Chris Pine Talks STAR TREK 2 And IMAX 3D

With filming of the next installment of the JJ Abrams helmed Star Trek franchise reboot now complete, Chris Pine is doing press for his upcoming family dramedy People Like Us.  The film mark’s the  directorial debut of Trek 2‘s co-writer Alex Kurtzman, and follows the story of Sam (Chris Pine), a twenty-something guy who finds out that his recently deceased father had a secret 30 year old daughter (Elizabeth Banks), which forces him to re-evaluate his life.

When Star Trek 2 was announced that it would be released in 3D, most assumed that the film would be shot using similar digital technology that Ridley Scott employed for his much debated Alien follow-up story, Prometheus. However it turned out that JJ wasn’t a fan of the digital format, similar to Christopher Nolan‘s disdain for the emerging tech, and instead announced the flick post would be converted, with certain scenes being shot using the IMAX format.

It was recently announced that the film would also be released in IMAX 3D, here’s what Abrams had to say about the format:

We were so thrilled with the creative results of shooting IMAX for Mission: Impossible that we jumped at the chance to use the format for Star Trek. All expectations were exceeded — the action and resolution is insane at this scale.  We cannot wait for audiences to see the crew of the Enterprise in a way they never have before.

Additionally Star Trek 2 will differ from a regular conversion process – whilst filming each take, the scene would be shot in multiple passes, with and without actors – so that the more information could be captured for the 3D mapping process.

That said filming scenes in IMAX is a different process entirely;  the cameras used are bulkier and somewhat more intrusive – as Chris Pine revealed in this interview:

They are big cameras.  They are big, loud cameras!  And the things take forever to reload.  It’s literally 20 minutes to reload a camera.  I think the first thing that I saw on IMAX was The Avengers.  The scope and the size of it are pretty neat, I will say that.  I think J.J. did a good job of knowing which scenes to marry with the IMAX and which scenes would really pop, like they did with Mission Impossible.  When Tom [Cruise] is on that huge building, it made all the sense in the world to do it in IMAX.

Pine also spoke about how the Trek sequel will be more than just bigger action set pieces – and will balance spectacle with substance:

With J.J. and company – Alex, Bob and Damon included – what they’re really, really good at and what sets them apart is that they know how to do the action, and they know that if you don’t give them the small character-driven drama, you can blow up anything you want and no one cares.  People will leave the theater because we’ve all seen it, a million ways.  With the second one, people will find that it’s the mythic structure, done really well.  The character journeys are just perfect mythic structures.  They do it so well.  The journeys with the characters will be really great, and the explosions and set pieces are going to knock people out of their seats.

Star Trek 2 opens in the U.S. on May 17th, 2013.