Berman: Trek X Filled With VFX & Action

After years at the helm of the franchise, Rick Berman knows exactly what makes a great Star Trek film - plenty of sci-fi action adventure.

"If you are going to make a science fiction Star Trek movie you are obviously not going to make something that is going to open at the Sundance Film Festival," Berman told Star Trek: The Magazine (via TrekWeb). "You are looking for a film that has a lot of visual effects and that tends to means a lot of action," he said, "Which is something that our fans don't get a chance to see in terms of a major scope when they are watching the television series."

"I think every single movie we make we would like to get as much action in it as possible. John Logan is a writer who writes on a very large canvas. He has given the story a certain epic classical quality to it which includes some fun and some spooky action sequences."

Another spooky element of the film will be its villains, and Berman had every confidence in his actors to do the job well. "Our major antagonist in this film is being played by a young English actor named Tom Hardy who is an extremely talented young man," he said. "Tom plays a clone of Picard. He also plays the leader of the Reman Empire - the Reman Empire being the sister planet of Romulus. His trusty Viceroy, and right arm and henchman, is being played by Ron Perlman. The Viceroy is also the man who raised him and is a Reman himself. [...] These two guys are both terrific."

With all the cameo appearances by familiar Trek characters like Wesley Crusher and Guinan in the film, there has been a great deal of fan speculation about whether Majel Roddenberry would appear in the movie as Lwaxana Troi at her daughter's wedding. Berman was able to put this rumour to rest. "No," he explained, "Because one of the major story points is that this is the first of two weddings - the second one being held on Betazed, although an element of story kinds of gets in the way of that."

But Berman wasn't worried about revealing too much about the movie in advance. "I think, in reality, we've revealed very little," he said. "There is a great deal about the film that hasn't gone publicly yet. One of the problems we have, thought, is that when you are casting a movie and scripts go out to agents this stuff gets around. It's hard to keep it under wraps."

The other question on the lips of fans concerns when the film will hit cinemas. "I don't know," he answered." I keep reading about other movies - whether it's 'James Bond' or 'Harry Potter' of the next 'Lord of the Rings' - I keep reading about movies that are opening around Thanksgiving or Christmas. As to when the studio is going to release this film is hard to say."

More from Rick Berman, including more on the special effects in the film, guest stars and Enterprise can be found in the current issue of Star Trek: The Magazine on sale now. Alternatively, a full transcript is available here at TrekWeb.

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