Today’s the day: JJ Abrams and his cronies are heading to San Diego for a “major announcement” regarding Star Trek, the simply-titled new Star Trek film they’re helming.

Here’s what we know already:Nimoy’s very likely in it, Shatner’s not. The movie is going to deal with the earliest days of the Kirk/Spock Enterprise and will feature much younger actors playing Kirk, Spock, McCoy, etc. Zachary Quinto (Sylar on Heroes) has been recently rumored as being close to a deal to play Spock, while the earliest rumors that have since been debunked were that they were going A-list, seeking to get Matt Damon, Adrien Brody, and Gary Sinise for the big three. ILM is on board to do the special effects and have confirmed they’re doing the original Enterprise, most of the others who are involved are from Lost (Michael Giacchino is doing the score, the production folks are from Lost, Damon Lindelof is a producer, etc.). The screenplay is written by Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, and Abrams, apparently, which doens’t have many excited who saw MI:3 or Transformers, two other collaborations between Kurtzman and Orci. The screenplay, however, does sound potentially interesting if they can pull it off — their stated goals are make two films in one, interpretable and serving as a new entry to non-fans, and then littered with small, unobtrusive references to Trek to tie it into the show’s chronology. Abrams is producing, will direct, and it looks like at least some of the location shooting will take place in Iceland, which has some spots that would be perfect for an alien planet or two.

There’s probably more, but not much of it is consequential. Today’s the day we’re going to get some casting, more info than we ever have, and will likely even see a short preview of some of the effects or perhaps some kind of teaser trailer. They don’t start filming until the fall, with a summer or fall 2008 release.

I’ve been a Trekkie ever since I can remember, and have only ever been fanatical about the original series. I’ve never been the type to dress up and go to conventions, but I swallowed up all of the media I could about the original series back when I was a teen (I’ve already posted about my earliest Internet footprint, and reading that gives you a sense of the kind of intellectual problems the 14-year-old me was often wrestling with). I’m not the kind any longer to mindlessly just accept a new Star Trek film with bated breath (Star Trek V quickly weaned me of this habit), but I do admit to being somewhat hopeful about today’s news.

I’m excited by the opportunities that a “reboot” affords, as well as a renewed focus on the original, best Star Trek (ditching The Next Generation and on, which never really worked that well). I’m excited about the involvement of Abrams and his cronies (other than Kurtzman and Orci), based on the excellent Lost work they’ve done in recent years. I’m excited about the chance to sit down and see a fresh new take on Star Trek, really the first fresh new one since The Next Generation. This has the possibility to be a new kick in the pants to the franchise, like when Harve Bennett and Nick Meyer grabbed the reins with the second film.

What I’m not excited about are the screenwriters — their track record is awful so far. I find Zachary Quinto’s acting to be worse than sub-par, and him taking over as Spock is nigh-offensive to me. And until I see production sketches or other images, I’m scared that they’re going to try to modernize the look of the original show to such an extent that it will seem crass. I’m worried.

But, anyway, today’s the day. I’ll revise this post later with my thoughts once everything gets revealed. See you in a few hours.

Edit (7pm Eastern):

Well, looks like the Star Trek panel has come and gone, and we now have a new Mr. Spock:

… as I feared. On the brighter side, we also have an old Spock:

… as I had hoped! Nimoy will be in the movie, playing the older Spock to Quinto’s younger Spock. Since they’re going with the older Spock and have said they’re still trying to figure out a way to get Shatner into the picture as an older Kirk, I’m assuming that they’re going with the flashback from the 24th century approach. For those non-Trekkies reading my weblog, Kirk was killed off in the 7th Star Trek feature, Star Trek: Generations, while the last we saw of Spock onscreen was around 1991, and he was still running around in the 24th century. Since Vulcans can live 200 years, Spock was hitting middle age around the time of The Next Generation.

What has me most excited, however, is the new teaser poster:

It uses the original series font Star Trek BT, and I think that can’t be out of laziness. They’re making a concerted effort to be retro and appeal to those of us who cherish the original Star Trek. While I may be highly skeptical of Quinto’s casting, he is but one piece in the whole thing. They have not cast a Kirk yet, and did not reveal anything else about other roles cast, so, a bit of a letdown there. I can assume we’ll see Greg Grunberg in there somewhere, though, making this already an oddly Heroes-heavy affair.

So, to sum up, I’m not thrilled about Quinto, but what’s done is done. Let’s see if they can pull this off.