Simon Pegg, every self-respecting geek's favourite comedian -- you may remember him from such work as Spaced, Shaun Of The Dead and Hot Fuzz -- has won the role of Chief Engineer Montgomery "Scotty" Scott in J.J Abrams Star Trek prequel movie!This will mark the second Pegg/Abrams collaboration, after Pegg's small role as a computer geek in J.J Abrams' Mission: Impossible III.
So there we are. Is Pegg a good choice? He should appeal to most Trekkers and will undoubtedly treat the role with the utmost respect... but he doesn't scream "a younger James Doohan" to me. This is a total revamp, really. Can he even do a Scottish accent? Well, it avoids a Mike Myers-style balls up having an Englishman give it a go, anyway!
So, ultimately, Pegg's a very interesting choice. His performance will be fun, if nothing else. But it's not perfect casting, on a purely visual level -- following the believable likeness of Zachary Quinto/Leonard Nimoy, in particular.
In related news, Korean-born actor John Cho (Harold & Kumar) has been cast as Hikaru Sulu -- a role immortalized by Japanese-American actor George Takei (Heroes).
