Star Trek has landed a Starfleet leader, and he will be played by Tyler Perry. We get the scoop today from our friends at UGO:
Writer/director Tyler Perry has a role in the new Star Trek movie.
It looks like Perry is playing the head of Starfleet Academy. Before you go asking if the character is going to be a human being or one of those funky aliens with a dozen more nostrils, it looks like Perry’s character is a plain old fashioned human.
Tyler Perry is a man best known for his motivational, after school special style films. In his films he plays an older woman named Mabel Simmons who divulges wisdom (in a humorous manner) to those that are wayward. The films seem to be geared to young adults and are bursting with life lessons, which is fine for an episode of Sesame Street, but strange for a feature film. The films have strong Christian undertones but stay about as preachy as an episode of Davey And Goliath.
When I watched Diary Of A Mad Black Woman I actually started to laugh at the volume of motivation packed into the film. Although the sheer amount of positive affirmation got to be hilarious in its repetition, Perry is funny, his Maybel character is a good one and people seem to be eating it up to the tune of 50 million +. Tyler Perry is a self made man that used his motivational-style films to build a fortune. Throngs of people love his movies, and whatever your thoughts on them may be – he is meeting a motivational need.
When I heard that the dude that plays Mabel Simmons was going to head Starfleet – I was certainly surprised. It seems to be a strange casting and I am now quite curious to see Tyler play the role. When not in drag Tyler actually looks like a strong, natural leader and maybe this isn’t such a crazy casting after all. I just hope I can get Mabel out of my mind when he is talking to Kirk. I am afraid I am going to start dreaming about Mabel scolding Kirk about sleeping with loose alien women.
It has the feel of a bald attempt at luring in a market segment to me. Tyler Perry’s acting abilities are on par with hundreds of third rate actors, his rabidly loyal (if clearly not very discriminating) audience is huge though. They’re also not the obvious target audience that comes to mind for Sci-Fi in general and Star Trek specifically.
Sounds like a marketing gimmick.
Hopefully the part is very small.
So is he going to play two characters? Head of the Starfleet Academy and Whoopi Goldberg’s character?
Just kidding.
Further to this over at TrekMovie.com:
“Back in September TrekMovie.com first reported that Kirk’s famed solution to the Kobayashi Maru ‘no win-scenario simulation’ would be seen in the new Star Trek. Just this week TrekMovie was tipped off about a role for Perry as well as the post-Kobayashi Academy scene. But UGO beat us to the punch while we awaited confirmation and more details (which is now moot). The only things to add are that this scene was probably shot in the Long Beach City Council chamber and that there is also some kind of student protest over Kirk not being expelled and actually being ‘promoted.’ The protest might be part of the same scene described at UGO or a different scene shot in the LB Council Chamber (standing in for a hall at Starfleet Academy). In Star Trek II Kirk noted that after being caught for cheating he got a commendation for original thinking. It is possible the source was talking about a commendation instead of a promotion, or maybe Kirk was also promoted.
UGO UPDATE:
UGO have run another story noting this TrekMovie.com story and our adding the Long Beach City Council to the mix. They now note:
Based on what my source told me (and for reasons that will become obvious in my next Star Trek scoop which I’ll post later today) I think that this scene happens further ahead in the screen story than the moments I spoke about yesterday. In any case, it looks like this location will be seen at least twice in the movie.
Unfortunately in a subsequent report UGO stated they have decided to not post the new ’scoop’ in order to protect their source.
UPDATE: How Kirk Cheats?
Aint it Cool has a new rumor regarding how Kirk beats the Kobayashi Maru. Their ‘untested source’ claims Kirk “persuades a chick he is banging to alter the simulator so that it is winnable.” AICN also note that it could be total BS so take with a big grain of salt.”
This has got to be the biggest WTF casting announcement since…ever.
The real Chris wrote: “I really wanna see a trailer.”
ME TOO!
….i must say im not a big fan of mr. perry…..props for what he is doing, creating positive black movies….but that same formula he follows is getting old for me…..madea makes me laugh a little bit but overall she seems very stupid and stereotypical..
any way hes not a bad actor (or a great one) so it should be interesting to see how this turns out….never been a huge fan of trek but i really wanna see a trailer