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Simon Pegg to Play Scotty
In response to yesterday's casting news about Chris Pine possibly taking the captain's chair for the new Star Trek movie, apparently Simon Pegg will be playing the role of Scotty. Simon Pegg is known for his role as Shaun in Shaun of the Dead and more recently for his leading role in Hot Fuzz. "Pegg joins Zoe Saldana as Uhura, Anton Yelchin as Chekov, John Cho as Sulu and Zachary Quinto as Spock in the film which reportedly, and logically, 'chronicles the early days of the Enterprise crew.' Leonard Nimoy will also put in an appearance, while Eric Bana signed up this week as the movie's villain, Nero."
www.imdb.com is your friend.
The Shat is really going to hit the fan now!
SCOTTY DIES ON PAGE 43!
Spock kisses him ever so softly and he comes back to life - as a zombie - then Nick Frost is tasked with killing him while muttering "Can I bring any of you cunt's a drink?"
The following replies are posted by unwashed nerds.
Well....He will have less Gravitas -at least less than Doohan had in later years -and less gravity too......
I'm just hoping that he will actually speak with a Welsh accent (cf. Futurama)
After Shaun I wouldn't have been so sure about this, but Simon did a great job of character acting in Hot Fuzz and hopefully he can bring a little of the twinkle-in-the-eye humour that Doohan evinced in the TV series.
-I'm just sayin'
As a Scotsman, I'm somewhat miffed that an Englishman is playing the role... This is almost as bad as Mel Gibson (an Ozzie) playing William Wallace for goodness sake!
"I bless every day that I continue to live, for every day is pure profit."
Say what you will about William Shatner, but I just can't ever imagine anyone else playing Kirk. His cheesy, over-the-top style will be impossible to duplicate.
If you don't want crime to pay, let the government run it.
This is a travesty.
I hate to say it but this isn't 1977. Your typical Trek fan has been gorged to satiety on Star Trek TV and movies. And considering the last efforts, the execrable "Nemesis" and TV's "Enterprise", nausea might be a better word for it than satiety. The cast is irrelevant at this point. Trek must be allowed to die instead of continuing in this horrible parody of life.
And a Korean Sulu - John Cho was born in Seoul.
Oooooooh you have a wife and 2 daughters! Is that supposed to imply that you have a life and can't be bothered to keep up with pop culture?
I see you do have time to post about your ignorance on Slashdot, though.
Most of his major roles have been in British movies and series, such as Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and Spaced that hasn't really been major successes outside Britain - that's probably why you haven't heard of him.
The problem with making a Star Trek Babies movie is that there is absolutely NO THREAT to any of the characters.
So what if baby Kirk is shot in the head causing him to fall into an erupting volcano at the moment the planet's sun goes nova?
It was all a dream sequence. Or it was a clone. Or a robot. Or the evil baby Kirk from the mirror dimension.
And the more characters you take from TOS, the less the threat is.
It's going to be like there's a HUGE TARGET painted on the one person on the bridge that isn't in TOS. And here is chief security office Ima Goingtodie.
...for alien zombies.
// file: mice.h
#include "frickin_lasers.h"
Dr Who has been pretty much a sucess.
I've never seen an episode of Star Trek, or any of the movies. I loved Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz though. Maybe I'll check this one out when it's on Netflix.
If you build it, nerds will come. Soylentnews.org
When I heard of the movie project, I could do nothing but groan. "No more, Nemesis and Enterprise ruined it" was my thought. The franchise had been going down ever since the Dominion war in DS9. But, as time went on, and more details came out, I paused, and thought on it a bit. Rather than rehashing an existing concept, or trying to "expand" with jelly-sex-rubdown scenes, the producer is actually trying to reinvigorate things, but not by some highbrow concept that blew up in our faces with Enterprise and Voyager, but with a return to what makes the show stick with us after all of these years. It wasn't the TNG intellectualism, or the DS9 anti-heroism, or Voyagers attempt at survivalism, or Enterprises horrible attempt at merging all 3. It was the original series, sticking to the basic storytelling engine based on classic westerns, using Freudian psychology paired with Jung archetypes, all with the "Bandwagon to the Stars." By ripping away the layers of overdone polish and returning to the core essence of the show, then maybe, just maybe there stands a chance. Every casting choice made shows a deep understanding of this core concept. The actor choices being ideal canidates for the archetype or the psychological core element of the role being played. This gives me hope for the series I have not held for a very long time.
Karma Whoring for Fun and Profit.
So the villain is called Nero, eh?
I suppose violins will be well represented on the soundtrack.
Is the science fiction genre so fscking bankrupt for ideas that it needs to rehash ToS? ToS was a good enough series in its time, but who is this abomination of a movie designed to appeal to? What demographic wants to see this? Who wants to see Kirk played by anyone but Shatner? The man has all but ruined the role for anyone else. Why not take these actors and cast them in roles they can make their own instead of hamstringing them with the legacies of Nimoy and Shatner?
It's just like the abysmally stupid "Bionic Woman" nonsense; some bonehead executive decided to trot an old standard (for which some people have nostalgia) of carbonite and to "reimagine" it for a new generation... whatever the hell that means... Or the moronic Underdog movie. Or one of any other cinematic turds splattered across the big screen in the past few years. Damn.
There have been worlds of awesome science fiction written in the past few years that could easily be adopted to the big screen. For example, "The Golden Compass" is being released this winter and looks promising. However, what do we usually get? More of the same unimaginative crap that's driven people away from the major networks and theatres.
I guess instead of the Vulcan mind meld or that nerve pinch that Spock uses, he is just going to use his fingers to take the top half of the skulls of Aliens.
Do we not have a Dr. McCoy yet? Is this Trek movie to be Bonesless? Stay tuned!!
Get a REAL Scot to do it. Ewan McGregor for the win. Sure, it would mean paying him silly money for it, but it would mean Ewan would get to leave his mark on not just one, but the EXACTA of geek icon movie series.
Besides, Scotty always seemed older than everyone except Bones McCoy on TOS.
Although one thing...could Ewan still do the thick-as-porridge Scots brogue he did in "Trainspotting" that required anyone not from north of Hadrian's Wall to put the closed-captioning on when watching the movie? One wonders.
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
There's no such thing as a "Native American". We all came from somewhere else.
Actually, I was born in the US. That's as native as it gets.
When I heard the guy from Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead was going to play Scotty, I immediately thought of Nick Frost.
Nick Frost would have been great.
And I have no mod points. Damn you, /. moderation distribution!
Funniest post I've read in a good while. Extra style points for the '*' -- reminds me of:
Zapp Branigan: People of Earth.... Shhhhhh!
sigfault (core dumped)
So with the pick of comedic actors (from what I've been reading; I don't recognize any names other than ZQ), is this going to be the long-predicted Starfleet Academy movie, with Academy as in 'Star Trek does Police Academy'?
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
I also thought Nick Frost would have been a good Scotty... Of course, Scotty didn't plump up till the movies, so I guess this makes sense.
I'd love to see Nick Frost with a red-shirt cameo. Give him maybe one line and have him get blasted first when they land on the alien planet.
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Slashdot really needs a Star Trek icon. If BeOS and the GIMP can get one, why can't the canonical nerdy TV series?
I'm tagging this one startrekneedsanicon
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
I just want one shot where the alien says one of their crew is going to die, so the whole whole crew turns to the one black guy on the bridge.
Uhhh, Shaun of the Dead wasn't a hit? What the hell you been smoking?
When Eric eats a Banana he becomes....
I like Pegg but I've pretty much given up on all things Trek. From the stories I've heard, there's not a decent script associated with the project. That always astounds me to no end. No decent script?! That's like opening a fine restaurant without any thought given to the menu. That's like getting an orchestra together and giving no consideration to the program. Scripts are movie embryos. Without a good script to work from, the whole project is lost. It is an incredibly rare experience to have a bad script turn into a good movie. The best example I can think of is the original Star Wars where it was a collaborative effort to tell a great story. You typically need a champion to push things through and act like a general. If the general listens to advice you have Original Trilogy Lucas or LOTR Peter Jackson. If the general doesn't listen to anyone, you have nuTrilogy Lucas or Uwe Boll.
There's no compelling script associated with the project, a story so good it stands up and demands to be told. I've heard the same thing about Indy 4, some lackluster shoddy tatter of a script that isn't even fit to use as an arse-wipe and we're supposed to be exited about the movie that results from it? Pass. This is going to be Transformers or Matrix 2 and 3, Van Hellsing, or any other craptacular, heartless, brainless, mirthless Hollywood exercise in pandering commercialism.
Shaun of the Dead was B+, almost A material. The few deficiencies with the plotting and production were fixed with the next project, Hot Fuzz. That was solid A material there. That's quality mindless entertainment, not fillet mignon and a ridiculously expensive wine but a big, juicy burger with all the trimmings and beer to wash it down. The rest of that crap is McDonalds crap, indifferently assembled and plopped on the tray like a freshly pinched loaf.
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
In TOS, Nimoy was almost replaced because he was demanding something like $10,000 per episode in the 2nd season. In the end, he settled for something like $2,500 an episode.
Now, would they have killed off Spock or just replaced the actor?
Killing the characters in a story is one thing.
Losing the actors to contract disputes is something else. And actors can die in real life.
Losing an actor can be storied-over by killing their character in an episode. So there IS an element of uncertainty.
But with Star Trek Babies, there is no risk. Even if the actor is killed in real life, they writers CANNOT kill the character.
Hotdog!
I'm a trek fan though I am not really looking forward to this movie. After the flop of Nemesis things just seem to keep going down hill. After hearing that Paramount auctioned all the Star Trek props, I wonder what they will use in this movie..
Gives new meaning to "mind meld".
In a fit of dyslexia, I thought you wrote Blalock
Spaced was a great show, especially from a geek point of view. Pegg played a comic book artist who played a lot with his Playstation. At some point he worked at a comic book store owned by a guy named Bilbo (played by Bill Bailey, look him up). He had to quit because of how he felt about Phantom Menace...
He was hired to another comic book store, owned by Bilbos archrival. Soon he noticed he missed Bilbo and was subsequently lured back by Bilbo. He quit by saying to the owner "Babylon 5 sucks!".
That's good television!
[Scotty turns to landing party member] You've got red on your shirt!
(...engages cloaking device)
...is who I was hoping to see at Scotty. AKA Dr. Beckett on Atlantis. The characters (Scotty and Beckett) are supposed to be from the same place in Scotland, while the actors (Doohan and Mcgillion) are both from the Vancouver. Paul's already got the accent down, and I think he even looks like a young Doohan. This sentiment was echoed by Doohan's son Chris (who was going to try for the role himself until he saw Paul audition). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_McGillion
The new Battlestar Galactica did well for being off screen for several decades.
The series is overwhelmingly about the people involved, and not the technology. This is the key to all good science fiction, all good stories.
My wife is an excellent barometer of good sci-fi. Anything she even bothers watching is good. Everything she bothers watching has the same key characteristic - it's about people, not technology. The technology just serves as a way of putting people in a situation that you wouldn't find credible in traditional fiction. You use it as a "what-if?" enabler.
Firefly got this right. The technology is just a backdrop. The characters do not innovate their way out of tight corners. The most interesting conflicts are between the principal characters.
Voyager increasingly got this wrong. Many stories were overwhelmingly about pulling a technological rabbit out of a hat, solving problems with technology. We're geeks ; we're already sold on the idea that you can solve problems with technology. It doesn't make for challenging viewing without a personal angle.
e.g.
Voyager is in a mess. Lt. Torres reverses the polarity of the deflector dish and saves the day.
vs
Voyager is in a mess. Lt. Torres chooses to reverse the polarity of the deflector dish, even though she knows that it will destroy a fluffy kitten. She laments the Klingon side of her personality that finds fluffy kittens deeply offensive, because she secretly enjoyed pushing the button. She starts to have dreams about putting kittens in a blender and drinking the result.
When one of these lists-of-unknowns rolls out invariably again, can one of you brilliant posters roll out a web page with jpgs of these folks and get yourself modded informative! Ahhh, please. It's a drag to copy and paste and search repeat.
The ladies were all sleeping with Gene Roddenberry, Leonard Nimoy did a decent job as Spock, but Mr. Scott is the ideal we all dreamed of being -- the guy who makes things work while having impossible demands made on his resources and abilities. James Doohan did a brilliant job with him. From the Trouble with Tribbles - "He called me a tin-plated dictator with delusions of grandeur? So that's when you hit him, Mr. Scott? No Sir. He called the Enterprise a garbage scow and that's when I hit him." to the Andromedans and "What are you drinking, Mr. Scott? It's, um, well it's green!"
...
RIP James Doohan, you inspired me to become an engineer and it was a pleasure to meet you briefly.
I haven't been inside a US theater in a decade, but I'll probably go see this out of loyalty to "classic" Star Trek[1]. I will change my mind if Mr. Scott is tainted.
[1] The best Star Trek movie was the first one. The long scene where Kirk was being brought up to the Enterprise via shuttle was for us real (and older) die hard fans and I *loved* it. Amazing that a "You Must Be New Here" scene actually made it to the big screen
For Simon Pegg fans, there's an entertaining clip of him from Derren Brown's show, where Derren messses with his mind a bit. (A great demonstration of hypnosis, suggestion, NLP, and such techniques.)
It really got me into Derren Brown; very classy and entertaining fellow; I'm surprised he's not known in North America at all (or am I...)
Love many, trust a few, do harm to none.
If I had points today, I'd correct this injustice.
"You know why you do not see me styling wit my homies? Because I have no homies!!" -Mojo Jojo
You can clean out your desk on Monday.
"You know why you do not see me styling wit my homies? Because I have no homies!!" -Mojo Jojo
No one seems to be complaining that they've cast a Korean to play the Japanese Mr. Sulu...?
Now we need a cameo by Ed: "Can I get any of you cunts a Romulan Ale?"
Elon Musk will play the villian. He will try to cremate Scotty and launch him into orbit with a Falcon rocket. On a side note, Richard Branson should be cast as Moonraker in the next James Bond movie.
"Vulcan attributes" And he bleeds green!
He was also the 'Q'-type character in Mission: Impossible III.
Can someone explain to me how Chekov is going to be in this movie?
I was under the impression that Chekov was significantly younger than Kirk and the gang. I know that Koenig is really only a few years younger than Kirk, but if they were at at the Academy together that doesn't say much for Chekov's career in Star Fleet to be an ensign when one of his classmates is already captain the fleet's flagship. Even if Chekov was in his first year and Kirk in his last, I would think Chekov would have at least made lieutenant.
Am I the only one who thinks this is odd?