Regards, Ivan
Posted on 09/22/2004 10:12:35 PM PDT by MadIvan
Key points
• Stars who played Kirk and Spock to return in low-budget sci-fi Invasion Iowa
• Shatner, who directs the film, promises film will feature a big-name celebrity
• Film is set in town that claims to be fictional birthplace of Captain Kirk
Key quote
"This is my passion. I have had this movie on executive desks for a long time" - William Shatner
Story in full HE WAS set a mission to seek out new life and new civilisations - to boldly go where no man has gone before. So, Captain James T Kirk, fearless commander of the Starship Enterprise, headed for Iowa ... to make a low-budget sci-fi flick.
William Shatner, who immortalised the intergalactic explorer in Star Trek, arrived in the small town of Riverside yesterday to film Invasion Iowa, penned by Shatner and his co-star Leonard Nimoy, who played Mr Spock in the series.
The location was not accidental - Riverside has been busy trying to build a tourism industry by claiming to be the birthplace of Captain Kirk after Star Trek’s creator, Gene Roddenberry, revealed that the explorer came from "a small town in the state of Iowa".
At $4 million (£2.2 million), Invasion Iowa’s budget is a fraction of the $35 million spent on the first Star Trek film, 25 years ago. But Shatner, 73, who can bank on the support of millions of Star Trek fans to boost his box-office takings, is excited. "This is my passion," he said of the film, which has a futuristic, cosmic theme but is unrelated to Star Trek. "I have had this movie on executive desks for a long time."
Shatner will direct the movie, whose plot, he says mysteriously, revolves around "regret, and being able to go back in time and fix things". Equally mysterious is the cast list, which will feature a big-name celebrity, according to Shatner. He will only reveal that the star is called Sean or Shaun, leading locals to wonder whether it might be Connery, Penn or Combs.
There was no transporter to get him to Riverside, just a chauffeur-driven, black limousine, out of which he stepped to be met by adoring fans and a marching band. To the 930 residents, their hero was home at last.
"We finally got Captain Kirk to Riverside - it is wonderful," enthused Steve Miller, a former member of the local council, which, in 1980, declared the town to be the space hero’s official birthplace.
There is now a special gate and a stone monument commemorating its most famous son - or future son, given that his official birth date is not until 22 March, 2233 - and the University of Iowa has built a space observatory nearby. Thousands of fans come for an annual convention.
Shatner’s post-Star Trek career has had mixed fortunes and, at times, appeared to have been heading into the screen world’s equivalent of a black hole.
His lowest point came when his third wife, Nerine, drowned in the swimming pool of their Los Angeles home in 1999.
Now remarried and celebrating a prestigious Emmy award for his guest appearance on the US drama series The Practice, he launched his new project by holding auditions in Riverside for seven speaking roles. Among the lucky chosen few was the mayor’s son, Mike Poch, who landed a part as a punk.
For Shatner and Nimoy - who reunited with other Star Trek cast members last month in honour of actor James Doohan, 84, who played Scotty and is bowing out of public life after being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease - Invasion Iowa will be a new challenge and a lot of fun.
"He’s become quite a droll fellow and I love him very much," said Shatner of Nimoy. "Whenever we find ourselves together, we love to talk about the past, present and future."
Regards, Ivan
Ping!
"All Bran...more fiber than this horrible toupee on my head".
"There's Klingon's on the starboard bow, starboard bow, starboard bow,
There's Klingons on the starboard bow, starboard bow, Jim!"
I'm just wondering if there will be another generation of them, or if this is it.
I am betting on Shaun Cassidy.
Racist.
Shat ping ... )
The answers to your questions are No, yes and yes. Nobody will breed with them. These people sooo need to get a life.
Boldly going forward, because we can't find reverse.
Sheepishly, I hang my head and say - yes. We do breed. And we make more of our own kind...
Kinda like the Horta. (Obscure reference BUMP!)
Uhh...I believe in this case the proper term would be: "Spacist".
Of course we breed! We breed like Tribbles! And no species has had more sex, more often, and with more aliens than us Trekkies. ;)
More like speciesist.
Wear it proudly!
Yay for trekker grrls!!
No boink I.
No... beach... to walk on...
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