Back again is Simon Pegg as Montgomery Scott -- also known as Scotty, the ship's fiesty chief engineer.
Paramount PicturesHe’s risen from the ranks of Starship Enterprise engineer to actually co-writing the latest installment of the Star Trek franchise, but Simon Pegg says he’s never going to boldly go any further behind the camera.
“Having watched Justin [Lin] making this movie … going behind the monitor to watch what he’s done makes me realize that I’m never going to direct a Star Trek,” the actor told The Hollywood Reporter in Dubai, where Star Trek Beyond is about to start a 13-day shoot after three months of filming in Vancouver.
“It’s such an incredible, innate visual style. I see people do these things and I’m always impressed, but I could never hope to do them. I see people directing action and camera work in such an exciting way and just think, ‘Oh what’s the point?’ It’s probably best for everyone who goes to the cinema if I don’t.” He added, “It would be fun, but I don’t envy [Lin’s] job.”
Pegg only added “co-writer” to his Star Trek Beyond credentials, together with Doug Jung, in January after Roberto Orci, who was writing and slated to direct the film, departed the project.
“We tried to read the [Orci’s] scripts, we tried to get them through various means, but failed,” claimed Pegg, adding that he didn’t “really know” what they contained.
“I was slightly worried about being a co-writer on this movie, because the friendship we all have as a cast is very close, and I didn’t want to feel like I was leaving that in any way,” he said.
“But actually it’s been the opposite of that. The cast has all been collaborating with Doug and I in a way that we can never begin to thank them for. Each and every one of them has brought things to the script that we will take full credit for and will never, ever admit that it was their idea.”
