Chris Pine is the Outlaw King

Nearly fifty four years ago, the original Star Trek series made its debut and along the way created stars out of William Shatner and the late Leonard Nimoy. Many series and efforts later, when J.J. Abrams got involved and rebooted Star Trek in 2009 as a series of films with Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban and Simon Pegg running the team, it was a stroke of genius. With the follow-up to Star Trek Beyond on the horizon, all was going well until it was revealed that Chris Pine, who essays Captain James T. Kirk as well as Chris Pine, who will essay his father and made a cameo in the first film, may be walking away from the film after being asked by the studio to take a pay cut. Right now, it’s more like, will they, won’t they situation but it should effectively destroy a universe Abrams took great care in creating. These were the only films in which Leonard Nimoy, the original Spock agreed to star in. The industry is mixed over pay cut views.

Just for now though, all eyes are on Pine for his upcoming film, Outlaw King that is doing the rounds of film festivals. It had its world premiere at Toronto International Film Festival. Directed by David Mackenzie, the film is an epic period drama but Pine is being asked about the quotient of violence and nudity in the film.

When asked about indulging in full frontal nudity in the film, the actor said at TIFF: “That, somehow, to a human modern audience is not nearly as interesting, or revelatory or exclamatory (as) someone showing A) a sex scene, or B) their p****,” said the actor. “Is it out of my comfort zone? Of course. You know, I don’t want this film to be all about that moment.”

He was echoing frustration that more focus was put on sex than the blood and violence in the film.

Speaking further about the film, in which he essays an emperor who is shunned, he noted, “I thought it was really important to show that we are animals, ultimately. And there’s a final scene in the film where I say that we’re beasts. It’s not about God, and it’s not about words, it’s about nothing more than, like, we’re animals in the savannah and that tiger’s going to come over and one of these animals is going to win.”

Hitting Netflix on November 9, it goes to show the growing power of the streaming giant. Said Pine: “I’m also delighted by the reach that 191 territories released at the same time is going to give the film. It’s almost certainly going to have the widest audience of any film I’ve ever made.”