ST09 Cast

Last week TrekMovie.com reported that Paramount was ‘close’ to signing their new Chris Pike, and now they have. According to the Hollywood Reporter the role of Captain Christopher Pike in J.J. Abrams new Star Trek has gone to Bruce Greenwood. Although he is not necessarily a ‘big name,’ the 51 year-old Canadian actor is well known with 90 TV and film credits to his name. He most recently starred in the HBO series John from Cincinnati. Pike was originally played by the late Jeffrey Hunter in the un-aired first Original Series pilot “The Cage.” After Hunter declined to return for the second pilot, William Shatner came on board as Captain Kirk. “The Cage” was later reworked into the 2-part episode “The Menagerie” as a series of flashbacks. Although the character of Pike only appeared that episode, as the captain of the Enterprise before Kirk he will have an important role in the new prequel.

Rachel Nichols has seemingly confirmed the rumor that will be in the Star Trek movie. In an interview with the Toronto Sun the 27 year old actress said “I’m very restricted on what I’m allowed to say, but yes, there’s a good chance you’ll see my shining face in the new Star Trek.” Nichols said she did not even know the name of her character and even her mom didn’t know about it until she saw the rumor reports online. As noted in the first report on Nichols, she has worked with Star Trek director J.J. Abrams before on his show Alias. The connection is not lost on Nichols who said “J.J.’s one of the most generous people I’ve ever met … He’s very, very loyal.”

Lately the focus has been reporting on principal casting for the new Star Trek film, but what about the extras? TrekMovie.com has learned that Headquarters Casting, the agency handling extras for the new Star Trek feature, are currently looking to fill the backgrounds under the code name “Corporate Headquarters.” The agency will be holding an open casting call this weekend. They are now trying to find people with the right look to play Vulcans, Cadets as well as those with ‘unique facial features.’ More details below.

James Doohan’s son Chris Doohan’s name first came up in relation to the new Star Trek film last February when he started a somewhat tongue-in-cheek campaign to land the role of Scotty. He has since gracefully endorsed the selection of Simon Pegg to fill his father’s shoes as the Enterprise’s engineer. That might have been the end of the story, but recently rumors arose that Doohan actually got an audition. TrekMovie.com contacted Chris and he confirmed that he recently read for an unnamed ‘minor speaking role.’ Doohan wouldn’t go into details, but stated:

The new Mr Spock, Zachary Quinto, appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live Friday night Transcript of his Trek answers below

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.

JJ Abrams has his new crew for his vision of Star Trek. According to StarTrek.com and The Hollywood Reporter Karl Urban has signed a deal to play Dr. Leonard McCoy. TrekMovie.com first reported that the 35 year-old Kiwi actor was up for an unnamed part two weeks ago, and last week we reported Urban was ‘in talks’ for McCoy but they were working out details related to his busy schedule. Urban was the last recast member of the Original Series crew to sign on, although there are still other roles (such as Pike) to be cast. For a complete current cast list, check out our Star Trek (2008) CAST page. For more on Urban see the original story and follow-up story.

Well the Chris Pine as Kirk story has evolved over the last week from ‘may be’ to ‘apparently’ to ‘almost’ to now ‘done.’ As of this morning the deal wasn’t done, but TrekMovie.com just got sent an update saying the deal ‘is closed’ and Chris Pine is James T. Kirk for J.J. Abrams new Star Trek movie. Once Pine pulled out of the Joe Carnahan / George Clooney White Jazz film it was just a matter of dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s. Bear in mind that whenever any one of these actors signs on they are also signing on to sequel options, so the deals are certain to be complex. Pine should begin rehearsing with Zachary Quinto and his other co-stars this week.

Last week news broke that Chris Pine was weighing his options between the role as James T. Kirk in the new Star Trek and a role in Joe Carnahan’s White Jazz movie. Today on his official blog, Carnahan confirmed that Pine had chosen to go with Trek: The young man playing Junior Stemmons has opted to ‘go where no man has gone before’ and thus, had to bow out of WHITE JAZZ.

It looks like the JJ Abrams is looking to the south for his country doctor…and by south I mean south of the equator. Two weeks ago TrekMovie.com reported that New Zealand actor Karl Urban was being considered for an unnamed role in the new Star Trek film, but not (as reported elsewhere) the villain. Since then we have learned that Eric Bana will be playing the villain ‘Nero.’ And today TrekMovie.com has confirmed with a source that Urban is now in talks for the role of Dr. Leonard ‘Bones’ McCoy, the role originally played by DeForest Kelley. According to the source the deal is not certain and Urban’s schedule seems to be an issue with a film currently shooting and another in pre-production. 

The search for a Scot is over… and it’s an Englishman! Variety is reporting that British actor, writer and comedian Simon Pegg has won the role of Montgomery ‘Scotty’ Scott in J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek. The 37-year-old beat out a number of others who were up for role of Trek’s most famous engineer, including Stargate’s Paul McGillion.  Pegg, who is best known for starring in the hit British comedies Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, had previously worked with Abrams and many members of his ‘Trek’ team on last year’s Mission: Impossible: III, in which Pegg played IMF technician Benji Dunn (essentially the ‘Scotty’ of M:I:III).

TrekMovie.com has another exclusive scoop for JJ Abrams’ new crew. According to sources Korean born actor John Cho has been tipped to be the new Hikaru Sulu for the new Star Trek. Cho is probably best known as a comedy actor for his roles in Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle and American Pie. At 35, Cho is older than the character calls for (and older than George Takei was when he originated the role), but Cho tends to ‘play younger’ as they say in Hollywood. Cho was not available for comment, but at an event last year he told TrekMovie.com he would jump at the chance to play Trek’s original helmsman saying "are you kidding? to drive the Enterprise, that would be so cool!"

It has been about a year since Zachary Quinto first started talking about Spock in the new Star Trek film and now it is really sinking in. In a new TV Guide interview the actor admits that he campaigned for the role by telling everyone he knew or would listen "I want to be Spock." But it appears some prosthetic pointy ears finally made the part real, saying: I just had my first fitting for my Vulcan ears. It felt incredible, and in that moment there was a huge shift for me. Suddenly it was real, and I was like "OK! Let’s get this thing going!

This is the big one folks — 27 year-old actor Chris Pine is in talks to play James T. Kirk in the new Star Trek movie. TrekMovie.com was tipped off on the Pine talks earlier, but before it could be confirmed the story showed up at the Hollywood Reporter (which is pretty good confirmation). Pine is a relative unknown, but right now a bit of a hot commodity in Hollywood. In fact the actor is mulling over two roles (playing Kirk and a part in a new Joe Carnahan / George Clooney film) with negotiations focusing on the overlapping shooting schedules. Pine may have to choose one over the other and if he picks Clooney over Kirk, Paramount and Abrams are reported to have a number of backup options (this seems to back up our earlier report that Mike Vogel was not the leading candidate for Kirk, but was being looked at).

The villain in the new Star Trek film will be played by an Australian, but not (as rumored) Russell Crowe. Trek’s new bad guy will be played by Eric Bana, star of the 2005 Steven Spielberg film Munich . According to Variety the 39 year-old Aussie has signed on to play a character called ‘Nero,’ but no other details have been provided. In a strange coincidence Bana co-starred with Tom Hardy (Shinzon – Star Trek Nemesis) in the 2001 Ridley Scott film Black Hawk Down – making two Trek movie villains in a row from that movie.

Beyond the Spocks (Quinto and Nimoy), the only confirmed cast members for the new Star Trek film are Zoe Saldana as Uhura and Anton Yelchin as Chekov. In the latest official Star Trek magazine director J.J. Abrams spoke for the first time (briefly) on his latest stars. Abrams on Saldana Zoe’s strength, intelligence, humor and beauty will help bring Uhura to life in a way that will thrill viewers and honor the estimable talents of Nichelle Nichols

The TrekMovie.com scoop about Stargate Atlantis actor Paul McGillion auditioning for the role of Scotty in the new Star Trek film has swept around the interweb for the last week and also appeared in print as well. A representative for McGillion tells TrekMovie.com that we ‘started a landslide’ in requests for info about Paul. Fan reaction has also been overwhelmingly positive with McGillion taking in 67% of the votes in our 7 way Scotty poll (see poll archive). In a new interview with our friends at Gateworld (the best Stargate site), McGillion talks more about the possibility of being the next Enterprise engineer. It was obviously thrilling to be able to go in and read for that character, seeing as I grow up watching Star Trek with my family