Melbourne
(ANI):
Actor
Chris
Pine
has
been
confirmed
as
the
new
Captain
Kirk
in
JJ
Abrams" Star
Trek.
The
news
comes
from
none
other
than
filmmaker
Joe
Carnahan
who
announced
the
signing
on
his
blog.
Carnahan
revealed
that
Pine
had
turned
down
his
movie
White
Jazz
because
he
had
accepted
the
lead
role
in
Star
Trek.
“The
young
man
playing
Junior
Stemmons
has
opted
to
'boldly
go
where
no
man
has
gone
before' and
thus,
had
to
bow
out
of
White
Jazz
.
I've
been
talking
to
him
this
past
week
and
knew
how
tough
the
decision
had
to
be
for
him.I
don't
envy
ever
being
in
that
spot
but
I
gave
him
my
full
support,
even
if
it
meant
he
didn't
do
Jazz.
I
get
it,"
Moviehole
quoted
him,
as
writing
on
his
blog.
“You
don't
get
opportunities
like
that
often
and
I
told
him
as
long
as
he
could
control
as
much
of
that
process
as
possible
and
not
get
sucked
into
doing
lesser
sequels
as
a
result
of
taking
this
gig,
then
good
luck
and
God
bless.
We're
sure
to
do
something
down
the
road.
I've
already
slotted
him
in
for
Killing
Pablo," he
added.
Already
on
board
to
star
in
the
movie
are
Eric
Bana,
Anton
Yelchin,
Zachary
Quinto,
Zoe
Saldana
and
Leonard
Nimoy.
Abrams
now
needs
to
fill
in
the
place
of
Federation
captain.Bana
has
signed
on
to
star
as
villain
Nero.
Zachary
Quinto
and
Leonard
Nimoy
will
both
be
playing
Mr.
Spock,
while
Saldana
will
be
playing
Uhura,
the
communications
officer
on
the
USS
Enterprise.Yelchin
will
be
playing
Pavel
Chekov,
a
Russian
Starfleet
officer.
Abrams
is
also
producing
"Star
Trek"
through
his
Paramount-based
Bad
Robot
shingle.
The
movie
will
revolve
around
the
crew's
early
days
at
Starfleet
Academy,
Alex
Kurtzman
and
Roberto
Orci
wrote
the
screenplay
and
will
exec
produce
alongside
Bryan
Burk
and
Damon
Lindelof.
The
film
is
set
for
a
Christmas
Day
2008
release.