This is who should play Spock.
I even heard he was trying to get the role.
I like Damon (he’s one of my favorites, actually) and I can see him being a good Kirk. I still can’t shake the feeling that recasting the original characters is foolish. It will be a long time before the Star Trek well refills; it may never happen.
And yet I hated Casino Royale. Maybe because even though it may have been technically a better movie, Pierce Brosnan was a better Bond - a suave, womanizing, martini drinking, wiscracking playboy who kicked ass.
Kirk is…awesome as…Kirk because…he…is…played by…William…Shatner.
Holy crap. He would be perfect. I could totally see him pulling off the voice, the body language, everything. And he’s not a big name yet, which would actually help with playing such an iconic character, IMHO.
Still…it’s old news. I have heard about those three being “in talks” for the roles for several months now, and the article doesn’t give the news as confirmed. No official announcement will be made until the end of this month. It also says J. J. Abrams announced “this week” that he will direct the film. Not true. He confirmed that back in February. cite
The article may indeed be dated July 1, but the news in it is less than fresh.
Folks, you’re missing the obvious. Sam Donaldson should play Spock.
Missed the edit window. Here is one of the first casting rumors about Damon, Brody, and Sinise, dated February 26, 2007.
Matt Damon?
Gary Sinese?
Adrien Brody?
James McAvoy?
Wow, four of the best actors of their generation. I’m there opening day, and I’ve never been into Star Trek. Fuck everything that came before (and the whiny fans). Start again for a new generation (no pun intended). If the script is worthy of those actors, it’ll be great.
I take it you didn’t see, oh, The Pianist, or Summer of Sam or Liberty Heights or Bread and Roses or Oxygen or The Thin Red Line or Harrison’s Flowers or The Jacket or…wait, this is Adrien Brody we’re talking about, right? What the heck have you seen him in that makes you only think of him as a goofball with no gravitas???
Statistically speaking, it’ll suck. I say this not as a drooling fanboy (I can admit when something sucks, not everything the franchise has done has been golden.), but as someone who can appreciate film. Abrams is a talented director, and Sinise is the best actor listed out of the bunch, but they’re not putting the kind of thought into the film that it requires. No, Star Trek isn’t high art, but it is FX heavy, that takes time to do. If the cast isn’t set, and they’re serious about that Dec. '08 release date, they’re most likely just slapping shit together and throwing on the screen. Which means at best we’ll get a nonsensical film that looks pretty (because they had the FX shots in the can a couple of years ago), and at worst, we’ll get Star Trek: Battlefield Earth.
Abrams could do a good Star Trek film, but I don’t see how in the time frame alotted.
I agree on every point (and also think he would be perfect as Spock) except he is the wrong age to play alongside Damon and Sinise.
Zachary Quinto is dead sexy, man, and I’m not fooling. 
ETA: Star Trek: Battlefield Earth? That sounds cool!
I’m sure Travolta and his Scientology minons would be more than happy to suit back up in their Psychlo costumes for you, lou. 
Geez, that’s a year and a half away! Special Effects are getting better, faster, cheaper all the time. First, whatever special effects they want to do, can be done in that time frame, even if they have to part it out by hiring several different FX houses as is seemingly the norm nowadays. Second, with those fine actors, the movie could be lighter on the special effects anyway, with the film focusing more attention on the characterizations and drama.
Render farms can only do so much, and the more you use, the more it costs. My understanding is that it’s still cheaper to actually go through the process of building physical models, just not as sexy. Also, there’s still all kinds of props that need to be constructed, the art direction needs to be approved of. If they’re going for the look of TOS, then they’ll have to recreate the props exactly, as the real hardcore geeks will be pissed if the buttons on the captain’s chair aren’t just right. Finally, characterizations and drama aren’t the focus of the beancounters who run the studios these days.
Again, Abrams can do a good Trek film, lord knows the man’s work made M:I:III tolerable to watch. If it’d had someone other than Cruise in the lead role, it might have been a decent movie. I just don’t see how he, or anyone, can do it with the constraints being placed upon them.
It will be nice if it turns out to be the case. If you’ve seen the enhanced TOS episodes with the new special effects, you notice they don’t carry the episode. The best episodes (Balance of Terror, Journey to Babel) still stand out apart from the special effects, and the effects don’t save the bad ones, like “Spock’s Brain.”
Matt Damon might pull it off. He did such a great job in Team America.
In addition to carnivorousplant’s answer:
In The Deadly Years, McCoy at one point pronounces Spock in excellent condition “for a Vulcan on the high side of a hundred”, but that is when Spock is suffering from the same ageing disease as the rest of the key players. (He’s less disabled by it because his natural span is about 250.)
In Journey to Babel, Sarek gives his own age as “one hundred and two” point something Earth years - he has taken early retirement for health reasons, though he doesn’t go into detail until he is taken seriously ill.
Then he shows up 80+ years later in TNG on his last legs - so the character would have been about 185
Anyway I agree Quinto is too young to play against Damon and Sinese but I also agree he could pull it off - make up can do much to even the playing field. Besides, I always thought Spock looked younger than Kirk anyway.
It’s all moot, tho, if they’re going to release in 7 months, most of the scenes are probably already in the can, in spite of what the press releases say
That’s not surprising, spacecraft that travel faster than light are damn expensive.
A quick look at Wikipedia suggests Spock was around 35 when Kirk took command of the Enterprise. I must have been thinking Sarek, or Spock in one of the later series.
Tell me about it.
And the *insurance…*a fender bender at .4C can total the damn thing at warp 9.
It’s being released on Christmas Day, 2008. It starts shooting in November, so that’s 13 months from start of shooting.