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Pine, Elba & More Attend NYC Beyond Premiere

Pine, Elba & More Attend NYC Beyond Premiere


Chris Pine, Idris Elba and Karl Urban were among the stars who turned out last night for the intimate New York City premiere of Star Trek Beyond. The event, presented by Hewlett Packard Enterprise, took place at the Crosby Street Hotel. Others walking the red carpet or settling in for the screening included Beyond co-star Melissa Roxburgh, Keegan-Michael Key, Outlander star Sam Heughan, model Meki Saldana and James Franco.

StarTrek.com was on the red carpet, snapping photos and grabbing a few comments from some of the guests.

Idris Elba: “It means a lot to me to be in Star Trek movie because I grew up on Star Trek. I shouldn’t say I was a Trekkie or a Trekker, but I definitely watched it a lot as a kid, the TV show. Scotty was my favorite character. And, actually, as I was just getting into acting, I saw them doing the classic shaking that they do on the bridge and thought, “I know how they do this.” But I always really wanted to do it. Now, I’ve done that. And just to be in Star Trek movie, it’s a good thing.”

Sam Heughan: “I know Star Trek pretty well. I was allowed to watch one show a night and Star Trek: The Next Generation would be the show. So I grew up with Patrick Stewart and all of that. Deep Space Nine, I was a big fan, and also the old series. And I’ve become friendly with Bill Shatner. We’ve hung out a bit. That was not, like you’d think, through (Outlander producer) Ron Moore. It was through social media that I met Bill, which is so random. He tweets everything. What does he not tweet?”

Keegan-Michael Key: “If you’re StarTrek.com, just so I don’t get in trouble, I’m going to say I’m an 8 out of 10 as a Trek fan. My father was a huuuuuuuge Trekkie. He was probably the world’s biggest Uhura fan. My dad had a picture of Nichelle Nichols in our house. And he was a big Spock guy. Star Trek was how he and his brothers and sisters all connected with each other. So it rubbed off on me and my brother. I was a huge fan. Wrath of Khan is one of my top 10 favorite films. You know what? We’ll say 9 out of 10.”

Following the red carpet session, Pine, Urban and Elba greeted the crowd inside the screening room. Pine, microphone in hand, briefly described the experience of making the film and then paid tribute to the late Anton Yelchin. “It’s been a very difficult (press) tour because we recently lost a very good friend of ours, who is in the film, Anton Yelchin,” Pine said. “He was a wonderful actor and a wonderful friend, and it feels so weird to have to go out and sell this film when something way more real happened, like the loss of someone very close. But he was a shining light and you can tell in this film. Every time he comes on screen you want to giggle, because he liked a good giggle. He had a great laugh and he was super-intelligent and vey present and furiously creative. He had so many things going on, it put us all to shame. We will miss him greatly and hopefully you will all love him as much as we do. Thanks so much for coming.”

Star Trek Beyond will open July 22.