Remember when ST couldn't pay enough to hire HOT actors?

[RAMA]

Not Eddie Murphy, Robin Williams, Sean Connery, or even the then current crop of hot young actors. Now ST has Urban, Pegg, Bana, Pine!! How times have changed. Now that the ST production team is more from Hollywood's elite instead of drawn inwardly, the hot actors just don't seem to mind working for them. So it proves the ST stigma really only goes as far as what's currently "in" and popular.

Just on a trekker note, imagine the first crew publicity shot.

RAMA

 

[Kokomo]

RAMA said:
Just on a trekker note, imagine the first crew publicity shot.

I am, and it makes me giddy like a little school girl! When they release that first publicity shot of the whole crew, it is finally gonna be real to me - man, I can't wait! This movie is gonna be all kinds of awesome!!! :thumbsup:

 

[Guy Gardener]

I still have no idea who Chris Pine is, but form that list... Sean Connery was "hot" 40 years ago? The rest are plain and plain ugly... Eddie has never been my cup of tea.

 

[mswood]

Well really RAMA this isn't the same at all. All of the principle cast of Trek were cast with a tv budget. This is the first film where literaly all but one (so far) of the cast isn't limited by being an actor cast for a Trek TV series.

And frankly, if we adjusted for inflation (and perhaps without), this cast is probably cheaper then what TOS spent on its principals and what TNG spent on its principals.

 

[RAMA]

Guy Gardener said:
I still have no idea who Chris Pine is, but form that list... Sean Connery was "hot" 40 years ago? The rest are plain and plain ugly... Eddie has never been my cup of tea.

I meant during the movie era, since this is a movie we are talking about. Those 3 actors were actually considered for roles on various star trek movies. Eddie in STIV, Connery in STV, and Williams might have been STNG.

mswood said:
Well really RAMA this isn't the same at all. All of the principle cast of Trek were cast with a tv budget. This is the first film where literaly all but one (so far) of the cast isn't limited by being an actor cast for a Trek TV series.

And frankly, if we adjusted for inflation (and perhaps without), this cast is probably cheaper then what TOS spent on its principals and what TNG spent on its principals.

Well as I said above, I was mainly thinking of the movie era, and ST had a chance to hire these people (as guest stars) but it basically didn't have the backing, production team or cache' to get them.

ST's principals in the movie series, or mainly the top 2-3 are the only ones who made any money, and you're right, Shatner and Nimoy made as much as $5 million for STV. Stewart was probably in similar territory 5 years later. I doubt even Bana is making that much, but remember, the actors from the Trek TV series filled a niche...they really were in demand nowhere else, but without them, the studio didn't feel the movies would work. SO they were paid.

RAMA

 

[Turbo]

IIRC, Eddie Murphy turned down the role in STIV to do The Golden Child, and he later admitted that it was a huge mistake on his part.

On the other hand, Movie Memories says that Murphy wanted to do ST:IV, but Paramount didn't want to do a Star Trek/Eddie Murphy film, as they were the studio's two biggest moneymakers and they thought they could get more money by keeping the two separate.

 

[RAMA]

Turbo said:
IIRC, Eddie Murphy turned down the role in STIV to do The Golden Child, and he later admitted that it was a huge mistake on his part.

On the other hand, Movie Memories says that Murphy wanted to do ST:IV, but Paramount didn't want to do a Star Trek/Eddie Murphy film, as they were the studio's two biggest moneymakers and they thought they could get more money by keeping the two separate.

Golden Child might have been a "creative" and critical mistake for him, but Golden Child was a box office hit. Murphy obviously felt it was more important for himself to be in a project with his own name than be attached to a ST project.

RAMA

 

[CoveTom]

^ It also depends on who you listen to. According to Harve Bennett, they wanted Murphy in the film and Murphy wanted to be in the film, but they just couldn't find a story that worked and was satisfying to both of them. So they told Murphy that his best bet would probably be to forget about it, and they parted ways amicably.

In any event, it's quite obvious that they COULD have had Murphy, but it simply didn't work out. The same with Robin Williams. I believe he wanted to do TNG, but a scheduling conflict prevented him from doing so.

And while we're discussing all this, has anyone forgotten Whoopi Goldberg, who was one of the hottest properties around, as well as an Oscar winner, at the time of TNG and who approached the producers of Star Trek and ASKED to be in it?

I don't think Star Trek has ever been so stigmatized that there weren't a variety of popular and talented mainstream actors willing to appear. And when you get beyond worrying about who is "hot" and actually think about what actors they've been able to get from among the most respected performers of all time? Dame Judith Anderson and Jean Simmons come to mind quite quickly.

 

[Amaris]

I am very excited about the movie, and it's great to see J.J. working to incorporate the idea that Trek isn't just for nerds (and I include myself in that description) into mainstream culture.

On another note, I would have loved to see Robin Williams in an episode of Star Trek. The man can act. It would have proven interesting.

J.

 

[Dale]

I don't actually buy the premise that these are hot actors. They are actors who may soon be hot, who are possibly about to be hot, but none of them is a singular star at this moment.

I have nothing against any of them and have even admired and enjoyed performances by some of them, but with the possible exception of Quinto I don't think any of them is, on his or her own, a big draw.

No, the selling point here is still Star Trek...

 

[Kokomo]

dalehoppert said:
I don't actually buy the premise that these are hot actors. They are actors who may soon be hot, who are possibly about to be hot, but none of them is a singular star at this moment.

I have nothing against any of them and have even admired and enjoyed performances by some of them, but with the possible exception of Quinto I don't think any of them is, on his or her own, a big draw.

No, the selling point here is still Star Trek...

Not even Bana?

 

[trevanian]

dalehoppert said:
I don't actually buy the premise that these are hot actors.

Agreed. I don't know ANY of these people outside of the SHAUN OF THE DEAD guy (who is way WAY too good for this kind of thing IMO) and Bana, who is maybe the most boring actor this side of DUNE-era Kyle MacLachlan (Kyle got lots better later on.)

I wasn't happy when this project was announced and I'm even less happy now.

 

[RAMA]

dalehoppert said:
I don't actually buy the premise that these are hot actors. They are actors who may soon be hot, who are possibly about to be hot, but none of them is a singular star at this moment.

I have nothing against any of them and have even admired and enjoyed performances by some of them, but with the possible exception of Quinto I don't think any of them is, on his or her own, a big draw.

No, the selling point here is still Star Trek...

I suppose "hot" is relative, BUT Bana (Blackhawk Down, Munich, The Hulk, Troy) and Urban (LOTR trilogy, Bourne Supremacy, Riddick) are in demand and have more than a handful of very good, well known, award winning movies behind them, without a doubt they are hot. Qunito is slightly less "hot" but still well known for being in Heroes, often with 15-20 million viewers a week. Pegg has several movies which he co-produced and is more of an underground commodity in the US but is a big hit overseas. Pine is hot in the "80s brat pack" sense of the word...unproven, but worked with someone "hot" and was being sought after in Hollywood to play young leads. He actually turned DOWN a George Clooney movie to do ST! The other cast members have various levels of experience but probably are not "hot". One is going to be in "Avatar": a high profile movie, and one was in "American Pie" which is well known by younger people.

RAMA

 

[davejames]

I think the fact it's TOS has a lot to do with it. If they were recasting TNG or being asked to guest star in another TNG movie, I doubt they'd be as interested (no matter how much money they were offered).

But you don't have to be a hardcore scifi fan to love TOS.

 

[Kurgan]

Paramount is VERY serious about reviving Trek.150-160 million for the budget(60-70 million more than Nemesis)should make this very clear to all Trek fans.

I started out being EXTREMELY skeptical about the new flick coming so soon after the cancellation of Enterprise, but have to admit, over the past year and a half i've gotten very excited about what's going on.

 

[CaptainWacky]

I get the feeling there's still one big name to announce...possibly Tom Cruise as Pike.

 

[cultcross]

J. Allen said:
On another note, I would have loved to see Robin Williams in an episode of Star Trek. The man can act. It would have proven interesting.

J.

i would have liked to see him in a meatier role than the one actually written for him in A Matter of Time though, it would be a shame to waste his talent on a throwaway role which would essentially have been an extended cameo.

 

[davejames]

cultcross said:
i would have liked to see him in a meatier role than the one actually written for him in A Matter of Time though, it would be a shame to waste his talent on a throwaway role which would essentially have been an extended cameo.

Wasn't he also meant to play the collector guy in The Most Toys? I think he would have been great in that role. Not that I had a problem with the actor they got.

 

[Sisko_is_my_captain]

Now the mainstream actor I would have loved to see would have been Tom Hanks as Cochrane in First Contact. The man was born to play the role, IMO. I liked Cromwell (more so after reading the novelization and rewatching him with the perspective that he was mentally ill and couldn't locate meds in the post-WWIII era so he'd turned to alcohol) - but Cromwell was just too old to play the part. I think that the Cochrane character and the development of warp drive was handled much better in the novel Federation - much more realistic, in any case.

 

[Admiral James Kirk]

davejames said:

cultcross said:
i would have liked to see him in a meatier role than the one actually written for him in A Matter of Time though, it would be a shame to waste his talent on a throwaway role which would essentially have been an extended cameo.

Wasn't he also meant to play the collector guy in The Most Toys? I think he would have been great in that role. Not that I had a problem with the actor they got.

No, David Rappaport was originally going to be Fajo in The Most Toys but he was unable to perform in that episode as he'd hung himself. The character of Rasmussen was written for Robin Williams but played by Matt Frewer in A Matter of Time.