Star Trek: Is Tom Hanks In The Film? First Contact Writer Comments!
In 1996, almost 25 years ago, USS Enterprise-E made a time travel back in time to see Zephram Cochrane, inventor of warp drive, and take out the Bong in Star Trek: First Contact. Having already made an appearance in Star Trek: The Next Generations as a different character, James Cromwell portrayed Cochrane. While the rumor has now held long and while the creators of the film initially had a different actor in mind for the role, now Academy Award winner and Star Trek fan, Tom Hanks is being considered for the role. After the release of the film, Rick Berman, who serves as the producer, acknowledged the news, revealing that the scheduling didn’t work out and director Jonathan Frames felt that casting a big star like Hanks could have been a huge mistake.
Tom Hanks Was Being Considered For A Role In Star Trek
To mark the 25th anniversary of First Contact, writer Ronald D. Moore talked to The Hollywood Reporter about what happened behind the scenes of the film. This included Moore also commenting on the rumors around the inclusion of Tom Hanks. As far as Moore recalls, Hanks was someone in their wishlist from the early stages of the development of the film, but no one took that seriously.
“It never got that far,” Moore says. “At that point in the process, there are lots of names on a wishlist for many, many reasons. I’m sure his name was floated in some capacity, but it was never really on the table.”
Even Patrick Stewart requested the writers on the series to flip the roles
It was also recalled by Moore how he alongside co-writer Brannon Braga split the script between the action against Both and also the developments with Cochrane on Earth. Officer Will Riker was initially going to battle Borg while Captain Picard was supposed to deal with Cochrane. Earlier, Patrick Stewart requested the writers on the series to flip the roles. This moment was recalled by Braga, and now Moore gives away some more specifics.
“We did at least a draft or two of that version, and I know Patrick wanted to be on the ship,” Moore explains. “Patrick had really liked doing the [TNG episode] ‘Starship Mine,’ where he was alone on the Enterprise-D and running around. And I think he overtly referenced that in a way like, ‘I would really like to be the one on the ship fighting the Borg, instead of down on the surface.’ And Rick Berman relayed that to us, and I think Brannon and I just immediately went: ‘That’s better. That makes more sense.’ So we flipped it.”
