Sherlock actor Benedict Cumberbatch has been on a roll since playing detective Holmes in the acclaimed BBC series. Over recent months he’s appeared in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and Steven Spielberg’s War Horse, and Peter Jackson give him the duty of portraying both Smaug the Dragon (with motion-capture) and The Necromancer in The Hobbit movies.

Now Cumberbatch is about to embark on his most high-profile role to date by taking on a lead role in J.J Abrams’ Star Trek sequel.

According to Deadline who broke the news there’s no word on whether he’ll be a hero or villain, but Variety’s Jeff Sneider says Cumberbatch will be playing the villain, said to be the same role Benicio Del Toro turned down and Edgar Ramirez recently auditioned for. At the time it was suggested the villain would be the genetically engineered superhuman Khan, who Ricardo Montalban famously played in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, but there has been no confirmation to date.

Shooting will begin this month and will finish in June. Chris Pine, Zoe Saldana, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg, Anton Yelchin and John Cho are all returning, along with new additions Alice Eve and Peter Weller. The sequel will be released by Paramount on May 17th, 2013.

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When Paramount announced they’d be releasing J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek sequel in May 2013 it was mentioned the movie would be in 3D, giving the assumption Abrams would be shooting his first 3D film. However in a new interview Abrams said he would be shooting in 2D, and converting to 3D during post-production.

From MTV:

“We’re shooting on film, 2D, and then we’ll do a good high-end conversion like the Harry Potter movie and all that. Luckily, with our release date now we have the months needed to do it right, because if you rush it, it never looks good…We were talking about [shooting in IMAX] and I would love to do it. IMAX is my favorite format; I’m a huge fan.”

I had no complaints about Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2‘s 3D conversion so if Star Trek 2 ends up with the same quality conversion (or higher) fans should be happy (unless they’d just prefer to see it in 2D instead).

Shooting on the sequel will begin in January and finish in June. Chris Pine, Zoe Saldana, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg, Anton Yelchin and John Cho are all returning, along with new additions Alice Eve and Peter Weller. Carlos actor Edgar Ramirez is currently the frontrunner to play the villain.

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With Benicio Del Toro and Paramount unable to come to an agreement over money the studio and J.J Abrams are moving to fill the villain role in Star trek 2 before shooting begins next month. According to Variety Carlos actor Edgar Ramirez is the frontrunner, with Colombiana‘s Jordi Molla also in the mix.

The line-up of Latino/Hispanic actors being considered seems to confirm that the genetically engineered superhuman Khan will be the villain, as Ricardo Montalban, who famously took on the role in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, was also Hispanic. Paramount have yet to confirm it, but it’s likely to be the case.

Shooting will take begin in January and finish in June. Chris Pine, Zoe Saldana, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg, Anton Yelchin and John Cho are all returning, along with new additions Alice Eve and Peter Weller. The sequel will be released by Paramount on May 17th, 2013.

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Despite J.J Abrams declaring that he’d “love” Benicio Del Toro to star as the villain in the Star Trek sequel, it won’t be happening. According to Vulture Paramount and the actor “couldn’t come to terms over monetary issues” so Abrams and the team are now searching for another actor to take on the role before filming begins next month.

The villain in the sequel has not yet been confirmed, however late last week Latino Review ran a story which seemed to confirm the villain would be Khan, the genetically engineered superhuman who Ricardo Montalban famously played in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. HitFix emailed Abrams to get confirmation and the director simply replied “not true”, however Vulture “hears from a highly placed source that Khan is indeed the film’s baddie”, so it looks like Abrams was trying to prevent word getting out while negotiations with Benicio Del Toro were still ongoing.

Though Del Toro won’t be appearing, former Robocop actor Peter Weller will be. Variety said his role is currently under-wraps, but it is believed to be a villain (possibly aligned with Khan). Weller’s casting comes after Alice Eve joined the cast last week as a potential love interest to Captain Kirk.

Chris Pine, Zoe Saldana, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg, Anton Yelchin and John Cho are all returning and the sequel will be released by Paramount on May 17th, 2013.

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With Chris Pine, Zoe Saldana, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg, Anton Yelchin and John Cho all returning for the Star Trek sequel we knew there wouldn’t be many new characters introduced. If talks with Benicio Del Toro work out he’ll play the villain, and now it looks like J.J. Abrams wants to add another female character to the mix with the hiring of British actress Alice Eve.

According to Variety Eve is “playing a character that’s believed to be new to the canon”, which has caused speculation that she could be a new love interest for Captain Kirk (Pine). The site mentions Eve “doesn’t yet have a deal in place — but is expected to soon” and the actress competed against Teresa Palmer (I Am Number Four) and Hayley Atwell (Captain America: The First Avenger) for the role.

Alice Eve has appeared in She’s Out Of My League and Sex and the City 2, and will be seen early next year in The Raven alongside John Cusack and Luke Evans. I’m actually quite pleased Eve has landed a high-profile role as she’s come very close to joining some big films over recent years. At one point it was reported that she would be playing Emma Frost in X-Men: First Class but January Jones eventually took the role. She was down to the final two alongside Hayley Atwell for Captain America: The First Avenger, and more recently she was being considered to play Lois Lane in Man of Steel before Amy Adams was cast.

The Star Trek sequel will begin filming next January and will be released by Paramount on May 17th, 2013.

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According to Deadline Paramount has set a May 17th, 2013 release date for J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek sequel. The studio had originally set Roland Emmerich’s Singularity for that date, but decided to movie it back November 2013 and gave Star Trek 2 the pre-Memorial Weekend slot instead.

Much like this year, the summer of 2013 is looking very competitive. Star Trek 2 will open one week after Guillermo del Toro’s epic monster movie Pacific Rim and two weeks after Iron Man 3. Fast and Furious 6 will also open a week after the sequel, so there’ll be tentpoles opening pretty much each weekend.

Deadline mentions that Abrams will be “making the movie in 3D”, which will be the first time the director has shot in the format. Way back in 2009 (pre-Avatar) Abrams was open to the idea, and said shooting the sequel in 3D “could be really fun…what I’ve seen of Avatar makes me want to do it, because it’s so crazy-cool looking.” Although in June this year the director said he wasn’t considering shooting the sequel in 3D, but he had yet to receive “a phone call from people in suits”, so it looks like Paramount have given him a push towards 3D.

In related news, composer Michael Giacchino confirmed to Coming Soon that he’ll be back to write the score, which is great news. His Star Trek score was excellent.

No word on the official title, but we know it won’t simply be Star Trek 2. Chris Pine, Zoe Saldana, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg, Anton Yelchin and John Cho will all return, and shooting will begin early next year.

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Earlier this month we heard that J.J. Abrams was talking with Benicio Del Toro about possibly starring as the villain in his Star Trek sequel. Details on which villain Del Toro would play haven’t been revealed, but in a recent interview Abrams said he’d “love it to be him”.

From MTV:

“Well, we’re just in negotiations, we’re in discussions. It’s not even negotiations — just in discussion. But I would love to work with him. I’ve wanted to work with him for years, and this felt like a good opportunity.”

“It’s too early to talk about what the role is, but he’s such an amazing actor. He’s so versatile. He could sort of do anything. Except play Uhura, I wouldn’t buy that.”

“As soon as we know who it’s going to be—and I’d love it to be him—that’ll be public knowledge,”

Other than the 17th century drama Silence, which may or may not be Martin Scorsese’s next film, Benicio Del Toro isn’t attached to any other projects so scheduling-wise it could work out. Filming is set to begin in January so casting confirmations will likely announced over the upcoming weeks.

Chris Pine, Zoe Saldana, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg, Anton Yelchin and John Cho are all expected to return. No release date has been set for the sequel, but it will probably hit sometime in 2013.

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TrekMovie has word that the official start date for production on the Star Trek sequel is January 15th, 2012, which they point out is over 4 years since the first film began shooting in 2007.

The site also notes that co-writer/producer Roberto Orci confirmed the script has “been done for a while” and they’re currently working on the third draft. Orci commented on the site saying “rewriting is a good thing which normally makes the script better. We like to keep pushing the script, even if no one gives us notes.”

Most of the sets from the first film are being taken out of storage (such as the USS Enterprise) and VFX house Industrial Light & Magic has already started work on some of the effects shots for the movie. As there will be plenty of space shots they can begin working on them now without any cast or shot footage.

Finally, TrekMovie suggests Hawaii could be a shooting location for the film (J.J Abrams shot Lost there) as the location team are looking for a “jungle planet” environment.

Chris Pine, Zoe Saldana, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg, Anton Yelchin and John Cho are all expected to return, and while he isn’t confirmed, Benicio Del Toro could take on the villain role.

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We know there isn’t much casting required for the Star Trek sequel as most of the main roles were cast in the first film, but a new villain is required and if director/producer J.J Abrams has his way the role may go to Benicio Del Toro.

According to Variety “no offer has been delivered” but “sources close to the project say Benicio Del Toro is expected to be offered the part soon, maybe by weekend’s end. Insiders say Del Toro has met with Abrams but doesn’t know what the role is, in order to keep it a secret.”

Without knowing which villain he’s up for it’s hard to say how suited Del Toro is, but J.J Abrams usually has a good eye for casting so we can probably trust his judgement. Can anyone take a guess as to which villain he could play?

Chris Pine, Zoe Saldana, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg, Anton Yelchin and John Cho are all expected to return, and filming is expected to start in early 2012.

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This news won’t be a surprise to anyone as we’ve all been expecting it, but Vulture has word that J.J. Abrams “has finally committed to shooting Star Trek 2″.

Over the past year Abrams has been busy directing Super 8 so he was only able to focus his attention on Star Trek 2 this summer. Writers Damon Lindelof, Bob Orci and Alex Kurtzman have since been working on the script based on a 70 page outline they had in May, which now looks to be developed enough for Abrams to commit as director.

Vulture says “pre-production is underway”, “the script will be done by month’s end” and “Abrams will start shooting this winter”. Paramount had originally set a June 29, 2012 release date for the sequel, but the delay in filming caused them to give G.I. Joe 2: Retaliation that slot. The studio will likely be aiming for a summer 2013 release, unless they want to rush it for late-2012 (which is already pretty crowded).

Chris Pine, Zoe Saldana, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg, Anton Yelchin and John Cho are all expected to return.

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