J.J. Abrams Adds ‘Star’ Power to ‘Fringe’ Panel at Paley Center

J.J. Abrams may have ‘Star Trek,’ one of this summer’s most anticipated featured films, coming out on May 8, but last Thursday, he enjoyed some ‘Fringe’ benefits. The producer/director, who co-created Fox’s TV show ‘Fringe’ with hot screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, toplined a panel discussion of the supernatural series about paranormal investigators, now ending its first season. The evening, at Hollywood’s Cinerama Dome, was hosted by the Paley Center for Media. After previewing an upcoming episode of ‘Fringe’ intermingling a commercial airliner crash with a bio-terrorism plot, the Beverly Hills-based Paley Center welcomed the show’s creators and stars. Abrams, who grew up in Pacific Palisades (PaliHi class of ’84) and still resides here, participated on a panel with Orci and Kurtzman, showrunner Jeff Pinkner, executive producer Bryan Burk, and ‘Fringe’ stars Anna Torv, Joshua Jackson and John Noble. At ease in front of a full house, the panel’s participants were relaxed and jocular as they interacted with the moderator, Entertainment Weekly critic Ken Tucker, and audience members, and Abrams himself was in top comedic form. As actress Torv (whose character speaks with an American accent on the show) answered one of Tucker’s questions in her native Down Under drawl, Abrams interjected, ‘She’s Australian! How cool is that?!’ Abrams explained the genesis of ‘Fringe,’ which began when he and Orci and Kurtzman (Abrams’ ‘Star Trek’ screenwriters) threw around the names of science-fiction works that they had enjoyed over the years. ‘We loved David Cronenberg-type stories [such as] ‘Altered States,’ ‘The Twilight Zone,’ ‘X-Files,” Abrams said. The challenge, he continued, was creating a show that was accessible enough for audiences to jump right in. ‘Having worked on ‘Alias’ and ‘Lost,’ that was clearly not us!’ Pinkner argued that shows such as ‘Fringe’ get a bad rap for being inaccessible: ‘If it were ‘ER,’ you’d have no problem tuning in and seeing who is dating whom’There’s a fear it’s going to be harder to understand because it’s a genre show, but it’s about character relationships and we try to make it trackable.’ Later, Abrams commented on his admiration for veteran actress Blair Brown, whom he hired on ‘Fringe’ (‘She brings a wonderful ambiguity to the role’) and ‘the beauty and the fun and the terror’ of planning and executing a series once he learns ‘it will keep going.’ An evening highlight was when Abrams discussed working with the original Mr. Spock on his much-anticipated ‘Star Trek’ prequel. ‘Obviously, working with Leonard Nimoy on ‘Star Trek’ was an insane honor,’ said Abrams, excited and ‘intimidated’ by Nimoy, who took some coaxing to bring aboard the new U.S.S. Enterprise. Abrams went through similar emotions enlisting Nimoy to guest-appear on upcoming episodes of ‘Fringe’ as a colleague of Noble’s character. ‘We’re proud to have him on the show. ‘I tend to work with the same people again and again and again,’ Abrams added, to which Orci exclaimed, ‘Thank God!’ For more information on the Paley Center for Media, visit www.PaleyCenter.org.