In the midst of Twittering and blogging, I had a chance to talk to Abrams on a particularly busy day at Comic-Con, and we found probably the most quiet area on the whole convention floor: in a small, closed-off room on the second level of the Warner Bros. booth. For someone who’s supposed to be ultra-secretive, Abrams is a really nice, straightforward guy who’ll take on any question. Maybe it’s his history with USA WEEKEND: When he was just an up-and-coming screenwriter known as Jeffrey Abrams, he wrote about Harrison Ford for us in a July 1991 issue — Ford was starring in Regarding Henry, one of Abrams’ first screenwriting credits, and both appeared on the cover jumping on a bed. This time around, Abrams was on a couch and was the one answering questions on a number of topics.

On Massive Dynamic, the mysterious corporation in Fringe (which actually has its own website): “Years ago in the ‘80s, there were all these commercials on the air and at the end of all these commercials, this little icon would come out and say, ‘Beatrice.’ And it’s like, ‘What?’ It’s this weird thing of, first of all, who the hell is Beatrice and secondly, why is Beatrice involved in all of these disparate things? I remember feeling like, ‘That’s messed up that there’s this one company that’s secretly doing all this.’ What I love is when you’re watching Meet the Press and you see a commercial for GE and they do everything — they make the milk on the plane and the chair you’re sitting on and the plane itself and the engines. Forget light bulbs, man — they own everything. It’s remarkable the depth to which those companies are integral to our lives.”

On fans who still give him advice on Alias storylines: “It’s better when the show’s on the air. If the show’s being produced, you can take people’s notes and actually incorporate them if they feel right to you. It’s funny when a show’s over for years and people are like, ‘I didn’t really like it when Sydney and her dad did this,’ and I’m like, ‘I’m sorry. That was a long time ago. I apologize.’ It’s like, 'I really didn’t like you when you did Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof.’ That was high school. It’s over.”

On what he would have done with today’s technology and Internet growing up: "I often think about it, whether it’s visual effects programs or editing programs. I’m like, 'Oh my god, if they had this when I was a kid!' My 2½-year-old has a facility with a Macintosh. I can’t imagine what it’s like to be 2½ years old and operate something like that. I probably would have been one of those who has his own site for certain things, and I probably would have done my own versions of those things. I grew up as a kid doing incredibly stupid Super 8 movies. They were always referencing things, including Altered States and things that I loved. There was this one movie called High Voltage and it had an Altered States ripoff scene, and I would actually write letters to Dick Smith, the makeup man for Altered States and other movies, and get responses from him of how he did certain effects. He’s one of my idols. I would probably be doing my own little mini-versions of those kinds of shows and post them online to embarrass myself.”

On keeping secrets in real life: “I hate gossip. I hate talking about people. It’s probably part of it but I don’t like sneaking around behind people’s backs. I can keep a secret pretty well.”

On the HBO pilot he directed, Anatomy of Hope, a medical drama based on the lives of cancer patients: “It demystifies something that touches everyone, and people came up to me and told me their stories. People want to be able to talk about that and see something that pulls the veil away and reveals what the experience is, both on the patient and doctor’s side, and that show has the ability to do that.”

On staying mum about his upcoming Star Trek film: “It’s like having a really big secret where you just feel like, ‘Alright, I have to carry this around.’ It’s good news, meaning it’s not carrying a secret around that’s a depressing burden. It’s a fun, exciting anticipation as opposed to dread. All I want to do is show people. Fringe, Star Trek — these are not being made to keep secrets.”

(Photo by Todd Plitt for USA Today)