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John Cho has been cast to play Hikaru Sulu, in the new Star Trek XI movie to begin shooting by the end of this year. Directed by J.J. Abrams (Lost, Alias), the film will tell the story of the original Trek-series characters as they first meet each other in their younger years. Paramount has given a new crop of actors the daunting task of filling the large boots of immortalized characters Kirk, Spock, Scotty, Uhura, Chekov and others - and hopefully revitalize a "tent-pole" franchise that has been sagging in its absence the past few years, hampered by less-than-stellar interest in it the later (post-Next Generation) TV shows and competition from other sci-fi properties like Star Wars, Stargate SG-1 and the phenomenal Battlestar Galactica.

Other actors confirmed for the film include Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz) as Scotty, Anton Yelchin as Chekov, Zachary Quinto (Heroes) as Spock, Zoe Saldana as Uhura, and Eric Bana (Troy, Munich, The Incredible Hulk) as a villain character. In what sources say will be a smaller role than the name suggests, Kirk is yet uncast, but they are in talks with Chris Pine who was apparently one of the three strange "country brothers" in the disappointing Smoking Aces. Sure, Pine looks the part but his resumé makes me ask, for Kirk, really??? (for pictures, follow the link at the bottom there.)

Back to John Cho. Though he's been in the business for nearly a decade, Cho has become one of the most recognizable Korean faces in Tinseltown only after playing Harold in the buddy(stoner)-comedy Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (remember that before this movie he was only known, if at all, as "the MILF guy from American Pie"). For a commercial project like the Star Trek franchise right now, this recognizability or star-power is probably the best reason to pick some one like Cho. He's been in numerous sitcoms (like the shortlived Off-Centre *youtube link* with American Pie co-star Eddie Kaye Thomas) as main characters to extra-bits and of course had the feature films recently. After some more dramatic ones in the Asian-American films Better Luck Tomorrow (dir. Justin Lin, 2003) and West 32nd (dir. Michael Kang, 2007, with Grace Park from Battlestar Galactica), he reprises his role in the yet-untitled Harold & Kumar sequel to give us another round of laughs in the next year some time (probably before Star Trek warps wraps).

Though I'm more familiar and trusting of his comic portrayals, I certainly hope the best for John Cho. Sulu (portrayed by George Takei in the TV series and films) was a very stoic, honorable character. Apparently Takei "had previously given his blessing if a non-Japanese actor was cast in the role" so I hope Cho can make fans, and a fellow Asian actor, proud. Being a Trekkie myself, I've sorely missed watching some good Trek recently. Star Trek XI is looking for a Christmas 2008 release.

• Hollywood Reporter via Yahoo!
• IGN's Star Trek Casting Comparison has some pics with the old and new crew (the latest confirmed additions, Pegg and Cho are on the second page)

Just a small update. There was much confusion of Beautiful Katamari showing up on various promotional material that it will appear on PS3 and even the Wii. In fact it's been covered and corrected many times over that Beautiful will indeed be only for Xbox 360. 1up brings clarification that a new Katamari game will be coming our way soon to the PS3, according to Beautiful Katamari director Jun Morikawa at the Tokyo Game Show 2007. Likely not an exact port of Beautiful to the PS3 but some variation (and the name probably won't be the same). Morikawa also "hinted at" a Wii version. So once again, PS3 version, definitely. Wii version, maybe. All I can say is yes, more please -- at least until I get tired of it (which isn't now).

In related news, 1up also has a preview of Beautiful Katamari on the Xbox 360 from TGS2007 and cites, among other things, the 1080p eye-popping factor and fun minigame sections during the reduced loadtimes. Online/downloadable content will apparently be a big focus of the game as well. Read the full preview here.

• via 1up.com

The schedule for the 45th New York Film Festival was up on Monday, and the biggest titles are already being sold out. A high profile selection of films from all over the world once again converge at Lincoln Center. It runs from September 28 to October 14, 2007

Opening night: Wes Anderson's The Darjeeling Limited. Blade Runner, Ridley Scott's 'Final Cut' after 25 years. Centerpiece Joel and Ethan Coen’s No Country for Old Men.  Closing night, the animated Persepolis, based on the acclaimed graphic novel. A complete retrospective of Joaquim Pedro de Andrade, "father of Brazil’s Cinema Novo movement."
While those are obvious picks for any avid film fan, sold out at no tickets means looking elsewhere. Other personal picks of mine would be: The Orphanage, produced by director Guillermo Del Toro of last year's fantastic closing night film Pan's Labyrinth. Hou Hsiao-hsien directing Juliette Binoche in Flight of the Red Balloon. Nicole Kidman and Jack Black in Noah Baumbach's Margot at the Wedding. Song Kang-ho and Jeon Do-yeon (in her Cannes Best Actress award winning role) in Lee Chang-dong's Secret Sunshine. Claude Chabrol's A Girl Cut in Two. Béla Tarr's The Man from London. Palme D'Or winner 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days...

There's just too many interesting films. Enough reading, just go watch something before more tickets are gone.

• Official website, New York Film Festival
  

So it's already been about a week since this was out, but the "Vengeance Trilogy" (also called revenge trilogy) films of director Park Chan-wook are collected together into one special 7-disc boxset, and it's on sale now in Korea -- which makes it region 3. Time to break out the region-free dvd players! This would be the definitive way to see the collection, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Oldboy, and Lady Vengeance (복수는 나의 것 Boksuneun nahehgut, 올드보이, 친절한 금자씨 Chinjeolhan geumjassi). Now, all the films have English subtitles, but as usual, the extras don't.

Japan already got their trilogy box set back in March 2006, Tartan UK put theirs out in October 2006. But in the original country of Korea there was a significant delay (almost 2 years since Lady Vengeance was first put on local DVD), and now we know why -- they were putting together the completely new extra features especially made for this boxset. Besides the obvious packaging redesign, these new extras are:

* Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance
- 2 new audio commentaries (1 with Director Park and leads Song Kang-ho and Shin Ha-kyun revisiting/reflecting on the film now, the other with film critic Kim Young-jin)

* Lady Vengeance
- 1 new audio commentary with Richard Pena, Program Director of the New York Korean Film Festival (I can only guess this is English Audio of Pena with Korean subtitles, 'cause otherwise it would make no sense. UPDATE: this was already included in English language releases of the film in UK and US, so it's only new to the Korean edition)
- Short Film "The Freaking Family", by directors Park Su-young, Park Jae-young (this is recommended viewing from Director Park Chan-wook, Original Title 핵분열 가족 roughly translates to "The Nuclear Fission Family")
- "The man reading the pictures for you" - Picture slide show with Director Park
- "Get together" - behind the scenes of the reunion photo shoot (for this edition's package) with the main actors of all three films

You'll notice that Oldboy has no new extras. Because there was already 3 editions of the film in Korea (regular, Ultimate Edition, post-Cannes award Final Edition), they've decided to simply most recent edition and all it's extras (the Final Edition) into this Trilogy-pack as-is. But this also means that the Autobiography of Oldboy, which was a 3-hour production diary spanning 6 months of filming, was and is only available on the ultra-rare, out-of-print Ultimate Edition.

I won't get into the nitty gritty of the films themselves, as by now they've been lauded and praised the world over and again. If anything, watch any one of these if you haven't already and I guarantee you'll want to see the other two. They are not related to each other except the theme, which is of course about revenge and the human drama/psyche that causes and results from it.

Personally, it's exciting that we finally get to hear what the actors themselves thought of Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance. For what started it all, and as both Shin Ha-kyun and Song Kang-ho (and of course their director) are such bigger personages than they were back then. Also curious is the view of Richard Pena, committee chairman and program director of the Film society of Lincoln Center and the New York Film Festival (I write about this years fest in my next post, scroll up or click here).

Read on for the full specs of this collection, and you can buy it now from YesAsia.com.

• via DVD2.0, DVDTopic / Cine21 (JP boxset news, Jan. 2006), Twitch (UK dvd boxset news, Aug. 2006). Image/DVD specs from madmad.co.kr.

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and it's FREEEE!

This is only the 2nd year of the Short Film section at the New York Korean Film Festival, and they're doing something crazy - all three short film programs are completely free.  That's right, free. Each program covers 5 short films, and at each one there will be a video message or an in-person appearance by one of the short filmmakers. So they've timed a "sort-of" wrap-up party (with no cover charge, natch) after the screenings that night so that we can meet the filmmakers and festival staff in a casual setting.  Sort-of, because the actual rest of the Korean Film Festival still goes on for another three days at BAM Rose Cinemas in Brooklyn.

Anyway, the short films all cover a range of topics from, by, of, or starring Koreans and Korean-Americans, and this year there's a juried section of finalists. There's even James Kyson Lee from the hit NBC TV show Heroes in a short called Beef Palace (far right) about what else, the meaty foods, love and sex. The animation shorts like In Your Eyes look real good, 'cause you know, everyone knows that the Simpsons and every other anime from Japan, animation from US and Disney is outsourced to the capable Korean hands of the world.

So to summarize, there's 15 short films, all free, on one night, at Cinema Village. And then a party at Forum, with no cover charge. short film + party = i like~

Check it out! I'm bringing some friends to expose them to the fine cinematic sensibilites of the independents (films, that is)! And of course, to party!

• www.koreanfilmfestival.org (More)