If you just cannot get enough of Shat talking about not being in the movie…here is more from Shatnervision. Shatner says he has ‘known for a while’ that he will not be in the new Star Trek, and that he called director J.J. Abrams after the recent rumors hit the tabloids to tell him he wasn’t upset. The original Captain Kirk did admit to being ‘disappointed.’
A cunning plan?
It has been suggested that this is all some elaborate ruse on the part of the film’s producers. I suppose that is possible, but if so then Shatner really is putting his best effort into it. But the logic seems hard to grasp. How does it help the film to have Shatner talk about his ‘disappointment?’ How does it help to let the world know that Nimoy is in but keep the Shatner thing a secret? There can be no doubt that if Shatner were in it, they would want to keep that a secret until a time of their suiting, but the the most likely scenario would be that Shatner would be doing what Nimoy is doing now and what he was doing in the fall…not saying he is or isn’t in the film. It seems to me unfair to the fans to have him be so vocally denying that he is in the film, when to keep it a secret he could just say nothing or say something vague. So again where is the benefit for him to be so blatantly lying.
BONUS SHAT: What not to ask him at conventions
Let me be the FIRST to say that I neither believe nor disbelieve anything at this point…
Not sure about Shat not being there… While I don’t like them un-doing every death in the trek universe (or at least the important ones) its Shatner! Allthough I have heard many things about the cast not getting along in the past it seems I allways enjoy seeing shatner and even though It would undo part of Gen (which I am sure most don’t mind) I think him being there would not be bad for the movie. As well as the relationship between Shatner/Nimoy, Kirk/Spock being one of the best in Trek (or so it seems to me).
So I hope to see him in it, assuming they can write a good sensible resolution. Really looking forward to any info Thursday!
Ugh, I just left a lengthy post in the Shatner/Nimoy thread about him pulling our legs and how they could possibly work him in without mentioning Generations. However, this news doesn’t bode well for those thinking Shatner’s just been having a little mischievous fun.
Ky-Malairn
You nailed it, Stanky. We are free to believe what we want… at least until Thursday. I can wait. I just don’t think a changing of the guard or even a new style to the franchise diminishes what’s come before. I love TOS and always will. I love Shat as Kirk. I can’t wait to see what JJ has in mind to move things forward.
Hopefully all the cast issues will be talked about on Thursday. Doh! I forgot like that’s gonna happen. lol. But hopefully we’ll get some answers.
From what has been posted and reported, the script has been completed. Why are some suggesting that there’s still a chance to re-work it to include Shatner, if he really is not in it. It does look pretty gloomy now that he’s not in it as he definitively says he is not in the film.
Of course we all have that wishful thinking that there is hope he’ll be in it.
do not pin too much on Thursday. It will be big, but it wont answer everything
bear in mind that Paramount have about a dozen movies to cover in their two hour presentation…and the movies with stuff to actually show will get more time.
I imagine Trek will get 10-20 minutes
at next year’s comic con it is sure to get its own big session, but by that time we will know the plot, the cast and have seen the trailer
Can’t wait for Indiana Jones IV
Well that seals it as far as Shatner I think.
He isnt going to be in it. Frankly, I didnt think it would be, but recently I had started to wonder. Its a shame, cos initially I really didnt want him in, but now with all the talk I cant help feel a little disapointed too.
Ah well.
Roll on thursday.
I don’t get it. Supposedly he’s not in the script, yet Orci and Kurtzman said they would still love to include him.
One more reason to hate Generations, I guess.
Since that awful Generations movie came out my Star Trek universe has been “off balanced” I always have that image of Kirk’s death on that stupid bridge. I bury myself in my TOS novels and enjoy them all. But my mind goes back to that scene. FINALLY I see a chance to correct the horrible events of that terrible movie. I appeal once again to the writers of the next movie. Please bring back Kirk and Shatner!
I hope Shatner realizes that he’s going to DIE before Trek XII. He had better get back into a star fleet uniform pronto.
Andrew, the comments Orci made have been guessed that he meant have Shatner come by the filming as a guest/visitor. I have to agree with Anthony, they’d be nuts to stir all this up now, for a film that is 16 months away from release. Shatner, like most of us, is genuinely stunned that Nimoy is in and he isn’t.
Also, Anthony, per Thursday, isn’t Abrams going to be at the Comic Con? You have to figure he’s going to get bombarded with Shatner questions.
*sniff* uh huh hu hu hu…uh a huh huh huh hu hu *sniff sniff* wu..wu..wu..whyyy? uh huh huh huh…*falls against chair and cries like a biatch*
#13: He’s a busy man with lots of projects on the go, I’m sure we’re all much more interested in him being in Trek XI than he is. I am really surprised they haven’t worked him into it, though. Especially since Nimoy will appear. I wonder what part of the story forces Nimoy’s parts to take place after Generations, rather than at a point in time before Kirk died?
#16
Well for starters, there’s the fact he and Nimoy are clearly MUCH older than last we saw them. One look at either of them and you’ll instantly realize this takes place well after Generations.
I don’t want a repeat of the ENT finale where an older Riker and Troi were walking around in their old uniforms pretending to be 10 years younger.
I just love the man, but it is not to be.
Seriously, what the hell is The Shat disappointed about?
He had the unique opportunity of continuing to play Kirk in an animated series and seven live-action motion pictures over a period of 25 years after the end of the original series.
That’s one animated series, seven feature films, and 25 years more than any of Shatner’s contemporaries from any other show of the 1960s got, not to mention any shows from the 1970s, 1980s — heck, any show of all time, even including Star Trek: The Next Generation.
So Mr. Shatner, I would say to you, enjoy the fact that you have since done T.J. Hooker and Rescue 911 and that you are now a two-time Emmy-winning actor on Boston Legal (with yet another Emmy nomination), and get on with your life.
Your life is but a dream — for ALL of your contempories, and in fact, for many of your peers before and since.
Anthony
I guess he wasn’t lobbying for the last year. JJ must stick to his guns and say that he was not essential to the story and the spock character was. it is still a nod to the original and the spock character is more identified with star trek than kirk to the average person. That is the demographic they must reach for it to succeed in their eyes.
Who knows.Comic con will be interesting though
I am so tired of people asking “why didn’t the writers put him in?”.
Who said they didn’t ? We’ve not seen the script or the rewrites or the notes or anything. And we don’t know what happened between the Trek crew and Shatner.
I’m sad for Shatner (and myself) that he will not be in the movie. It’s great that his love for STAR TREK has not diminished after all these years away from the franchise. Luckily the man can take solace in his Emmy nomination and ongoing work on BOSTON LEGAL.
Cervantes,
I read your opener and loved it. Thanks for the glowing support of mine and even finding it for me… I had not kept a copy.
As I posted there.. Applause!
test
#20
Spock over Kirk? You must be joking. They were equals in most things and along with McCoy, played off of each other as no other characters in Trek ever will.
#19 “Your life is but a dream — for ALL of your contempories, and in fact, for many of your peers before and since.”
I am paraphrasing here but…
Row, row, row your boat gently down the stream…
Kirk, Leonard McCoy: Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily
Kirk: Life– Spock, why didn’t you jump in?
Spock: I was trying to comprehend the meaning of the words.
McCoy: It’s a song, you green-blooded Vulcan. The words
aren’t important. What’s important is that you have fun singing it.
Spock: Oh, I am sorry, Doctor. Were we having fun?
McCoy: God, I liked him better before he died.
Kirk: Let’s call it a night. Let’s go to bed and get some sleep.
Spock: Captain.
Kirk: Spock, we’re on leave. You can call me Jim.
Spock: Jim.
Kirk: Yes, Spock?
Spock: Life is not a dream.
Kirk: Go to sleep, Spock.
Spock: Yes, Captain.. .
Star Trek is a show the entire point of which is encountering and embracing the unknown, but it seems that many die-hard fans cannot take that attitude toward the unknown and potentially groundbreaking possibilities of retooling the characters of Spock and Kirk with new actors. That, to me, is sad.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: What will make or break STXII is the script. Another movie like The Final Frontier will surely kill the franchise. And guess what, STV:TFF was bad in large part because it was bogged down with the cheesy exploitation of nostalgia for the TOS crew and a hare-brained plot. No more! Star Trek needs to get back to its conceptual roots, not loll about sucking its thumb.
The Kirk is dead! Long live the new Kirk!
Based on what Shatner previously said, about ‘wrestling’ with the ‘dead Captain’ issue, is it perhaps not worthwhile assuming that the problem really is writing a script that brings Kirk back from the dead without that thread coming to dominate or just destabilise the movie?
Also, given that Nimoy is apparently in the movie, if this *is* as an older Spock, this shows that the production team aren’t averse to the ‘flash-forward’ or whatever (at this stage I’d bet money on there being a scene in which Nimoy’s Spock visit’s Kirk’s grave or attends his funeral or goes to some kind of dedication ceremony to the USS Kirk or something).
So, what I’m saying is – there’s always the sequel, if the movie is a hit, and people dig it, and it makes ca$h and the multiplex audiences are open to this idea of a film with a ‘young’ thread and an ‘old’ thread, then maybe they can pick up a Shatner cameo next time around, in the ‘old’ thread for that movie.
There’s a lot to establish in this movie, and a lot riding on it, and finding a way to bring Shatner’s Kirk back from the dead (something, which trust me, I am as much in favour of as it is possible to be) in an appropriate way, without it swallowing too much screen-time and overcomplicating the movie might just be something that they don’t think they can pull off. It’s a delicate balancing act, is all I’m saying.
I would love to see Bill Shatner play Kirk again. We’re all treating this as if it’s the last throw of the dice for that – and I don’t think that’s inevitably so.
If there is a sequel, there is always the sequel. IYSWIM.
Wouldn’t it be funny if we were all lead to believe that Shatner isn’t in the movie. And then the movie comes out and it starts and ends with Spock talking about the old days to someone. And at the very end of the movie, after he finishes his story, Kirk shows up and says something like: “Sorry I’m late. Now… where do you want to go to have lunch”. and that’s how the movie ends….
Kind of a twist ending.
And if Kirk is indeed meant to make a surprise cameo, it would explain why he’s saying he’s not in the movie. Since he can’t go “no comment” for 18 months without people getting suspicious.
Just a thought….
Two more days to go….
This denying makes him more popular. As a business man he uses every chance to get attention,. That’s the explanation.
Its going to feel like half a movie (no mattter how good it may be) without Shatner in it. If indeed, he isn’t. ;-)
I’ve been lurking here lots lately, mainly to read up on the Comic Con info as it becomes available (I was at the con this past weekend, and I was really surprised to see the info about it posted here by that evening!)
Anyway, although it seems like Shatner may not be in the film (I still have a thought it’s all something that will end ultimately with him in a cameo), I’m still happy with the idea of seeing TOS era Trek on a big screen, that gorgeous 1701 (no bloody A, B, C or D!) up there, crew of the Enterprise kicking butt and taking names again!
But, I do have a question, not meaning to be sarcastic or mean: with the talk of it “has to be Shatner and Nimoy or nothing”, what about the third member of the friendship? He’s not around anymore, and I can’t quite see a real reminiscing of the old days without McCoy.
Maybe that’s why, if Shatner is not actually in the movie, it can be said that it would not be fair to have it without De Kelley, who is unfortunately no longer with us.
#28: OR Kirk wakes up next to Spock and says, “I just had the strangest dream….”
Personally, I think it is a good idea to bookend the retooling as if it is a memory of one of the original cast members — it will add a deeper legitimacy by saying in as clear a way as possible that what went on before has not been abandoned or forgotten. As to whether that is Nimoy or Shatner or both, to me it doesn’t make a difference. I do think that since Vulcans have a much longer lifespan than humans that it would make sense to have Spock the lone survivng crew member.
Kind of like the woman in Titanic telling a story that comes to life in her memory. Hopefully, not with the same outcome though.
Two possibilities:
1) Nimoy plays Sarek and there is no equivalent role as Kirk’s dad in the script for Shatner. (Which rings false to me, as a cameo is easy to add, evenis suplus to plot requirements, leading me to….)
2) Nimoy appears as an older Spock, to introduce a tale from his youth. Shatner can’t appear as by this stage Kirk is gone and moving the timeframe of the reminiscence to earlier, when Kirk was around, somehow negates the reason for him remembering it in the first place.
Maybe it opens with Spock is talking to some young punks about stuff and somehow he gets in mind of the first time he met Jim Kirk, so he tells them the wild tale of the amazing adventure they had when they first met (quite possibly as junior officers on the big E herself), in which they met Death, Kirk melvins him and they go on to have a most excellent adventure in time and space?
Doubt he’s in it. Generations really put the kibosh on the TOS crew. Why they couldn’t just say Echo Kirk died, I don’t know. Never saw Kirk being happy chopping wood and fixing eggs like he was– kind of out of character. The whole TOS series was about communicating with and gaining freedom from what or whoever was holding them. So Kirk sits around for 78 years? And Spock, too? Not very Kirk-like. Anyhow, there’s a new movie.
if Abrams and CBS wanted they could do a TV Special in Nov 2008 Featuring Shatner’s Return as Kirk you find a way to cross promote the movie (expecially if it airs after CSI) if not please use Shatner in the Teaser Trailer
Have we all come to terms with the fact that Shatner will never be Kirk again? I will never be 10 again either. As Steve Miller said, “Time keeps on slippin’, slippin’, slippin’, into the future.” Maybe the producers throw him a bone, maybe not. It is for certain that whatever they do, that legions of Trek fans will be upset no matter what.
To me, it’s a bit like saying that I won’t watch the NFL again because Joe Montana retired.
35 – Yeah that’s been my idea all along. Call me stubborn, but I don’t like the idea of recasting Trek characters, as I feel a big part of the appeal of Star Trek was future thinking and technology, but Paramount keeps going backwards. The only interest I have in the movie is to see if someone can finally take Star Trek into something cerebral, instead of political intrigue or a big bad villain. If anyone, I would hope Abrams could do this. But if it were up to me, I’d like a Shatner/Nimoy return, and whatever else they do, I probably won’t notice.
Hey Anthony? and any other naysayers..i dont buy it for a moment,Shatner NOT in the new film?
PURE BUNK!
If he’s not in it pass the salt so I can eat my hat!
…but you wont have to….hes in it..it’s all a huge publicity stunt.
later boyz n grlz
¬gorgon
The Shat’s NOT in the new film???
C’mon. Doesn’t Paramount want people to spend their hard earned cash to see it in the theatres, as opposed to waiting for the DVD?
We should of appreciated REAL Trek while it was still around, the low box office profits of Trek V and VI, seem to say, yes we definitely should have