But dammit if it doesn't make me go all fanboy and make me want to start an obsessive blog about every freakin' leaked detail until the actual flick comes out and then dog it for about a year after that until the DVD comes out, and then snark about the extras and the commentaries.
Thankfully the feeling quickly passes because I just don't have that kind of time.
If you haven't followed the link above and wonder what I'm on about, there is going to be a new Star Trek movie released in summer 2008.
I'm kinda impressed with the supposed casting thus far.
Matt Damon is Captain Kirk
Adrien Brody is Mr. Spock
Gary Sinise is Dr. McCoy
Keeping with the Kevin Smith theme of today's posts, I'd always thought the supposed debate about which sci-fi franchise was better, Trek or Star Wars, was a bit silly. (I like them both, though I do favor Star Trek.) But, more often than not, I'm surprised when someone spontaneously weighs in on the topic.
I was out to dinner with a buddy who's decidedly not a geek - he's kind of a CEO type, even - and when a discussion on The Departed shook loose the Damon casting factoid he goes, "That should be interesting. Y'know, Star Trek has always been better than Star Wars. I mean, Star Trek has great, lasting stories and Star Wars is just a western in space."
I can just hear it now. Who was the better Kirk? Damon or Shatner.
2 comments:
Man, I dunno - this is more treacherous territory than "Where no man has gone before." As far as I'm concerned, Damon is one of those actors who, no matter what the movie, limps out of the gate with an enormous charm deficit. Kinda like Julia Roberts that way, though both have been known to win me over on the extremely odd occasion. Brody is someone I enjoyed more as a pre-Oscar guy. Since then, his agent's been handing this scrawny emoter the strangest "beefcake" roles: King Kong, Hollywoodland - that last one an especially thankless task ("Adrien, it'll be great: you'll move the narrative forward!") And then there's Sinise: probably our generation's Robert Duvall. He's got the chops to make you weep, but will forever be cast in supporting roles. Hm - if you let him do Kirk, I could almost get onside!
Eef - how can you tell I've been immersing myself in TOS while the wife's away....
I couldn't agree more with all your comments, even though I said the casting is interesting.
My wife said the same thing you said about Damon and thought Val Kilmer should be Kirk. Sinise would bat it out of the park, too, but as you allude to, he's not got enough of the leading man thang going on. To quote a song I equally loathe and enjoy, I think we're holding out for a hero for this role.
I don't like Brody, either, but his ET-like looks would play well into the Vulcan thing.
Overall, though, I think they need to fill all the big roles with established stars, because since this is the attempted (and ultimately somewhat doomed no matter how good it is) remolding of the classic, you need the friction of watching an actor you know trying to do the part you know.
What would be a hoot is if they used the "Galaxy Quest" cast for some of the major roles.
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