The casting news for the Star Trek sequel has taken an unexpected turn. It was just a couple of weeks ago that producer/director JJ Abrams was talking about his discussions with Oscar-winning actor Benicio Del Toro for the villain in his new movie. However, a new report says that Del Toro is out. They also have some spoilers on the role.



Del Toro Out

According to a new report by the New York Magazine’s Vulture Blog, Benicio Del Toro will not be the villain in the 2013 Star Trek sequel. Sources tell Vulture that Toro’s "deal actually went asunder last Wednesday after parties couldn’t come to terms over monetary issues." With shooting set to begin in January, this puts the team on the clock to find a new bad guy soon.





VILLAIN SPOILERS ( I hope not true )

It was just last Friday when JJ Abrams denied a report that Del Toro would be playing the role of Khan Noonien Singh, telling HitFix that report was "not true." With news that Del Toro is no longer in the running, Abrams denial could be read a different way. And in fact, Vulture is reporting from "a highly placed source" that Khan is indeed the villain in the Star Trek sequel. These reports have still not been confirmed and so should still be considered rumor.

Stay tuned for more news on the Star Trek sequel.

I think they should cast you, although not necessarily as Khan! (I say this because I really don't want to see a remake. I'd rather have a new story)

According to this TrekMovie article, Peter Weller will be playing a CEO! WTF?? Greedy CEOs in a 23rd century Federation? I don't know, but if it's true (and this is a big IF) it sounds like an epic fail to me...

EDIT: A possible loophole in order to avoid the anger of the Trekkies would be that he actually plays a Ferengi Of course 1st contact was officially made in the TNG, but this timeline is soooo screwed up, so who cares...

Your point is spot on. I hope we still get a Star Trek with hope for the future of mankind. Weller did play kind of a good guy in Robocop so maybe... Keeping in mind that the new crew is a little crankier because Kirk lost his father , and Spock lost his mother

and 99.9% of his race

Well now, you do have a point. I think it would be a good story line, to make the movie somehow related to an effort to find the Vulcans a suitable home world. And then to start building their race they all go into pahn far which would make them all Really cranky.

From Trekmovie.com

With Benicio Del Toro out of the running for the part of the villain in the Star Trek sequel, director JJ Abrams and team have been back on the hunt for a new bad guy. Now a report says that two actors are in the running, with Venezuelan actor Edgar Ramirez as the leading contender. More details (and potential spoilers) below.

Venezuelan Actor Edgar Ramirez front-runner for Star Trek villain

The latest Star Trek sequel villain casting news comes from Variety, with sources saying that Venezuelan actor Edgar Ramirez is the "front-runner," with Jordi Molla (Columbiana) "also in the mix. Both actors are expected to test for the role over the next two days and director JJ Abrams is reported to be interested in making a decision before the end of the week. It is noted that there may be some issue regarding scheduling with Ramirez, however Variety sources say "Abrams wouldn’t consider any actor if they were unavailable."

Regarding Ramirez, Variety notes the actor has been "pursued by the studios since his breakout turn as infamous terrorist Carlos the Jackal in Olivier Assayas’ miniseries Carlos." The 34 year-old actor has also appeared in Domino, The Bourne Ultimatum and Vantage Point, and will soon be seen as Ares in Wrath of the Titans.


Edgar Ramirez in “Carlos” (L) and Jordi Molla in "Colombiana" (R) – both in the running
to be villain in 2013 "Star Trek" sequel

Over the last week there have been a couple of unconfirmed reports that the villain role for the Star Trek sequel will be Khan. Variety has no more details but does point out the obvious with regards to the actors being considered for the role:


The next question to be asked his what character Ramirez will play in the film if he gets the part. It was reported last week — before it was known del Toro was out — that the villain may be Khan, but Abrams and Paramount denied it.
Whether that denial was aimed at the role or just del Toro’s involvement wasn’t quite clear. But it should be noted that Abrams was still in need of an actor of Latin descent, the same ethnicity of Ricardo Montalban, who played Khan in the original series and "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan."

Production on the Star Trek sequel is still slated to start in mid January, which explains why Abrams is anxious to nail down his villain.

Stay tuned to TrekMovie for all the latest news on the Star Trek sequel.

Take a word out, ie "down" and then this doesn't sound quite right

Childish jokes aside, I don't think I remember this guy Edgar Ramirez in any big role, so I guess he won't be the main villain. Possibly the studios would prefer a more well know actor for the Villain, whether it's Khan or not.

Ha... Picard... thanks for the chuckle.

Admiral Christopher Pike may return in Star Trek XII. Co-writer Roberto Orci posted the following message regarding actor Bruce Greenwood in the TrekMovie.com message board (message 423)



423. boborci - December 19, 2011
418. Spoiler alert!

We wrote a part for Greenwood. Let us hope he says “Yes!”

Love that actor. Yes, bring him back!

Yes, he is really great. I particularly liked the scene at the bar where he recruits Kirk

Agreed. "...see if you can do better" Pike

MTV posted a new interview with Star Trek XII director J.J. Abrams and here are excerpts.

"It's a little early to be talking about 'Star Trek,' but I will say that they wrote — the three writers, Damon [Lindelof], Bob [Orci] and Alex [Kurtzman] — they wrote the most amazing script, and I'm thrilled to get a chance to direct it," he said. "It's totally mine to screw up, so if you don't like it, it's completely on me. Our sets are almost done, so we're going to go back and start shooting next month."



"We're shooting on film, 2-D, and then we'll do a good high-end conversion like the 'Harry Potter' movie and all that. Luckily, with our release date now we have the months needed to do it right because if you rush it, it never looks good.

"We were talking about [shooting in IMAX] and I would love to do it. IMAX is my favorite format; I'm a huge fan," he added. "

According to Variety, British actor-director Noel Clarke, who has a recurring role on the BBC's hit series Doctor Who, has been cast in J.J. Abrams' Paramount tentpole Star Trek XII

While the details of Clarke's role are being kept under wraps, he will play a family man with a wife and young daughter.

on the left - not a blond

Sorry for the rant but:

If its just a trek film with a "bad guy" then forget it. I watch trek for exploration and finding new life forms not bad guy crap every other movie does.

Watched st 2009 but hated it really. Please give me something like st TMP or something of galactic importance like undiscovered country where the two empires clash over tho yes it had a "bad guy" but majority it was about two sides wanting to avoid peace as neither side liked the other but found peace in the end.

Imo. I think as a trek film goes we should have either a alien/mystery/global conflict between races if fighting needs to be the main fortay. A mix would be great personally. But as said the best thing they could do is something similar to TMP with having to save "something" not just earth and it being something they have no idea what it is or what its real intention is and is heading to somewhere and the enterprise is sent to investigate.

Oh and no damn streaking lights please this time. I did not realise how bad it was till i was told then watched it and boy it was so overused my feelings went to pot about it. And no young actors like in st 2009, its too childish in 2009 i want more serious and seasoned officers like trek usually is.

Oh and please a big fat NO to J.J. Abrams being anything to do with trek EVER! Get someone who has acted in trek and done some directing to do the film. Leonard Nemoy made search for spock, that was canny, wouldnt say no to him making one and with his years of photography he would probably make it visually great as well with the scenes and such.

Refreshing Skeeter. You're a true fan and I'm with you 100%.

What happens in Movies is that if it isn't big enough, the critics all say, "It's like an episode only 30 min longer." But as you say, how many times can you "Save the entire planet" before we have seen this before?

Save the planet. Next episode. Save the planet. Next episode. Really save the planet. Next episode. I know, they can save the planet from the worst disaster ever.

Variations on this: Save the Federation, save another entire planet.

Variations on this: Save the entire planet with a really ugly Enterprise.

However, I do love the cast for the JJ Abram's remake. Great casting. Fun group.

UPDATED: The Star Trek sequel starts shooting in just a couple of weeks and the team behind the film are busy casting roles for the film. TrekMovie has exclusively learned that this week JJ Abrams and his team have cast British actor (and Sherlock star) Benedict Cumberbatch for a major role in the film. UPDATE: Cumberbatch will be playing the villain.

Read the full story at Trekmovie

http://trekmovie.com/2012/01/04/exclusive-sherlock-star-benedict-cumberbatch-cast-in-major-star-trek-sequel-role/

He looks romulan to me, god i can just see it now. ANOTHER FREAKING ROMY FILM!

Also there is no way he could pull off a khan no way in hell does he look as cool as thingy did (sry forgot the name). Plus a khan film was good cos of the actor and his role not just the role if they think they can replicate a great film like twok then think again without thingy it wouldnt be khan.

Ricardo Mantelban. Nah they won't do Kahn.

But obviously no Klingons...this guy just won't do as a Klingon.

I could imagine him as a Q though. At least in this photo he has a rather haughty/Q-like look

Unfortunately, I think it's highly unlikely the Q will return...

Q film would be interesting, maybe something like the enterprise finds a baby Q and with it being tos era they have no idea what to do with it. Then comes Q demanding the infant and then another Q comes to help you escape Q and help you get infant Q to the Q continuum and then daddy Q at the end thanks the enterprise and says we will be watching and then transport the ent back to earth before it all started.

No Q in TOS please, why when you have Tholians, Gorn, Klingons, Romulans...need I go on?

Yeah like Skeeter said before. I think it is better if they explore new parts of the Galaxy and find a new race.

Never said i wanted it per say i just said it would be interesting as someone brought up Q in a previous post.

As you mentioned the Gorn now that would be a nice idea for a movie. But i still prefer a vger type of unknown or well. Anyone remember the reg barckley becoming a genuis episode. That was kinda cool and could be a cool weird explore type of film/mission. Also anyone remember the dyson sphere. Would be awesome to have a film around that perhaps. Or remember when the enterprise went with the traveler to another galaxy where law of physics was screwed? The traveler actually would make a interesting film him visitng tos enterprise before tng and a cool adventure happened.

Welll that's what I wouldn't like, post TOS stuff in a pre TOS movie...I would like some political movie like Star Trek VI...a plot against Federation, beeing at a verge of war...or even a possibility of some anti federation alliance (tholians/gorn/suliban/xindi) you have both ENT and TOS era aliens to choose from.

from trekmovie.com

The Star Trek sequel is very close to start of production. In a new interview director/producer JJ Abrams has given some more details on the production logistics and on the decision to covert the film to 3D. He also talked about the recent casting of Benedict Cumberbatch. See below for details.




Abrams gives production update, talks 3D and Cumberbatch

While promoting his upcoming Fox show Alcatraz at the TCA event this week, JJ Abrams took questions from Collider on his Star Trek sequel which starts shooting in the next week.

Firstly Abrams gave some details on the nuts and bolts of the production:

•Shooting starts Thursday (actually 3 days earlier than TrekMovie’s previous reporting), and will last four months
•Will shoot on film with anamorphic lenses, with 3D version using a conversion
•Studio pushed for 3D version, 2D version will also be shown

Director JJ Abrams on location from his last movie "Super 8"
- now getting ready to shoot Star Trek sequel , again using film

Regarding the recently announced casting of Benedict Cumberbatch, Abrams would not confirm he was playing the villain, but did have this to say about the actor:

He’s a genius. Honestly, he’s just an incredible actor. If you’ve seen his work in Sherlock, he’s just got incredible skills. He’s an amazing stage actor. He did amazing work (on stage) in Frankenstein. He’s brilliant. You try to cast people who are great. We got lucky.

Abrams also appears to confirm previous reports that there will be no returning original series stars for the sequel.

It is worth reading the whole interview at Collider.com.

More news on casting at trekmovie.com

It looks like big E will be taking on the UK this time around.

http://trekmovie.com/2012/01/09/thor-actor-joseph-gatt-joins-star-trek-sequel/

http://trekmovie.com/2012/01/06/24-actress-nanzeen-contractor-joins-star-trek-sequel-cast/

New York Magazine posted a new interview with Star Trek XII actress Zoe Saldana and here is an excerpt



Let's talk briefly about Star Trek 2. The studio let J.J. Abrams have a little bit more time than most directors would have to prep the sequel, but for a while there, were you like, "C'mon, I want to get back on the Enterprise"?
I kind of was, yeah. The film came out in 2009, we shot it in '07, and now it's 2012. So yeah, around last year, I was like, "Come on, come on already," because I had such a wonderful time working with J.J. and the cast and doing science fiction, which is my biggest passion and my preference as an audience and as a reader, too. But when you're around J.J. and you're around [Avatar director] Jim Cameron, you sense that there's this absolute consciousness that if they don't focus on the quality of what they do, then their formula's not going to work. That's the one thing they have in common; they're amazing storytellers, so J.J. probably would have fought for the time that he needed for the sequel.

Might we see some more "close encounters" between you and Zachary Quinto in this movie?
If I'm elusive, will that spoil it for you?

You mean you can't say anything, and that in itself might be indicating something?
I just don't want to spoil it for you. All I'm going to say is, if you put all the time and energy and wit into setting these two characters together in the first movie and didn't follow through, it would be a shame.

Got it.
I hope I didn't say too much!

I don't think you did.
I feel like J.J. is going to pop up out of the corner and say, "Come with me, Zoe."