Bruce Greenwood (Admiral Pike) commented to IFC about the motivation to keep as much of Star Trek sequel secret as possible. He also commented to Collider on his Pike role in the sequel by simply saying "wait to be revealed" on how much his Pike character will be in the film (if at all)."So the audience can have an experience that isn’t complicated by having to pretend they don’t know what happens. It makes it trickier to conceal things so that when you see it for the first time you don’t know what’s coming, but that’s okay. You can’t blame people for being interested and excited, trying to find out. But everyone who’s involved in the film is committed to keeping it under wraps."(via TrekMovie)
Bruce Greenwood (The River) recently spoke briefly with Crave Online about his role of Christopher Pike in the Star Trek sequel that is currently filming. As usual the Trek cone of silence is in effect so no film details were provided.Crave Online: J. J. Abrams said he starts shooting the "Star Trek" sequel on Thursday. Are you back on the set?
Bruce Greenwood: Yeah, I was in rehearsal yesterday.
Crave Online: How is it going?
Bruce Greenwood: It’s great. It’s great to be back with the gang again. It’s really very fun, it’s a good script. I can’t say anything about it.
Crave Online: Are you happy with the way Captain Pike is being handled?
Bruce Greenwood: Of course, yeah. I’m really content with it so it’s a great script.
Crave Online: Is the cast more of a whole now that they’ve done the first movie together?
Bruce Greenwood: Yeah, it’s a family.
The last several months (really years) has been one long dry spell of useful news on the Star Trek sequel front. Suddenly today multiple pieces of information has come out that might be of interest to fans such as a new cast member, no TOS cast invited, Khan reportedly out (again), and Trek will not film in real 3D.
On the Star Trek sequel front, there really isn't much to talk about. The script is in the works but it is unlikely that a draft will be completed until the end of the year. In the meantime, here are three links that you might find interesting.“I can hardly wait,” said Greenwood, talking about the sequel to J.J. Abrams’s Star Trek reboot. Greenwood has spoken to Abrams about Star Trek XII, and Greenwood’s participation in the film. “…there are no guarantees,” said Greenwood. “J.J., one of the nicest guys on the planet, has indicated there will be a place in the project for me.”
TrekMovie: What is interesting about your character is that even though it was originated by another actor, there was only the one episode. So did you find it was a little easier for you compared to the other guys, as you had a lot more freedom to work with?
Greenwood: There is less of Hunter’s Pike in the history, but having said that, and you know this better than anybody, once part of Star Trek, it is indelible. Whatever imprint you make can’t be undone. I went back and looked at Pikes dilemma as face by Hunter and then I realized it is very different than the dilemma that my Pike faces. Having said that, they are both tremendously passionate people. The risk I was taking was with Kirk and not with my own future per se.
TrekMovie: Fair enough. There is one decision he makes in the film that still has me scratching my head and this is probably a question for Bob [Orci], but when Pike makes Kirk first officer and Spock is like ‘are you joking?’ Did you ask Bob or JJ why is he doing this? Did it make sense to you?
Greenwood: It made sense to me. What I intuit about Kirk’s ability to command can hardly be put into words. It is just that sense that the kid is incredibly rough and has a terrible bedside manner and can be abusive as with the scenario. I was not happy with the scenario [Kobayashi Maru]. We shot something in which I said to him as we are walking away after we get the emergency call, we shot something where I say "cheating is not winning." I had a long conversation with JJ About that and because I felt it was important for Pike to let Kirk know that this was not evidence of a perfect mind — this was not particularly impressive. On a technical level yes, but in terms of the lesson that he was meant to learn, it was more like what Spock says. Having said that, he has a sense of what it is going to take to prevail that is informed by his gene pool.
Simon Pegg gives Scotty a bio Montgomery Scott was born on March 3rd 2222, in Linlithgow, West Lothian. His parents eventually moved him and his brother Robert to Aberdeen, where his sister Clara was born. An exceptional student Scotty (or Mad Monty as his friends called him) was advanced forward several years in the educational system, meaning his intellectual peers were all at University age, whilst he was a mere 14. As a result, he spent much of his time crawling the pubs of Aberdeen with is friends, drinking and getting into fights about thermodynamics and quantum mechanics with men twice his size. At the age of 16, he came to the attention of professors at the Advanced Relativistic Physics Department at Glasgow University, after disproving the Prerera Theory (regarding photon torpedo detonation) and was transferred to study there for a year (where he really picked up the accent) before being accepted to Starfleet Academy on a scholarship. However he deferred his placement in favor of practical experience in space, working aboard mining ships and freighters, in particular the USS Deirdre, where he fell in love with engineering. Eventually he attended Starfleet and finished top of his graduating year, although the honor was later stripped due to disciplinary action taken against him due to “highly speculative and dangerous experiments with matter transfer”.Thanks to Brian for the Zoe and Cho links, and TrekMovie.com for the rest.
Now that you just landed the role of Captain Pike, a name only recognized within the sci-fi community but still bigger when you think of the legions of Star Trek fans. Are you prepared to play a character that is huge in its own right?
BG: The expectations I’m not familiar with that because it was a similar dilemma with playing JFK in ‘Thirteen Day’; even that was an opportunity where you would get criticized heavily. That just comes with the territory. No matter who you are playing or what you are playing. You do a movie and people criticize it. They either like it or they don’t.
Which do you think is tougher to play, JFK or Pike?
BG: It’s riskier to do Pike than it was to do Kennedy because on a certain level Kennedy is so huge on the public’s mind that nobody expects you to do it perfectly. I think the Trekkies are more likely to have expectations that are cut marble.
Have you started to do your research on the character?
BG: I’ve got a lot of homework to do. Having said that, the script, which I can’t talk about, is pretty good and quite different from the last few Star Trek movies.
AICN is reporting that the role of Captain Christopher Pike will be played by Bruce Greenwood. Pike was the second Captain of the Enterprise (after Robert April) and before James T Kirk. Greenwood's face is one of those faces probably seen in may TV shows and movies even if may not recognize the name. A consistently good actor that doesn't get the recognition he deserves.
