Screenwriter doesn’t know when his own film is set

New Star Trek screenwriter Erik Jendersen has sent out confusing signals about plans for the 11th film in the science fiction series. Band of Brother’s Jendersen was unveiled as the writer for the Paramount Pictures prequel film, developed by Rick Berman, Jordan Kerner and Kerry McCluggage.

“We’re going 160-odd years before Kirk is born,” Jendersen initially revealed. “It’s an earlier time, and I think it would be really refreshing to feel something in the course of telling this tale, instead of being wowed by special effects, or presenting another crew in jeopardy where, in the end, the Captain does something brilliant and all’s right with the world.”

However, hours later Jendersen withdrew the 160 year timescale he had reported, claiming that he had misspoken. Jendersen’s original timescale would have set the new film almost 80 years before the events of the now cancelled UPN series of Star Trek: Enterprise, which is set before the Romulan War.

Jendersen admits, “I was not a diehard Star Trek fan. When they first approached me, I wasn’t really interested. But they said, ‘What if we could approach this as a blank slate, and here’s a notion.’ When I heard the notion, I realized that the people I was talking to were serious, and genuinely dedicated. I started to really think about it, and, ultimately to develop a story. And it’s a pretty good one.”

The new film looks set to involve humanity’s oft-referenced war with the Romulans, as seen through the eyes of young Starfleet members. Jendersen states that he hopes to capture the “pioneering spirit” of Captain James T. Kirk. “Star Trek, the original series, borrowed in an often elegant way from classic mythology and great ancient storytelling. There’s something kind of epic — almost mythic about the prequel [movie].”

NOTE: Star Trek XI is being developed for a possible release in 2007

Source: Dreamwatch Magazine – Issue 8