RODDENBERRY: The Man Who Created Star Trek by Van Hise James

Author:Van Hise, James
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Published: 2015-04-16T16:00:00+00:00

Gene Roddenberry, Leonard Nimoy, William Shatner, and DeForest Kelley look on as the legendary Robert Wise directs a scene in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. (Paramount promotional still, 1979.)

Chapter 8

Trek on the Big Screen

"Gene has a brilliant story mind for this kind of thing, but he's a bad writer." Harold Livingston

Crucial to bringing Star Trek: The Motion Picture to the screen was the casting of Leonard Nimoy. He was signed only a week before the huge March 28, 1978 press conference held at Paramount Studios, the largest such publicity event since Cecil B. DeMille announced The Ten Commandments.

Although not revealed until Star Trek: The Motion Picture opened in December 1979, Nimoy had agreed to make the picture in return for a lump sum settlement of his long standing grievance with Paramount. They had endured a running feud because the studio insisted on standing by their contract, saying no royalties for the use of his likeness on Star Trek products were due him.

The fee paid, including his salary for acting in the film, was reportedly $2.5 million. Paramount caved in to Nimoy because they believed Star Trek without him would be bad box office. Director Robert Wise believed this as well. He insisted Paramount cut a deal with the actor. The budget of the film was now up to a planned $15 million.

Once Paramount decided to go for a big budget motion picture, they went all the way. The entire original cast was assembled on stage for the first time since 1969. When Gene Roddenberry was introduced from the dais, the entire cast came to their feet and cheered. Gene remarked later that "I was never so touched and moved in my entire life."

He had issued a press release that same day to all fan clubs and others on his mailing list. It simply stated: "Well, we've made it. Star Trek: The Motion Picture is now a certainty, as you can see from the enclosed official announcement released by Paramount today. It has been a long and sometimes frustrating road for all of us, but I'm sure you now will agree with me that that the delay was worth it. To obtain a director like Robert Wise, to be able to get Bill, Leonard, De-Forest and all the other members of the original cast together again, is a tremendously exciting achievement.

"I do wish to express my personal gratitude to you and all those others who have supported this project with so much enthusiasm and played such an important part in making it become a reality. We'll continue to be in touch as further news develops and as we finally get in front of the cameras."

Behind the scenes, things were still contentious even after Harold Livingston quit the project in December 1977. The script was still being worked over, but Gene had the basic idea. As associate producer Jon Povill explained, "We knew we had to have a big special effects ending. The problem of what was going to happen at the end and why it was going to happen was one that plagued the script from the very start.

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