'Star Trek' star, co-writer explore personal story with 'People Like Us'

Kurtzman, 38, said his closeness to the material made it ideal for his directorial debut.

“It certainly helped in the sense that I felt like I was able to speak from a place of authenticity about the material itself. You know, it took me and Bob and our writing partner Jody Lambert eight years to write the script. So by the time we were actually on set doing it, we'd thought about those scenes backward and forwards in a hundred different ways,” he said.

“But the gift for me was being surrounded by such a talented cast and a talented crew, and everybody was there because they wanted to be there and they were working for almost nothing. I think that it sort of made us a family trudging forward together in a really kind of arm-linked way.”

Next May, film fans will get to embark on another space adventure with Pine and Kurtzman, who reunited with Abrams' for the as-yet-untitled “Star Trek” sequel, now in postproduction.

“What was really kind of fun for all of us on the first movie is that we basically got to show the bridge crew coming together. And I think that the mistake that we didn't want to make in the sequel was assuming that just because they're together they're the finely tuned machine that you fell in love (with) from the original series. They still have a lot of work and a lot of growing to get to that place,” Kurtzman said.

“I think the film takes people on a journey from Point A to Point B, and Kirk is still on his way to Z, let's say. He's still on his way to becoming the captain that we all know him to be,” Pine added. “I think the (special) effects and explosions are just as great if not greater in this new installment, but I think it's matched by really strong and really interesting character development.”