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TOS Remastered Producer Dave Rossi on Recasting Kirk for Star Trek XI

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By GustavoLeao / 13:38, 30 April 2007 / Star Trek: Nemesis

Here are excerpts from TOS Remastered producer Dave Rossi column from the latest issue of Star Trek Magazine, in which he gave some thoughts on some the hassles that producer/director J.J. Abrams will no doubt have when it comes to recasting the role of Captain Kirk in the upcoming Star Trek XI movie.

"Star Trek fans want to like Star Trek." wrote Rossi "If the stories are good, if the characters are compelling, if there's balanced doses of action, humour, and drama, people will watch. Not surprising then that Paramount chose to go with Star Trek The Original Series and moreover Mr. Abrams. It's not quite that simple though. While there are a lot of factors to consider in an undertaking like this, one of the biggest is casting."


"The Shat Factor ranks pretty high. You're recasting a role that has become synonymous with William Shatner. His mannerisms, his inflections, tone; all these things make up what we know as Captain Kirk. I think it's deadly to cast someone with the instructions to ‘play Shatner playing Kirk'. Can't be done. No sir. That begs the question: Can the millions of ST: TOS fans wrap their heads around, not just a new Kirk, but a new everybody? I'll admit that if I like this movie, I'll feel a little dirty for doing so knowing that someone else is playing Kirk. But I want to like this movie."

"Having worked on this Remastered project, I know that the die-hard fans will ultimately pick this new movie apart regardless. It 's the nature of the beast. And while the nit-pickers do what they do best, I hope the rest of us will look at this with fresh eyes and a nod towards what Roddenberry was going for: not that Shatner was Kirk and Nimoy was Spock, but a story about heroes thrust into extraordinary adventures, armed only with their humanity (okay, and phasers too) as a guide."


More from Rossi can be found at Sci Fi Pulse.

To read the full article, get the new issue of Star Trek Magazine at your local newsstand.



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RE: What if the new STAR TREK...is great! | Report this post to moderator
By: dwd201969 (Odo's file, contact) @ 09:59:51 on May 02, 2007

I think that Star Trek fans are going to come out no matter what. If for no other reason curiosity. At that point, Paramont will have the fans money and in the short term (franchise wise) will have one.

Star Trek fans do have the capacity to organize though, so perhaps they will pull together and boycott. They do have that potential.

I'm personally of the opinion that the classic characters are a great way to go and that the original actors are past the point of portraying them. I like the idea of a huge Star Trek shake up. That was the promise of Enterpise and while I did enjoy much of the show, it didn't really deliver on that promise.

As for what actors I'd like to see? I'd honestly like to see relative unknowns in the roles. Maybe have a major name for a crucial supporting role. I'd be fine leaving Shatner out, but would actually like to see.....brace yourself, Nimoy as Sarek.

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RE: What if the new STAR TREK...is great! | Report this post to moderator
By: Glassman Cometh (Odo's file, contact) @ 11:12:19 on May 02, 2007

Here is a simple fact....more people who ARE not fans are going to see this movie than those who are...this movie is not being aimed at the TREK core..heck no, if it were this movie's budget would be about one third of what it is..

This movie is aimed at the rest of the world. An attempt to bring in new fans. These people know who KIRK and SPOCK are, but unlike US fans, they realize that Nimoy and Kirk are too old....and its time to move on..

The last couple Star Trek movies tanked not because of recasting..they tanked because they were bad movies. Anyone who denies that INSURRECTION and NEMESIS were bad are just part of the problem. These movies were just simply BAD.

Had the last TREK movie been a hit then we would have had another TNG movie by now. They had two or three movies left in them...but NEMEISIS was so bad, it gutted them all.

As for recasting? TREK has done this before, or hadn't you noticed. DATA was SPOCK. Riker was KIRK. In fact, they took the character traits of KIRK and SPOCK and split them into two or three different characters each. TNG was a formulated attempt to clone TOS, or more correctly, The Next Phase, and just put some spins on the idea.

So....STAR TREK has recasted before...its just that no one noticed I guess

Chaotic

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RE: What if the new STAR TREK...is great! | Report this post to moderator
By: falcon (Odo's file, contact) @ 10:00:29 on May 02, 2007

Hallie Berry as Uhura - um, maybe, but I bet there are other aspiring African-American actresses out there who need a career jumpstart, and Star Trek could provide it.

Now Christian Bale as Kirk, maybe that might work. However, Bale has the Batman franchise to keep him employed, so I don't think he'd agree to do Trek.

How about this for a choice - Jensen Ackles. (Who?) He's one of the leads in the CW series "Supernatural", he was on "Smallville" for a season as the high school football coach who had a short-lived romance with Lana (and a mother-from-hell played by Jane Seymour), and he played Eric Brady on "Days Of Our Lives." He's got a Kirk-like look about him, and he's about the right age to play a young Kirk (he turns 30 later this year).

Plus, I know his dad, and I met Jensen once. Seems like a down-to-earth kid, and one who wouldn't allow being Kirk to give him the big head.

Hey, somebody start a rumor! :-)

--------

A generation which ignores history has no past and no future. -- Robert Heinlein

PCLinuxOS

falcon

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