Star Trek Cameo Buzz!
Who is being eyed for Captain Pike?
by
IGN Staff
August 6, 2007 - IGN has learned from a trusted source that director J.J. Abrams would like to have an A-list star cameo in his forthcoming big-screen reboot of
Star Trek. According to our source -- whose scoops have always panned out in the past -- Abrams is wooing his
Mission: Impossible III star Tom Cruise to cameo in
Star Trek ... as Captain Christopher Pike!
Cruise's name first surfaced last fall as a possibility for a role in
Trek, but Cruise spokesman Arnold Robinson advised TrekMovie.com at the time, "That story is not true." There was still bad blood between Cruise and
Trek studio Paramount at that time, but in recent months Sumner Redstone, the Viacom honcho who ousted Cruise, has softened his rhetoric, leaving the door open for reconciliation. A Cruise cameo in
Trek, however, would be a favor to Abrams and not to Paramount.
Again, we stress that Abrams is said to only be talking to Cruise at this point; that doesn't mean Cruise will actually agree to do it. And just so you know, Cruise's camp balked at our March scoop for the comedy
Men, which
Variety confirmed last month. Cruise's last big-screen cameo was in
Austin Powers in Goldmember.
And if you think this Cruise stuff is crazy then you don't even want to know which A-lister we were told Paramount is trying to land to play the villain!
Trekkers know that Pike was James T. Kirk's predecessor as captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise and Mr. Spock's first commanding officer. Pike was the captain in the original and unaired TV pilot, "The Cage," where he was portrayed by the late Jeffrey Hunter.
When NBC balked at the cerebral nature of the show and wanted a new, action-heavy pilot filmed, Hunter was unavailable so a new character, Captain Kirk, was created. The unaired pilot was later recycled for the two-part first season episode "The Menagerie," which saw Spock court-martialed for trying to take a disfigured Pike back to Talos IV, the setting of "The Cage." In
Trek lore, Spock served with Pike for about a decade.
Cruise is currently shooting
Valkyrie with director Bryan Singer, himself a Trekker who made an uncredited cameo in 2002's
Star Trek: Nemesis. Hunter was 38 when he shot "The Cage"; Cruise is 45.
So, if it all comes together, what do you think of Tom Cruise playing Captain Pike? Sound off in the Comments section below!
Source: IGN