We Have A Kirk (and a Pegg)

Chris Pine--he of the piercing blue eyes and unknown acting ability--is now confirmed as Kirk, though not yet by Paramount. (Pine was being sought for two high-profile films. The director of the other film, Joe Carnahan, just posted to his blog that Pine won't appear in White Jazz because he "opted to 'go where no man has gone before.")

Trekmovie.com has a bit more, but has apparently crashed.

And, as everyone now knows, (my beloved) Simon Pegg (who co-created the funniest sitcom in history, Spaced) has signed-on to play Scotty.

Casting is ongoing for some supporting parts--Kirk's parents, Captain Christopher Pike (Kirk's predecessor on the Enterprise)--but the main cast is now complete.

So once again, and (I swear) for the last time (ha ha):

Kirk--Chris Pine
(Young) Spock--Zach Quinto
McCoy--Karl Urban
Uhura--Zoe Saldana
Scotty--Simon Pegg
Sulu--John Cho
Chekov--Anton Yelchin

(Old) Spock--Leonard Nimoy
Nero (the Romulan heavy)--Eric Bana

According to Trekmovie:

Pre-production on the new Star Trek feature film is in full force right now. Most of the Bad Robot team including director J.J. Abrams have moved onto the Paramount lot in the last month and according to sources their little golf carts can be seen speeding all over the place. Most design work is complete and construction has been on going since September on a number of Paramount stages, including 4, 8, 9, 14 and 15…all of which have seen past Trek productions. Stages 8 and 9 have the most Trek history, having been in almost constant use for Trek films and TV from 1978 (Phase II/TMP) through 2005 (ENT). The production is also still expected to use some stages on the Universal lot as well.

Shooting begins the first week of November, and is expected to continue through March with extensive location shooting in Southern California and a tentatively scheduled two weeks in Iceland. Budget is about $120-160 million (making this more than twice as expensive as the last Trek movie... which itself was one of the more expensive Trek movies ever made.)

The movie will be released on Christmas Day 2008.