Creating a unique new look for the rebooted Star Trek franchise was a big priority for J.J. Abrams, the producer-turned-director of the forthcoming Star Trek film. So Abrams turned to Barney Burmanand his team at Proteus Make-up FX to craft alien creatures for the film, which recounts the earliest adventures of the Enterprise crew. It was a big job: The artists had to produce and execute new designs for various aliens, and they had to do it more quickly than they originally anticipated. With such a massive workload to deal with all at once, Burman wound up assigning some of the featured humanoid races, notably the Romulans, toJoel Harlow and his team.