JJ Abrams, the director and producer of the upcoming Star Trek sequel, had an interview with Yahoo recently where he discussed his upcoming film and television projects.
When asked about the sequel [Star Trek Into the Darkness] in the Yahoo video interview, he said, “It comes out next May, and we're just editing now. It is obviously a little too early to be talking specifically about the movie, but we're editing the film now. It has been a blast working with the same cast, and some new amazing actors, including Benedict Cumberbatch, who is this British actor who is mind-blowing great, and we are putting the movie together now."
The interviewer also goes on to clarify, asking, “And, he (meaning Cumberbatch) is the villain?” – Abrams replies with an affirmative. Abrams also talks about Star Trek fans and the competition they conducted where fans got a chance to win a couple of walk-on roles in the film.
He elaborated, saying, “We ended up putting a couple of fans into the film in a background capacity. When there's a... when the studio approves this kind of thing, it is really fun because there are fans that would pay to be a part of a movie like that even in the background ... and when it benefits a good cause, it's an obvious win for people who say I would pay good money to be part of a Star Trek movie. It is one of the things you can't do too much of because it becomes this slippery slope of when do you stop it. At a certain point you don't want to be offering people walk-ons and then not giving them something where you don't actually get seen, or having a shot of getting seen. But when it is for a good cause, it is a great thing."
