Abrams On Fringe, MI4 and More

As part of Paramount Pictures press event to promote their upcoming slate of home video releases including Star Trek, director JJ Abrams was on hand to help promote the release. Trekmovie.com spoke with the man were he discussed Star Trek, Fringe, future projects and more. Below are snippets, the full interview is here.

Question: For the next couple of months of the foreseeable future, what do you see focusing on?
JJ Abrams: Jeff Pinkner and Joel Wyman are running Fringe very well and we’re still very involved, but they’re running that. We have a new series that we just sold to NBC that we’re producing–it’s a pilot. There’s a movie that I’m writing that I would love to direct early next year, so we’ll see if that comes to fruition. There’s a movie called Morning Glory that is coming out next year, with Harrison Ford, Rachel McAdams and Diane Keaton, that’s being edited now. Roger Michell directed that. And obviously we’re hard at work on the Trek and Mission: Impossible, there is a lot.

Question: What are your plans for [Leonard Nimoy] on Fringe, beyond this week’s episode?
JJ Abrams: In terms of his role as William Bell, none of us could believe our luck that we convinced him to say yes to bee in the show. He is wonderful in the show. And, I will say that this is not the last you will see of his character.

Question: Can you rule out Leonard Nimoy reprising the role of Paris in Mission: Impossible: IV?
JJ Abrams: How cool would that be? It is funny, I just got a call that Peter Graves is in great shape. There was that time when he did Airplane!, but I almost feel like you could make him serious-ize again and bringing him back. Whether it’s Nimoy, who., of course, I have an incredible affinity for, or Graves, or anyone, we’ll see. I actually tried to get Martin Landau in Mission III, in a very small little moment just for fun, and was told that he had no interest in doing it. But then, when I met him, after the movie came out, it was the greatest thing. We were at this restaurant in New York, for one of the TV upfront parties, and someone introduced me to Landau. They took me over and Martin Landau came over to me, extended his hand, and [pretended to removes his face mask]. That was the greatest thing I’d ever seen.