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Thoughts on a Nemesis Extended Edition?

If there's a lot of cut Shinzon footage lying around and if TDKR is a smash (and why won't it be?) then you can pretty much book it.
Tom Hardy was also in Inception, and that didn't result in a revival of his role in Nemesis. In fact, with the bald head he's hardly recognizable.

Eric Bana did an awesome job as Nero, though. So I guess there is precedent.
 
If there's a lot of cut Shinzon footage lying around and if TDKR is a smash (and why won't it be?) then you can pretty much book it.
Tom Hardy was also in Inception, and that didn't result in a revival of his role in Nemesis. In fact, with the bald head he's hardly recognizable.

Eric Bana did an awesome job as Nero, though. So I guess there is precedent.
Except Inception really isn't the right genre, and Hardy didn't play a baddie.
 
But if Brent Spiner did it for the film I wonder why Stewart wouldn't?

The actors perform what is on the page. Spiner relished playing "Lore" in "Datalore" and enjoyed extending himself in "Brothers" when the writers challenged him with playing Data, Lore and Soong in the one scene. As a co-plotter of the story for "Nemesis", he was excited about playing yet another Soong android, the B-4.

The idea of using Stewart also in a dual role was briefly considered, but remember they were trying to entice him into signing for the film. Had Stewart seen a double workload, he might well have set his price even higher. And it would have been a ST movie with no major guest, if Stewart was playing both Shinzon and Picard.

In any case, casting a young version of Picard is what made NEM's plot intriguing. Audiences seemed resentful that Shinzon didn't resemble Picard enough. Unfortunately neither David Tristan Birkin (Rene Picard in "Family"; Young Jean-Luc in "Rascals") nor Daniel Stewart (Batai in "The Inner Light") were not higher-enough profile actors to be considered.
 
In any case, casting a young version of Picard is what made NEM's plot intriguing. Audiences seemed resentful that Shinzon didn't resemble Picard enough.
The big reveal the first time I saw the film, by raising the lights, wouldn't have made sense to me if I hadn't already known that Shinzon was supposed to be Picard. It just wasn't obvious enough.

They could have easily glossed over the lack of resemblance by rectifying the lack of hair. Young Picard had hair. There was no canonical reason for Shinzon to not have a full head of hair. They could have broadened their horizons in a much larger casting sweep, or at least let Hardy keep his hair. They also needn't have settled for a British actor; no reason that clone Picard would need to have a British accent.

The contra-canonical evidence from Tapestry (young Ensign Picard fighting a Naussican) versus the Tom Hardy cadet photo seem to magnify this. Obviously, general audiences wouldn't have paid that close attention, but Trekkies would.
 
I enjoyed Nemesis, but more is not necessarily better, depending on how it affects the flow. I thought the random planet chase derailed it enough, and I don't know that further material would be of great benefit.

Still, it's always interesting to see "what might have been".
 
I thought the random planet chase derailed it enough, and I don't know that further material would be of great benefit.

As I said, the claim by the director that he shot about an hour of extra material, of which only about 15 mins is on the DVD as bonus features, is misleading, because the whole script was thoroughly bootlegged and I can't think of too much written material that remains unseen.
 
In my dream, the other 70 minutes consist of Logan and Berman pulling an Allen and breaking the fourth wall as they endlessly grovel for the audience's forgiveness.
 
As long as they keep Wes out of it, I think it would be interesting to see.

Agreed. Not that I disliked Wesley, but it just didn't make a lot of sense for him to be there because he left with the Traveler. Also, why was he in a Starfleet uniform and stationed on a Federation ship? He quit Starfleet in Season 7.
The answer to this question and many more is sloppy writing, unfortunately.

Q always shows up everywhere with a Starfleet uniform on and no-one really cares that much (not that they can do too much about it tbh) so why not Wesley with his similar powers?

they could always re-edit the deleted footage with Quark and Rom back into Insurrection.

OMG no, that was embarrassing! (And it only featured Quark. The actor who played Rom was already in INS, playing the Bajoran crewman who gets involved in the wads-of-paper scene with Troi and Riker in the ship's library. The same icky scene where the stereotypical librarian shushes them.)


Quark on the Ba'ku planet by Therin of Andor, on Flickr

I think I read an interview with Armin Shimerman when they were filming the movie about this then completely forgot all about it! :wtf:

What was the reason Quark was there in the first place? Shady deals with someone on the wrong side of the Dominion War? :confused:
 
I'd be interested in it. I thought Nemesis was pretty good actually, it is my #2 TNG film after First Contact.

It is probably the 2nd best TNG film, but that isn't really saying that much.

It's actually a perfectly servicable action movie, its a lot better as a film than "Wing Commander" for example, and doesn't compare so badly with most space-action films.

It makes for a very silly Trek movie in a lot of ways though, detailed in a lot of depth throughout the forum.

Ironically the script has very few plot holes - though a lot of conveniences and pointless moments.
 
...not even a master editor could solve those problems in the editing bay.

The ironic thing is that Stuart Baird IS a master editor who was nominated twice for Oscars in editing.

Stuart Baird

Which is unfortunate considering how much of Nemesis' editing feels so mundane. And being a master editor doesn't make a crappy story good, it just makes the story feel less intrusive.

And need we forget another talented individual who has not only produced, directed, acted and won multiple awards (19 wins to Stuart Baird's 0) was right there in the TNG cast? LeVar Burton has directed multiple episodes of Star Trek spanning three whole series and knows the creative teams very well. But instead of giving him a shot at giving the TNG crew a fair well they deserved, Paramount instead hired a man for the sole purpose of giving him something to do as thanks for editing other mediocre work.

Also, Stuart Baird couldn't even pronounce LeVar's name properly. There's your MASTER at work.
 
Having just watched Nemesis again, I found it enjoyable, as I did when it was first released in the theaters. I've never really understood why so many Trekkies hated it so much. The villain was an interesting concept, even if he wasn't over the top like Khan. Yes, the movie had a doomsday device weapon and the death of a beloved character, just like in Wrath of Khan, but other than that the story was original to the movies. It wasn't perfect by a long shot--did we really need yet another version of Data?

The inclusion of the cut scenes included on the DVD would have slowed the film down, but would have added much more depth to the characters, especially Dr. Crusher. It seemed that her entire role was cut from the film. Of all the characters, she has gotten the shaft repeatedly in each of the four NextGen films. Wesley's cameo was nice, though written rather lamely. I know that he still has his haters, but he was always one of my favorite characters and I wish he had been included in some of the films. After all, they found a substantial role for Guinan, not to mention that Worf was on the Enterprise repeatedly even though he was no longer part of its crew. I would've preferred an actual goodbye for the characters who were departing the ship, which would have made the movie have more closure. The deleted ending scene was a more effective ending (even with the seat belt joke). Considering the movie wasn't even two hours long, it would make sense to edit an extended version except for the fact that it wasn't a successful movie to begin with so Paramount would have no reason to do this other than for a relatively few fans.
 
Most of those deleted scenes would've made the movie a lot better IMHO, particularly the one involving Picard and Data. I also liked the scene that was supposed to be at the end with the introduction of Picard's new first officer and the prank the rest of the crew played on him.:rommie: The editing in the finished movie seemed rather clunky to me as it was IMHO. I wouldn't mind seeing an extended edition of Nemesis at all.
 
I think a lot of TNG fans were disappointed by "Nemesis" specifically acting as the last TNG film because those character-oriented moments were missing. It was only natural to expect that the film include more of that because the series was very much about the characters. I understand why they were cut, and I do think that cutting them out made a faster-paced film. However, I think it would be a nice gesture to the TNG fans to release an extended version of "Nemesis" that includes all of those missing scenes. TNG fans may feel more satisfied with the last hurrah of the series if they did.
 
I think it would be a nice gesture to the TNG fans...

Except the director has expressly said "No".

... to release an extended version of "Nemesis" that includes all of those missing scenes. TNG fans may feel more satisfied with the last hurrah of the series if they did.

The missing scenes are on the DVD. See "Bonus Features". Some are uncompleted: bluescreens for windows, etc., colour balances out. Some scenes are on the first single disc DVD, and those plus more on the double-disc set.

As I before, all the script versions that were leaked don't have extra scenes to add up to any more material than what we saw in "Bonus Features". I'm sure you'll find any other outtakes are merely alternate versions of footage of the desert car racing.
 
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