Little-known actor Chris Pine has been chosen to play the young Captain Kirk in the new Star Trek movie. Pine’s most familiar role opposite Lindsay Lohan (NSFW pic) in “Just My Luck” in 2006. The balance of the announced cast is looking pretty strong.

Here is what the teaser movie poster looks like:

The film, which chronicles the early days of the Enterprise crew, will be released in the US on 25 December 2008. I can’t think of too many better Christmas gifts…well, I can but with JJ Abrams at the helm of Star Trek XI, the odds are quite good that the film will be boffo. There is that nagging Star Trek Movie Curse to avoid however so here’s hoping they dodge that sword of damacles. Now if we can just get Abrams to get Lost episodes out more quickly!

The movie will show the crew meeting at the Starfleet Academy and embarking on their first mission. It is rather hard to think that every buddy you would make at the academy would all show up for one of the most coveted jobs in the Starfleet (aka on the [Enterprise) is a bit of a stretch, but suspension of disbelief is my movie mantra. Besides, reworking the legacy of well know film properties has worked for James Bond and for Batman so this strategy should prove to work well for Star Trek.

Paramount Pictures is behind the film so you can expect the proper investments will be made. Shooting is expected to begin in November 2007.

The most recent Trek film, Star Trek: Nemesis, was released in 2003 so there has been plenty of time for that film to have faded from the old memory banks and allow a new team to take our imaginations where ‘no man has gone before’.

Here is what we know so far about the cast:

Captain Kirk – Chris Pine

Kirk’s Dad – Chris Hemsworth is coming out of nowhere to play George Kirk (James T’s dad) according to Variety.

Older Mr Spock – Leonard Nimoy (what other actor had it so good? Long live Spock! He finally gets to play a Sarek role)

Young Mr Spock – Zachary Quinto (you hate him on Heroes as the arch nemesis Sylar) UPDATE: Follow this link for first look pics from the set including this shot of young Mr. Spock aka Quinto (courtesy of JFXonline – their watermark):

Scotty – Simon Pegg (a nice choice! Remember Diary of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and Grindhouse?)

Nero – Eric Bana (I’m not a huge fan of Bana and I thank the movie gods that he was bumped from playing Wolverine in X-Men for Hugh Jackman who I thought did a bang-up job. Since no one knows what role “Nero” is set to play bank on the character name making him a chief rival to the ‘young’ Kirk) Update: Rumor has it that the Nero character will be Romulan.

Ayel – Clifton Collins Jr. An actor that is on the rise will play a General and cohort sucking up to Nero played by Bana.

Uhura – Zoe Saldana (Smokin’ hot is all I have to say..remember the hot pirate from Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl?)

Chekov – Anton Yelchin (An actor born in the USSR should bring authenticity to this role even though he’s a bit unknown)

Sulu – John Cho (Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle actor…not exactly a recommendation but we have hopes).

Leonard ‘Bones’ McCoy – Karl Urban You may recall Karl as Eomer in Lord of the Rings and the main nemesis in the Bourne Supremacy.

Amanda Grayson aka Spock’s Mom – Winona Ryder was recently announced as taking on this role which was played by Jane Wyatt on the original series. Which begs the question of who will play the younger Sarek? It would be odd to see Winona play opposite Winona as young Spock’s mom and dad. Since she is only six years older than Quinto as young Spock, there is either heavy makeup to be seen (we hope not) or flashbacks in store (again, not preferable but who knows…)

Christopher Pike – Bruce Greenwood will play the role which was to be the original captain of the Enterprise. In the pilot Pike was played by Jeffrey Hunter who later bailed out after the pilot was rejected thus making room for Kirk. Hs role as the first captain of the Enterprise was written back in with The Menagerie episode, one of the original series best imo.

It seems like if you worked with Abrams on Alias you have a shoo-in to be in this film (check out the IMDB.com on the actor profiles and you’ll see what I mean). That being said there are three additional actors announced for the film but not tied to specific roles yet which are: Rachel Nichols, Jennifer Morrison, and Greg Grunberg of Heroes.
Roberto Orci is the co-screenwriter who worked with Abrams on the tv show Alias. Let’s hope he has some chops for the big screen. His upcoming Amazon sounds intriguing especially if the rumored actress is cast. He has another big film with mega budget but hit and miss director Michael Bay at the helm called 2012: The War For Souls. He is rumored to be a big fan so that offers significant hope. The other co-screenwriter is Alex Kurtzman. Kurtzman is best know for his work on Transformers and MI:III. Check out a very good and lengthy interview with Orci about the new film here.

The Reykavik-based newspaper DV confirmed that representatives of Paramount are actively working with the local Icelandic film company Sagafilm in order to find suitable filming locations for the 11th movie outing of the franchise. Iceland, in addition to having undisturbed robust vistas, allows film production companies to reclaim up to 14% of their production costs. Not bad for film work, eh?

The long time production designer is being passed over for new blood as well so don’t be surprised if you see some things very different about this new (old aka prequel) Star Trek.

Abrams and Paramount are pretty smart about how to set the marketing in motion as well. There is a planned Star Trek: The Tour launching in January 2008 which will preface the film nicely I would think. Sign up for news on that here.

The cool blog trekmovie.com even created their own trailer. Check it out:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpy3zn3okd0]

Updated:   Check out the new (old) Enterprise!