We learned yesterday, once again, that there's been no meaningful progress on a Star Trek sequel, and that J.J. Abrams won't even promise he'll direct it until he sees the script that hasn't yet been written. And yet Vulture managed to dig some news out of the guy after all, asking Abrams if Paramount had asked him to shoot the movie in 3D and getting the inevitable but still depressing answer: Yup. But wait, Abrams has more to say, and a hilarious point about why 3D is no good. Here's the entire relevant exchange:

Has Paramount asked you to consider doing the next Trek in 3-D?
Yup.

And?
I have nothing against 3-D in theory. But I've also never run to the movies because something's in 3-D. [As for Trek], as soon as I read the script, if it says, "Somebody pushes a weapon toward the camera in a menacing way," and we think, "That'd be better in 3-D!"... I dunno. What do you wanna see? 2-D or 3D?

I don't care.
I'm a big fan of whip pans, which is very hard to do in 3-D. You know, when I was in New York fifteen years ago, and I sort of had the flu, I remember turning the TV on. There were these kids in a very dark, kind of muddy movie that was on a local channel, talking about making out. Then you cut to them walking in the forest, and somebody had a paddleball, and they were doing it right to the camera. It was like this weird, experimental Fellini movie. I was like, "What the fuck is this movie?" And it was Friday the 13th Part 3 in 3-D — without sex, violence, or 3-D! It was genius.

Honestly, I'm neither all that surprised about Paramount asking Abrams to shoot the movie in 3D, nor all that concerned he'll have to capitulate. There's a distinct 3D backlash happening right now that anyone as perceptive as Abrams can definitely observe, and there's absolutely no reason Paramount would bother clashing with Abrams over something like that. By the time Star Trek 2 hits theaters in 2012 or 2013-- God is it really going to take that long?-- the idea of forcing it into the third dimension will seem hilarious. But it'll only be with the help of anti-3D stalwarts like Abrams that we get there, so good on him for sticking to it.

If you're an Abrams or Fringe fan definitely click over the the entire interview, where he talks about Fringe's move to Friday nights, the in-joke in the title of their first new episode, and also his new sci-fi series Alcatraz, which is filming its pilot right now.