Urban, Pine Sign for Trek XI; Shatner Not (Yet) On Board

The ink is on the contracts: Chris Pine will play Jim Kirk in the upcoming Star Trek movie, Karl Urban will play Leonard McCoy, and veteran designer John Eaves will be illustrating some of the ships for the film. But don't count on seeing William Shatner just yet.

The Hollywood Reporter confirmed the signing of Pine and Urban, stating that Pine had indeed dropped out of the George Clooney film White Jazz to take on the iconic Star Trek role originated by Shatner. While Los Angeles-born Pine is not particularly well-known to genre audiences, New Zealander Urban brings a following from Hercules and Xena, The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Riddick as well as The Bourne Supremacy.

As for Shatner himself, TrekMovie.com insisted that any possible role for him is not yet guaranteed. An Ain't It Cool News editor had commented on a bulletin board that Shatner's woeful statements that he would not be in the film were false (story). However, TrekMovie.com's sources told the site that no final decision has been reached about Shatner's appearance. "It is a 'lie' to say Shatner definitely will not be in the film, but it would also be a lie to say that he definitely will be in the film," noted TrekMovie.com.

TrekMovie.com has also reported that Eaves - an illustrator for Deep Space Nine, Enterprise and the Next Generation movies - is working on Star Trek alongside Trek newcomer Ryan Church, whose credits include the Star Wars prequels and this summer's Transformers blockbuster, which was written by Star Trek scribes Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci.

Eaves designed the Enterprise NCC 1701-E for the movies and the Enterprise NX-01 for Star Trek: Enterprise. TrekMovie.com said that contrary to an IESB report that the original Enterprise would undergo a major overhaul, "the Enterprise has been redesigned but it still recognizable as the USS Enterprise...complete with saucer, hull and two nacelles."

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