J.J. Abrams, the producer of "Star Trek XI" who recently signed with Paramount to also direct, has been talking about the project in a variety of forums, basically saying that after he read the completed script by Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, it was so outstanding he couldn't not direct it.

Abrams spoke March 2 at the Cinequest Film Festival in San Jose, Calif., and then last Friday, March 9, at the Technology, Entertainment and Design (TED) Conference in Monterey, Calif. He also visited with Wired magazine for an interview that was published last week.

In each case his talks encompassed a range of topics, and the "Star Trek" project was only a small part of each one, if mentioned at all. The reason: "If I talk about this movie, everyone else who is involved with it knows where I live and will use that and, er, kill me," he joked at Cinequest.

However, he told the festival audience, "I can say that when the script came in it was so well written, it was so emotional, it was fun, and big and I found myself unable to not direct it!"

Double negatives notwithstanding, he continued, "I couldn't give it up. I think it's going to be great. If in my gut I felt there was nothing else to offer, I wouldn't do it. It's not a business decision, I would rather take no money and do something inspiring. I hope it ends up being both a really cool, original, emotional ride and comes from something that we're familiar with."

In the Wired article Abrams said something similar: "I'd feel like an idiot if I let someone else (direct) it." He also reiterated, "It's a little too early to talk about Star Trek, but I can't tell you how excited I am to do that (project). I'm thrilled."

He said the script is "clearly a fun, emotional and wild adventure," and he couldn't turn down the chance to take the helm. "This is going to be an incredibly fun movie. I can't believe that they're letting us do this," he exclaimed.

He also mentioned, without being specific, that he is getting input for the project from the "science/geek community," as the magazine put it. "I get the use of brilliant minds and futurists and people who are thinking these things through," Abrams said vaguely. "We'd be crazy not to take advantage of the information coming to us."

Also, he hopes to help Star Trek gaming reach its potential. "I love good games," he said, but added that games based on existing properties typically "falter because they're relying on the title and the name recognition instead of relying on game-play and story and content. So I feel like the ideal ... is when form and function come together. We definitely have the form, and the function needs to be better."

He's also supportive of the "fan film" phenomenon in the Star Trek community, and has viewed some of the made-for-the-Web productions. "I've seen some that are done with incredible passion and are really impressive. I love seeing anything that is created by anyone who is not doing it in a pre-existing system where resources and tools are available — the idea that someone is out there using off-the-shelf 3D software or, especially, software that is made by the entrepreneurial coder, who's out there creating their own software. I'm always making stuff, so the idea of people doing that is my favorite thing in the world. I love it."

At the TED Conference, Abrams apparently did not talk about "Star Trek" directly (per the blogs we've seen), but discoursed more generally about "mystery" in storytelling. In his presentation, he brought to the stage a wooden "Mystery Box" that he bought as a kid from a magic store in New York, a box with a big question mark printed on it. He has never opened that box and said he never will. "What I love about this box is that I find myself drawn to infinite possibility. Mystery is the catalyst for imagination. In my work, mystery boxes are everywhere." To illustrate his point, he said that "Jaws" and "Alien" were more compelling by the fact that we hardly ever saw the creature in each case.

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