Not that we needed it, but the Hollywood Reporter has confirmed earlier reports that actor-producer-writer-director Tyler Perry will appear in the new Star Trek film as the head of Starfleet Academy. THR had no other details except to repeat their usual summary of “the film chronicles the early days of the Starship Enterprise crew.”
The Perry story was first reported a few days ago by UGO and confirmed by TrekMovie.com sources. [see related story…includes spoilers]. TrekMovie.com has learned that Paramount was hoping to keep the Perry cameo a secret longer. The film makers have consistently stated that they want to make Star Trek appeal beyond the core Trek base and apparently Perry’s loyal fans are seen as helping in that cause.
More names to come
Perrry’s confirmation brings the total known actors in Star Trek to nineteen (see full list), half of which were learned of after filming started in two months ago. It is unknown how many total roles there are in Star Trek, but as a point of comparison Abrams last film (Mission Impossible III) had 46 credited actors (and a dozen other uncredited). So you can be sure there are more names to come in the coming months. Most will be unknowns, but you never know.
Perry’s next film, Meet the Browns, starring himself and Angela Basset comes out March 21st
NumberOne
Tyler Perry has loyal fans?
Seems likely he’ll play a much younger Commodore Stone…
Good Morn-ting………
Yes he does. The Medea movies are good stuff and the plays were sold out MONTHS in advance, Don’t knock it just because you haven’t seen it. Trek needs new fans. JJ is smart for even daring to think like this.
JJ is pulling in some good names…. let’s hope they make it all work
The forthcoming trailer shows a construction crew at work on what is revealed at the end of the trailer to be the Enterprise.
You heard it here first.
So much for journalistic endeavor.
If the teaser really is a construction shot of the Enterprise as rumored (for a long time), then how does that fit in with Capt. Pike? I think Pike was Captain of the E for something like 10 years (not sure if it’s canon though).
Of course, a construction scene could be a flashback. Or it’s not seen in the movie at all but just in the trailer for eye candy….
PS–have only seen clips of Tyler as Medea. That’s some seriously funny stuff. :)
I can’t say I’m a fan of his Medea movies, but he does have a considerable fan base that probably wouldn’t be first in line for a Trek movie otherwise. It’s definitely smart thinking on JJ’s part.
steve…two points
1. the enterprise under construction thing was reported by Anthony like two months ago
2. what does that have to do with Tyler
It should be Steven Perry instead.
The construction seen was the repairing of the bulkhead that had ruptured a week earlier, (Killing six crewman and critically injuring the enterprise’s previous captain) It’s kirk’s first day as captain.
The plan was for kirk to report to a different ship as first officer but pike’s accident changed that.
Or maybe JOE Perry………..
#12
Pike’s Accident did not happen til AFTER Kirk was in command of the Enterprise
Maybe they’re updating Pike’s ship, and not building a new one?
Yes Darth Quixote,Tyler Perry has a loyal African American fan base. Weither its going to bring them to the film is another question since this is just a small role in the film.
You know the construction scene could be a refitting scene instead. I mean did the Enterprise look the same when it was originally built?
The years Pike was Captain,you know there had to be overhauls and refits. So this the perfect loophole for J.J. Abrams to have fun with.
Personally I cannot imagine the “construction of the Enterprise” scene for the teaser being:
1. actually in the movie
2. canon
3. meant to be more than a metaphor.
Not that I think there’d be anything wrong with that. Just saying we probably shouldn’t take the scene so literally, though of course I might be wrong.
If I remember correctly, according to “The Making of Star Trek” by Stephen Whitfield, the Enterprise was constructed ABOVE what is known as the San Franciso Navy Yards. Can anyone confirm my memory? If so, if they do show construction, I hope it is in orbit. I guess they could always use the “it’s a refit” loophole.
#12. toddk – January 2, 2008
The construction seen was the repairing of the bulkhead that had ruptured a week earlier, (Killing six crewman and critically injuring the enterprise’s previous captain) It’s kirk’s first day as captain.
The plan was for kirk to report to a different ship as first officer but pike’s accident changed that.
—–
Do you saw the teaser???
It doesn’t make financial/practical sense to build an entire starship in a weightless cold vacumn of space.I hope Abram’s vision takes that leap beyond the orbital scaffolded re-fit of the enterprise. and shows us some cool concepts of how things are done in the future.
wasnt pikes accident on an old J class with cadets?
as to how th enterprise looks. well kirk got the same 200+ crew with large bridge dome version that pike had. this was supported by dialogue. later of course the bridge dome changed and yes even the crew changed to 430.
sure yes there can be a refit between pike and kirk but maybe not warrent a scene that would be misread as “construction”.
But this a TP thread so when the movie comes out and they ask you to stand in line. all the perry fans on the right and the trek fans on the left.
#2 Darth Quixote — His four movies have made over $200 million in the North American box office and his plays have made over $75 million in ticket & DVD sales. This is despite the lackluster reviews all of his movies have received. So yeah, I would say he has a loyal following. ;)
#2 … … Actually yes! Before I started teaching I worked at a blockbuster. Every time one of his films comes out on DVD… and he has many… a bunch of people show up out of nowhere to rent them. I can’t remember the title personally of his last film but I do recall that it was hard to keep on the shelves. On a side note… saw Sweeney Todd today. It is a bit gore filled (as is to be expected) but awesome. Go see it it you havent already.
Aaron R.
Why does everyone think that the construction scene cannot be the original building of the Enterprise? We already know that part of the film takes place during Kirk’s time at Starfleet Academy…. wouldn’t that align with the construction of the E? Granted, Kirk was the youngest person to be given command of a starship, but there still must have been at least 10 years between his graduation from SA and his promotion to captain?
perhaps the teaser shows cadet kirk, looking up at the stars… then the camera follows his view and approaches the orbital facility where the enterprise is for refit. that’s my dream about it :P
I’m thrilled to see Tyler Perry in the next movie. He’s a great actor, and I know he’ll do well by Star Trek. I think this is great.
Even though this is a serious role and I know he’ll be good at it, just for fun it’d be great for his character to come out dressed as Madea in the blooper/gag reel for a scene or two. ;)
Actually he’s playing Guinan!
#24
The Enterprise NCC-1701 was commissioned in 2245. April, her first captain, was assigned to her the very same year, meaning her construction had been finished by then. As Kirk was born in 2233 and he began his Starfleet Training in 2250, his being an eyewitness of the E’s actual construction scene would only have been possible if he had visited the site before officially attending SA or if his mummy’s basement had a really powerful telescope.
As regards Perry, he gets my outright ‘whatever’.
I never heard about the guy until last week. Looking at his work on IMDB.com, he basically had to write, direct, produce and play in his own movies because nobody else wanted to – kinda like Woody Allen?
#19 Aggi —
That is not true. Kirk knew nothing about Pike’s accident until the TOS episode ‘The Menagerie’. Kirk was shock and surprised to see Pike in the Wheelchair. In ‘The Menagerie, it was implied that Pike’s accident had only recently happened – and that episode took place probably at least a year or more into Kirk’s Captaincy.
Back on topic…It seems Abrams is going out of his way to hire actors who are “buzzworthy”, at least among a certain ‘niche’ of fans. Quinto and Pegg also fit that category. I’m not saying this is a bad thing — in fact it may be a smart way to create interest among non-Star Trek fans.
oops.
I’m sorry Aggi…I see now that you were responding to #12.
mea culpa.
#18. Yes. That is my recollection as well. I will have to check this evening as I am currently re-reading that old favorite. To all others, if you haven’t read ‘The Making of Star Trek’ by Stephen Whitfield yet, you should. You get to hear straight from the Great Bird himself and not 42 iterations down…sometimes it cracks me up what people think GR was actually saying. I mean, after all, he was trying to make a thoughtful and fun action adventure show first and foremost, not start some quasi-religious movement.
#25 I dig that interpretation as well. Could be cool.
By the way, remember that Kirk’s dad, George, is in the film as well…If they take from the book series, George Kirk was once first officer on the Big E under Robert April in Diane Carey’s Star Trek Final Frontier.
#34. Ugh. That is a prime example of the “law of the small universe” that permeates Trek, Star Wars, and other such multi-media story franchises. Basically, there are very few characters (out of a universe of billions) that you get to know, and it keeps turning out that every one is related or connected to everyone else. Vader is Luke’s father. Leia is Luke’s sister. Yoda is friends with Chewbacca. Archer is intimate with Surak (!!!). And now, Kirk’s father also served on the Enterprise? Repeated coincidental relationships make the whole universe seem impossibly small and uninteresting.
#20. Good point: If you have transporter technology, the simplest thing would be to build nearly everything on earth in module form, then beam the modules to orbit for final assembly.
#2: “Tyler Perry has loyal fans?”
In terms of a loyal, hard-core fan base? Perry probably has more fans like that than any of the “Star Trek” actors. Any of them. It’s just that Perry’s fans aren’t people you know or talk to online.
How much screen time are all these people actually going to get??
I hope they throw April in too, but I hope for a lot of things…
Really, no-one should expect to see our familiar crew on the Enterprise under Kirk’s command in this film. The doesn’t happen for many years after. We might just see it as Pike takes command, with Spock coming on as a crewmember.
That said, maybe the ship-in-drydock sequence will be as the ship is being refit before Pike takes command.
Pike’s accident aboard the J-class cruiser occurs after he hand-picks James Kirk as his successor and Kirk assumes command of the Enterprise. This occurs in 2258, and Pike is promoted to fleet Admiral. In 2260, the Enterprise is dry docked at Starbase 12 in the Gamma 400 system and undergoes a refit. The Enterprise is recommissioned following the refit and Kirk’s five year mission officially begins.
That being said, the trailer could depict the construction of the Enterprise or the refit. The choice of showing the Enterprise in some form of “construction” phase may be Abram’s attempt to echo the theme that the series is being “rebooted” or “reconstructed” or “re-imagined”, if you will.
And wouldn’t it be uber-cool to briefly see Capt. April as he is coming off his service time as captain?
And, as for Tyler Perry: perhaps he’s a Star Trek fan and lobbied for a role? That wouldn’t be the first time that’s happened. It’s a smart move by the studio as it probably will bring the attention of non-Star Trek fans. My Wife doesn’t know Robert April from Christopher Pike, but she knows who Tyler Perry is.
It’s nice to see JJ bringing a lot of big mainstream actors to this film. But is this dangerously close to pandering? Of course, that won’t matter if they have good roles that add to the plot and not just window dressing.
I can undersatnd Paramount’s desire for this film to appeal to a broader audience. I hope it works for a solid Trek film.
I thought George Kirk was a security officer on Enterprise in Final Frontier? I read it years ago and don’t remember everything, but it seems to me he was an enlisted man, and in security.
36 Neal.Thank You.I’ve often wondered(Toomuch time on my hands?)how they would build a starship.Ralph Mc Quarrie,the conceptual artist from the original Star Wars,was hired to do some work for Star Trek ;the Motion Picture.His depiction of the Enterprise refit was in a docking bay of a hollowed out asteriod.I assumed with artificial atmosphere and gravity.But an organization the size of starfleet would have to have some real practical state of the art complex to build and re-fit their fleet.The vacumn of space as depicted in ST;TMP with some scaffolding around a ship ,just doesn’t strike me as a believable starship construction site.Minor repair or minor refit maybe.I’d like to see a better thought out vision that’s not reliant on ST;TMP
#44: and in Best Destiny – George Kirk was tactical officer under Robert April’s command on the Enterprise
#29 I highly doubt that JJ is going to stick with the Captain April time line introduced in the animated series. Its just more baggage that is not needed with very few people even knowing that perticular point. My guess is, as #24 stated, that we see the construction of the Enterprise while Kirk is at the academy. Possibly “serving” on it late in his academy career due to plot circumstances and then leaving it at the end of the film with a promise to return to the ship that he has fallen in love with.
#3 Harry Ballz – January 2, 2008
From a canon perspective, it would be unlikely that he could play a younger Commodore Stone. Kirk’s graduation from the Academy was years before ‘Court Martial’, and it’s unlikely that Stone would have been stuck as a Commodore without being promoted to the Admiralty for that long. Even if we accept that he could have been in a promotion rut, Mr Perry would be too young to play a flag officer (or, at least, he looks too young).
Then, if he were playing a Commander Stone or Captain Stone, he couldn’t really be the head of the Academy, who would be a flag officer (ideally, a Rear Admiral).
Of course, if this is reboot territory, then yeah, I say bring on Stone!
As for the ship itself, I doubt that it’ll be a ‘canon’ scene from the film (and I mean within the film’s continuity – the canonicity of the film itself within the Trek whole is still in doubt). Just something to get non-Trekkies interested.
It’s JJ’s shrewd business sense kicking in. By putting Tyler Perry in the film, he ensures it will run back to back with itself on TBS Superstation non-stop from 2012-2020.
Very Funny.
There is no such thing as “canon” The TOS universe is a jumble of mixed up dates, names, configurations, events, terms, etc… They were flying by the seat of their pants back then. This whole canon thing started evolving in the TNG era, when guidelines were written down, and even then it changed as the show progressed. Canon is really not very important The only thing that matters is if the story, and the acting is good.