'Free Enterprise' Special Edition Celebrates Trekkiness

Robert Meyer Burnett describes Free Enterprise as "possibly be the most self-indulgent movie ever made", yet he is eagerly gearing up for a sequel.

Burnett discussed the witty film about two Trekkies who seek advice from William Shatner (Kirk) in honour of the release of the special edition on DVD yesterday. He told USA Today that the film's genesis was from an idea tossed around by himself and fellow writer Mark A. Altman "One day Mark calls me up and reads me a scene where he got beat up wearing a Star Trek uniform to junior high school," explained Burnett. "'Shatner appeared to me (as a vision) and told me to fight back,'" insisted Altman, who wrote the first draft of the script later rewritten by Burnett.

Initially Shatner balked at playing the wise sage they had created for the character bearing his own name, saying, "I had played my (Kirk) persona as far as I wanted to go...they had written had me as a guru who dispensed advice, and I kept turning this down." But when the character was rewritten using anecdotes from Shatner's own life, who had even bigger problems than the geeks who adored him, he took the part, ultimately performing a rap version of Julius Caesar for the film.

Free Enterprise also stars Rafer Weigel and Will & Grace's Eric McCormack as characters based on Burnett and Altman, who wrote the film in the early days of their Hollywood careers. Altman has since written House of the Dead 2 while Burnett co-produced Agent Cody Banks.

Meanwhile, Shatner has been enjoying renewed fame on Boston Legal and will appear in two television specials about himself, the History Channel's science documentary How William Shatner Changed the World and TV Land's biographical Living in TV Land: William Shatner. The special edition of Free Enterprise features a full length commentary by the actor and another by the writers. Shatner has suggested an idea for a sequel with "elements of Wedding Crashers, The 40-Year-Old Virgin and a great sort of road picture", according to Burnett.

The full article is at USA Today.

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