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Abrams Deliberately Going International with ST:XI Cast?

Jackson_Roykirk

Jackson_Roykirk

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Rear Admiral
First they hired Aussie Eric Bana as the villain, then popular British Comedic Actor Simon Pegg as Scotty. Now word is that New Zealander Karl Urban may play McCoy. This seems to me to be a deliberate attempt at garnering international interest in this film -- which would be a very smart Idea.

Most American films make 1/3 of their box office total in the U.S., and 2/3 of the money from the overseas box office. Traditionally, Star Trek films have been the reverse of that -- they make about 2/3 of their total ticket sales in the U.S. and 1/3 internationally.

By hiring a popular British actor (Pegg), they will get more attention from the U.K. and Europe. By hiring Karl Urban and Eric Bana, they will automatically get more people into the theaters in Australia. Abrams said he was trying to cultivate a whole new Star Trek fanbase. The overseas market is a very large market to tap into if you want new fans...this is a market that the last three Trek Movies ignored somewhat.

I heard that if a film has European Locations and some European co-stars, it will do better in Europe than otherwise (e.g. 'The Bourne Ultimatum'). The producers of 'Bourne' deliberately used Europe as a backdrop knowing it would help attract the European audience. I doubt there will be any European locations in ST:XI ;) (except for Iceland doubling as an alien planet or two), but the international cast should help greatly with the overseas box office.
 
^
^^Perhaps...But many film makers find good solid actors right in the U.S.

No -- I think Paramount looked at the historically poor overseas box office results from FC, Insurrection and Nemesis compared to most American films and decided that something had to be done to pump up those numbers.

If Abrams wants to cultivate new ST fans for future films, then the U.K., Continental Europe and Australia are great places to do so.
 
I can't see how moviegoers judge a film by the actors' nationality - I doubt it's something many people bother to check out to see if a movie is going to be any good. It's irrelevant, unlike acting ability or suitability for the role.

And many film makers do indeed find solid actors in the US (and remember Abrams is finding his actors, not Paramount). Chris Nolan however found numerous British ones for Batman Begins, I doubt he was cultivating intercontinental interest in his movie. He just looked for good actors.
 
Maybe he'll cast a German Kirk? :lol:

Seriously, isn't Germany one of the top markets for U.S. films in general, and Star Trek in particular?
 
Deliberately? Maybe.

But this is new... how?

Somebody forget the Canadians: William Shatner, James Doohan, and Rene Auberjonois?

The British: Patrick Stewart, Marina Sirtis, Alexander Siddig and Dominic Keating?

And, of course, The Irish: Colm Meaney? (The real reason DS9 is the best ever...)

Now, leaving aside the TV shows, we're still talking William Shatner and Patrick Stewart being the stars of every single Star Trek film ever made. And we have them squaring off against... Malcolm McDowell! Stewart later takes a dash at Tom Hardy. These guys aren't Americans, I'm pretty sure of that.

So Abrams is boldly going where Berman and Bennett have gone before. And he's breaking new ground: Chris Pine may be the first American actor to headline a Star Trek film. ;)
 
Is it possible that Abrams is high-mindedly assembling an international cast to further convey TOS's message of "one earth" and radical inclusivity?

Nah, you're right, it's probably just about the box office.
 
Nah. Plenty of movies have actors from all over the place. If they were so worried about box office, why not get someone from Japan to play Sulu? Someone from Africa to play Uhura? An actual Russian, not an immigrant American, to play Chekov?

I sincerely doubt the average movie goer checks to see where an actor is from before they go see a movie. I doubt most of them even know, or if they did, they would stomp their feet and stay home because their country isn't represented (and most countries aren't well represented by popular Hollywood actors, including some extremely large ones like India and China). We're just interested in the resumes of the actors because we have a vested interest in whether they look right and can act.

Seriously, isn't Germany one of the top markets for U.S. films in general, and Star Trek in particular?
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I wouldn't be surprised. That just goes to show how much catering to this or that market has to do with casting: nothing. There are bigger markets than that, too, in Asia. They're looking for decent actors as their first, last and only priority - at least I sincerely hope so!
 
While Trek has always had a large number of cast memebrs who are from outside the US. Most were not names taht were recognized as talent. While none of these names are "stars", all probably ahve larger anme recognition in outside North American markets then all but Patrick Stewart.

As to overseas performance versus domestric, Kahn only 18.7% of its box office overseas, Search for Spock 12.2%, Voyage Home 17.5 %, Final Frontier 25.6%, Undiscovered Country 22.7%. The only TOS film to even get 1/3 of its box office overseas was The Motion PIcture which did 40.8% of its gross overseas.

Now TNG on the other hand all of its films did over a third of its sales overseas. Generations 36.9%, First Contact 38.7%, Insurrection 40.5%, Nemesis 35.7%.

Still cnosidered very poor performers overseas.

Hopefully an expanded cast of at least small named stars will help gain at least alittle more (especially with such a large budget).
 
Temis the Vorta said:
Nah. Plenty of movies have actors from all over the place. If they were so worried about box office, why not get someone from Japan to play Sulu? Someone from Africa to play Uhura? An actual Russian, not an immigrant American, to play Chekov?
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You know, that would be nice. But Star Trek has always been very much about catering to American perceptions of diversity--and this movie is obviously no different.
 
I suppose there is some diversity to the cast. But not really much more than the last few movies. As someone pointed out, you've had British actors like Malcolm McDowell, Tom Hardy & David Warner play significant roles in Trek movies before.

Of the non-US actors in this movie, none are really major box office draws. Bana is probably the nearest, but he's hardly Tom Cruise or Will Smith. Pegg is a bit of a box-office draw in the UK, but I suspect that the people who would come to see him as Scotty would be going to the movie anyway. That is to say, the sort of people who get the in-jokes in Spaced or Shaun of the Dead. I doubt that the sort of casual moviegoer who made his latest movie, Run Fat Boy Run, the no. 1 UK movie in its opening week would go to a Trek movie just because he has a supporting role. And Karl Urban has been in hits like LOTR or Bourne Supremacy, but he didn't exactly draw the crowds into Doom or Pathfinder.

Abrams seems to go for international casts anyway - MI:3 had Pegg, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers (Irish) and Maggie Q (Hong Kong). Lost has Americans, Brits (Naveen Andrews) and Aussies (Alan Dale and others) and Mira Furlan (Yugolav). I think he's probably just gone for the best cast he can get for this movie, rather than looking at how it will affect the international box office.
 
Maggie Q is an American born and raised in Hawaii.

I think everyone's reading too much into it.

I think what happened is that Production put out character breakdowns. Then talent agents submitted their clients regardless of nationality but with regard to fitting the description of the breakdown.

Then Casting did auditions and submitted their favorites to the producers. The producers then did callback auditions with the actors, then probably 2nd and 3rd callbacks and cast the actors based on their peformance and chemistry with other actors.
 
If you look at the characters and their backgrounds, you'd almost have to deliberately not go international.
 
^
^^Yeah, but the original casting of those same characters with the same backgrounds was 5 Americans and two Canadians. That wasn't very international.


Captaindemotion said:
...Abrams seems to go for international casts anyway - MI:3 had Pegg, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers (Irish) and Maggie Q (Hong Kong). Lost has Americans, Brits (Naveen Andrews) and Aussies (Alan Dale and others) and Mira Furlan (Yugolav). I think he's probably just gone for the best cast he can get for this movie, rather than looking at how it will affect the international box office...
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That's right. And MI:3 made twice as much money overseas than it did in the U.S. ($134 Million in the U.S., $263 Million Foreign) which fits the 1/3 domestic, 2/3 foreign formula.

Actually it is a fact that international casts DO bring in more international movie-goers. That wasn't my question. My question was "is it a deliberate attempt" by Abrams to make Star Trek an international movie franchise, since Nemesis failed to attract international fans.... And with all due respects to Patrick Stewart and Thomas Hardy, those two actors were not the "hot properties" in the U.K. that Pegg, Bana, and Urban are in their respective homelands (plus Urban is well-known in Australia, too). And the rest of the mostly American (except for Sirtis) 'Nemesis' cast was unappealing to overseas movie-goers.

Don't you think that Brits are more likely to see the film because Simon Pegg is Scotty rather than Paul McGillion -- who is for all intents and purposes Canadian? Simon Pegg is pretty Hot in the U.K. right now. He has many fans who are not (yet) Star Trek fans. Aren't Aussies and Kiwi's more likely to want to see Eric Bana and Karl Urban rather than Gary Sinese or another American?
 
Baldus885 said:
...(and remember Abrams is finding his actors, not Paramount)...
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Paramount is not completely hands off...Stratton Leopold, who is a Paramount Executive (Vice President of Production) is one of the producers of this film, and he has not been shy about adding his two cents. He in fact has already chimed in on the Shatner Debate.

Much of the money Abrams is playing with DOES belong to Paramount. I'm guessing they didn't just give him the money without expecting to have any studio involvement.
 
Don't you think that Brits are more likely to see the film because Simon Pegg is Scotty rather than Paul McGillion
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No. You see, Brits aren't as nationalistic as Americans. We really don't care.

Earlier in the thread someone suggested that Abrams was simply looking for the best actors for the job. That seems to fit current Hollywood thinking - where British actors are pretty hot right now. Of course, I'm talking about British actors pretending to be American - because producers think US audiences aren't ready to accept "foreign" accents in lead roles (with TNG, curiously, being the exception that proves that rule).
 
Its also more accepted these days to hire actors of the "proper" race/ethnic/national group the part calls for. If they are actually from the another country, then all the better. The days of John Wayne playing a Mongol, and Elizabeth Taylor playing an Egyptian are mostly over. Only the better known actors these days are accepted as other races/nationalities.

RAMA
 
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