STAR TREK - ABRAMS: STAR TREK WILL GO WHERE NO FILM HAS GONE BEFORE

ABRAMS: STAR TREK WILL GO WHERE NO FILM HAS GONE BEFORE

JJ Abrams has claimed his upcoming Star Trek film will be unlike anything fans of the series have seen before.

The Lost creator, who recently completed filming on the 11th Star Trek movie, has warned Trekkies that he intends to attract a new generation of fans to the exploits of the Starship Enterprise.

"It was an opportunity to take what I think has been a maligned world - to sound crass, a franchise - and treat it in a way that made it something that I wanted to see," he told the Associated Press news agency.

"To take the characters, the thoughtfulness, the personalities, the sense of adventure, the idea of humanity working together, the sense of social commentary and innovation, all that stuff. To take it and apply it in a way that felt genuinely thrilling."

The movie, which opens in the US on May 28th, 2009, sees the likes of Captain James T Kirk, Dr McCoy and Mr Spock in their formative years at Starfleet Academy.

And according to Abrams, the film is intended to serve both those who are "completely enamoured" with Star Trek but also for "fans of movies, not fans of Star Trek necessarily".

"I feel like this is so unlike what you expect, so unlike the Star Trek you've seen," he added.

"At the same time, it's being true to what's come before, honouring it. I can say the effects for Star Trek have never, ever been done like this... I can only tell you the idea of the universe of Star Trek has never been given this kind of treatment."

Relative unknown Chris Pine will follow in William Shatner's footsteps as the young Kirk while British comedy star Simon Pegg is to play engineer Scotty with Heroes actor Zachary Quinto as Spock.