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Star Trek director JJ Abrams stood me up

Star Trek actor Zachary Quinto, director and producer JJ Abrams, executive producer Bryan Burk and actor Chris Pine in Sydney /

JJ Abrams stood me up. In fact he walked straight past me without even an acknowledgement.

I was meant to film an interview with the director of the new Star Trek film for a video we were planning to run on news.com.au today.

But it seems Abrams, who was in Australia for the world premiere of Star Trek, decided to go for a jog instead, leaving me waiting at his hotel until it became clear he wasn’t coming back for me.

I felt that mixture of rejection and embarrassment you feel when your date never turns up. Didn’t he care about me? What would I tell people?

This has never happened to me in my 11-year career as a journalist. The closest I’ve come to it was when a gay porn star I was due to interview (don’t ask) over the phone forgot and I sat waiting for his call for two hours.

My Abrams misadventure started with a phone call from a Paramount Pictures publicist at 11pm on Monday. She apologised for calling so late but had some good newsthere was an opening for news.com.au to interview Abrams. Was I interested?

Hell yes. In Hollywood this guy is big. Everything he touches turns to gold, from the TV shows he createdAlias, Lost, Felicityto his feature film directorial debut Mission: Impossible 3.

The buzz around his latest project, the new Star Trek, is that it’s going to reboot the 40-year-old sci-fi franchise and make it wildly popular with a whole new generation.

I was told I could only do the interview if I agreed to see the film at 9am the next day and sign an embargo agreement declaring I would not publish a review of it until 21 April. The movie is due for release on 7 May. (The embargo was lifted yesterday because a journalist in the US had already broken it.)

My interview was due to take place at 5pm on Wednesday at Abrams’ hotel. I got there at 4.50pm.

The first sign things weren’t going to go to plan was when I asked at reception where the Star Trek interviews were taking place and the staff member just stared at me blankly. I called the publicist and there was no answer. So I waited in the foyer to be collected, which is usually what happens.

Five o’clock came and wentstill nothing. I called the publicist againnothing. I kept waiting.

At 5.15pm I asked someone else at reception who went off to see if the manager knew anything. A manager appeared and told me the interviews were over for the day and that my name wasn’t on the scheduleuntil she turned the page and there I was. The only name on the back of the sheet. It didn’t look good.

She rushed me over to the lifts and said everything should work out. The lift doors opened and a guy with dark curly hair, sunglasses and a jogging outfit walked out. I didn’t think anything of him but when we got into the lift the manager said, “There goes your interview.” It was Abrams.

She said he was probably just popping out for a moment, but when we got up to the hotel room where the interviews were taking place there was no one to be seen.

The Paramount camera crew, who were filming the interviews, had packed up and gone. The Paramount publicists were also gone. The hotel manager gave me a sympathetic smile. I’d been jilted.

I called the publicist again and got through. She apologised profusely but had no idea why I’d been stood up. She promised she’d investigate what happened but I haven’t heard anything yet.

Abrams was leaving on Thursday morning so the interview couldn’t be rescheduled. The publicist offered to try to organise a phone interview but I declined.

So that’s why you’re reading this blog and not watching my video interview with Abrams.

I made a Star Trek but there was no star.

Star Trek review

GEORGE Lucas gave prequels a bad name when he released his three new Star Wars movies a few years ago.

He managed to remove all the mystery and magic of the originals and didn’t provide any of the charm or humour that made the first three so popular.

Thankfully JJ Abrams, director and producer of the new Star Trek, hasn’t fallen into the same trap.

After 10 movies and six different TV seriessome of which worked, some of which didn’tAbrams has made Star Trek sexy for a younger generation while faithfully exploring the back stories of all the main characters older Trekkies know and love.

We meet Kirk and Spock when they are kids and follow them into adulthood, where their paths cross for the first time at the Starfleet Academyand they don’t like each other. Kirk is a thrill-seeking delinquent, Spock is a bullied brainiac.

When they both end up on the USS Enterprise, where we’re introduced to all the other familiar characters, tensions ensue.

While the Star Wars prequels followed a pre-destined timeline where we all knew the ending, Star Trek is full of surprises. I don’t want to give away what happens but the clever plot frees up the story to go anywhere Abrams wants it to, which adds a big element of suspense the Star Wars prequels were lacking.

Visually the film is dazzling and raises the bar in terms of special effects. But this Star Trek isn’t about thatit’s mostly about introducing the characters and finding out where they came from.

Zachary Quinto is the stand out as the emotionally tortured Spock, while Chris Pine also does a great job as the womansing Kirk. Eric Bana has a small but memorable role as the evil Romulan leader Nero, while an ancient looking Leonard Nimoy is pivotal as an older Spock.

This new Star Trek will no doubt inspire a new generation of Trekkies while providing a pleasing trip down memory lane for older Trekkies too.

Star Trek opens in Australia on 7 May.