Casting report

[scarfman]

There's an unconfirmed report that J.J. is approaching Matt Damon, Adrien Brody and Gary Sinise for Kirk, Spock and McCoy in his Star Trek movie.

I mention this less to scoop my friendslist than to forestall all of you from emailing me, "Have you heard ...?"

Comments

[dirkdada.livejournal.com]

Gary Sinise as McCoy is pure genius.

I'm all for doing something new with Trek, but at the same time, its going to be hard suspending disbelief with different actors in those parts.

[truthmaker]

Why? It has already been done to death in Hollywood: Batman Begins, Superman Returns, The Dukes of Hazard. All new casts in existing roles, seems like that's all Hollywood knows how to make these days.

Now I'm not saying this is a good thing, but until those fat cats that finance movies get an original idea in the barren wastelands they call heads, or movie goers out right refuse to spend money on this drivel, we're going to be stuck with these remakes.

[scarfman]

Remakes are how cultural icons live. When King Arthur shows up on our movie or tv screens every decade, it's not in new adaptations of History of the Kings of Britain. They aren't all popular, or successful, or critically acclaimed; they're merely inevitable. And some of them are sucessful, and popular, and critically acclaimed.

[dirkdada.livejournal.com]

Batman & Superman have an existence that predates (and continues to exist long after) the numerous actors that have worn their costumes. It's a given that different people will (and do) play them. The face behind the mask isn't nearly important as the persona of the hero.

The Dukes of Hazzard is actually a little closer to what I was talking about. In fact, Tom Wopat and John Schneider were replaced in the show, and the show tanked. And then again in a movie, which also tanked. But honestly, the show was bad from the start, and never became a cultural phenom like Star Trek.

With Star Trek, Kirk is William Shatner in the popular conciousness. The same for Spock and Leonard Nimoy, McCoy and DeForest Kelley. You can't think of the character without picturing the actor. 40 years of pop culture, movies, artwork, book covers, lunchboxes, etc, etc, have trained us to see nothing else.

I'm not saying it's an impossible hurdle to jump, or that it shouldn't be attempted (I am, after all, looking forward to the reimagining). I'm just saying that it's going to be amazingly difficult.

Oh, and Batman Begins? Best Batman movie out there. And I say that as a die hard Tim Burton fan.

[drake57.livejournal.com]

Heard about Damon as Kirk but not the others.
I like this casting.

[purpleranger.livejournal.com]

I just saw the same report on SciFiWire. I can just see one of McCoy's lines now: "Damn it, Jim, I'm a doctor, not a CSI!"

[xwingace]

Gary Sinise as McCoy, that I can see work (and would be brilliant). Not so sure about the other two.

[purpleranger.livejournal.com]

And according to a follow-up article today on SciFiWire, someone associated with the production said that no decisions have been made. That same article stated that Paramount is aiming for a Christmas 2008 release.

[scarfman]

Oh, well, of course no decisions have been made. My link was only an unconfirmed report that there are approachings to talks.

[prettydragoon.livejournal.com]

Fascinating.

Is it too early in the day to start thinking up Matt Damon/Adrien Brody slash?

[redneckgaijin.livejournal.com]

I could do without seeing Matt Damon in anything ever again, but I have to agree that Gary Sinese's casting is genius.