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Some Confirmed Details On The Casting For ST film

jon1701 said:
I've always loved the Dr Crusher description

BEVERLY CRUSHER -- Wesley's 35 year old mother. She serves as the chief medical officer on the Enterprise. If it were not for her intelligence, personality, beauty and the fact that she has a natural walk of a striptease queen, Capt. Picard might not have agreed to her request that Wesley observe bridge activities; therefore letting her son's intelligence carry events further.
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Translation:

"...If Capt Picard didnt want to fuck Crusher, he wouldnt have let her kid run around on the bridge..." :lol:
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Ach! I'll never look at Dr Crusher the same again (who ah, was always very "motherly").

Sharr
 
WESLEY CRUSHER -- An appealing 15 year old caucasian boy (need small 18 or
almost 18 year old to play 15). His remarkable mind and photographic
memory make it seem not unlikely for him to become, at 15, a Starfleet
acting-ensign. Otherwise, he is a normal teenager.
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"Appealing"? Wow -- I would call that false advertising on the casting director's part. Nothing about the manner which the writers ulimately presented Wesley was appealing.
 
A lot of kids liked him. He got more fan mail than the rest of the cast for a year or so. And in any event, Wheaton was a very appealing actor.
 
Those past casting sheets seem to have a lot more detail, perhaps because characters that have already been portrayed on screen do not require very detailed descriptions.
 
:lol: at "Mayweather and Tucker will be the best of friends!"

I know they tried to establish that early on, but they clearly didn't think to cast two actors who had some decent chemistry with each other in the roles. :p
 
UWC Defiance said:
A lot of kids liked him. He got more fan mail than the rest of the cast for a year or so. And in any event, Wheaton was a very appealing actor.
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I have no doubt alot kids did like Wheaton (the actor). But, IMO, in general his charcater was unappealing to most people.

That casting sheet was written about the character being appealing, and I still contend that Wesley was very unappealing on screen to most adults. His goody-goody demeanor was so annoying. A perfect example of this was from the seventh episode of the series when he stated his now-infamous line "I'm with Starfleet. We don't lie." I mean c'mon now. That is a tremendously ridiculous statement to make. That line alone made his character unappealing for at least half a season, and everytime he would start seeming cool again, he throws out another similar line that made him look like he did not belong there with the "grown-ups" -- which is not what the writers intended, IMO.

I have nothing against Wil wheaton, and he seems to be a likable guy, but his acting abilities were not really up to the standards of the rest of the cast (standards that were not that high to begin with, but I digress ;) ). I remember the episode 'Journey's End' when he was trying to act all moody, but his range obviously was not there.
 
Jackson_Roykirk said:
UWC Defiance said:
A lot of kids liked him. He got more fan mail than the rest of the cast for a year or so. And in any event, Wheaton was a very appealing actor.
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I have no doubt alot kids did like Wheaton (the actor).
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Actually, a lot of kids liked both Wheaton and Wesley. The fan mail reflected that.
 
UWC Defiance said:
Jackson_Roykirk said:
UWC Defiance said:
A lot of kids liked him. He got more fan mail than the rest of the cast for a year or so. And in any event, Wheaton was a very appealing actor.
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I have no doubt alot kids did like Wheaton (the actor).
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Actually, a lot of kids liked both Wheaton and Wesley. The fan mail reflected that.
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But I really do hate it when film makers create a character for the sole purpose of appealing to the younger crowd. Obviously a young fan will like a young character. But kids are smarter than Hollywood thinks. If You create a quality hero of any age, kids will like him or her. There is no reason to make that hero a child solely to woo the younger demographic. I find that as being patronizing toward that demographic.

If this next movie successfully creates a classically heroic Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock (even with classically heroic flaws) in a smart movie with an interesting adventure, then the 13-year old plus crowd will still love it -- and still love those characters -- even though the protagonists are 30-ish years old. There is absolutely no need to be pander to a young audience by including an adolescent boy, on the theory that the adolescent boy demographic demands this...that demographic can be satisfied with a quality adult role, too. I thought we all learned that lesson from the dreadful 'The Phantom Menace'.

Back to Wesley -- I think those same young fans would have sent him fan mail if his character was written a little more realistically.
 
Jackson_Roykirk said:If this next movie successfully creates a classically heroic Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock (even with classically heroic flaws) in a smart movie with an interesting adventure, then the 13-year old plus crowd will still love it -- and still love those characters -- even though the protagonists are 30-ish years old. There is absolutely no need to be pander to a young audience by including an adolescent boy, on the theory that the adolescent boy demographic demands this...that demographic can be satisfied with a quality adult role, too. I thought we all learned that lesson from the dreadful 'The Phantom Menace'.
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This hits on what I think has always bugged me about "young hero" characters.

I'm sure there are some kids who imagine themselves as being kids forever. However, for MOST kids, they're thinking about "who they wanna be when they grow up." Very few have that whole Michael Jackson "I wanna be a kid forever" thing going on. And most of those are every bit as creepy as Jackson turned out to be.

Most kids... and I was one of these, so I'm speaking from my own experiences here as well as my observations of pretty much everyone I've known... like to fantasize about being the ADULT HERO. I wanted to be Captain Kirk when I was a kid... though on occasion I also wanted to be Spock or Scotty. I never wanted to be "Kirk as a kid." I wanted to be CAPTAIN KIRK... the grown-up.

The tendency to create "kid heros" is almost always far more popular with the pandering adult set than it is with kids, IMHO. Wesley was a successful character when he was played as an actual kid... with real kid-like characteristics. Where he fell flat was when the episode became "Wesley Saves the Day!" Part XXVIII...

This was because (1) it made the adults seem like inept cretins, and (2) it showed an insultingly pandering attitude towards kids that turns off most kids.

Wesley, the likeable, fallible kid, was appealing... and we could imagine him GROWING UP into an officer. If only they'd treated him as such instead of pretending that kids aren't actually "adults in training" and want to be like ADULTS, not to stay kids forever.
 
But Wesley didn't stay a kid. He went to the Academy, eventually pulled a stunt and involved himself in a cover-up, and was downgraded. A year later, he dropped out of the Academy all together and left on an epic quest to become a Traveller. I thought the episodes that showed Wesley "growing up" and learning that life wasn't this pleasant starship ride to infinity were his best moments. Being a man of 21, I grew up with Next Gen, so I can definately relate to the character of Wesley. In many ways, I think he had the most potential out of all the characters. It's sad that they didn't tell his story past "Journey's End". :vulcan:
 
SeamusShameless said:
But Wesley didn't stay a kid. He went to the Academy, eventually pulled a stunt and involved himself in a cover-up, and was downgraded. A year later, he dropped out of the Academy all together and left on an epic quest to become a Traveller. I thought the episodes that showed Wesley "growing up" and learning that life wasn't this pleasant starship ride to infinity were his best moments. Being a man of 21, I grew up with Next Gen, so I can definately relate to the character of Wesley. In many ways, I think he had the most potential out of all the characters. It's sad that they didn't tell his story past "Journey's End". :vulcan:
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I don't disagree. With the exception of the "running off with the Traveller dude" thing (which always seemed just a little creepy) and the whole "Wesley is super-powered!" bit... I think that they did make the character better over time. Like I said... the stuff that made him unrelatable was what sucked... the stuff that made him more "normal" was better.
 
Just read something I want to share, and this seems to be the right thread: On imdb, someone suggested casting Nathan Fillion as Bones. And while, as a Browncoat, I kind of despise the idea of seeing him on a starship he isn't in command of, I still have to say that I definitely see him nailing the attitude!
 
I've noticed that Abrams often uses and reuses actors for multiple projects. I see that there is some casting information now on his '1-18-08/Cloverfield' project, namely Blake Lively and Mike Vogel. Is it possible he will re-use them for ST:XI?

Both of these actors first got some notice from 'The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants' which was a pretty good film, even though aimed at the teen demographic. Blake Lively later got good reviews for 'Annabelle and Elvis'. I wonder if Abrams, after 'Cloverfield', would want to re-use these two actors. Vogel could look like a young Kirk, but I haven't seen him in enough things to know about his acting ability. Lively seems to be a good actress, but I don't know if there is a role for a 20-ish blond. Maybe she could play Leila Kalomi (depending on the time period) or possibly as an ensign/new secondary character on Kirk's Enterprise.

Let's asume for a moment that the rumors about Chekov are correct, and that this is a TOS-era film. This secondary character could be Chekov's love interest who is killed half-way through this film in a way that is meaningful to the plot -- this could be how a 20-year old Chekov gets involved with this film.
 
There's always Yeoman Rand. If this is set during, and not before, the TOS era, I wouldn't be surprised to see her there.
 
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