Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/135926
The Star Trek franchise gets another lift from Industrial Light & Magic, PixomoNdo, and other visual effects studios By Barbara Robertson In 1966, "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry and his TV series collaborators sent the starship Enterprise into "space, the final frontier" on a five-year mission to explore strange, new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before. Forty-three years later, screenwriters for the 2009 film Star Trek acknowledged the indefatigable starship's persistent popularity and a more gender-neutral time by sending her into the final frontier on an "ongoing mission to boldly go where no one has gone before." The 2009 reboot topped $385 million at the international box office, more than twice that of any of the 11 previous films in the franchise, and was the first Star Trek feature to earn a visual effects Oscar nomination since director Robert Wise's 1979 Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Directed by JJ Abrams, the prequel also achieved a higher rating from critics than any previous features, according to the aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes, even besting the popular 1982 Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and 1996 Star Trek: First Contact. No surprise then, that Paramount Pictures gave Abrams the helm again for this latest enterprise, with Industrial Light & Magic's Roger Guyett, who received an Oscar nomination for the effects in Star Trek, repeating his tour on deck as visual effects supervisor and second unit director. ©2012 Paramount Pictures. CG W M ay / June 2013 ■ 9