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Brent Spiner, best known for playing “Star Trek” android Data, once wanted to make what he called the “‘Justice League’ of ‘Star Trek'” movies. That probably sounds very appealing to longtime fans of the franchise. So, why the heck didn’t it happen?
Even though Spiner considered quitting “Star Trek” constantly in the franchise’s early years, the “Next Generation” star has been a staple of the series for decades now. In the early 2000s, particularly after the release of “Star Trek: Nemesis,” he worked with screenwriter John Logan on a big crossover movie that would have had “everybody” in it, according to a recent interview with TrekMovie.com. “The only thing I can tell you, it was going to be fantastic,” Spinder said.
The promised movie would have included characters from “all the Treks that existed at that time,” he added. Spiner further explained that, realistically, the movie wasn’t ever going to happen:
“It was a pipe dream on our parts, because obviously nobody could afford to do that. Particularly not after my salary, they weren’t going to be able to. We had an original script that we wrote that was rejected. It wasn’t the script. We had a story idea that involved everybody playing two roles, but alas, that this wasn’t to be.”
It certainly doesn’t help that “Nemesis” is generally ranked as one of the worst “Star Trek” movies. It also remains the worst-performing “Star Trek” movie at the box office. From a business perspective, that made Spiner and Logan’s pitch an uphill battle. An expensive, ambitious movie following in the footsteps of a critical and financial failure is never an easy sell.
Paramount didn’t want to make Brent Spiner’s big Star Trek crossover movie
John Logan was a hot screenwriter at the time, and while “Nemesis” wasn’t his best calling card, he was also responsible for writing Ridley Scott’s “Gladiator,” which went on to win Best Picture at the Oscars. Logan would later go on to do a ton of work in the James Bond franchise, including penning the Biggest Bond movie ever at the box office with “Skyfall.”
Despite having a big screenwriter on board and an ambitious pitch to bring in characters from every corner of the “Trek” universe, it was a non-starter for the brass at Paramount. “We had meetings, and they said, ‘Nah, we don’t want to do that.’ And so that’s the way it goes,” Brent Spiner said.
Speaking a little further, Spiner went on to compliment Logan on his abilities as a writer:
“We were really lucky. I know that [Nemesis] wasn’t a fan favorite, but we were really lucky to have John Logan writing it because I think John’s about the best screenwriter in Hollywood. I thought he did a wonderful job, actually.”
Paramount later decided to reboot the franchise with director J.J. Abrams, resulting in 2009’s “Star Trek,” which generated a series of sequels. Spiner swore off playing Data again but “Star Trek: Picard” changed his mind, with Season 3 of the show serving as a major “Next Generation” reunion.
You can grab “Star Trek: The Original Motion Picture Collection” on 4K, Blu-ray, or DVD from Amazon.
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