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Star Trek Movie Filming Near Taft

Posted on: Thursday, 10 April 2008, 12:00 CDT

Trekkies rejoice: A piece of Bakersfield will find a place in "Star Trek" lore.

A crew is wrapping up a shoot on private property at Highway 119 and South Enos Lane for the upcoming "Star Trek" prequel.

Director/producer J.J. Abrams, known for producing TV shows "Alias" and "Lost," has been working at the scene. "Star Trek" will explore the original crew's early years and is scheduled for release next spring.

But a media frenzy over the shoot has made county Board of Trade Executive Director Rick Davis more frustrated than a Klingon in a pile of tribbles.

"They need to work quietly and confidentially so they can get their work done, so next year, we can enjoy a great movie and know portions of Kern County were included in that," he said. "That's what the office stands so proudly behind."

Local TV stations covering a traffic accident Tuesday at the intersection discovered the film crew, snooped around and let the cat out of the bag.

The location is a stand-in for Iowa, Captain Kirk's home state, said a Paramount Pictures representative, who provided information under the condition of confidentiality.

Abrams wants to keep the story under wraps to create suspense for fans, she said.

The Bakersfield landscape plays a small role in the movie.

"Iowa usually looks pretty green, so that's what we were looking for," the rep said.

Shooting began Monday and the crew will move today to a part of the property away from the road. Filming should wrap up this week, then the movie will go into post-production, she said.

Up-and-comer Chris Pine plays Captain Kirk, Leonard Nimoy will reprise his role as Spock, and Winona Ryder will play mother to the young Spock.

"This is not your father's 'Star Trek,'" the rep said. "It's a whole new cast, a whole new group, completely different from anything people have seen before and hopefully the old fans will like it as well as garnering new ones."

None of the lead actors are out on the property, and there's no real action in this scene, just moving shots, she said.

Locals have been kind and the weather has suited what the scene requires, she added.

The rep said the clamor from the TV stations didn't bother the crew. The crew merely stopped in a normal fashion to reset the scene, she said.

Paramount Pictures filed the permit a month ago under project title "Corporate Headquarters," Davis said.

Paramount used the pseudonym to disguise the nature of the project, a common practice, Davis said.

The Board of Trade, which houses the film commission, hands out permits and provides information about locations -- that's it.

The studio negotiates with landowners.

"Paramount doesn't release to locals the movie they're shooting," Davis said. "They shoot it in confidential mode, so this was no exception to that. So they pulled the permit for basically the working title of the movie."

The production is expected to generate $2 million in revenue for the local economy, benefiting restaurants, hotels and gas stations.

It's cheaper to hire local craftsmen than cart them in from Los Angeles, Davis said. Paramount, however, hired no more than 10 or 15 locals, the studio rep said.

Kern doesn't offer the attractive financial incentives and rebates that have productions flocking to film-hungry places like New Mexico and Vancouver, Davis said. So the film commission markets Kern County as Hollywood's next-door neighbor with a variety of landscapes, from forests to deserts, and only a short, inexpensive drive away. The film commission offers free location assistance.

Scenes of Mexico in "Ocean's Thirteen" were shot in eight days in Rosamond in December 2006, Davis remarked.

Even before the director cries "cut," location scouts must find food, lodging and fuel in their prospective filming spots. Despite the writers strike that slowed or stopped productions, Davis said his office is on track for a great year.

"A feature film is a gold mine for the local economy," he said. "They hire more people, spend a lot more money."

Source: The Bakersfield Californian

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