Rebooting Star Trek: Where man has gone before

Published on Thursday 30 April 2009 14:46

"TO BOLDLY GO WHERE NO MAN has gone before." It's one of the curious ironies of the new Star Trek film that while there are many positive things to be said about it, the famous mission statement of the Starship Enterprise doesn't really apply to what's on screen.

That's not to denigrate the merits of the film. Directed with considerable lan by Lost creator JJ Abrams, its unparalleled sense of fun ensures there's a good chance it will satisfy Trekkies, casual fans and newcomers alike. It's just that, as the latest film to be based on an idea that stretches back 43 years, encompasses six separate television series, and ten previous movies, Abrams is boldly going where many men have gone before – and that's not just because the new film's high-concept pitch can be boiled down to Spock and Kirk: The Early Years. In reinventing a long-running series for both a new and a very established audience, the film is part of an increasingly dominant trend in Hollywood where franchise reboots have become the norm.

Franchises are certainly the Holy Grail in Hollywood at the moment. Studio executives salivate over them because they're the closest things they have to a profit guarantee. Get hold of a Bond or a Batman, a Star Wars or a Star Trek, a Friday the 13th or a Halloween, and it can be a licence to print money for decades to come. If a movie can generate successful follow-ups, chances are that when the series starts to wither (and they always do), a savvy producer or director will be able to salvage something from the characters or the concept and make it seem fresh again.

Just ask Abrams. When he was approached to make Star Trek, he wasn't even a fan of the series, but he was a big enough lover of the genre to wonder why such a huge cultural phenomenon had never worked for him. That convinced him to explore Kirk and Spock with an origins story rather than follow the lead of previous Star Trek reboots by introducing all-new characters.

"I've become a lover of Star Trek, which I can't even believe, but it's happened through examining these characters and getting under their skin," marvels Abrams, sitting alongside his cast in a cavernous London hotel room. "I never knew why I should care about Kirk. Now I do, not because I directed the film, but because I appreciate now what (Star Trek creator] Gene Roddenberry came up with. That dynamic between the characters – we didn't really change that, we just brought it back to life."

Still, as Abrams intimates when discussing the need to respectfully ignore some of the more pedantic Star Trek fans out there ("At a certain point you have to make the right choice for the right movie"), no film is too sacred to be in line for the reboot treatment. Indeed, barely a week goes by without the announcement/rumour/release of some new film project designed to rejuvenate a flat-lining franchise. Last month, Watchmen's Jackie Earle Haley landed the role of Freddy Krueger in the new Nightmare on Elm Street reboot. A week ago writer/director Robert Rodriguez was officially hired to relaunch Predator. And since Wednesday, cinemagoers have been able to sample a new iteration of the X-Men franchise courtesy of Wolverine – an origins story designed to kick-start a new series of films focusing solely on Hugh Jackman's hirsute superhero. And it doesn't end there. Next month brings Terminator Salvation, a reboot of the wildly successful Arnold Schwarzenegger time- travelling cyborg series, starring Christian Bale.

Like Star Trek, Terminator Salvation is a reboot with new actors telling the backstory of the original films – though in Terminator Salvation's case, the time-travelling conundrum at the heart of the story means this is a prequel and a sequel rolled into one (it takes place after the events of the first three films, but builds up to the way-back-when setting of the first movie. Got it?) It remains to be seen if this new film will be as successful in merging old and new as Star Trek, which finds an ingenious way to bring back Leonard Nimoy as Spock.

Trying to reboot a franchise that retains some continuity with the original is certainly a process fraught with problems. As Abrams says, the biggest challenge he faced was taking something "that has pre-existed for decades and making it feel legitimate and vital" but it's a tough balancing act to get right. Take too many liberties and you risk alienating the core fans; be too reverential and you might end up with Superman Returns, the title of which took on the unfortunate connotations of damaged goods once it became clear that no amount of Marlon Brando voiceover or John Williams music could get round the fact that newcomer Brandon Routh was no Christopher Reeve (despite his spooky physical resemblance to him). Needless to say, its follow-up is currently MIA.

That's why it's sometimes best to reset everything to zero. That's what Warner Bros did after allowing Joel Schumacher to camp up Tim Burton's revitalised Batman series with the garish Batman Forever and Batman & Robin. When Christopher Nolan delivered Batman Begins, it made no reference to the previous films and even when it made less money than Burton's first Batman movie, the studio didn't panic. Instead it trusted Nolan to a deliver a follow-up that would top it. Which he did, with The Dark Knight.

Still, rebooting franchises is a more complicated affair than simply finding the right filmmakers or the right actors. Tim Burton's disastrous reimagining of Planet of the Apes attempted to replicate the shock twist of the original 1968 classic with an illogical ending that killed any audience demand for a follow-up, proving that some concepts only have limited shelf life. Other franchises fail because audiences just don't take to certain characters. In this spirit, then, let's call time on film versions of Marvel's cult comic book hero The Punisher (which has flopped three times over the last 20 years).

While we're at it, let's put his stable mate, The Incredible Hulk, out of his misery. Having gone back to the drawing board after only one attempt, last year's action-heavy reboot starring Edward Norton still failed to capture the public imagination, earning roughly the same as the much-maligned Ang Lee version from 2003.

Despite such failures, Hollywood continues to cling to the belief that even if a successful film has demonstrated no legs as a franchise, that's no reason to believe it won't sprout limbs and take off at some point in the future. The brilliant, visceral Robocop spawned two terrible sequels and two naff children's TV shows before producers finally stopped flogging its rotting corpse in the early 1990s. Yet tentative plans are now afoot for Darren Aronofsky to breath new life into it, with the Wrestler director talking up the increasing relevance of its themes in interviews.

That at least makes it sound like some serious thought will go into it, should it happen. It's a little harder to argue a case for the forthcoming Karate Kid remake. While the original lives on in cheesy pop culture memory it's hard to view the new version, due next year and featuring Jackie Chan as Mr Miyagi, as anything other than a nepotistic vanity project for ten-year-old JadenSmith, son of Hollywood megastar Will Smith.

Thoughtless cash-ins such as this, not to mention the legacy-trashing Alien vs Predator series and countless regurgitated horror franchises (take your pick from Friday the13th, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Halloween), highlight all that's bad about rebooting franchises, mainly because they obscure the positives inherent in the process: namely that cinema has given us some brilliant, memorable and iconic characters over the years that have proved rich enough for subsequent generations to find relevance in them.

At which point special mention must be made of James Bond. As the longest-running franchise in cinema history, 007 has been successfully reinvented multiple times. Most recently the character was rebuilt from scratch, with Casino Royal and Quantum of Solace providing a proper origins story so he could be introduced to a generation that perhaps hasn't grown up watching the character. As a result, the path is now clear for any future Daniel Craig-starring instalments to go in any direction they see fit.

That's something that Star Trek certainly understands. "They've completely opened the door for a myriad of possibilities with the trick they've played in our version," says Chris Pine, who plays James T Kirk. "God knows, there are plenty of places for it to go, although I think it's presumptuous to talk about future ones."

"It is insanely presumptuous to be talking about a sequel," agrees Abrams, "but the good news is that if people like it and there's a demand for another one, the actors, the writers and I will be back. But we don't have a story, we don't have a script, we don't have an outline or a thought. We just have this movie." That they do, and while it may not take us anywhere new, expect it to live long and prosper.

• Star Trek is in cinemas from 8 May. Terminator Salvation follows on 3 June

Reboot or Boot?

HIGHLANDER

Summit Entertainment – the company behind Twilight – currently has the rights to the loopy 1980s fantasy about an immortal clan warrior battling his nemeses through the ages. It has already spawned four terrible sequels, a terrible TV series and a Manga film so what is there to lose in remaking it? Just make sure the casting is better: how about Gerard Butler or Kevin McKidd for MacLeod and Javier Bardem for the Connery role? He's supposed to be Spanish anyway.

Reboot.

GHOSTBUSTERS

Harold Ramis apparently has a script and the original cast – including Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd – are willing to return in "mentor" roles for a new generation of Ghostbusters. It might work with Seth Rogen, Paul Rudd et al, but is unlikely to top Jack Black's "sweded" version from Be Kind, Rewind. Plus, Ghostbusters 2 didn't make anybody feel good.

Boot.

LETHAL WEAPON

Lethal Weapon creator Shane Black has a script and is rumoured to be in line to direct, but while Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang was great, Mel Gibson and Danny Glover really are too old for this shit, so it would likely be another "younger generation" effort.

Boot.

EVIL DEAD

Sequel or remake? Sam Raimi has hinted that both are an option if he ever revisits his hilariously scrappy DIY splatter-fest. Mercifully, Bruce Campbell reckons remake culture is a "sickness". "What would happen would be we'd go through all the effort of making it and then fans would say it wasn't as good as the last one," he says. Boot.

JURASSIC PARK

John Sayles wrote a legendary script for a fourth instalment years ago involving dinosaurs that have been re-engineered as gun-toting tyrannosaurs designed for battle. Sounds nuts. And therefore awesome.

Reboot.