He’s knee deep in something, that’s for sure.
A Starfleet Academy prequel about a young Kirk and Spock, even with Berman & Braga removed from power, makes me very… leery. Uneasy, even. There will be canon violations aplenty, and I just don’t see how it’ll plausibly work (I would far rather have seen a new series set aboard a new ship in the “present day” of ST, after Voyager returns to Earth). J.J. Abrams has done some good work on “Alias” and “Lost,” but I’m not getting my hopes up too high.
I’ll be glad to be proved wrong, though. I miss ST!
It’s funny because it’s TRUE!
It may all be a rumor after all!
From CHUD (Cinematic Happenings Under Development):
*Extra, extra! Empire Online explodes the latest Star Trek rumors in a gripping interview with Mission: Impossible: 3 director JJ Abrams where he denies that his take on Trek XI will be Starfleet School Daze with Kirk and Spock. And get this – he may not even be directing it!
"The whole thing was reported entirely without our cooperation,” he tells the cinephiles Limeys. “People learned that I was producing a Star Trek film, that I had an option to direct it, they hear rumours of what the thing was going to be and ran with a story that is not entirely accurate.”
Abrams won’t discuss what his take on XI will be, but doesn’t rule out an appearance by the original series favorites: “Those characters are so spectacular. I just think that… you know, they could live again.”
It was all too weird to be true. Honestly, if M:I:3: is as good as people keep saying, I have a hard time believing the guy will jump into the director’s chair of that sagging space franchise. He’ll surely be a hands on producer, but I’m betting someone else takes the conn. *
Sir Rhosis
Scariest. Rumor. Ever. Ben Affleck may play Kirk.
Thousands of slash ficcers are expected to lobby for Matt Damon to play Spock now…
Kirk should be 18-22, or so, right? How old is Affleck? At least 30, I would think. Too old to play a convincing Cadet Kirk, anyway.
Sir Rhosis
I think his age is the least consideration in his convincingness.
^^True. 
Now that you mention it, 101 year old Charles Lane would probably do a better job than Affleck.
Sir Rhosis
We don’t know that Afflec is going to play Kirk. We aren’t even sure it’s going to be about Kirk and Spock at the academy.
Surely they would know that recreating those roles would really suck with fans.
And yet, I can bet you that someone said the same exact kind of thing when it was announced that Shatner would direct 5, that Voyager would take the franchise in a whole new direction, and that Enterprise would be a “prequel” to the whole epic.
That may be the dryest use of sarcasm I’ve ever heard, Tuckerfan.
The moment I heard the rumor about Affleck, I promptly went out and flogged a dead horse.