When rumors first started to circulate on what J.J. Abrams had in mind for Star Trek XI, many of the rumors fell back to the age-old Starfleet Academy idea.

It was something originally developed by producer Harve Bennett, who in the late 1980s, actually had a greenlight from Paramount to develop it into a film that he would direct, featuring new actors playing younger versions of Kirk and Spock. Now that the idea has surfaced once again, Bennett says the only way such a movie would happen is if it came through him.

"I think what happened is that they (Abrams and company) came up with the story, somebody said, 'Oh, that will be a good idea,'" Bennett told the Hebrew-language Starbase972 Web site. "And then someone reminded them of what happened in '89 and '90, so suddenly there were denials everywhere."

Bennett said he had wanted to cast a much younger John Cusack to take on Leonard Nimoy's role of Spock while Ethan Hawke was being seriously considered for William Shatner's Kirk. And both Nimoy and Shatner would be invited to the cast as well, playing the older versions of themselves in the movie. Bennett also said the movie would've shown the invention of warp speed, although it had been established that Zefram Cochrane invented warp speed before the births of Kirk and Spock.

Bennett said Paramount Television was working on a prequel concept of Star Trek dating back to 1996 for what eventually became "Star Trek: Enterprise." Bennett said he was approached about how such a prequel would conflict with his "Academy Years" idea, which he said had nothing to do with what he had originally planned.

The 76-year-old producer first came on board the Star Trek franchise following "Star Trek: The Motion Picture," being the man that actually came up with the idea of making "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" a sequel to the original series "Space Seed." He remained with the Star Trek motion pictures through "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier," leaving after it appeared that "The Academy Years" would never be produced.

If Abrams does move forward with the academy idea, Bennett said he wouldn't mind consulting. But his days of directing or becoming heavily involved in a Star Trek feature are long over.

"I had a wonderful time (working on Star Trek)," Bennett said. "I had 10 great years, and of course as you now know, during the same 10 years I was able to do some things I was very proud of."