August 15, 2002

8:35 PM

Wil Weaton cut from new Star Trek movie ... Along with 48 minutes of film, Wil Wheaton's cameo as Wesley Crusher was cut in the first production cut of Star Trek: Nemesis. Rick Berman, Producer, called Wheaton personally to let him know. In heartfelt commentary related through his online journal, Wheaton ended his description of his feelings at the news by saying, "Somewhere in Brooklyn, Wesley Crusher falls silent forever".
posted by SpecialK (34 comments total)

I enjoy TV's Wil Wheaton, but his role as the Web's favorite celebrity who doesn't pose nude is starting to weird me out a little. This appears to be the seventh time he's been front page news here, the Fark crowd loves him even more than us, and he even gets affectionate treatment from Anonymous Cowards on Slashdot. Can't we find some other icon of our collective childhood to talk about from time to time? My votes for TV's Todd Bridges, who recently joined Young & The Restless. While Wheaton may be able to provide more heartwarming anecdotes about blended family life, Bridges can talk about hard time in prison, Diff'rent Strokes curse, and the time he shot a guy!
posted by rcade at 8:46 PM on August 15, 2002

In heartfelt commentary...

My initial fondness for Wil Wheaton and his blog has faded in the months since I first started visiting. His "heartfelt commentaries" feel forced, at this point - melodramatic and yes, egotistical. Though I doubt he's an egoist iRL, on his website, especially with all the fawning in comments (which he acknowledges without a lick of irony), I find his behaviour to be less-than-sympathetic.
posted by Marquis at 8:47 PM on August 15, 2002

Sheesh... what a wuss.
posted by dopamine at 8:52 PM on August 15, 2002

This is clearly a scam to make people think that Wesley Crusher isn't going to be in the episode and save the day, or ruin the day. Why? Because it is a critical plot element that is utterly spoiled if known in advance. This is a big cover story to have to cross-out Wesley on your list, but he'll turn out to be more important than you would have believed.
posted by jmccorm at 9:00 PM on August 15, 2002

Never fear. Wesley Crusher will continue to live on in Trek slash fiction and celebrity boxing with Barney the Dinosaur. I, for one, wish Wil Wheaton well whichever way he wanders.
posted by brownpau at 9:02 PM on August 15, 2002

What kind of idiot cuts 48 minutes from a movie? Aren't they supposed to script things tighter than that?
posted by Kikkoman at 9:03 PM on August 15, 2002

I'm sorry, I fudged up the second link because of my titillation with the gay slash. That should be celebrity boxing with Barney the Dinosaur.
posted by brownpau at 9:04 PM on August 15, 2002

maybe the next movie will suck marginally less now.
posted by donkeyschlong at 9:10 PM on August 15, 2002

Whoa, this is my second Wil Wheaton moment of the night. Just about an hour ago I was amazed to find out that he played the lead in Stand By Me. How is it I never made that connection? I guess I haven't spent enough time on his blog.
posted by alms at 9:18 PM on August 15, 2002

"What kind of idiot cuts 48 minutes from a movie? Aren't they supposed to script things tighter than that?"

At least now they have even less of an excuse for this tenth film to be bad. If over an hour of stuff hit the cutting room floor, whatever's less better be damn good.

"His "heartfelt commentaries" feel forced, at this point - melodramatic and yes, egotistical..."

I thought online journals and blogs are supposed to sound forced, melodramatic and egotistical. You mean I've been doing it wrong all these years? No wonder nobody reads my crap!

My guess is this is gonna be the last STNG film. You'd think making it three hours long wouldn't really kill them. Geez! After subjecting us to that last load of cow dung they called a movie. The Lumberjacks were better. I think Paramount owes us.

The bulk of the commentaries on Wil's site, besides the blatant kissing of ass, was that we'll see all the cut scenes in the DVD. Kinda makes ya wonder why they even bother showing movies in a theater anymore. I for one will probably just wait till it hits Blockbuster. I'm a fan of Roddenberry's Star Trek. Berman has run the franchise into the ground.
posted by ZachsMind at 9:29 PM on August 15, 2002

brownpau, that slash link has me ready for a shower. I'm glad I'm not the only on who used to fantasize about the eager young Wes back in the day, given Star Trek's complete absence of openly gay characters. Not to mention my thoughts of Picard doling out discipline to Wesley in the Ready Room...

*sigh*

As for Wil Wheaton himself, I ceased to be interested in him with the advent of that blog. I mean, who cares?

Would have perhaps been nice to have closure on the Crusher character.
posted by evanizer at 9:30 PM on August 15, 2002

At least now they have even less of an excuse for this tenth film to be bad. If over an hour of stuff hit the cutting room floor, whatever's less better be damn good.

On the contrary — many a movie (Dune in particular) has been ruined (or dramatically lessened in effect) by cutting too much out. If it isn't done well it leaves the movie disjointed and hard to follow.
posted by o2b at 9:43 PM on August 15, 2002

As of right now Wil's post has inspired 367 comments on his site. Is that a weblog record? Or does he get this kind of feedback all the time? Quite amazing.
posted by davidfg at 9:51 PM on August 15, 2002

As of right now Wil's post has inspired 367 comments on his site...

Sites linked from Fark can expect upwards of 10,000 click-throughs in the first 4-6 hours. It was also linked from Slashdot and is now here too. I don't read his site, but the number of comments isn't surprising considering the paths to this posting.
posted by joemaller at 10:06 PM on August 15, 2002

Wil has his own massive audience, from what I understand, he usually gets about 100 comments a post or so.
posted by XQUZYPHYR at 10:11 PM on August 15, 2002

Somewhere, a manchild is crying.
posted by insomnyuk at 10:16 PM on August 15, 2002

omg, that's so funny, wasn't it last year that august was deemed "WIL WEATON MONTH"?!?
posted by jcterminal at 11:42 PM on August 15, 2002

I once was to appear in the background of a Doublemint gum commercial. Unfortunately, given the camera perspective, it appeared that I was, how you say, violating one of the famed Doublemint twins as he bounced happily on a trampoline. So I relate to this Wil Wheaton fella, as I also have ended up on the cutting room floor. You can find a greatly extended commentary (aprox 4550 words) regarding this scarring incident on my own narcissistic blog.
posted by RJ Reynolds at 11:43 PM on August 15, 2002

kikkoman:

I'm currently working on a film that has over 80 hours of footage. You can bet that 78 hours of that will be cut.

You film EVERYTHING just in case you need it. It's easier to cut than it is to reshoot in the middle of the editting process.
posted by jaded at 11:44 PM on August 15, 2002

>As of right now Wil's post has inspired 367 comments on his site. Is that a weblog record?

Sorry man, this is probably the record. (No, your browser didn't just lock up :-)
posted by shepd at 12:34 AM on August 16, 2002

On the contrary ? many a movie (Dune in particular) has been ruined (or dramatically lessened in effect) by cutting too much out.

Mmmm! Personally I'm certain that there was a good movie lost in the middle of Event Horizon. All it needed was about half an hour of exposition in the middle, and, well, I guess we'll never know...
posted by inpHilltr8r at 2:32 AM on August 16, 2002

I thought Wil's post was pretty good. It didn't feel very forced.
posted by davebushe at 3:24 AM on August 16, 2002

Wil seems to publicly flog his dead career whenever he needs some up-suck from his inexplicable fans.
posted by donkeyschlong at 3:58 AM on August 16, 2002

I thought Wil's post was pretty good. It didn't feel very forced.

It didn't feel forced to me either, although I will admit to slight melodrama. But you know what? WHo hasn't been more than a little melodramatic in their personal writings on the web a few times.

I personally was geeky enough as a preteen to actually like the character of Wesley and was looking forward to seeing some endings for the character.

I likely wasn't going to see it in theatres regardless, so I will be waiting for the DVD.
posted by aclevername at 3:58 AM on August 16, 2002

Evanizer:Would have perhaps been nice to have closure on the Crusher character.

I thought there was closure. Didn't he turn into some godlike being and zip away to a higher plane of existence with that dopey-looking Traveler guy? It's almost too bad he got cut from the new film though, as I would've been curious to see if after becoming some dimension-hopping uber-genius, he had the same, dumb haircut.
posted by picea at 6:33 AM on August 16, 2002

On the contrary - many a movie (Dune in particular) has been ruined (or dramatically lessened in effect) by cutting too much out. If it isn't done well it leaves the movie disjointed and hard to follow.

A great example of this is Sergio Leone's excellent Once Upon a Time in America. The original 236-minute version was cut to 139 minutes and resequenced for American audiences, resulting in a lot of weirdness like characters walking out of secret doors in rooms they'd never been to before.
posted by kirkaracha at 6:57 AM on August 16, 2002

rcade; who would you rather have say in your guest room. Wheaton or Bridges?
posted by clavdivs at 7:12 AM on August 16, 2002

Well, the films seem hard on the Crusher family altogether. The good doctor has had, what, like five lines in all three of the NextGen films put together?
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 7:52 AM on August 16, 2002

Well, the films seem hard on the Crusher family altogether. The good doctor has had, what, like five lines in all three of the NextGen films put together?

you think that's bad? jack crusher has yet to make an appearance in any of the movies! ::someone comes from offscreen and whispers into eric's ear::

"what's that you say? oh.. umm.. yeah.. *ahem*"
posted by lotsofno at 9:25 AM on August 16, 2002

Well, there was closure for the character in the series in a way, and it seems like Wil's finding his OWN kind of closure with the character as well. Must be kinda hard knowing that you're saying goodbye to a character you've played for a long time - like saying goodbye to a real person - but it also looks like Wil's having fun with his NEW career of writing, which I think is cool. :-) Transitions certainly CAN be dramatic, but I think that's inherent in the experience, not just inherent in Wil - LOL.
posted by thunder at 10:00 AM on August 16, 2002

"Shadows fell across the dashboard of my Nissan. Somewhere, a dog barked and I heard a mother calling to her child.

'Rick, I understand, it's ok,' I said, and in the same instant new that it was true.

A gum wrapper flew out of the window of my car and turned in the breeze like an aging dancer in her farewell performance.

I stared at that gum wrapper for a long time. A really long time.

Finally, I realized that that gum wrapper represented my soul.

Across the street, a dog was urinating on a tree in the gilded summer evening.

'Wil?' Someone said. I realized it was Rick. I had fallen asleep. 'Are you still there, Wil? I'm going to hang up, ok?'

I let him hang up, then I fell asleep again for some reason, and when I woke up I went to Taco Bell.

In basements across the world, near-mint TNG-replica phasers are set on 'cry'."
posted by Hildago at 4:25 PM on August 16, 2002

Well, the films seem hard on the Crusher family altogether. The good doctor has had, what, like five lines in all three of the NextGen films put together?

What shocks me is that each of those movies had a female "guest star" whose role was substantially bigger than those of either of the female regulars who faithfully returned. I don't know why Gates McFadden and Marina Sirtis haven't demanded better -- Berman certainly couldn't refuse to give them a couple of good scenes apiece if they bargained as a unit. It would look bad to announce that the only two women on the show had dropped out of a movie in protest.

As for Wil Wheaton...well, I probably won't bother to see the movie now, and I certainly have better things to do than rent DVDs of Star Trek movies.
posted by Epenthesis at 7:36 PM on August 16, 2002

Nemesis, bah. It can't possibly compare to Star Trek 2, 3, 4 or 6 (my personal favorites).

The one where Picard kills the borg with a Tommy Gun is also nice, but I think they need to give this series up. Please.
posted by insomnyuk at 9:29 PM on August 16, 2002

Oh and yes, for the record, I have seen every Star Trek movie ever made, and most TNG episodes, and dozens of Deep Space Nine and Voyager (the worst of all). I'm not a trekkie though, honest.

Also, it would be nice if they include his parts on a DVD release, for old times sake. I never hated Wesley.
posted by insomnyuk at 9:32 PM on August 16, 2002