Simon Pegg Geeks Out For J.J Abrams Star Trek

Written by Ian Cullen on April 30, 2008 – 7:05 pm -

Simon PeggSource SciFiPulse

One actor who hasn’t been shy in coming forward when it comes to talking about the new Star Trek movie is UK comedy actor Simon Pegg who will take on the role of Chief Engineer Scotty in the new movie.

Pegg has been doing the rounds of late with interviews, the last of which was an interview he did with the official Star Trek Magazine, excerpts of which were featured at Trekmovie.com earlier this week and actors tongue is showing no signs of fatigue because in a new interview for Starburst Magazine the actor talked a little more about his role in the new movie and how he hopes that it will not disappoint fans below are just a few excerpts.

Pegg described the experience of stepping onto the Star Trek sets as amazing, and said that he was totally geeking out as a long term fan of Star Trek.

“It was great, it was wonderful. I just wanted to keep everything. ‘Can I please take my this home, and my that home?’ ‘No you can’t.’ I think I took one picture of myself in my trailer, in the mirror and then felt guilty and erased it in case they checked my cell phone.”

Of course the one thing, which has differed with this new Star Trek movie, is the level of secrecy, and Pegg revealed that most everyone is under a promise to remain tight lipped.

“JJ Wants it to be a surprise, and people out there are so clever, if you get enough titbits out of everybody you’ll be able to start piecing something of the plot together,” he explains. “If Anton gives something away, then Zach or Chris gives something away, then suddenly you start to see patterns, and so the blanket idea is to say nothing.”

Pegg revealed that he is signed up for a three-movie deal for Star Trek, but was initially reluctant to do so for fear of it preventing him from doing other movie projects. However JJ put his worries to rest by saying the best that could happen would be they all get to hang out once every three year doing a Trek movie, which of course would give Pegg plenty of breathing room with which to do other projects.

The role of Scotty originated by James Doohan was one of the few roles in the new movie, which had a number of actors names attached to it. Initially it was rumoured that Scottish Actor James McAvoy who is best known for his roles in the movies ‘Last King Of Scotland’ and ‘Atonement’ however soon after the actor refuted the rumour.

Actor Paul McGillion late of Stargate Atlantis revealed a matter of weeks before Simon Pegg was cast in the role that he’s had an audition for the role. So Pegg, which to many was a surprise choice for the role, staved off some pretty serious competition.

Of course the one thing, which weighs heavy on Pegg’s mind is not to be disrespectful of the original portrayal of the role by James Doohan. In fact Pegg seems to be making it somewhat of his personal mission to try and do the late actor proud.

“I’m just trying to do James Doohan proud. My biggest thing was not to go in there and do an impression of James Doohan. He went in there and just came up with the character.” Pegg continues, “I decided to start from scratch and play a Scottish physics genius and engineer. And I king of did that as a tribute to James Doohan, because he owns that role, and also I wouldn’t want anyone parodying him. That’s the biggest mistake. And no one is going that on set, it’s all about the characters and being true to them.”

You can read more of this interview with Simon Pegg in the new issue of Starburst Magazine, which is out now in all-good news agencies.


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Paramount Announce First Blu Ray Titles, No Trek As Of Yet

Written by Ian Cullen on April 30, 2008 – 6:58 pm -

Source Trekmovie.com

It’s almost two months after Sony’s Blu Ray format won the battle for High Definition superiority against the rival Toshiba HD format and paramount have only just gotten around to announcing their planned movie releases for Blu Ray.

Sadly though there are no Star Trek titles amongst the movies that Paramount has amongst their planned releases for Blu Ray.

The first five Blu Ray releases will include: There Will Be Blood, and Cloverfield. Then, starting on June 24th Paramount will issue its first Blu-ray title on the same day as the DVD, “The Spiderwick Chronicles” with ‘more to follow.’

Paramount Home Entertainments President Kelley Avery revealed the following to The Hollywood Reporter.

“We will have a strong slate of titles for Blu-ray release throughout the year, worldwide, and are enthusiastic about expanding the format’s offerings for a broad consumer audience while delivering an experience that goes beyond what viewers love about DVD.”

Thus far as mentioned above no release dates or plans have been revealed for the Blu Ray release of any Star Trek content.

The only announced Star Trek titles for 2009 from Paramount are the pending release of the Re-mastered season 3 DVD set which will be in the same combi HD and STD DVD Format as the season one set which retailed at around about $99. It has been reported however that CBS has plans to Re-Master all 10 existing Star Trek movie to HD for a potential future Blu Ray release.

Of course we can assume that 2009 will see a Blu Ray release of J.J. Abrams new Star Trek movie, but that one is not likely to come along to the winter of 2009 long after the movies summer release date.


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Nichelle Nichols and Zoe Saldana Open Hailing Frequencies

Written by Ian Cullen on April 30, 2008 – 6:52 pm -

Zoe SaldanaTrekmovie.com has found some new interviews with Star Trek’s new Uhura, Zoe Saldana, and the original Uhura Nichelle Nichols.

Nichols talked about her surprise visit to the set of the new movie and her meeting with Saldana while the younger actress waxed enthusiastically about how humbled she felt when she met Nichols and may even have revealed a subtle spoiler in doing so.

Nichols revealed in an audio interview for jonja.net (conducted at the recent Starfest in Devnver) that she was happy to be recast and is very supportive of the new movie and its production.

“I thought it was fantastic, because it was a prequel. It is not like they are replacing Uhura from the point in time where we left of with the films, which would be their right to do…This was a prequel, the months before, the time before, and ends with our going off on that five year mission where no man or woman has gone before. And I thought that it is marvelous. I got a call from JJ and he invited me to lunch and ask me how I felt. He did me the honor and I thought that was unbelievable. I went on the set and they were shooting, and I was being very quiet and then all of a sudden everything stops. I mean the actors just stopped in place. The saw me walk in and they were in their lines, and went like “and sir we have the….” And that was such an honor bestowed upon me. I went “Oh, I’m sorry” and everyone laughed.”

Indeed back in February when Nichelle Nichols spoke to scifipulse.net’s Ian Cullen she was totally enthused about the respect which J.J. Abrams had shown her and the original cast, and even then was very positive about Abrams and his decision to cast Saldana in the role which she originated.

You can listen to all of Nichelle Nichols interview here at jonja.net.

Saldana who is taking on the role of Uhura in the new J.J Abrams movie spoke about how great it was to meet Nichelle Nichols and also hinted at a possible spoiler.


“Yes, I did meet her, and I was so humbled to have met such an icon. She’s an amazing woman and a strong human being. That was very interesting, as was working with Leonard Nimoy [the original Mr. Spock]. I felt like the entire cast and myself were honored to be filling in the shoes of the original [Starship] Enterprise [cast]. We really hope we don’t disappoint.”

Saldana is the latest actor to reveal that she got to work with Nimoy, which seems to imply that there is a lot of interaction between the younger enterprise crewmembers and the older Spock.
For more of the interview with Zoe, goto NewsBlaze.com.


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