Abrams Talks Fringe, Cloverfield, and Trek

JJ Abrams spoke with BBC's Chris Moyles and discussed his various projects including Fringe, Cloverfield and Star Trek. The full 37 minutes video is here but here are the Star Trek related highlights.

Fringe
- When write plane sequence for Fringe pilot, was actually on plane from Hawaii, found the experience "disturbing"
- [Fringe] science is the "stuff that happens outside the mainstream. Stuff as a kid I as obsessed with ... like Dr. Frankenstein...Altered States, stories about smart grownup people do insane things that all kids want to be doing."
- The various symbols and the like that pop up during the show are clues to the next episode (I will just take his word for it).
- Says that they are trying to avoid the depth of mythology that Lost, Alias and others had where missing an episode could lead to confusion about future eps. As the host mentioned, I find that excuse stupid, especially the ease in which recaps and summaries are available to catch anyone up to date.
- Gives a hint to "watch out for an observer."

Cloverfield
- In regards to the online viral campaign, verified they did have multiple sites, some that no one picked up on.
- Spoke about the Ethan Haas, which he confirmed had nothing to do with the movie (turned out to be for a video game that I don't even know if it came out or not).
- Is working on a follow-up to Cloverfield, no details given

Star Trek XI
- Couple of weeks away from locking Star Trek
- Visual effects are coming in.
- The Original Series was only series Abrams ever watched. ...one of the writers is a rabid fan that knows "arcane facts" about the series.
- The approach to the movie was to make it feel real, to treat it "as a new thing. Make it legitimate." The concern was to avoid crossing over into campy (which I agree can be easy to do with Star Trek). Sometimes the "biggest challenge was to not make the moment suck."
- There is a "red shirt" moment in the movie. The reference is what a running joke in TOS became where the red shirted security guards always died in episodes to establish the "danger" before Kirk and co. did their thing.

Misc
- Joked that he does TV shows so he can create the theme song for it.