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Matt Damon as Kirk in Star Trek XI?
GiggidyGiggidy writes "Our friends at IMDB.com are reporting that Matt Damon has been cast to play a young James T. Kirk in the new Star Trek Movie directed by J.J. Abrams. Is this the end of the Star Trek series we fans know and love, or the beginning of something bigger and better for the series?"
Other casting???
honestly, isn't it time for a real good laugh at this tired old series?
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Kevin Smith as Spock
Jason Mewes as Scotty
Ben Affleck as Bones
Ophrah Winfree as Uhura
John Cho is Sulu
Yakov Smirnoff as Chekov
Imagine the dialoge.
Obi-Wan Kenobi looks pained.
Luke: What's wrong?
Obi-Wan: I felt a great disturbance in The Force, as if millions of voices cried out in terror. I fear something terrible has happened.
GetOuttaMySpace - The Anti-Social Network
Getting closer to Star Trek XII: So Very Tired!
--
"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
Matt Damon.
You can't handle the truth.
I just read a few weeks ago about Damon being discussed as Kirk for JMS's now-gone Star Trek project. I thought it sounded like a good idea, and (for better or worse) the Shat himself approved of the choice.
Now they need to sign Gary Sinise as McCoy. Hopefully, they can keep Affleck out. He has the superficial look and the emotionless demeanor necessary for Spock, but brings nothing else.
Where were you when the voynix came?
I thought what a terrible idea, but he has acted well in both action movies (bourne idenity) and drama movies (the talented mr. Ripley). As young Kirk I think he would do really well.
All they had him say was "My crew, my ship." and he got the part.
I really don't care that it was Matt Damon. He's proven that he can at least do some acting but here's the thing. Enterprise failed because it was too Hollywood. Was it season 3 when they were in the void? What a horrible season because you could tell marketing had a big checklist for all the various "demographics" it was meant to appeal to. The last season finally figure out that a good storyline and real character development is what drives a show. They had already been canceled though and didn't even know it. What a tease! Back to the main point... if matt damon was chosen because he's a famous celebrity this movie is already doomed.
----
Go canucks, habs, and sens!
Matt Damon can look young, yes, but he's 35 -- as old as Shatner was when he started playing Kirk originally! If Damon is supposed to be younger Kirk in his Academy days... I dunno, it just doesn't work for me.
"Times have not become more violent. They have just become more televised."
-Marilyn Manson
Matt Damon: Matt Damon, Matt Damon
So I've got mixed feelings:
::sigh::
Beam me down:
IMHO, Matt Damon has become so typecast that he plays the same character in every movie. I don't think he's changed his style in any role from Mr. Ripley, Mr. Bourne, Mr. Loki, Mr. Hunting, and Private Ryan. Matt Damon fans can argue till they're blue in the face, but I just cannot see him joining the ranks of George Takei, Leonard Nimoy, and Patrick Stewart. What next, playing the role of Lance Armstrong?
Beam me up:
So Matt Damon will always be Matt Damon. So what? William Shatner will always be William Shatner and its worked for him! Now the question remains: will Matt Damon be able to follow the framework of Mr. Shatner's drawn-out, studdering, overacting character? Lets go to the footage!
William Shatner [Star Trek]: You.... killed my... son... you... Klingon... bastard
Matt Damon [Team America]: Maaaaatt Daaaamon
Maybe Damon will make an excellent Kirk. Besides, this being an odd-numbered Star Trek movie, it has every right to be a steaming heap of Ferengi dung and still keep the movies going strong. So maybe I should just watch the previews, eat my popcorn, take a nap, and wait for the sequel.
--
"A man is asked if he is wise or not. He replies that he is otherwise" ~Mao Zedong
Capitalism: When it uses the carrot, it's called democracy. When it uses the stick, it's called fascism.
Damon would seem to me to be fine as Kirk. But casting Spock is the hard part. Not many people have been able to play Vulcans that aren't boring as hell.
Will: Do you LIKE... apples?
Clark: Yeah.
Will: Well, I GOT... her number how... DO you like... THEM... apples?
I mean seriosly, this was not the direction that the next movie even needed to go, what part of abysmall failure did they not pick up from the enterprise series, unlike star wars, Star Trek doesn't make money when going backwardcs, what ever happened to the idea of oh I don't know a ship that not only made sence, but something with emotion, how about a story about an akira class starship with an unkown crew in the dominon war? how about a series about the aftermath of the enterprise/romulan encoutner, something to shed some light on the worst cliff hanger ever, something to pick up what has so clearly been left off. Star trek doesn't need to go backwards, they need to do what they have always been good at, movies for action, and series for science and ethics they keep to that motto and they will get somewhere, they also need to stop playing with the timeline that is established as cannon, and just add on to it rather than confuse it
;)
just my thoughts
Did someone say cake?
IMDB is rarely ever accurate until after a movie is released. They'll put anything up! Some Spider-Man 3 fan even submitted his own synopsis and had it posted to prove this. Aunt May was listed as Carnage for a while too..
I mean could Matt Damon possibly live up to William Shatner's dominant acting talent?
Then maybe he can mind meld with Matt and get some acting skills......
-- Fugacity: Confusing chemists since 1908
on this subject. Look here.
Windows has detected an undetectable error.
"With just little bit more plastic surgery Shatner can play that role himself..."
Easily explained. He's played by Shatner, but he's really James T Kirk at age 19. He looks awfully old because that "Deadly Years" virus has had another outbreak. The bloated appearance is because he took part in a fraternity stunt and swallowed a live tribble (which has since bred many new generations his belly, throat, and cheeks). That awful complexion? From an unfortunate amorous encounter with a cute Horta co-ed. The pauses...in...his...speech? He's really a native Rigelian speaker, his his universal translator is on the fritz.
Where were you when the voynix came?
Except for the final couple of seasons. Then it sucked.
... but in space. With the foam head of the month "alien".
And TOS was damn good when it was released. It doesn't look that as cutting edge now, because the edge has moved on.
The problem is that the Star Trek franchise has not kept up with the edge. Now they're afraid of the edge. They don't want to make a show that small core will love for years and years and years. They want a show that almost everyone will sort of like and probably watch every week. They want "Friends"
They want "episodes", not stories.
They want light, cute actors, not developed characters.
I've already got my personally accepted spinoff continuation of the original "Star Trek," and it's written, produced, and acted by real fans with talent. Those guys produce winning, pro-grade Star Trek while Paramount has displayed a complete lack of knowing what the hell to do with it.
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If you're looking for a nice solid wood Spock, there is only The One choice: Keanu.
Affleck has nothing on Little Buddha.
No roles have been confirmed for Star Trek XI, nor is there any credible information definitely pointing to any actor or actress in any part in the movie. There have been a number of rumors and some well-sourced speculation, however. - Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek_XI#Cast
o -imdb-entry-for-trek.html
There's also this. http://stxi.blogspot.com/2006/07/taking-red-pen-t
1 4/\/\ 1337
Matt....... Daaaaamon
- Which one's yours? - It's the tricorder that says "Bad Mutha Fucka" on it!
The only producer that would ever do that is dead.
Nice to see another Babylon 5 fan in here, but for those that don't know, "Baywatch meets Wrestling in Space" is how jms described what TNT wanted Crusade to be. He would not allow it to be so, which directly lead to TNT aborting it before it even began its run. See the original CIS post for reference.
(And to appease the topic furies, I find it very difficult to see Matt Damon as Kirk, but then again, The Bourne Identity wasn't half bad, so I'm willing to give him a chance, as long as Berman The Barbarian isn't involved in any way.)
Kirk (drawing his phaser): Phasers on Stun!
Spock: Not necessary Captian. . . I know Kung Fu.
The days of the digital watch are numbered.
As I understand it, TOS used different SciFi writers all the time, for different episodes, and usually created a three-act play. They got the best SciFi writers for their day.
Why not use Joss Whedon as chief writer and use the gang of two to fill in "Star Trek" details and to organize it into three-acts?
My goodness, Firely/Serenity were so good!
Don't skimp on space, ethics, and phaser fire, though....
Obi-Wan: I felt a great disturbance in The Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened.
Seven of Nine: That was merely a spurious fluctuation in the tachyon matrix containment field. I have compensated.
-- thinkyhead software and media
"I'm tired of these M#$#@$@#$#@ tribbles on this M#$%$#%$% starship!"
Where were you when the voynix came?
Andromeda was originally intended to be about the last Federation starship after the collapse of the Federation. Roddenberry's ideas were turned around a bit because the current keepers of Star Trek didn't want to "destroy" the universe and damage their cash cow.
:)
If you watch the show, especially the episodes when they were still using one of the writers from Bab 5, you can even see how some of the "Andromeda" aliens mapped to the Star Trek species they were based on.
In short, Roddenberry WANTED to trash the Federation and run the universe from a point of collapse and chaos. What happened was that his notes got used to start a new show, the "Federation" got renamed the "Confederacy" and it was treated to a decent special effects budget and not much else.
If you watch it as a post Federation show, and mentally map some of the alien species to their Trek counterparts, the show actually becomes watchable.
After all, Shatner taught all of us to look beyond the acting.
"Live Free or Die." Don't like it? Then keep out of the USA
I have to agree on the "plot device" bit.
Particularly with how Dax was killed by evil ghosts while on a quest to save the Orb of Prophecy so The Emissary could perform the Rite of X and seal the Portal of Y.
They ran out of real story so they tried to stitch in a DnD plot line and they ended up with the standard fantasy cardboard characters.
The problem with Star Trek is that the action is the means for the characters to "win". Yeah, that sounds really basic and stupid, but think about it for a moment.
Some naive, young cadet leave Star Fleet Acadamy for his/her first space ship assignment. That character SHOULD have a completely different outlook and personality than the captain of that ship.
Now, after 30 years of space battles, friends being eaten by alien energy beings, etc..., that cadet, now in charge of his own ship, might have an outlook and personality very close to the original captain's
In most of the Star Trek episodes, the characters already know the "right" thing to do. The action just implements that and reinforces that their decisions are "right" and that the opposition is "evil" or "mis-guided" or whatever.
Meanwhile, in real life, people have to make tough choices and the consequences of those choices change our outlook and affect the choices we make after that.
No, Dammit! I want Ben Affleck. He is every bit as bad an actor as William Shatner. Let's see who do I want for Spock? Hmmm. Here is the cast I want.
Kirk - Ben Affleck
Spock - Tom Cruise
McCoy - Matthew McConaughey
Scotty - Hugh Jackman
Uhura - Halle Berry
Yeoman Rand - Tricia Helfer
Nurse Chapel - Pamela Anderson
Checkov - Wil Wheaton
Sulu - Daniel Dae Kim
"You'll get nothing, and you'll like it!"
Shouldn't they just make a new series, instead of having new actors playing the same old characters?! Seems like a new starship as the main focus would be good right about now.
he's already got the eyebrow raise
brings new excitement to the vulcan nerve pinch move
"do you smell what the spock is cooking!"
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
It's always about the LIQUID. But lets wait and see. I mean, good can be financially good too... right???
All they need to do is call it "Star Trek XI: Kobayashi Maru" and you know we'll go and watch it.
Star Trek is about the future of humanity...a future where humans have grown out of their primitive instincts, have overcomed materialism and greed, religion and general stupidity.
Star Trek is about exploration of space...exploring new interstellar mysteries, new star configurations, new planets, new formations.
Star Trek is about science...its advantages and disadvantages, and what limits there exists in science, and if machines can be made to reach human status.
Star Trek is about society...how relations between humans evolve, what new structures can society have, how science affects the structure of society.
Star Trek is about ecology...do we destroy a planet because there are the bad guys (and take a whole new ecosystem down) or we find other ways to solve the problem?
Star Trek has lost all the above after DS9! It all became an mindless adventure in space in Voyager/Enterprise...and thus the audience lost interest.
A Star Trek show does not need to be dumbfounded or appeal to the lowest common denominator in order to be successful. A Star Trek show needs to be intelligent and thought-provoking.
The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine series where exactly that. Through clever story telling, the following subjects were negotiated:
-god and religion (in the episode where Picard was thought to be a god).
-language and the process of thinking (Darmok; one of the best episodes of TNG)
-if machines have rights (the episode where Lt Cmdr Data was on trial)
-if machines can interact with people (when Data was in a relationship)
-terrorism (many episodes, including TNG where the terrorists could appear out of thin air)
-political systems (many episodes, especially in DS9, from imperialistic Cardassia to semi-socialist Bajor)
-economic systems (the double episode in DS9 where Sisko goes back in time and gets sheltered in a homeless area)
-spying (the role of Darak in DS9)
-new races (many of episodes)
-new interstellar phenomena (for example a Dyson sphere)
-relationships (father-son in Picard-Crusher, Sisko and son, O'Brien and wife etc)
-war and its consequences (too many episodes to list)
-archeology (when Picard chased ancient artifacts)
All the above topics, and many more, were presented, some times naively, but most of the time in a very clever way, within a clever story. And Then Star Trek was successful.
What did we get with Enteprise, for example? and endless stream of save-the-world adventures, with none of the essence presented in TNG and DS9. And a silly story about an alien race hellbent to destroy Earth (the Xindi), no matter what...at least the Borg wanted to assimilate us, and that was interesting.
So, here is a message to Star Trek producers: if all you want is a cash cow, don't bother and let it die. If you want to share a message (along with profit, I don't deny that), then bring in interesting people to write the show and let them deploy their ideas.
And don't be politically correct, for Christ's shake! remember that the first interracial on screen kiss was between Kirk and Uhura!
That's right! The producer of such wonders as the CIA recruitment video, "Alias" Where the guy playing the psychopathic creep father of the main character just 'happens' to look like Bush when made up and lighted just so, (and always at those emotionally intense points where the insertion of subliminal ideas works best!) Ah, Alias! The CIA boasted merrily of the sudden huge spike in the number of resumes received from young people wanting to look pretty and act like psychopaths for the American government after Abrams' dippy spy show started airing.
And "Lost", Abrams' other wonder-show where, like "Alias" the story idea is kinda neat and fun to watch, (like eating high MSG corn chips), but where the writers' collective grasp of and insight into the human condition is weak and shallow at best and where the emotional hooks are so incredibly obvious and formulaic, I could found myself actively complaining to the television set.
So, Homeland Security sellout and purveyor of shallow Walmart characters. . , do we want this man contributing to Star Trek?
I know my answer.
-FL