Abrams was in attendance at the Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour promoting Alcatraz, the new series on which he's a producer.  While there, he spoke to Collider about his hugely anticipated jaunt in the future of Gene Roddenberry's creation.  

Asked just how involved he'll be in the day-to-day on Alcatraz, Abrams revealed that production on the sequel gets underway at the end of this week, saying, "We start shooting Star Trek on Thursday, so I’ve gotta go!"

Last month we learned that Star Trek 2 will be shot in two dimensions and converted to 3D in post-production, a process that generally receives no small amount of criticism.  Abrams explained that the decision not to shoot in 3D was made in order to match the look of the first film.  "It will be converted, for those who want to see it in 3D. But, I wanted to match the look of the first one and shoot it anamorphically," he said.

In Abrams's first spacefaring film, a distinctive part of his visual approach involved an abundance of lens flares, and the director was asked if he has considered the effect 3D will have on that signature light effect.

"I’ve had some people make fun of me about that," he replied.  "Yeah, we’ve done some tests. Not only lens flare tests, but we’ve done 3D tests. We actually converted a bunch of the original movie, which looked really good. That was the thing that made me feel like, maybe that would be okay. But, I didn’t want to shoot the movie digitally."

Finally, Abrams explained that it was the sight of those post-converted Star Trek scenes that convinced him that a thorough 3D conversion could jive with his style for the sequel, saying, "I did not fight for the 3D. It was something that the studio wanted to do, and I didn’t want to do it. And then, when I saw the first movie converted in sections, I thought that it actually looked really cool. So, I was okay with their doing it, as long as I could shoot the movie the way I wanted to, in anamorphic film, and then let them convert it. So, those who want to see it in 3D, which looked pretty cool, can do it, and those that want to see it in 2D can do that too."

In a surprise casting move last week, British actor Benedict Cumberbatch was announced in a major role, which we've all been presuming is the villainous role for which Benicio Del Toro was previously being courted.  Asked what exactly made the Sherlock actor the right man to play the villain, Abrams coyly responded, "Who said he’s our villain?"

Whoever Cumberbatch is playing, he joins fellow Trek newcomers Alice Eve, Noel Clarke, and Peter Weller.  They'll be playing off a bunch of actors returning from the 2009 film, including Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg, John Cho, and Anton Yelchin.  They'll all be reciting dialogue from a screenplay by Damon Lindelof, Roberto Orci, and Alex Kurtzman.

You've got plenty of time to pick up some Rogue 3D Eyewear before the next Star Trek arrives in theaters on May 17, 2013.