Bana is Trek baddie!

Regardless of how you feel about JJ Abrams’ upcoming remake / reboot / reimagining / rewhatever dude of STAR TREK, you have to admire their ability to keep things relatively secret so far, especially in an era where so many movie details seep onto the internet before any official announcements.

For example, I don’t think anyone suspected that Aussie badass Eric Bana would end up playing the film’s villain Nero (although Karl Urban and Russell Crowe had been rumored online, so at least they were in the right hemisphere). Bana, who graduated from comedy Down Under to more serious fare with the likes of CHOPPER, BLACK HAWK DOWN and MUNICH, will set his phaser on “kill Kirk” for Paramount’s latest attempt at franchise defibrillation.

Though the story details are sealed up like a warp core breach, the new movie may be some kind of time-travel or alternate-reality tale, judging by the confirmed presence of original Spock Leonard Nimoy. His youthful self will be played by HEROES baddie Zachary Quinto, who joins Anton Yelchin and sexysexy Zoe Saldana on the bridge of the early Enterprise (actor Mike Vogel, who appears in Abrams’ upcoming mystery monster movie, has been rumored as Kirk).

Coincidentally, Bana is already at work on temporal displacement with the sci-fi romance THE TIME TRAVELER’S WIFE.