Film
922: Star Trek
Trivia: In
a UK interview with Edith Bowman
on BBC Radio 1, Matt Damon
mentioned that he called J.J. Abrams
when he heard rumors that he was being considered for the role of Captain Kirk.
The response from Abrams was a very polite "no". He explained that
Damon was "too old" for the role.
Randy Pausch, a Carnegie-Mellon Computer Science professor
(and "Star Trek" fan) who gained widespread fame as the author of a
"Last Lecture" in which he discussed living the life of his dreams in
the face of terminal pancreatic cancer, appears as the Kelvin officer in the
beginning. Pausch wrote in his blog about the experience, "I got a
custom-made Star Trek uniform and my own station on the bridge, where I had
lots of buttons and controls. I even got a LINE!!!!" Pausch died on July
25, 2008; his paycheck of $217.06 from working on the film was donated to
charity.
J.J. Abrams' only two choices for Nero were Russell Crowe and Eric Bana.
There is
a supposed "odd-numbered movie curse" associated with the Star Trek
films in which the odd-numbered films tend to be weaker and the even-numbered
ones tend to be stronger. This curse was supposedly proved false with the poor
reception of film ten, Star Trek: Nemesis
This new Star Trek is the eleventh film. Years
before, Simon Pegg's character in Spaced joked that every odd-numbered Star Trek film being
"shit" was a fact of life. Pegg noted: "Fate put me in the movie
to show me I was talking out of my ass."
To
prepare for his role as Spock, Zachary Quinto
grew his hair longer and dyed it, and shaved his eyebrows. He claimed that the
change in appearance cemented his performance: "I just felt like a nerd. I
felt like I was 12 again, you look back at those pictures and you see the bowl
cut. I was sporting that look for a good 4 or 5 years. There's no question I
was born to play Spock."
J.J. Abrams claimed it was surreal to direct Leonard Nimoy as Spock: "This guy has been doing it
for forty years!"
The
outdoor scene on Vulcan viewed by Spock's mother, Amanda (Winona Ryder), is based on multiple repetitions of the
iconic profile of the Vasquez Rocks Natural Park Area just north of Los Angeles
along State Highway 14. The rocks have a highly recognizable weathered peak
that rises at a 45 degree angle to the horizon. Nine episodes of the original
series, including Star Trek: Shore Leave,
Star Trek: Arena, Star Trek: The Alternative Factor, and Star Trek: Friday's Child, had scenes filmed in this area.
Leonard Nimoy, Majel Barrett, William Morgan Sheppard, Greg Ellis and Paul Townsend are the only actors to appear in the film
who had previously appeared in "Star Trek".
Winona Ryder, who plays Spock's mother, Amanda, is only 6
years older than Zachary Quinto,
who plays Spock, and is 24 years younger than Ben Cross who plays her husband. Ryder was cast in the
role (instead of an actress who was actually old enough to be Quinto's mother)
because the movie originally was to start with a scene of Amanda giving birth
to Spock, but that scene was cut.
Between
scenes, Anton Yelchin, 'Bruce Greenwood' and John Cho played chess against each other.
When the
film premiered at Sydney's Opera House on April 7 2009, there was spontaneous
applause from the audience when Leonard Nimoy
first appeared onscreen.
