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Chris Pine Confirmed as Captain Kirk

by Alex Billington
October 16, 2007
Source: Smokin' Joe Carnahan's Blog

Chris Pine is Captain Kirk Nearly a week ago news broke that young actor Chris Pine was in discussions to play Captain Kirk in J.J. Abrams' Star Trek. The issue was that he had to choose between either the role of Kirk or a role in Joe Carnahan's White Jazz because they both overlapped filming schedules. Well, Carnahan confirms on his official blog that Pine ended up choosing Star Trek over White Jazz - a choice everyone knew he would make. Who would pass up playing Captain Kirk?!

That's it - Chris Pine is now confirmed as the legendary Captain Kirk that William Shatner made infamous. Star Trek will shoot from November through March and hit theaters on Christmas Day in 2008. That now solidifies the complete cast: Chris Pine as Captain Kirk, Zach Quinto as Spock, Simon Pegg as Scotty, Anton Yelchin as Chekov, John Cho as Sulu, and Zoe Saldana as Uhura. Even Carnahan gave him full support in making the choice.

You don't get opportunities like that often and I told him as long as he could control as much of that process as possible and not get sucked into doing lesser sequels as a result of taking this gig, then good luck and God bless.

Now the question is if Pine will deliver. I recently had the opportunity to see Pine in Just My Luck recently and although it/he was better than I was expecting, it wasn't a career defining role. However, the fact that he played a neo-Nazi in Smokin' Aces is a definite confirmation that he can really play diversified characters. And more than anything I'm confident in J.J. Abrams' choices. So with that, I can definitely expect Pine to deliver solidly as Kirk. What do you think?

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pradeep

"That now solidifies the complete cast"????Who's going to be playing Bones? and Christopher Pike? As for Pine we'll just have to wait and see, remember we never taught tobey maguire at first would do spiderman justice but he did a solid job except for spiderman 3 of course....
Mark

I think JJ and Paramount know exactly what they are doing - and how important this movie is if Star Trek is going to survive. Pine is a fine choice, as are the other choices in casting they've made.
http://www.williammize.com William Mize

As a novelist and beginning screenwriter, I am, of course, biased, but it will all come down to the script. Period. A great script can rescue a pedestrian director. A crappy script can sink the director, the actors, the producers and the bankers and maybe even the studio.
PaxPsy

Indeed! While I have significant respect for the "original" ensemble (including Walter Koenig even though his character was added on later), the characters of Kirk, Spock AND McCoy were the soul, mind, and heart (or the Ego, SuperEgo, and Id if you'd rather) respectively of the show. Certainly the casting of Spock and then Kirk are highly significant. But who is cast as Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy is AS critical if not moreso. Bones' emotions were the foil or balance to the logic of Spock. He was the champion of humanity with all of its flaws. I am not surprised that he is the last to be cast as I believe that of all of the characters, his will require the best skill and maturity in acting. And, until then, the cast is not complete!
Gumpy406

BBC UK website says Karl Urban has been cast as Bones!!!!!!!! See below link http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7050348.stm
http://www.chrisfawkes.net Chris Fawkes

It was always the interaction between Kirk Spock and McCoy that gave the original show such a strong dynamic. By the time next generation got to the big screen there was non of that. In fact in the only decent tng film they had to use an outsider, Lilly, to provide contention with picard because everyone else simply agrees with the captain. How boring. I expect something good from Abrams and hopefully this will not only reinvent the show but give it a new lease of life for years to come. If harry potter can get better with each film lets hope this new cast and future scriptwriters can do the same here with the truly great characters of Star Trek. Hmm J. K. Rowling to write the next one? get her of the dole.
http://www.surfchrome.com chris pine

I think Chris Pine will do an excellent job. I've seen Blind Dating and Smokin' Aces and with his acting skills he could easily pull off this gig. I think purists will be surprised and newbs to the Star Trek scene will be converted to trekkies.