Eric Bana Thinks Trek Is Going To Be Fun

Eric Bana is currently hard at work playing the villain Nero for the new Star Trek (even shaving his head a week ago for the role). He is so hard at work he missed the New York premiere for his film The Other Boleyn Girl last week. Bana did do some interviews for Boleyn Girl which have cropped up in the last few days and when they get around to talking Trek there is a recurring theme.

On why he took the Trek role: [UPI]

I couldn’t resist. I read it and I know (director J.J. Abrams) pretty well and there was just no way to say no; it’s just too much fun.

On TOS: [Aust. Herold Sun]

I really loved the original series with William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy, I grew up with that, but that was not reason enough to want to do the film. The script was the thing that made me want to do it. I’m looking forward to playing a villain, so it should be fun.

On work on Trek [Phil. Enquirer]

I got to do a few weeks’ work on that, a really great, fun script

On Abrams [Phil. Enquirer]

He’s very annoying, very talented (he says with a laugh)
I would like to rephrase that: He’s annoyingly talented. Don’t isolate those two comments!

No more funny man
Bana may love his fun, but it appears he no longer wants to be funny…at least professionally. The actor, who won an Australian Logie award for his sketch comedy work in the 90s, tells the Australian Daily Telegraph that he has put his comedy work behind him:

By the time I started doing film I was kind of burnt out. I know it is frustrating for people who like to see that stuff and I just tell them to go onto YouTube, I just had had enough of it.

Bana sacrifices for Trek
Eric Bana has done more for Trek than just shave his head. In February the actor could be seen with his co-stars Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman at the European premieres, but he had to skip out on the last The Other Boleyn Girl premiere (New York) due to his work on Trek in Los Angeles.


Bana and his ladies in Berlin (2/15), Madrid (2/18) and London (2/19)


Natalie all alone in NYC (2/28)

The “Other Boleyn Girl” starring Eric Bana opened last Friday nationwide.

 

Photos: Wire Image

 

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nice – great actor

this is going to be fun.

did anybody notice how clifton collins (nero’s henchman) was bald at the cloverfield premiere. maybe that will be the “new look” they are using for the romulans.

Yes, I perfer human type Romulans to those of the next generation. I think that fits into the vulcan/romulan connection then those with the weird foreheads. I don’t really like it when they make things complex when simple can be just as good.

#3.

Or it may be that it is just easier for the actors to wear Romulan wigs if they are bald. In TOS the actors just used their own hair but the tradition of those (patenently awful) wigs started with TNG’s reintroduction of the Roms in “The Neutral Zone” and continued all the way through “Nemesis” and on ENT. I for one would be happy to see the use of wigs on Roms and Vulcans be discontinued. They are ridiculous.

yeah, it seemed like every alien in the tng era had prosthetics on the forehead. it makes me wonder about the klingons. if they make an appearance in the film or a sequel

#4.

And, yes, I never cared for the addition of the forehead appliance to the Roms, either. I think we’re all smart enough to distinguish Vulcans from Romulans by their behavior and without what amounts to a sign reading “Romulan” taped to their foreheads. If they didn’t need ’em back in ’67 they don’t need ’em now.

Just to continue this line of discussion, the forehead appliance didn’t do much to help the actors portraying Romulans. Roms were supposed to be passionate in comparison to their Vulcan cousins but by giving the actors those stiff uniforms and a forehead appliance that limited the actor’s range of facial movement the show-runners effectively ’emasculated’ the Romulans into something much closer to an emotionless, robotlike conformist race. Of course it can also be argued that this was effective in making Roms a more extreme version of the Vulcans since they all became 1-dimensional ciphers. Almost a cautionary tale of the Vulcans’ turning away from individuality taken to the extreme. You gotta admit that the Vulcans look a lot like a conformist society akin to Communist China with everyone shunning individuality (right down to those unflattering identical haircuts for men and women) at least on the surface. You can understand Capt Archer’s initial distrust of and annoyance at them for similar reasons.

#7 – “If they didn’t need ‘em back in ‘67 they don’t need ‘em now.”

I think that could apply to about 75% of anything in Star Trek. Unless they plan on explaining the Romulan/Vulcan ancestry then it may be needed just to help people move it along. It’s a cosmetic thing is all. Same with Klingons etc.

#4 – AMEN!!!

#8 – Vulcans didn’t have all identical haircuts. In TOS, all Vulcans had very different haircuts, and the women’s hair differed greatly from the men’s. It was only later on in the cheesy spin-offs that they all had the EXACT same haircut, mostly due to the fact that the people who were in charge of the cheesy spin-offs really knew nothing about Star Trek and just figured that all Vulcans should look exactly like Mr. Spock.

LAME.

-So..the romulans are again the bad guys….

-tng romulans are great…hmmmm…you silly tos purists..

Again the Romulans. In Nemesis did not worked.

#11 – The fact that the Vulcans in TOS had more individualistic hairstyles was an incouraging thing to me. That one could turn away from emotion but not have to sacrifice identity was a compelling notion. I really think that from TNG onwards the Spock haircut in itself became universally Vulcan (and Romulan, in a somewhat modified style). This was a bit of a disservice to Vulcans as a whole, I think (as per my Communist Chinese comparison). T’Pau and T’Pring’s immaginitive hairstyles come to mind. Look at ENT where T’Pol, her mother and every single other Vulcan (accept for the Cirinists who apparently stopped cutting and washing their own hair) all had interchangeable haircuts/wigs.

#13. And I don’t really mean to sound like I’m dumping on TNG or even EN (which I both loved) but I’m bringing this up as I wonder what the new producers and staff have theorized and how it will translate to the screen. I really am an advocate for change and I am anxious to see what new take on these old familiar peoples JJ and company will bring to us.

Hmm, looks like my comments were supposed to be dirrected to #10 and #12.

#10 –

Not only the Vulcans, but wasn’t anyone else annoyed by the fact that they made ALL the Klingons looks exactly the same (hair, goatees, uniforms) starting in 1984 with their appearance in STAR TREK III?

Yes, MINOR nitpicking, I’ll grant you, but you’d think they’d allow for more individuality with the Klingons, as opposed to the Vulcans, which sort of made “logical” sense that they’d all adhere to one uniform look and not bothering with styling and feathering their haircuts!

#8 I could be wrong on this but wasn’t it (in Roddenberry’s mind) that the Federation were like the US, the Klingons were the USSR and the Romulans Communist China? But I don’t know where that leaves Vulcans specifically…

And as much as I love TNG…I really hope there’s no Remans. Romulans are more badass on their own I think.

#17 – Oh, I definately agree…the whole “Reman” thing was one of the lamest ideas to come out of the cheesy TNG-era stuff. And there’s been a LOT of lame ideas to come out of the TNG-era, so that’s saying something!!

#16 – There’s a little more variety in the look of the Klingons than maybe you’re giving them credit for. Although it’s true that minor Klingon characters looked fairly generic (and why did almost all Klingons in the 24th century wear the same armor as in the 23rd?). But a lot of the ‘featured’ Klingons had some interesting variety to them, especially in their forehead appliances. But yeah, the fact that every Klingon in the 24th century had a perm exept for Worf and his blown-dry coif always made my eyes roll. I was relieved when the Klingons from ENT weren’t sporting these 80’s ‘hair band’ and jerri-curl ‘dos. Ha! They had 90’s grunge rock hairstyles instead! I guess if Star Trek: Phase II had aired in the 70’s they’d’ve had afros or Ziggy Stardust ‘styles.

Hopefully Abrams’ Romulans have smooth foreheads — and I don’t mind at all if nero is a bald Romulan. Why not? The human species has some members that have hair, while others are bald.

It could be worst…Bana could be wearing a crab on his forehaed again (Google “Eric Bana Worf” for images if you don’t know what I’m talking about)

#16
I agree,
if you make them all similar then they are reduced to being nothing but goons.
The goon thing works if you want to tone down how violent things appear.
-IE-action films where Stallone/Arnold kill off 40 guys. If said goons had individuality, they would no longer be goons, they would be people.
The downside is, by “gooning” up the bad guys up they seem less real, and therefore much less of a threat, dramatically.

I like Eric Bana.

was it confirmed he is a romulan by the way or is it still a strong rumour !?

Tough year for Eric Bana… He stars in a film with BOTH Scarlett Johanson and Natale Portman and gets to play a villian in Star Trek.I wish my life were that cruel!

Give me a Rom with no Rem and hold the cheese!

Personally, I don’t care if they give Romulans ridges, or wings, or whatever. Aliens always looked stupid in the cheesy TOS series. Klingons were merely humans with a bad application of tan-in-a-can. At least they tried to make Vulcans look alien. Romulans were just Vulcans with different silly clothes.

I realize an inferior knowledge of biological science, coupled with no budget, pretty much dictated human aliens. TV was also pretty unsophisticated then, and TOS was a product of its time.

That’s one of the things about wonderful shows like TNG and DS9 that I didn’t like – most “guest” aliens simply had a different nose, ear or forehead application. It got very tiresome. At least they went farther with some of the regular races.

18. [The] TOS Purist aka The Purolator – March 2, 2008

We got it..you dislike the other series. Do you get paid a nickle for every time you say “cheesy”?

I like Bana… he’ll do well. brow or no brow

17 didnt get the whole reman thing in x i was waitin for a romulan film but the remans let me down

Some want a Romulan ridge
Others consider it sacrilege
As long as the part
Is good from the start
The actor can look like a fridge!

but is he a romulan ?

TNG Romulan foreheads always annoyed the hell out of me. Even though they were only in like three episodes, the Romulans were my favorite villains in TOS. They were so mysterious and badass. Then in TNG (Especially Nemesis) the Roms were bastardized. That pissed me off.

I did like the Enterprise Romulans though, even though they had those damn ridges. I guess it goes back to that mysterious factor.

The Romulan’s better be like the BOT Roms in the new film!

#8 You gotta admit that the Vulcans look a lot like a conformist society akin to Communist China with everyone shunning individuality

China has not been overly collectivist since the excesses of the Cultural Revolution, while people in not-so-Communist Japan have a distinct group mentality.

I suggest to take a trip or two down there to learn about the differences between these two cultures.

LOL number 18= moron/fool Calling the spin offs cheesy when TOS was the ultimate cheese.

Sorry not to add to the Battle of the Ridges.

I just wanted to say that last night my wife and I watched a little Australian movie that was on the free on-demand Comcast channel called “The Castle.” Eric Bana has a small role in it, with a couple of funny scenes. Very off-beat, funny film, not unlike Napoleon Dynamite. Except for liberal use of the F-word, it would be fun for the whole family.

Okay, I give in…TOS Vulcans and Romulans looked best. Sorry, defenders of wigs and ridges.

Scott B. out.

33. Lukas – March 2, 2008

“LOL number 18= moron/fool Calling the spin offs cheesy when TOS was the ultimate cheese.”

While I do not agree TOS Purist, I don’t think you are right in calling them or anyone here a moron or a fool. I think you owe an apology

Just a smidge of a ridge should do it!

32. Didn’t mean to sound ignorant, I was thinking specifically about China under Mao which is how they were known during the filming of TOS. I’ll try to be more specific in the future. ;)

“Natalie all alone in NYC (2/28)”

Boy, I would really love to remedy that….

: )

ridges or not – who cares
And lots of whinin’ about their hairs
If the story is great
I don’t care about the pate
14 months and we’ll see how it fares

With all due respect to Harry

Krik

nice job on the limerick…….fun to compose, aren’t they?

Remember that one of the episodes that influenced the writers so much was Balance of Terror. Though Nero is suppose to be bad, he may be sympathetic bad. Also, I haven’t heard the canonites say anything about the fact that any interaction with the Romulans before Balance of Terror was in the “earlier” war (cant remember the name)….Skyles

34. If you really want to see Bana in a great character roll where he’s the main star, check out Australian film “Chopper”. This was my first exposure to him, pre-Hollywood, and he really wowwed me. He very effectively created a fully 3-dimensional, fascinating character with a really broad range of emotions. Good stuff.

33. Yeah, knock that name-calling off, please. We’re all entitled to our own opinions. And without that ‘ultimate cheese’ show (TOS) we wouldn’t be here enjoying this conversation in the first place.

42. The pre-Balance of Terror involvement of Romulans with humans has been addressed before in ENT. The trick there was to just go right along with what was established in that TOS episode and have no direct face-to-face meeting of the two races. Since the current rumor is that the film involves 24th century Romulans traveling back in time it can be assumed that either this action creates a time paradox (and I think some recent spoilers may have confirmed this) or Nero and company pass themselves off as Vulcans, never revealing to 23rd century humans that there is any distinction between the two races.

#43 “And without that ‘ultimate cheese’ show (TOS) we wouldn’t be here”

So, any fan who loves TOS would be prone to exclaim, “Cheese Whiz!”??

Maybe I missed this in another post, but my problem with the TNG-era Romulans goes back to the first appearance of Romulans in “Balance of Terror.” A vital plot point was that the Romulans looked JUST LIKE Vulcans. Otherwise, Styles/Stiles would never have questioned Spock’s loyalty or suggested that he might be a spy.

Once the TNG folks added ridges to the Romulans, this no longer made sense. Why the heck would an offshoot of the Vulcans suddenly develop ridges? Why would anyone think Spock looked Romulan since he didn’t have a ridge?

This isn’t a “TOS purist” issue. I’m fine with the bumpy-headed movie/TNG Klingons (though I hate the characterizations post-TVH). But since the look of the Romulans played a vital part in one of the most widely respected episodes of TOS–the one that ESTABLISHED the Romulans–I think the ridge-Roms are/were/will be a terrible mistake.

Harry
It’s my 2nd one in 4 months. I’m not as prolific as you, but I will work on it.

And a quickie limerick (see, Harry? I’m still tryin’!)

When the question of ridges arises,
Or how big the new Enterprise is,
Well, I’m tired of waiting
And all this debating
I just hope the film will surprise us.

(These things are addictive: you can’t compose just one!)

I really don’t get where Purist gets off saying such ridiculous things. The TNG movies were pretty mediocre, but TNG as a show was wonderful and had so many truly great stories. DS9 was really a great show at times too…although I really disliked how they began making the characters more like modern day humans towards the end. Voyager could have been great, if the writers had cared enough to make it great. It seemed like the writers could care less about Voyager as they contradicted previous episodes worse than any Trek I think.

Anyway, take a pill and relax TOS Purist. I started off on TOS when I was 4 and never saw an episode of TNG until I was 17. They’re both great shows…but I honestly feel that when TNG was firing on all cylinders, it really pushed the envelope further than TOS did.

Paul…good one! Yeah, they’re like potato chips!