On his personal blog, director Joe Carnahan (Smokin' Aces) has pretty much confirmed that Chris Pine will play Captain James T Kirk in JJ Abrams much anticipated kick up the thrusters reboot of Star Trek.
As a little back story, it was said earlier this week that Pine was choosing between Kirk and the role of Junior Stemmons in Carnahan's next movie White Jazz, an adaptation of James Ellroy's novel about a policeman who does a little work on the side as a hitman. At the time, Carnahan would not confirm Pine's choosing between the two, but today he posted here saying that:
"The young man playing Junior Stemmons has opted to '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. You don't get opportunities like that often and I told him as long as he could control as much of that process a possible and not get sucked into doing lesser sequels as a result of taking this gig, then good luck and God bless".
"Go where no man has gone before"? That's some subtle code there, Joe. So, unless everyone had got Pine wrongly pegged as the man for Trek and White Jazz, then this is all but a definite.
We haven't seen much from Pine that gives enough evidence to make much of a judgement on whether he's the best man for the job. He didn't have a lot to do but be swooned at in The Princess Diaries 2 and Just My Luck (we're really wondering why we've seen those), but he was unrecognisable and completely off-kilter as one of the bizarre Tremor brothers in Smokin' Aces, suggesting he's more than a Rent-A-Romantic-Interest. He seems to have the charm necessary. What do you think, Trekkers?