Chris Pine, Hemsworth Out of Star Trek 4

It seems the future of Star Trek 4 is now in doubt as Chris Pine and Chris Hemsworth deals have fallen through. Technically the movie could go forward but the rumored script always had a focus on Kirk and the mysterious return of his dad. Without either actor that means the existing script would likely have to be scrapped unless they just choose to recast both roles.

The reason for the failure to sign the two actors is pretty simple - money. The stars of both have risen significantly since the first movie, especially for Chris Hemworth. Chris Pine, thanks to the Wonder Woman films, is likely asking for a significant raise while Hemsworth is probably asking for near Marvel level bucks for his appearance which I would estimate is in the ~$10 million range. Also keep in mind with the #metoo movement that whatever pay that applies to those two would like result in similar pay being applied to Zoe Saldana with the remaining cast mates also then demanding a pay bump. Considering the $190M budget of Star Trek Beyond only returned $343M in worldwide box office, from Paramount perspective blowing ~1/3 of the budget just on salary isn't a wise return on investment. Sadly I am unable to disagree.

I do get both perspectives, especially for Chris Hemsworth. He is coming off carrying the Thor movies, Avengers 3 and general critical acclaim for whatever role he takes on. For example, he was about the only bright spot in the Ghostbusters reboot. In short, he has a strong argument to demand a high pay as he has a recent and strong argument that he puts butts in seats. Actually being true or not (cause being Marvel movies does a lot of the heavy lifting on that) doesn't matter, that is the perception that has often driven salary demands of this kind in the past.

The opposite of that argument ironically is Chris Pine. He has no proven box office record to speak of. He would point to Wonder Woman but he had nothing to do with the success of that movie. Literally any random male could have been in the same role and had the same impact box office wise. Really if need proof that he has no impact on box office results just look at his inability to put butts in seats for the dismal opening weekend of A Wrinkle in Time (which to be fair is a study on how to fail as a director in every way). In short, Chris Hemsworth can easily afford to hold the line on pay and pass on the movie. Chris Pine, frankly, cannot make the same argument despite is weird appearance in Wonder Woman 2.

What this all means is now Paramount has to decide if they are even moving forward with Star Trek 4 and then decide what new direction to take the story since the one in the works for the last year or so is out while hoping they can work something out with one or both actors. Often time pay scale in the Hollywood world is a sign of prestige in a film. For example the order that actor names appear on posters and in opening credits of a film can often be a hotly contested act when its multiple big name actors in a film that can be the result of months of negotiations to sort out (nope not kidding) and pay is similar. I don't see a scenario where Paramount is willing to meet Hemsworth's pay demands so once they resolve themselves to removing him from the equation, then Chris Pine can retain top pay and top name status which might be enough to get him to come back to the table for a payday they are willing to meet.

I guess the short of this is once again Star Trek 4 has returned to limbo and the movie future remains uncertain. At least the TV franchise's future remains strong.

Pine, Boutella and Giacchino Comment on Star Trek Beyond

Britain Sci-fi and fantasy magazine SPX's next cover story is about Star Trek Beyond. The issue doesn't come out until June 22 but TrekMovie.com has posted a few quotes they received. Below are the two key ones. In addition, Star Trek composer Michael Giacchino discusses the differences in score tone between the first two films and the third one.

Chris Pine on Star Trek today:

“You can’t make a cerebral Star Trek in 2016. It just wouldn’t work in today’s marketplace. You can hide things in there – Star Trek Into Darkness has crazy, really demanding questions and themes, but you have to hide it under the guise of wham-bam explosions and planets blowing up. It’s very, very tricky. The question that our movie poses is “Does the Federation mean anything?” And in a world where everybody’s trying to kill one another all of the time, that’s an important thing. Is working together important? Should we all go our separate ways? Does being united against something mean anything?”

Sofia Boutella about Jaylah:

“Jaylah is a survivor, and she is someone who thinks outside of the box. She’s an alien warrior, but her look is relatable to humans; her alien appearance in the film is not extreme. She has more in common with Kirk than anyone else in the film; they’re both very independent, and they’re both very honest and direct in their approach. She makes her own weapons.”

Michael Giacchino on Trek scores:

Week Five To Bold Go Charity Video

A new video has been posted to support the Star Trek: To Boldly Go Omaze charity, this time with Chris Pine and Idris Elba as they argue over the captain's chair to kind of play up the good guy vs bad guy roles the two are playing in Star Trek 3. To donate to the charity for a chance to win a walk on role or set visit click here.

Pine, Quinto Re-Up for Raise and Star Trek 4 as Star Trek 3 Nears Production Start Date

Star Trek 3 stars Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto have signed contracts that give them significant raises for Star Trek Beyond while also locking the pair down for Star Trek 4. Chris Pine went from under $1 million for the second Trek to $6 million while the the raise for Quinto was not mentioned but The Hollywood Reporter estimates that raises added an additional $10 to $15 million to the film's budget. The news comes just as Quinto and Zoe Saldana recently posted images of them going to costume fittings and what may be the beginning of principle photography based on some reports. However Star Trek 3 producer David Ellison spoke with Collider and said "we start shooting in 10 days and we're shooting in Vancouver and Dubai." More likely set and costume prep has begun in Vancouver as it seems unlikely filming would begin now to just have to close up shop for the Fourth of July weekend so the week of July 6th start date is more credible.

I have to admit I am very surprised by Chris Pine signing on to another movie as he and Zoe Saldana just seemed to really begrudge being part of Star Trek. It always felt like they were going through the motions, faking their interest but really only interested in the higher profile it brought them and it was just a matter of the order they bolted once their 3 film contract ended. Of course part of Pine's re-up could be because his other movie attempts have all fallen way short of expectations as the two Star Trek films are his most successful films to date. Meanwhile Saldana has Guardians of the Galaxy, Avatar 2 and 3 on the horizon. The article doesn't mention the state of her Trek 3 pay or a potential Trek 4 contract so I think its safe to assume she still has at least one foot out the door. Let's put it this way, if rumors start of a character death, I am just going to assume its hers (and nope no such rumor current exists and I am not trying to start one). Star Trek Beyond is set for release on July 8, 2016.

More Star Trek Into Darkness Cast Interviews

Star Trek Into Darkness has premiered in North America but that doesn't mean the marketing campaign stops. In an interview with Collider, STID producer Bryan Burk discussed editing the film, screening the film while maintaining secrecy, easter eggs and a whole lot more including other Bad Robot projects like the various TV shows from this season and next. Simon Pegg remains the example on how to do interesting interviews as he seems to just cause interviewees to ask better questions rather then the generic ones Pine and the rest tend to get. In his interview with Collider, he was in a blunt mood as he talked about maintaining film secrecy, his dislike of people dinging Abrams about his lens flares, and talked provided a few behind the scene antedotes. As for Karl Urban, he talks about trying to add more to McCoy then just sarcasm, film themes, the costumes and more. Alice Eve discusses how her character has a British accent, deleted scene and more. The links to the interviews are below.

Bryan Burk (Collider)
Simon Pegg (Collider)
Damon Lindelof (Collider)
Karl Urban (io9)
Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto (TrekMovie)
Karl Urban and Simon Pegg (TrekMovie)
Alice Eve (TrekMovie)
JJ Abrams (TrekMovie)

Lindelof, Pine, Quinto Talk STID; Moscow Premiere

In new articles from the LA Times and i09, Star Trek Into Darkness leads Chris Pine (Kirk) and Zachary Quinto (Spock) comment on their characters while writer Damon Lindelof spoke about some of the challenges they had in writing the script. Below are the highlights. The io9.com has video of interviews with Quinto and Lindelof while Hero Complex has few more still images from the movie. In addition the Russian premiere of the movie was held Thursday in Moscow with JJ Abrams, Pine, Quinto and Alice Eve in attendance. Click here to check out a gallery of photos from the red carpet.

Highlights

Into Darkness Cast Discuss Movie at CinemaCon

While at CinemaCon being held in Las Vegas, various cast members of Star Trek Into Darkness and writer Damon Lindelof discussed the film before and after an 18 minute preview of the film. Highlights from the videos are below which can be found here here. In a separate video, John Cho (Sulu) discussed the film with Collider. You can find that video here.

Highlights:
- Zachary Quinto: "It is an erroneous notion that [Spock] doesn’t have an emotional life. "Spock’s journey in this film is learning how to honor that emotional life."
- Chris Pine on Kirk: "He is a man who has to learn to censor himself at times and our bad guy–John Harrison–basically levels this mirror in front of Kirk in which he sees all of his vulnerabilities and his fallibility and everything that is wrong with the way he leads his men and women into battle–and he brings him to his knees."

EW Star Trek Into Darkness Cover Story and Images

Entertainment Weekly has released images from their feature article that will hit newsstands on Friday (and available via Apple's Newsstand App now) to go with their covers. As usual with a JJ Abrams production nothing specific is revealed but below are the images and highlights from their cover story. One thing of note that has captured the attention of the blogosphere is EW's title to promote the issue as "Voyage Into The New Star Trek Kirk & Khan" that has since been changed to "Kirk and Spock". Some are seeing it as an accidental reveal of a key story point that Benedict Cumberbatch's real character name is Khan Noonian Singh. While I am on the bandwagon that this a true story point in the film, it has not been officially confirmed by anyone associated with Star Trek Into Darkness and I don't believe EW knows either. It was just an easy title to promote the issue and nothing more.

Highlights:

Chris Pine Talks Kirk and Cumberbatch

JJ Abrams and Benedict Cumberbatch were not the only ones to head to Tokyo to promote Star Trek Into Darkness. Chris Pine was also there and he spoke with GyaO about the growth of Captain Kirk and Cumberbatch's John Harrison character.

I’m different because I am five years older and hopefully a bit more mature and I have had many more experiences since the first film and you can only help that experiences to bear on the character you are portraying at the time. So Kirk is definitely different this time around.

The most difficult aspect of this film was firstly the fact that it was a very physical film so the action sequences are very hard and very long. And then I think too, the journey that my character goes through is a very difficult one and very painful to let myself go through those experiences that Kirk goes through during the course of the film

Benedict is a great actor and portraying a really complex and layered bad guy in this film. And I think that is what really sets him apart, especially from [2009's Star Trek] where Eric Bana did a great job playing our bad guy Nero. His kind of selling point was he was a really mean, brutal, physical bad guy and Benedict plays a guy who is just as physical and just as strong but who is real weapon is the fact that he is a master manipulator and is able to use the weaknesses of the crew to his advantage and against them. A psychological force to be reckoned with.

More from Cast on Star Trek Into Darkness

Below are two videos combining interviews with the cast of Star Trek Into Darkness as they talk about the film from Entertainment Tonight and Access Hollywood. Nothing story wise is really revealed only saying its bigger, better, and gets more into the characters.

More from Trek Cast on Sequel's Big Bad

On the eve of the new Star Trek Into Darkness trailer, JJ Abrams and some of the cast of the film continue to talk about the big bad of the film as played by Benedict Cumberbatch. While he is being called John Harrison, few seem to believe that is the one and only name the character will have in the film.

At this point some thing the whole game is a bit silly since it impedes Abrams desire to make the film as open to non-Trek fans as possible. It is pretty much assumed he is playing a variation of Khan. A theory that I am inclined to stick with too if only when think like Hollywood (aka $$$), going with the villain even non-Trekkies know is worth more then one only the die hards might be familiar with. Pretty much Khan is only one that fits the bill. Below are the highlights and six videos from JJ Abrams, Benedict Cumberbatch (who doesn't actually deny Khan), Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto (who slips up with a Khan name drop in reference to Nero from 1st film) as they talk about the film.

Highlights:

Abrams and Company Promote Star Trek in Toyko

While it seems a bit early, JJ Abrams, Chris Pine, and Benedict Cumberbatch were in Tokyo this week to promote Star Trek Into Darkness to the Tokyo Press. While the event was spoiler free, the translations provided by TrekMovie from Japanese sites Cinematoday, CinemaCafe, and EIGA did have them commenting on the films bad guy, the title and more.

Cumberbatch: (on his character) "He is very ruthless…He is not a clearly good or evil character. He is a villain but the actions he takes has intent and reason. ...He is a complicated character not to be judged by white-or-black, or good-or-evil. But this is the appeal of J.J.’s works and I felt challenge as an actor."

Pine: 2nd Film About Kirk Earning Command

While in London to promote "Rise of the Guardians" that he provides a voice for, Chris Pine commented about Star Trek Into Darkness. As usual he avoid provided any specific spoilers about the film but he did hint about how Kirk grows in the film and Benedict Cumberbatch's performance as the currently unknown big bad of the film.

“Kirk is fun because he is a brash, cocky, bull-headed kind of guy. I think the journey he goes on in this new film is a lot about – the first one was about getting the chair and the second one is about earning it. And I think that’s a big part of his journey.”

“I’ve been so fortunate, Benedict is an incredible talent. He’s did some work in the new ‘Trek’ that I think will blow people away.

“There’s one scene in it that’s like, you know… in all kinds of heavy science fiction there’s got to be the exposition scene where it’s like, what the hell’s going on? It’s a really, really, really hard scene. Not for me, for Benedict – and watching him handle that and to make something that I think, on paper, could have been a death trap for an actor and to see how he [deals with it]…

“I think, also, I know that he did Frankenstein. I never got a chance to see it, but his sense of body and voice… he has great command of his instrument or whatever the hell you want to call it. He’s formidable as an actor and as a character in the story. He’s formidable. He’s a great actor.”

Pine on Star Trek 2: "Not Making Batman"

In an interview with TotalFilm for their sci-fi issue, Chris Pine (Kirk) commented on Star Trek. As usual the cone of secrecy remains in place but he did make an interesting analogy to enforce the tone of Star Trek 2 that will be out next summer.

"We're not making Batman. That's not our deal," Pine told us.

"There's comedy, which I think J.J. does a great job of, but, like the first one, there's some serious issues being dealt with. And I'd say the threat is even greater in this one."

"The force [the Enterprise crew] are met with is much more frightening. It's relentlessly action-packed and in terms of character development it goes places you'd never expect. The arc is huge for all the characters. It's a really big story - I can't hype it enough!"

Chris Pine Talks Trek Sequel

Chris Pine continues the rounds to promote People Like Us that is coming out this Friday. During the various interviews, he occasionally commented on the Star Trek sequel. As usual nothing specific. He told AICN, "the story is that much better and the journey that these guys go on is that much more". People directory Alex Kurtzman also commented say that the movie is not the bridge crew from series "in age nor in experience". By this I think he means that they are still learning about each other and working as a team. Not quite rookies but not the experienced pros Trekkies have been used to from the Star Trek 1-10.

Pine also commented to Red Eye Chicago about taking on the Kirk role and how the crew helped him understand the importance of the role while filming the first movie.

I’m sure [fans] wanted Shatner back with a good makeup job.
CP: Totally. Totally. What was surprising to me … well, I will say this, having not been a born and bred [“Star Trek”] fan, the first time that all of us were on the bridge and I sat in the captain’s chair … looking around, it was like points of light in the audience. When that moment happened, there were real fans in the crew, grips and gaffers, the art department people, they had come just to watch that moment. Because for them it was a really momentous occasion, and I, not really understanding the gravity or the coolness of it, was kind of unaware until I saw these people light up … What it means to sit in that chair is quite powerful. Anyway, the chair became this wonderful, beautiful touchstone that was reflective of not only the journey in the film but also who you are and what you are as a person and how you want to sit in your own chair, for lack of a better metaphor. It was really cool.

TrekMovie has compiled more quotes and videos with Pine and the always stunning Elizabeth Banks as they talked about People and other topics.

Kurtzman and Pine Talk Sets and IMAX

Star Trek 2's Chris Pine (Kirk) and Alex Kurtzman (writer/producer) briefly commented to Collider about the sequel that recently finished principle photography. The pair are promoting Kurtzman's directing debut of People Like Us that is coming out on June 29th. As usual nothing spoilerish was revealed. Kurtzman spoke about the connecting Enterprise sets while Pine spoke about the pressures of a sequel and IMAX footage. It was recently announced that the film will be released in IMAX 3D with certain key scenes shot with IMAX cameras. The key parts are below, you can find the full interview with Alex Kurtzman is here and Chris Pine is here.

Collider: What was it like, the first day back on the Enterprise? Was it an emotional experience?
ALEX KURTZMAN: Oh, yeah, for sure! Me and Bob [Orci] and Damon [Lindelof] and J.J. [Abrams] and Bryan Burk all feel very protective of Star Trek. The studio had wanted it a year earlier and we said, “No, we can’t. We’re not going to be ready and we don’t want to rush this.” We felt very fortunate that the first movie was well received, and the last thing that we wanted to do was destroy that by rushing something. It’s very precious to a lot of people. We love our Trek and we just wanted to keep it safe.

Major Star Trek Spoilers Confirmed

AICN is reporting that they have rumors of three major plot points for the Star Trek sequel that is currently filming. One was leaked yesterday, another was assumed but never officially verified and the last doesn't come as a surprise because of interviews with the writers over the last few years. TrekMovie later is saying these rumors have been confirmed through their sources. Consider this your SPOILER WARNING!

Chris Pine Comments on Cumberbatch Casting

While at the premiere if his new movie This Means War, Chris Pine (Kirk) commented to MTV about the casting of Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock) as the main villain of the movie. Sadly no story details were revealed.

"Benedict is fantastic. He's just so good," Pine told MTV about his scenes with the British actor at the premiere of "This Means War." "He's super talented, and we are more than grateful to have him onboard."

"Benedict has got this intensity about him, and he's obviously extremely intelligent and articulate. His vocal quality is something else. He obviously is, unlike many of us, like, an actually trained actor," Pine added with a laugh. "He actually studied for it."

"[You'll love] everything. He's really talented," Pine said. "I think it's all going to be love — a mad amount of love."

(via TrekMovie)

Kirk vs. Kirk

The image to the left was released to help promote William Shatner's documentary called "The Captains" where he interviews all the captains from the the five television series and the movies including J.J. Abrams Star Trek reboot with Chris Pine as the new Captain of the Enterprise. Considering both the occasional ego but humor that Shatner brings to his projects, it seems like it will be an entertaining movie. (via Bleeding Cool)

Pine, Dawson Talk Star Trek 2 Hopes

Two of the stores in the new film Unstoppable also spoke briefly about Star Trek 2 that is currently in the scripting phase of development. Chris Pine (Kirk) is hoping the sequel will have more humor while his lovely co-star Rosario Dawson is just hoping it will have her.

In an interview with Hollywood Buzz (video below) expressed his faith in the "whole gang" that will be developing the script and the movie while also saying "I do really enjoy the humor in it, hopefully there will be a taste of that in the new one."

Meanwhile self-professed Trekkie Rosario Dawson spoke with Collider about her hope that she can be in the next film and isn't even picky about the role. She said, "...just a Klingon, something, like anything at one point, just go out there and say "Qapla" or something, and then I'd be happy..."