‘Star Trek’ press meet in Dubai: As it happened

The Star Trek Beyond crew have landed in Dubai to film some out-of-the-world scenes in our city, and tabloid!’s at the press conference today at the Burj Al Arab to meet the cast and director of the third instalment of the sci-fi reboot. In attendance are star leads Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto, alongside Karl Urban, John Cho, Anton Yelchin, and Idris Elba. Director Justin Lin, producer Jeffrey Chernov, screenwriter Doug Jung and actor and screenwriter Simon Pegg are also in attendance. Here is our live upates from the event:

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Almost exactly five years since Tom Cruise scaled the Burj Khalifa for Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, another mammoth franchise has landed in town to shoot some out-of-this-world footage. Say welcome to Star Trek Beyond.

Arriving at the Burj Al Arab to promote the third instalment of the sci-fi reboot are star leads Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto, alongside Karl Urban, John Cho, Anton Yelchin, and Idris Elba. Director Justin Lin, producer Jeffrey Chernov, screenwriter Doug Jung and actor and screenwriter Simon Pegg were also in attendance.

The cast and crew’s UAE arrival comes just days after they wrapped up filming in Vancouver, which they reportedly began in August. Zoe Saldana, who plays Nyota Uhura and was with the cast in Vancouver, was nowhere to be seen at the Dubai press conference.

It’s no coincidence that this would be the movie to join Ghost Protocol as one of the biggest feature film shoots to happen in Dubai. The links between the two production teams are obvious. Both films boast J.J. Abrams as a producer, and Chernov, a producer on Beyond, was an executive producer on Protocol. In terms of cast, Pegg played Benjamin ‘Benji’ Dunn alongside Cruise, and plays Montgomery ‘Scotty’ Scott alongside Quinto and Pine.

Elba was the latest cast member to be added to cast, creating buzz over whether or not he’d be the villain. His role was confirmed in July, and the star has since opened up to MTV about the complexity of the character he plays.

“I think Star Trek has prided themselves as being quite classic when it comes to villains, like ‘he’s a guy who wants to end the world,’ there’s no doubt about that,” he said. “But in this version of the film, there’s a slightly different twist to that. It’s quite an interesting journey, which I think is ground-breaking for the franchise. But, it still keeps with the ‘classic bad guy is a classic bad guy’ tone.”

In August, the film held a casting in Dubai under the code name “Washington” and recruited a flock of extras to be in the film. During the casting, which tabloid! attended, they left no body part unmeasured, including neck circumference, crown, glove (space between middle finger and wrist) and ring finger.

The film is set to release in 2016 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the original 1966 sci-fi series, created by Gene Roddenberry. It was initially to be released on July 8, but the date was recently pushed back to July 22.