October 2007

Of all the casting announcements for the new Star Trek, the one that seems most obvious is the first one – Zachary Quinto as the new Spock. He is talented, a break-out star on a hit TV series (Heroes), has the right look, and was highly motivated to get the part. But apparently it wasn’t a slam dunk after all. In a new Hollywood Reporter article about Quinto moving up to a bigger agency, there was this tidbit: When he did a work session for Spock with the “Trek” casting director in June, the response he received was that, after seeing his tape, Abrams “wasn’t convinced” he was right for the role and had to move on and see other actors. That changed a couple of weeks later when Quinto met with Abrams. Soon after that, he became the first actor cast in the movie.

J.J. Abrams has his entire new Star Trek crew, but he still has casting to do on a number of important roles. TrekMovie.com has learned that although casting has progressed on a number of minor roles (such as crew members on other ships), no major roles have been cast since Karl Urban signed on as McCoy. However, a source tells TrekMovie.com they are close to picking their new Captain Christopher Pike. The source confirmed that Josh Lucas was considered, but implied that he wasn’t the leading candidate. Although Pike is said to have a “significant role,” the source also disputed recent rumors that Pike has a larger role than Kirk.

Zachary Quinto was a popular person to nab for questions at the recent Spike Scream awards. For the most part, the new Spock repeated his usual comments about being “excited” and “humbled” about the project and working with Nimoy. But MTV did get him to open up a bit more. Here is Quinto on younger Spock I think there’s a distinction you need to make as an actor that you’re clear when and where you drop into that character. [Spock] evolved over a long period of time, so to pick that up and establish it at a time before you knew those characters is exciting. It allows me to discover some of the origins of these things.

Back in May we reported that both J.J. Abrams and Keri Russell dropped some hints that they would both be open to her being in the new Star Trek, but it seemed to just be usual celebrity log rolling. Russell was the star of Abrams’ first TV series Felicity and appeared in his first feature film, Mission: Impossible: III. In a new interview with TV Guide the actress reveals that there is actually some fire to the smoke. She says that she is in discussions on some film roles and that she talks to J.J. Abrams “all the time.” When asked specifically about a possible role in Star Trek she said:

In August a rumor surfaced that Tom Cruise would be playing the role of Captain Christopher Pike in the new Star Trek film. That was actually the second time that the star of J.J. Abrams’ first feature film (M:I:III) came up in relation to Star Trek. In both cases TrekMovie.com reported that Cruise’s people denied the rumors and today Empire reports that Cruise himself has denied the rumor. The Tom replied to the inquiry “What? No, I’m not in that,….Nope. It’s just rumor.”

Here is the behind the scenes video from a recent photo shoot with the new Mr. Spock

There is a bunch of press lately that Simon Pegg (star of Hot Fuzz) was a “bizarre casting choice” for the role of Scotty in the up-coming Star Trek movie. (Simon Pegg quotes below). Although I was publicly backing Paul McGillion because he looked so much like my father, I believe that Simon Pegg is a great choice. He may not look like Scotty, but his Scottish accent is very good, with a slight Glaswegian flare and he’s a great actor.