We’ve passed along plenty of the dish surrounding J.J. Abrams‘ upcoming Star Trek reboot, including a whole lotta casting buzz — but amidst all the Kirk, Spock, and Chekov gossip, there hasn’t been much speculation regarding who might play one of the franchise’s most iconic roles: Communications officer Uhura.
That all changed yesterday, when IGN Movies — drawing on a post at TrekMovie — reported that Abrams’ Uhura might be none other than Zoe Saldana. Though she isn’t widely known, Saldana seems poised to break out; after paying her dues with roles in films such as Get Over It and Britney Spears‘ Crossroads, she’s lined up a number of high-profile projects for 2008 and beyond, including Vantage Point and James Cameron‘s Avatar.
It’s Avatar that could prevent Saldana from signing on as the new Uhura, actually. According to TrekMovie:
“The deal is not yet final and one outstanding issue may be related to her schedule starring in the James Cameron sci-fi mega movie Avatar which is still in production. Sources indicate that Avatar will be doing location shooting starting in October and Star Trek is slated to start shooting in November.”
The article goes on to point out that Saldana’s appearance on the short-lived Abrams series Six Degrees could give her an inside track for the role. Like most of America, we never watched an episode of the show, so we can neither confirm nor deny.
Elsewhere in the IGN report, we find possible Star Trek XI plot details, spoiled by the gang at Ain’t It Cool News. As always, we will refrain from sharing them here; suffice it to say the AICN crew claims to know how and why the film features two Spocks. If you simply can’t help yourself from gorging on kinda-sorta vaguely spoiler-ish advance info, follow the link below!
Source: IGN Movies
