A few weeks ago I heard that Paramount is planning a “reboot” of the Star Trek franchise with a new movie and new cast, set to be directed by J.J. Abrams, the fella behind Alias, Lost and this summer’s Mission Impossible 3, which I really liked.
When I read this news I immediately started thinking about who I would cast in the two major roles: Kirk and Spock.
My first two thoughts of who should play Kirk were Mark Wahlberg and Matt Damon. I’ve liked both of them in just about everything they’ve done, and both seem to have the facial look, acting range and intensity to play Kirk. I was a little bit excited to read that apparently, Abrams feels the same way about Damon.
The real question now is, who should play Spock? That one seems a lot tougher. Leonard Nimoy has that long, chiseled face, and that deep, baratone voice that instantly gives his character’s intellectual superiority real credibility. It’s tough to imagine someone taking his spot.
The first people I’d put on my list would be Damien Lewis and Paul Bettany. It’s unfortunate that neither of them look like Nimoy’s Spock very much (and I have no idea what they would look like with black wigs) but both are the sort of actors in possession of the right mix of experience and talent that could immediately embody Spock and make it work.
I loved Damien Lewis in Band of Brothers, and thought he did a great job of bringing Richard Winters to life as an intelligent, calm, disciplined officer with brilliant leadership skills and excellent tactical thinking. He showed he’s completely capable of playing a character that is a leader among men, and highly intelligent. I’m surprised Lewis hasn’t done more mainstream, big production movie stuff yet (although he did turn up in the adaptation of Stephen King’s Dreamcatcher), because I think he’s a bigtime star waiting to happen. I’d call him the English Harrison Ford, if he ever decides he wants to go in that direction with his career.
Paul Bettany is a different guy from Lewis, but I loved his work in A Knight’s Tale and A Beautiful Mind, and I thought the intensity he showed in this summer’s DaVinci Code as the self-flagellation monk was really good. He’s shown enough range that I think he could play Spock pretty well, with all his Vulcan mannerism and unintential comedic nuances (like Spock’s classic eyebrow raise he’s always giving to Bones that says, “Are you really that stupid doctor?”) Come to think of it, he could probably play Bones pretty well too.
My challenge to you, then, is to come up with some other choices. Who should play Spock in this “reboot” of the Star Trek francise?