abrams about directing it during a set visit to the Transformers set. Abrams mentioned it to his wife, who also helped talk him into the final decision to take on the potentially scary project.
• Nimoy was there and said that Star Trek 11 is a gigantic movie. It’s the biggest film he’s ever worked on and that it will be worth waiting for. He also said that Paramount is losing money on this investment now because they really have a lot of faith in the film as a summer blockbuster.
• He also went on to say that he didn’t like the death of Kirk in Star Trek: Generations. He resented it. He then went on to say that it would have been damaging to the story to put Shatner in the film

This definitely feeds the speculation on what the movie is actually about. I agree with Nimoy that Generations pretty much sucked. But Kirk doesn’t have to be in everything, get over it. If you’re going to “reboot” the thing, then reboot it and don’t look back. I have to wonder though, are they going to “reboot” this thing every ten years or so and just keep it going forever?