20 facts you might not know about 'Star Trek' (2009)

Star Trek takes place, storyline-wise, before the events of the original TV show. The idea of a prequel originated with Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek. Oh, and he had that idea in 1968. However, his plan never came to fruition.

With the development of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Ralph Winter and Harve Bennett pitched a prequel film. It laid fallow for a while, but in 1991, Roddenberry got around to nixing the idea. Instead, they made Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. 

The 10th film based on the franchise, Star Trek: Nemesis, was a flop. The TV series Star Trek: Enterprise was canceled. This led longtime Star Trek producer Rick Berman and screenwriter Erik Jendresen to write a script for Star Trek: The Beginning, which was going to introduce entirely new characters to the Star Trek universe.

Paramount had a reason to want to get a Star Trek movie into production. It had to do with business stuff involving Viacom, CBS, and Paramount and who owned what rights. What you need to know is that Paramount had to make a Star Trek movie, or they would lose the rights to the franchise. Gail Berman, the President of Paramount (and no relation to Rick), reached out to screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman to tackle the script and got J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof on board as well.

At first, Abrams was just going to produce the film. Eventually, he was talked into directing. Abrams admitted to being more of a Star Wars guy than a Star Trek guy, but he did like the dynamic of Kirk and Spock. He also wanted to make an “optimistic” movie in the wake of the success of The Dark Knight.

Pine has admitted to totally flubbing his first audition to play the role of James T. Kirk. Apparently, it was so bad that Abrams wasn’t even shown his audition. Then, Pine’s agent met Abrams’ wife, and one thing led to another. Pine got to audition opposite Zachary Quinto, who ended up playing Spock. Quinto threw his backing behind Pine, and he got the role.

Pine watched a little Star Trek but eventually stopped, not wanting his performance to end up being an imitation of Shatner. Instead, he turned to Maverick from Top Gun, Han Solo, and Indiana Jones for inspiration.

Quinto was riding high when he was cast as Spock, thanks to Heroes. However, a bigger name was also in the mix — an Oscar winner. Abrams had talked to Adrien Brody about playing Spock before casting Quinto.

Uhura, played legendarily by Nichelle Nichols, has been around as a character for years. And yet, there was still something new and fundamental to learn about her. In this movie, we learn Uhura’s first name for the first time. It’s Nyota.

Pegg, who had been in Abrams’ Mission: Impossible III, took on the role of Scotty. Before his rise to movie stardom, Pegg had co-created and co-starred in the cult British sitcom Spaced. In said show, his character said that all odd-numbered Star Trek movies are “sh-t.” This was the 11th Star Trek movie. On this matter, Pegg quipped, “Fate put me in the movie to show me I was talking out of my a--" (h/t Wired).

Bana said he was a huge fan of the original Star Trek TV series, though he said he never saw any of the films. His character Nero has a distinct look, which was the work of the makeup artists, but he also had a different way of talking. That was all Bana, who improvised the way that Nero speaks.

One of the triumphs of Star Trek is the return of Leonard Nimoy as Spock, or Spock Prime as he is called. William Shatner was offered a cameo as Kirk, but he wanted a bigger role, one on par with Nimoy. Abrams declined. Nichols also wanted to play Uhura’s grandmother, but this came during the Writer’s Guild strike, so Abrams could not write that scene without crossing the picket line, so it didn’t come to fruition.

People are, shall we say, passionate about Star Trek. When writing the screenplay, Orci and Kurtzman read several graduate school dissertations on the original Star Trek series for inspiration. They were also inspired, funnily enough, by Star Wars.

California served as different locations for the movie. Kirk’s hometown in Iowa? Bakersfield, California. The Starfleet Academy? CSU Northridge. The Enterprise’s engine room? A Budweiser plant in Van Nuys, of all things. Perhaps strangest, the ice planet of Delta Vega scenes was shot in the parking lot of Dodger Stadium. Thank god for digital effects.

We mentioned the WGA strike earlier, which caused problems throughout the film's shooting. Abrams, Lindelof, Orci, and Kurtzman could all be on set because they were producers, but they couldn’t write anything. They also couldn’t alter lines or throw out alternate pitches on set, which counts as writing. Orci and Kurtzman’s efforts on set primarily consisted of being able to “make funny eyes and faces at the actors whenever they had a problem with the line and sort of nod when they had something better.”

Originally, Star Trek was going to be released on Christmas 2008. However, Paramount decided to delay it. For a positive reason, though! They wanted to make it a summer release, thinking more people would see it then. The release date was moved from Christmas to May 8, 2009.

Star Trek had the biggest opening weekend of any film in the franchise, even adjusted for inflation. Made for a budget of $150 million, Star Trek made $385.7 million worldwide. Domestically, it was the seventh-highest-grossing movie of the year.

Star Trek was nominated for four Academy Awards: Best Sound, Best Sound Editing, Best Makeup, and Best Visual Effects. It won for Best Makeup, making this the first Star Trek movie to win an Oscar.

In 2013, Star Trek Into Darkness  was released. While there was a weird attempt to keep people from knowing Benedict Cumberbatch was playing Khan, the movie still made $467.4 million worldwide. Then, in 2016, Star Trek Beyond was dropped. Justin Lin replaced Abrams as director, but the movie dropped to a box office of $343.5 million from a budget of $185 million.

Around the release of Star Trek Beyond , Abrams said there would be a fourth film in the series. He even said Chris Hemsworth, much more famous than when he shot his part in Star Trek, would return as Kirk’s father. Additionally, Abrams said that the role of Chekov would not be recast after the untimely death of Anton Yelchin. However, there has been no movement on this front in years, so perhaps it has been nixed.