Do you have any other projects in the works?
Well, I had the opportunity to play a small part in Star Trek, so I’m looking forward to that. I can’t tell you anything about that, but that was a thrill for me. My husband and I worked on the makeup effects for Star Trek. He designed some of them, so that’s the thing we’re looking forward to most. Hopefully we’ll be working on something else in January. We don’t know what that will be yet, but hopefully it’ll be a really fun job.
Things continue to ramp up to Thursday's start date for Star Trek 2 (or 12) with yet another casting announcement. Joseph Gatt will join the film in an unknown role but considering his role as the frost giant Grundroth in Thor, I suspect it will likely be a villain alien. He looks like he might make for one massive Klingon or an Orion pirate.
Entertainment Weekly has revealed that Nazneen Contractor will play the wife to Doctor Who's Noel Clarke in the Star Trek sequel that will start principle photography. The lovely Nazneen Contractor is probably most known in the States in the states for season 8 of 24. Exactly how much time these will have on screen is unknown but I am thinking these are minor speaking roles used to help setup the story much like the Kirk family was used in the first movie.
I am seriously starting to think that JJ Abrams and company are as huge geeks as I am as they have tapped two BBC stars to join the cast of Star Trek 12. TrekMovie is reporting that Benedict Cumberbatch has been tapped to play a villain while Variety reports that Noel Clarke will play a "family man with a wife and young daughter." 
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.
Variety is reporting that Edgar Ramirez (Vantage Point, left pic) is the current front runner to replace Benicio Del Toro in the Star Trek sequel with Jordi Molla (Colombiana, right pic) also in the running. It seems whatever the villain role is for, it requires a latin male. Ricardo Montalban, who orginiated the role of Khan and reprised it for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, was from Mexico so definitely a plus in the Khan column. At this point, based on what I am reading, entertainment blogs and fandom in general have settled on Khan being the big bad of the Star Trek sequel. If Khan isn't the big bad, JJ Abrams and Paramount needs to seriousily consider revealing what the role is for as anything other than Khan will be viewed as a disappointment the more this rumor is allowed to fester.
NY Magazine's Vulture blog reports that Benicio Del Toro will not be playing the big bad of the Star Trek sequel. It seems contract negotiations fell through last Wednesday due terms of payment. This brings up a few questions. Does this mean Peter Weller is his replacement or doing a different role? Does this mean that Khan is back in play as the film's big bad?
Deadline is reporting that Peter Weller (Robocop, 24) has joined the cast of the Star Trek sequel in "a principal role but one they would not specify." The news was confirmed by Weller's PR reps making him the first official new cast member for the sequel. Alice Eve and Benicio Del Toro are likely to join the cast but both are considered to be in the negotiating phase.
The Hollywood Reporter posts that Alice Eve (Entourage, Sex and the City 2) is up for a "big role" in Star Trek 2 that is currently in pre-production for a rumored January start date. There is no information on what the role is but for someone reason as soon as I saw a picture of her, "Yeoman Janice Rand" popped into my head.
Its seems that JJ Abrams love of secrets is already in full bloom when it comes to Star Trek 2. No news on a finished script, when principle photography begin, or even when the film will be released. Yet it seems casting is in full swing as Variety reports that Abrams has found his "big bad" for the film.
Academy Award winner Rachel Weisz has expressed interest in a role in the sequel to Abrams' Star Trek in an interview with Collider to promote her movie Agora. The interview covers more than just Trek, below is just the Trek related portion. As a fan of the lovely Rachel Weisz, I definitely like the idea but I don't see it happening.A lot of Collider readers first discovered you in The Mummy and The Mummy Returns. Would you go back to big visual effects movies again?
RW: Yeah! Yeah! Definitely! Definitely!
Anything potentially on the horizon that you’re looking at, you’re like, “You know what? I would love to do that series.” Like all these different comic book adaptations that are happening. That you go-
RW: Yeah. You know what? I loved Star Trek. I mean, I couldn’t even believe how great, I meant to write (Star Trek director) J.J. Abrams a letter. I haven’t written it yet, though. I just thought- Didn’t you think it was tremendous?
RW: I just thought it was tremendous.
RW: And I’m not a Trekkie. I mean, (Weisz’s longtime fiancé) Darren (Aronofsky) took me thinking, he says, “You’re gonna hate this.” Cause I didn’t grow up watching Star Trek. I mean, I, Dr. Spock, I mean, I vaguely know. But, I loved it. I absolutely—I thought the acting was just phenomenal. Really, really great. So, yeah! No, I’m totally open to doing a big, big blockbuster.
Would you enter in and put your name in the hat for the Star Trek sequel?
RW: Me? I would LOVE to be in the Star Trek sequel! Yeah! I would love to! I better write that letter to J.J.
RW: Yeah, I would love to. No, I was really, wildly impressed by that. I thought it was an incredible piece of work. Yeah. It just had such a freshness and the acting was, the acting blew me away.
I met JJ at an ADR stage a few days later, where he told me the entire plot of the movie (and, for the record, hearing JJ Freakin' Abrams tell you the plot of his Star Trek is even more awesome than you'd expect) and showed me some of the scenes that I'd be dubbing. I ended up providing voices for all the Romulans on Nero's ship, including the guy who tells him that "it's time" at the very beginning of the movie. (Yeah, how cool is that?)
"I actually approached Matt and we had some discussions, but everything happens for a reason. On the one hand, it would have been great to work with Matt - but at the end of the day, it was such a better move to cast the movie with unknowns…. It is fun to discover the stars of tomorrow, but even more so, just like with the first Star Wars, you didn’t know who those people were when you saw the movie. You believed that guy was Luke Skywalker. You didn’t recognize him from six other movies. You bought into who this guy was. It is a slippery slope when you cast any actor that is somewhat known. We weren’t beholden to any fame meter.”
IGN spoke briefly with actress Tania Gunadi (Aaron Stone) about her small role in Star Trek where she plays a Starfleet Academy Cadet. Thanks to Brian for the link.IGN: can you talk at all about your role in Star Trek?
Gunadi: Well, I did sign a contract where I can't say anything! But I think it's okay to say that I am playing a Starfleet Cadet.
IGN: Right. I saw that listed on imdb.
Gunadi: Yeah. It's a small role. I worked for three days and they were shooting for about four months. But I will say that I am an alien. I'm one of the aliens. I must say that the makeup took about four or five hours to put on and two hours to take off – to remove. It's pretty cool, but I can't tell you what the alien is.
IGN: What was it like working on a such a large production?
Gunadi: It was amazing. J.J. Abrams is so nice. He's so nice and everyone was so cool. They make sure you can breathe [under the makeup] and they take care of you. No one was stuck up or anything. And the food was so good! [Laughs] And I love food! There was lots of green screen.
