TV producer and filmmaker J. J. Abrams is directing and producing the forthcoming Star Trek film with the goal of bringing a more optimistic point of view to the culture.

Film and TV producer J. J. Abrams (Alias, Lost, Fringe, Felicity, Cloverfield, Mission: Impossible III), who will produce and direct the forthcoming Star Trek film arriving in 2009, says that he was a Star Wars fan as a child, not an aficionado of Star Trek.

He says he took on the Star Trek film project, however, because he was drawn to the idealism behind the franchise. He hopes to make a more optimistic point of view as popular as the somewhat bleak vision of The Dark Knight was.

AP reports Abrams as saying, "In a world where a movie as incredibly produced as ‘The Dark Knight‘ is raking in gazillions of dollars, ‘Star Trek’ stands in stark contrast. It was important to me that optimism be cool again."