Movie News

Simon Pegg, John Cho Join the Cast of J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek

Posted by Neil Miller (neil@filmschoolrejects.com) on October 12, 2007

Continuing to heat up this week is the casting news around Lost creator J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek. So far this week it has been tossed around that Eric Bana will play the villain Nero and Chris Pine (Just My Luck, Smokin’ Aces) is in negotiations to play the young James T. Kirk. On the heels of those two revelations is some news that is even more epic and in some ways, a little frightening.

I was tipped off to both of these stories by my good friend Peter over at /Film. The first of which is that Variety is reporting that Simon Pegg will fill the role of Scotty on the USS Enterprise. But while Peter is excited about this particular move, I am a little nervous. Don’t get my wrong, I absolutely love Simon Pegg. In fact, he would be on my very short list of actors who can seemingly do no wrong. The only problem is that I would never in a million years have envisioned him as Scotty.

The Hot Fuzz star has the talent to pull off the role, but I am worried that it will be difficult for audiences to be sold on him as Scotty, as his previous high profile roles may overshadow his performance as he takes over a character immortalized by Canadian James Doohan. I guess in the end, we shall see, but I am interested to see what you have to say about this?

I feel the same way about the second bit of news, which is coming from TrekMovie.com. They are reporting that Harold and Kumar star John Cho is going to play the role of young Sulu, who was originally played by George Takei. Cho has been neither really great nor really bad in anything as of yet, but he has been quite memorable (think the “MILF” guy in American Pie). The problem is that he has never really taken on a role quite like this. I mean let’s face it, playing a stoner who wants some little square burgers is one thing, filling the shoes of the great George Takei is another thing entirely.

Both of these bits of casting news fall right in line with all of the other Star Trek casting. With the exception of Zoe Saldana as Uhura and Zachary Quinto as young Spock, everyone else could be filed under the “WTF?” category. These two in particular seem to be completely out of left field. In fact, I have had to re-read the Variety article about Pegg about 7 times just to make sure that they weren’t confused or something.

My great concern is that J.J. Abrams is bringing in too much high profile talent, too many recognizable faces. When you go to reboot a series like this, especially one with such a rabid following, the key is to find relative unknown actors who can bring authenticity to the role (i.e. NOT Tom Cruise as Christopher Pike or Russell Crowe as a villain). Is this casting a sign that Abrams has already lampooned his movie in advance of production? Not at all. Does it make me nervous? Yes, indeed. To quote a famous Enterpise crewmember, it all seems “illogical”.

Also, not to pile on, but MovieHole is reporting the budget for Trek is in the $150 to $160 million range. At least we will get some wicked warp speed CG effects, that’s for sure.

Star Trek will begin shooting in November and release on December 25, 2008.