Is this Bermans' direction?

Spotted something in an article on SyFy Portal that I've seen before but never made a connection with ...

Recently, many rumors have been circulating that the next Trek film is 'on the back burner', that Executive Producer Rick Berman had presented a concept that Paramount Pictures disliked and was sending him back to the drawing board.
Berman recently denied those rumors in an interview with Sci-Fi Wire, the official in-house news service for the Sci-Fi Channel.
'Unless there is something going on that I am not familiar with, the rumors are totally fictitious,' Berman said. 'Absolutely neither statement, that something has been scuttled and that I have been asked to redevelop something, is true.'

OK, so this is Berman just laying a smokescreen, but as I read on things started to sound sorta familiar ...

The concept reportedly presented by Berman is a prequel film set in the era before UPN's Enterprise, with a new set of characters not previously seen in any Trek incarnations.

It's Star Trek, but before Enterprise and doesn't use any of the previous characters? Could he be channelling me? [Cue spooky music as I look over my shoulder]

Asked to provide an accurate update on the status of a new Trek next movie, Berman said the status of the next film is 'in an early state of story development, and the Paramount Motion Picture Group will announce personnel and whatever elements of the project when they see fit.'
'If the project does develop as planned I think, of all the Star Trek movies I've been involved with and the previous regimes have been involved with, this one will undoubtedly have a larger scope and budget,' he said. 'It's a very ambitious project, and I'm hoping that it will get the support to come to fruition.'

Well you can't get more ambitious than finally filling in that last missing link: How in the world Humanity could get from warring nations on the brink of nuclear warfare to a united Earth facing a future among the stars!

I'll leave it at that. If Mr. Berman sites his "prequel" in this era, I wish him luck. I just hope he takes the time and effort to tie up the loose ends to make it a credible part of the Star Trek canon. The LIEF Erikson is Fan Fiction, just my way of using the Star Trek universe to have a little fun and ponder a few questions on the way.