'Star Trek': J.J. Abrams on converting sequel to 3-D

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Published on January 8, 2012 10:56PM EST

While promoting the premiere of his upcoming Fox series Alcatraz at the TCA press tour in Pasadena, Calif., J.J. Abrams also spoke with reporters about his plans to have the sequel to his 2009 blockbuster Star Trek, which begins shooting on Thursday, converted to 3-D in post-production. “I did not fight for the 3-D,” says Abrams. “It was something the studio wanted to do. I didn’t want to do it.” Indeed, at a 2010 Comic-Con panel hosted by EW, Abrams expressed real reservations about the 3-D format: “The thing that drives me crazy about 3-D is that when you put on the glasses, everything seems dim. I’m not totally on board yet.”

So what changed his mind? “We actually converted a bunch of the original movie [to 3-D], which looked really good,” Abrams told reporters today. “That was the thing which made me think it would be okay.” Abrams says he wanted to shoot the movie on celluloid film in the anamorphic format, like he did with his first Trek film, “and you can’t shoot 3-D in anamorphic. I didn’t want to shoot it digitally.…I wanted it to match the look of the first and shoot it anamorphically. Then I saw the first movie converted; it was actually really cool. So I was okay with [converting the film to 3-D], as long as I could shoot it the way I wanted to.” And yes, that includes Abrams’ signature lens flares.

(Reporting by James Hibberd)

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