Filming for Star Trek Beyond has moved to Dubai, and a press conference was held today at the Burj Al Arab Hotel in Dubai.
The conference included Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg, Anton Yelchin, Idris Elba, Justin Lin, Jeffrey Chernov, and Douglas Jung.
One of the topics included why Dubai was chosen for filming, especially external filming. “We came searching for the future and we found it,” said Chernov. “We’d drive around Dubai and look at things and we’d have to figure out how we can use those visual guides to tell our story. I’d see a building and say ‘we have to figure out how to put that in our movie.'”
Dubai looks like “whatever tomorrow would be,” said Pine. “It’s futureland.”
Pegg spoke about what Star Trek means to us today. “The film series offered a “utopian ideal where we can all just live together and there is no judgment and there is no prejudice...Star Trek, above all else, has something to teach us, which is that, imagine that, imagine if we could all get along.”
Quinto spoke about returning to Star Trek after the death of Leonard Nimoy. “Coming back to the role for the first time without him, I guess I feel the significance of the responsibility in a different way,” he said. “Leonard has such profound and positive impact on millions of people around the world because of his portrayal of this role and I think what he and Gene Roddenberry created with this character is so unique, and there’s a depth to it and there’s something that I think a lot of people connect to and find some sort of emotional resonance within and so I do take that seriously. I’ve always wanted to do good work and I think all of us up here agree on that…for me there is another undercurrent in this film which is to truly honor my dear friend and carry on the legacy that he worked so hard to create.”
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
