I agree with Zahir and others who remind us that while a script is being written, there's not much to tell, and those involved aren't ever going to give us a play-by-play any time a draft of a script is looked at and maybe considered and argued, and gone back to the drawing board. I'm sure there is a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes, and maybe a lot of them will reach dead ends and we won't even know they happened. It's only when things start falling into place that there is even much of anything worth reporting, anyway. Knowing the writer and the director is a good start!
I agree that it would be nice to hear from Jim Pierson once in awhile if possible. But again, if the only thing to tell is vague reports of a script being written and revised, it's not going to tell us much and might barely be worth mentioning anyway. Johnny is unlikely to be interviewed anytime soon, because he has no movies coming out until next spring/summer (Public Enemies in July, and maybe some film festival showings of Terry Gilliam's Parnassus movie). He rarely gives interviews in between movies
. As for him "pushing the project back", I still don't see that as being the case, since they have to wait for a script before they can even think of filming. The only projects he has set in stone right now are Alice In Wonderland (filming now) and Rango (animated-voice work to start in January). All the other projects we've heard about are in the same gray area DS is, and have no set start date. Even for Pirates 4, which Jerry Bruckheimer has said will come out in 2011, I suspect that is just hand-waving optimism on his part.
As for Star Trek vs. DS, I loved both of them when I was a kid. I don't think it's impossible to respect both, though this has been a fantastic discussion as to why one might be favored by some folks. I haven't been a rabid trekkie, but I watched at least some of all the series and some of the films. I look forward to the upcoming one mainly because I want to see Zachary Quinto (Sylar/Gabriel from Heroes) as Spock.
Nowadays, I've met a ton of people who say they "used to run home from school" to watch DS. The difference is, they didn't really keep up the fandom, but nobody I've met has put me down for still being a fan. It's hard to say whether folks like this would see the film, but I certainly hope that a film could be made to appeal to a wide audience!