Captain... Kirk...

Via Cinescape, it's being reported that Matt Damon is very interested in playing Captain Kirk:

Yahoo!'s The Insider reports that J.J. Abrams is very interested in casting Matt Damon as Captain Kirk in his upcoming STAR TREK Movie.

Marc S. Malkin of The Insider writes, "Will MATT DAMON get beamed up? Could happen. I'm told J.J. ABRAMS is very interested in casting the Oscar-winning Damon as a young Captain Kirk in the upcoming 'Star Trek' movie that he's directing and producing. He's so interested that he's apparently already sought support from the original Kirk, WILLIAM SHATNER. "Shatner gave his blessing," my source says. "J.J. got his approval." Damon first popped up in Trekkie circles as soon as the Abrams-'Star Trek' deal was announced. Rumor had it that the new movie would center on Kirk and Spock's early days at a space academy. "J.J. wants Damon as Capt. Kirk," my source reports. "He really loves the idea."

My first reaction was along the lines of "KHANNNNN!", but I instead went for the more ubiquitous and always reliable, "NOOOOOO!". I loved Damon in The Bourne Identity, but I think that they should probably go along the lines of Superman Returns and try and cast unknowns in the lead roles. There will be too many comparisons and it'll be distracting otherwise.

My second reaction was to recall the infamous Team America bit where Matt Damon appears, but can only dumbly say his own name. To... boldly... go... where...

Incidentally, while looking for a pic of Kirk, I stumbled upon The Captain Kirk page, where you can see a 5 minute video cataloguing the 'Last Battle' between the Enterprise of Kirk and the one of Picard. It's assembled from clips from the shows, and is hilariously on the side of Kirk. My favorite part is when Riker and Data are in the middle of spouting suggestions of a shuttle or a tractor beam to Picard, we cut to Kirk who basically says "Fire!"