Pressing Pine

Chris Pine is on shore leave from shooting Star Trek this week, promoting his latest film Bottle Shock, at the Sundance Film Festival.

This marks his first big exposure to the media since landing the role of Captain James T. Kirk in the reboot —Pine talks about his participation and his predecessor...(and also spills a few major beans in the process...Here's a round-up of Pine's comments to various outlets:

Pine told Jam Showbiz that he actually reached out to William Shatner after being cast:

I wrote him a letter at the beginning of the process just to explain my feelings about the character … I just tried to explain my respect for what he’d done. I want him to be proud of what I do because the man has been involved with it for going on 40 years. He wrote me back and said he hopes the movie goes well and he’d like to meet sometime, which I would love. But you know, he’s a busy man.

He tells Entertainment Weekly that he's not feeling the pressure, one usually associates with stepping into such an iconic role:

I actually feel the exact opposite. I think the biggest mistake I could ever do would be to try to re-create what Mr. Shatner did. There are certain qualities that Kirk has that are vital for someone who is a leader of men. And those qualities, I definitely wanted to take from what Mr. Shatner did in the original series. But my job is to take something new, to take that and build upon it, really do my own thing. I just feel no pressure when it comes to that...

Chatting with Cinema Blend, he told them he feels relaxed:

I’m having a great time. It’s a lot of fun. JJ.’s wonderful. I haven’t really thought that far ahead just because I’m neurotic and just try to concentrate on the day-to-day thing. That kind of keeps me in check. Whatever happens will happen. I have no control over it. All I try to do is good work and that’s that.

>>>WARNING: THE NEXT COMMENT CONTAINS A MAJOR PLOT SPOILER!!!! READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!!! CONSIDER YOURSELF WARNED!!!!!>>>

Pine talks to EW about coming face to face with Leonard Nimoy:

I’ve met Mr. Nimoy a couple of times. He’s been on set and we have a couple of scenes in the film, which will be nice, and I’m excited for those.

It has been reported all over the place that Nimoy's elder Spock will travel back in time, this is the first confirmation from a cast member that Nimoy’s older Spock will interact with the younger Kirk.

To Pine's comments about playing the future star ship Captain:

He seems to have a solid handle on things and using good judgement with JJ there to guide him along.

In an effort to further see Pine's skills as an actor--I have actively sought out and watched some of his other film work....He co-starred in the 2006 romantic comedy Just My Luck with Lindsay Lohan...Yes it is a predictable piece of sugar coated genre fluff. But Pine proves even playing a bit of a doof--That he can do the leading man thing. Pine also appears in Joe Carnahan's star enhanced assassination caper free-for all Smokin' Aces ...and does fine in a limited role as Darwin Tremor...

I'm a little surprised that Pine let such a big spoiler slip....Everyone else has been, at least officially rather tight lipped...