The last few days have been a flurry activity for some of the Star Trek celebrities, starting off with Simon Pegg tapped to star in the next John Landis movie. We also check in on the latest projects and appearances for Leonard Nimoy, Levar Burton, and Anton Yelchin. So dive into the celeb pool.
Pegg is up for Murder
Horror site DreadCentral.com spoke to John Landis about his latest project, a film based on the 19th century Scottish ‘Burke and Hare murders‘, and the director revealed that Star Trek’s new Scotty, Simon Pegg is on board as star of the project. It isn’t known what role he will play, but we do know that he has some practice with the Scottish accents, but that wont help if he is playing one of the two murderers (Burke or Hare) who were Irish, but he can surely pull that off as well.
As for now, Pegg is still in production on his sci-fi comedy Paul, here is his latest What is Paul videoblog from last Thursday.
Burton (and Dorn) in new Superman/Batman DVD
Star Trek The Next Generation’s LeVar Burton will be appearing in the direct to DVD animated movie "Superman/Batman Public Enemies," doing the voice of Black Lightning. In addition TNG’s Michael Dorn will be voicing Black Manta.
Black Lighting in ‘Superman/Batman Public Enemies"
Buton talked to Newsarama about the role and about his feeling on comic books in general, when asked about what makes comic books great literature, Burton looked back to Trek:
I’m one of those people that believes that there was some kid back in the 1960s watching Star Trek, and he kept seeing Captain Kirk pull out this communicator and flip it open – and that kid grew up and became an engineer, a designer of products, and we now have a device that is more common than the toaster. How many flip phones do you see on a daily basis? That which we imagine is what we tend to manifest in third dimension – that’s what human beings do, we are manifesting machines. The metaphor of a man who has an external electronic device, something man-made that serves him and somehow serves humanity, and that he becomes so aligned with that device, with the power of that device, that at one point he can discard it – I think that’s a real metaphor for the human journey. One day we won’t need a transporter device to get from one place to another. And it begins with the wheel and then migrates through airplanes to some future technology that we can’t produce yet but we
can imagine. Imagination is really the key part of the human journey, it’s the key to the process of manifesting what our heart’s desire is.When I was a kid, it was comic books that pointed me in that direction and from comic books I went to science fiction literature, which is still one of my most favorite genres of literature to read. Don’t underestimate the power of comics and what they represent for us and how they inform us on the journey of being human – because it’s powerful. It’s very powerful. They give us permission to contemplate what’s possible. And in this world, in this universe, there’s nothing that is not possible. If you can dream it, you can do it.
Here is a ‘First Look’ at the film, including some behind the scenes interviews. LeVar can be seen at the 6:00 mark.
"Superman/Batman Public Enemies" will be released on DVD and Blu-ray on September 29th and can be pre-ordered from Amazon.
Burton also has a new interview at Moviehole, where he talks about Next Generation, the state of Sci-Fi today and more.
One final bit of Burton news, here is some video from the Downtown Film Festival where Burton showed off his film Reach for Me. The vid has Burton speaking about the film he directed, and you can also spot Marina Sirits and Michael Dorn who showed up for the event.
Yelchin’s third movie for 2009
20 year old Anton Yelchin is having a hell of a year, with two big movies under his belt so far, Star Trek and Terminator Salvation. In a new interview with the UAE’s The National the actor talked about his year and playing in both tentpoles:
In the best sort of spectacle action movies, character comes first and that’s why you buy the action. I got lucky with these two because there was a lot of character work to be done. Terminator was challenging and interesting and definitely there was a lot of work to do, which is great because we don’t often expect to go into these movies and have challenging work to do. But I was lucky with Star Trek as well because it was the same thing. There was this whole other character to work with – different… totally different, different physicality, more joyous and light, but the same idea. They were both challenging.
Currently the actor is preparing to star in William H. Macy’s directorial debut Keep Coming Back, telling the national that he is looking forward to going "back to smaller films" Speaking of which, the new Chekov will next be seen in the anthology film, "New York, I Love You". He appears in the part directed by Brett Ratner and can be seen briefly a couple times in the trailer below.
Nimoy happy to see new fans
This weekend Leonard Nimoy will be appearing at the Toronto Fan Expo in Toronto, Canada. In a new interview promoting the event, the actor talked the affect of the new Star Trek film.
We have, this year, a big shift in the nature of the fans. Two things: larger numbers of people are attending (conventions), and second, there are a lot of people attending who have never been involved in Star Trek – new fans.
Celeb Quickies:
here are some quick links for more Star Trek celebrity news.
- Perennial Star Trek guest star Jeffrey Combs is appearing in "Nevermore", a one-man show about Edgar Allan Poe at the Los Angeles Steve Allen Theater until September 26th. He is getting rave reviews. The LA Times has more.
- William Shatner (or his lawyers) got punked when they sent a cease and desist letter to a game developer based on joke article about a mod that would Shatnerize the game "Shatter". More at GameSetWatch.
- Star Trek Voyager’s Robert Beltran will be appearing in the play Solitude at the Los Angeles Theater Center in September. More at Theatermania.
- Zoe Saldana appeared in San Juan, Puerto Rico for Avatar Day last Friday. You can watch video clips of her appearance on Pausley74’s YouTube channel, here is the first part below.
Yay Geordi!
Shatnerize? Why would anyone want to do that?
That’s awesome.
Lavar’s got a good voice for a hero, very cool but also very empathetic, and Black Lightning is a real icon. And Dorny should kill it as Black Manta, giving a real gravelly, tough voice to Aquaman’s biggest antagonist.
Any time Trek crosses over with DC (my other nerdy lifestyle) is fine by me.
Fan Expo- I’m there- with wife- both brandishing cameras, hard at work.
Always a great- and massive- con.
Toronto- as they say- rocks.
#2 – Why would anyone want to Shatnerize, you ask? Because Shatner is akin to a demigod, that’s why!
Take any Chuck Norris joke, change “Chuck Norris” to “William Shatner,” and suddenly what was once a joke becomes a true story.
Nevermore is brilliant. Everyone in the area should catch it while they can!
#5 “Take any Chuck Norris joke, change “Chuck Norris” to “William Shatner,” and suddenly what was once a joke becomes a true story.”
An _understated_ true story. In the (true) Shatner version, a lot more ass gets kicked and a lot more girls swoon in delight. Plus, the best price is negotiated, every time.
LeVar had a small part in one of the Batman Animated series episodes. And this isn’t Michael Dorn’s first stint in the DCU either. Allison Mack as Power Girl? Interesting.
What’s the big deal? People have been talking about Burton’s Batman for 20 years.
Oh. LEVAR Burton!
I wonder with the new fans that Nimoy has learned of, how many of these new fans have parents that a Trekkie’s (guess I better ad Trekkers since that title is old enough for there to now be kids among them). If this would be true then it just goes to show how The Great Bird of the Galaxy has really imbeded his concept in society and Star Trek is going to carry on for more than a century, maybe for ever or as long as Earthers survive.
10:
All I can tell you is that my daughter liked the new movie a lot more than I did. I could go on to detail all the things I didn’t like about it, but what would that accomplish? It’s sad really, since I was looking forward to it and wanted to like it. Instead I ended up walking out of the theater shaking my head and quite annoyed.
I faithfully watched the original series every night for almost twenty years in syndication, faithfully purchased all the videocassettes, the RCA Selectavision disks, the laserdiscs, the original double episode DVDs and now the first season on Blu-Ray and the movies, but I have no intention of buying Star Trek 2009. But, then again, my daughter may want it–the only Star Trek she remotely cares about–which would no doubt still make Abrams and Paramount very happy. Personally, I really don’t care what they do next. I still have my Star Trek and always will.
Black Lightning, Black Manta, Black Panther, Black Samson, the Black Ranger…..that’s all I can think of off the top of my head….
Man, they gotta come up with a new black-superhero naming convention. This one’s kind of stale, isn’t it?
@ 6:26 on the behind the scenes of the Superman batman cartoon, that dude TOTALLY looks like Billy Mays reincarnated. RIP Billy Mays :(
To the Weary Prof.
There was points that to me seamed done from a odd angle of presentation, but you have to remember some thing labeled progressive evolution. It’s like Radio people getting use to Video shows -vs- Radio shows, or even 60’s TV Batman -vs- 90’s movie Batman with a frozen Arnold as a the bad guy. And you have to also look at how Batman Returns rebooted the Bat.
I also hope STM#12 is as good a hit as The Dark Knight with it’s energizing energy boost. I even liked the sequel movie more than the first reboot movie.
I hope JJ and crew can create just as good a talented movie in 2011. If so look for Trek movies at least until 2030 and hopefully until 2063 when the miricle of a Space Warping drive may be invented.
If I’m still around then I may look like McCoy did in TNG:Farpoint since then I’ll be 103, but I think Data said McCoy was 126.
It could be at that point in time Health-care may have been saved and had my brain memory matrix moved to a Quantum Computer mo bigger than a Pencil Erase in size, but working better than my bio-mechanical brain ever did.
And that topic was kind of covered in Frakes(TNG:Riker) episode #4 of That’s Impossible.
Another note to the Prof.
Just be glad Star Trek is on DVD because when your daughter becomes a teen and if they are still teaching history of before the students birth year/day, she make be interested in what formed what she loves. I know when I was in 9th grade and my civics/history class taught the views of our nations founding fathers, I got interested in how the history of many things formed. By 11th grade I knew as much as my history teacher did on WW II. And he was a Master Sargent in the Marine Reserves at Ft. Carson in Denver.
When DIA opened and Stapleton Intnational land was sold so was a third of Fort Carson land and the Marines were forced to intagrate with the Air Force and Navy Parts, but the Army and Nat Guard parts were never eatten in property sales for new housing land.
May I guess that the evolution of technology is making every thing smaller even the Armed Forces, but I hope not the soilders, unless they become Superbots.
14, 15:
I agree that the medium has evolved, but I think it may be symptomatic of the larger trends in society and not just the natural evolution of a medium dependent upon increases in supporting technology. There’s been an undeniable shortening of attention span among under 30 year-olds in the last twenty-five years. There’s also been a sizable decrease in the pool of communal knowledge. Many of my college students, for example, don’t even know when World War II was. There’s a recent book by a gentleman from the National Endowment for the Arts titled The Dumbest Generation that succinctly summarizes this data. It’s the scariest book I’ve read in a long time. Of course there are undoubtedly exceptions (like many Trek fans, I suspect).
Allison Mack as Power Girl?
Am I the only who thinks that Allison Mack on Smallville looks like Power Girl? I’ve always thought that she looked like a young Power Girl. Would be cool if the show somehow turned her character into her.
Great quote from LeVar Burton!
All the reason to believe The Shat has lost it. Having Legal Eagles at the ready to jump on any infringement that may cut into his potential profits. The man has no sense of humor. But the fact that he got punked…HYSTERICAL!
Seriously, what’s his beef? He’s got have more money than he and his family can blow in several lifetimes. Sheesh!
@12:
If you were trying to be funny, you failed miserably.
@18:
LeVar Burton is a class act. Geordi LaForge was always one of my favourite TNG characters, I love his appreciation of comics and science fiction.
I am so looking forward to the Hobbit films. I have been a LOTR and Hobbit fan since I was ten years old. I am hoping that James McAvoy is cast as Bilbo Baggins.
I didn’t know Burke and Hare was a true story until I read an article about it on the Empire Magazine website. I thought it was an urban legend. The subject matter is pretty gruesome. I like most of John Landis’s films especially his horror ones. I love Simon Pegg and I think he will be great. He is very talented and I like seeing him cast in varied roles.
@ 20 – I’m personally hoping Ian Holm is casts as Bilbo, as he ‘hasn’t changed a day’ between those days and FOTR. If he’s available: I’m always sketchy on these things. The last thing I want is McAvoy or some other younger actor (esp….god forbid…Daniel Radcliffe).