Star Trek: The Motion Picture: The Art and Visual Effects available to buy September 1st

Cover of Star Trek: The Motion Picture: Inside the Art & Visual Effects. Image Amazon

Released in 1979, Star Trek: The Motion Picture impressed audiences with stunning visual effects from beginning to end - and it’s about time we had a book about it.

Tomorrow, September 1st, Titan Books is releasing Star Trek: The Motion Picture: The Art and Visual Effects, a new “coffee table” book featuring artwork and production stills from the film. TrekMovie shared some exclusive imagery from the upcoming book and spoke with authors Jeff Bond and Gene Kozicki about their inspiration for this celebration of Star Trek’s first jump to the big screen.

Bond is the author of several books, including Planet of the Apes: The Evolution of the Legend, The World of the Orville, and The Art of Star Trek: The Kelvin Timeline. When it came to figuring out his next Star Trek project, Bond said, “This was a pretty obvious one, because the [40th] anniversary of the movie was coming up. And by that time, I had gotten to know Gene [Kozicki] and knew that he was going to bring his vast expertise to this book. He’s a visual effects producer...and is a genius at preserving and excavating all that history. And he has contacts with everybody.” Kozicki is a visual effects producer, with film credits including Titanic (1997), The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005) and The Golden Compass (2007).

Bond and Kozicki were in touch with vice president of Star Trek Brand Development John Van Citters, who allowed them “unfettered access”, providing the duo with a flash drive containing thousands of high-resolution photos from the film’s production. “There were 27,192 photos on this drive,” Kozicki said. “It’s like they have given us access to pretty much every photo they have in their archives.”

Out of those photos, Bond and Kozicki selected more than 400 for the book. With literally dozens of new interviews, The Art and Visual Effects comes in at a whopping 176 pages. On the scale of the book, Bond said “It deserves to be bigger, because it’s the first Star Trek film and it’s the most visually expansive of all those movies. It’s groundbreaking in its way, and it really deserves to have a big book like this.”

Head over to TrekMovie.com to see a selection of artwork from the new book. Star Trek: The Motion Picture: The Art and Visual Effects is available September 1st and set to retail for $50, but if you pre-order now on Amazon, you can get it for just $39.99.