Star Trek Beams Up Bana, Pines for Kirk?
Eric Bana may be going where no man has gone before, starring as a villain no Trekker has seen before.
The Aussie thesp has signed on to star as Nero, a baddie, as the name would suggest, in J.J. Abrams' upcoming Star Trek reboot, according to Variety.
Aside from his historically villainous name, next to nothing is known about the character, though reports have pegged him as a Romulan who sets out to kill Captain James T. Kirk. Abrams & Co. have kept the project's plot shrouded—about the only thing we've divined is the film will serve as a prequel to the original 1960s Star Trek series, chronicling the early years of the USS Enterprise crew.
Abrams is reportedly so paranoid about plot leakage, he has been offering roles to actors without giving them scripts.
Bana becomes the first full-fledged star to sign on as a principal character in the 11th Trek flick, joining a relatively low-key cast that includes Heroes' Zachary Quinto (Spock), Zoe Saldana (Uhura) and Anton Yelchin (Checkov). Leonard Nimoy will cameo as an older Spock, but there's no word yet on who will play Bones, Scotty, Sulu and, of course, Kirk.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Chris Pine is in talks to star as the iconic space-hopping lothario. Pine's biggest foe might not be Bana, but George Clooney.
Pine, whose biggest role to date was as Lindsay Lohan's love interest in Just My Luck, is also in talks to star opposite Clooney in an adaptation of the James Ellroy bestseller White Jazz. Both films, however, are due to shoot early next year, meaning that unless there's some sort of scheduling miracle, Pine would likely only be able to accept one of the roles.
And the clock is ticking.
While cameras won't start rolling on White Jazz until January, Star Trek is scheduled to begin filming next month, running through the beginning of next year. Paramount has already announced a release date of Christmas 2008.
Should Pine forsake the Federation, Paramount, per the Hollywood Reporter, will beam up one of several unnamed backup actors.
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