Men’s Fitness magazine has announced in a news release its list of the 25 Fittest Guys, and Alex O’Loughlin of “Hawaii Five-0;” Joel McHale of “Community and “The Soup;” Joe Manganiello of “True Blood,” Henry Cavill of “The Tudors” and Chip Wade of “Curb Appeal: The Block” and Designed to Sell” are among the men chosen from the small screen.

Other honorees include Chris Evans, Liam Neeson, LeBron James, Michael Fassbender, Bradley Cooper; Kellan Lutz, David Beckham, Chris Pine, Dr. Dre and Jeremy Renner.

For the complete list and some information on the 25 Fittest Guys health regimens, check out the June/July issue of Men’s Fitness magazine, on sale nationwide May 9.

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Chris Pine earned a lead performance plaque for his role of a sociopathic terrorist in Martin McDonagh’s The Lieutenant of Inishmore at the Mark Taper Forum. Sharing triumphs in the solo performance category were Ed Harris for Neil LaBute’s Wrecks at the Geffen Playhouse and Leslie Uggams for her biographical musical Uptown Downtown at the recently reopened Pasadena Playhouse.

Two generations of Pines made their way to the stage when separate awards were announced. In addition to Chris Pine’s acceptance for his Inishmore win, Pine’s father, Robert Pine, came to the stage along with his fellow company members when the Antaeus Company took the evening’s final award for its production of King Lear.

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“We have two clear messages we would like millions of Americans watching the Super Bowl to know about BMW,” said Dan Creed, Vice President, Marketing, BMW of North America. “Even in the depths of the recession, BMW continued to invest in America, and as the global benchmark for clean diesel technology, we’re challenging stereotypes to show our advanced diesels are part of the future.”

Both these messages will be carried through BMW’s marketing efforts throughout the year. The Super Bowl advertisements also mark the debut of actor Chris Pine from Star Trek in 2009 and Unstoppable in 2010 as the voice of BMW.

Peter Ramsey is directing the pic based on “The Guardians of Childhood,” an upcoming series of children’s books by William Joyce, who will co-direct.

Guillermo del Toro and Michael Siegel are exec producing, while Christina Steinberg and Nancy Bernstein will serve as producers.

Pulitzer Prize winner David Lindsay-Abaire wrote the screenplay, which follows a group of heroic childhood legends, each with extraordinary abilities. When Pitch (Law), an evil spirit akin to the boogeyman, lays down the gauntlet to take over the world, the immortal Guardians must join forces for the first time to protect the hopes, beliefs and imagination of children all over the world.

Project was originally announced in December 2009, with Leonardo DiCaprio voicing Jack Frost, a role Pine will be taking over. He’ll be joined by Jackman’s Bunnymund (the Easter Bunny), Baldwin’s North (Santa Claus) and Fisher’s Tooth (the Tooth Fairy).

“It’s a thrill to be working with such an all-star team of actors and filmmakers,” Bill Damaschke, DWA’s chief creative officer, said in a statement to Variety. “When we bring Bill Joyce’s imaginative vision to the screen in 2012, audiences will experience an incredible story with a truly epic sense of adventure.”

DWA will release the film on Nov. 21, 2012.

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As usual, Hollywood celebrities factored in to the choices: Ed Harris for Neil LaBute’s “Wrecks” at the Geffen Playhouse, Chris Pine in Martin McDonagh’s “The Lieutenant of Inishmore” at the Mark Taper Forum and “24″ star Gregory Itzin for the Antaeus Company’s “King Lear” at Deaf West Theatre in North Hollywood. Tony Award winner Lin-Manuel Miranda picked up a nomination — and a win — for his score to “In The Heights” at the Pantages Theatre. (He was the only nominee in the category.)

The awards ceremony is scheduled to take place March 14 at the Colony Theatre in Burbank, where it was held last year. Founded in 1969, the organization’s voting members include theater reviewers from around Southern California, including two regular contributors to the Los Angeles Times — F. Kathleen Foley and David C. Nichols.

Read the full list of nominees at our Awards Tracker blog.

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Unstoppable looks an insurance company’s nightmare – how many stunts did you take on yourself? As many as I could. There’s a point where I’m riding between two cars in a pretty precarious position, and I was proud that I actually said yes to that. It was a thrill – it’s certainly pretty scary looking at a two-tonne train that’s going 40mph and realising that, even if the director yells ‘Cut!’, it’s doing its own thing.

Did they let you drive a real train?
No, thank God. LA is so crowded, I’d be worried I’d be the breaking story on the news.

Did Denzel show you which lever did what?
I tried to soak in as much as I could. You know, I have the best job in the world because I get paid to go to graduate acting school, and this was like having a seminar with one of the best. Is the US as full of train nerds as the UK? I’m not sure it’s as big as in the UK – I actually lived in Leeds in my year abroad at university. I lived on Brudenell Road and loved getting fat off pints of bitter – but there is definitely a ‘trainspotter’ community in the US.

What was your childhood obsession?
I told Tony [Scott] this, I was like six or seven when Top Gun came out and all I ever wanted to do was be a fighter pilot. I read books about aircraft carriers, knew the payload of a Tomcat… all sorts of stuff. But I’ve never been in a plane. My publicist told me that one of her other clients got a chance to fly with the Blue Angels and he puked everywhere. I don’t know if I’d have the balls to do it. But I have flown in a simulator when I was much younger.

Is there any update on the Star Trek sequel other than ‘sometime next year’?
I wish I had news – I feel like I’ll be the last person to know, given the amount of secrecy that JJ and company like to shroud their projects in. Us actors are low on the totem pole of information. All of us go through mini email bursts – something will happen and we’ll mail one another for a little bit, then go incommunicado. I stayed in touch with Simon [Pegg], but we haven’t talked in a while.

What are you doing in the meantime?
This week I have rehearsals with guns and stunt guys [for upcoming action rom-com This Means War], I’m just working on prolonging childhood for as long as possible. I’m really excited as I’m starring with Tom Hardy, who is a rare talent. I loved him in Inception. My competitive edge is at an all-time high, it’s going to be an acting-off. And then I get to do some brain ninja moves and get my Jack Ryan on. I’ve always loved spy fiction, so to get a chance to play one of my favourite characters is a dream come true.

As, presumably, was going gun-crazy in Smokin’ Aces?
That was, and always will be, one of my favourite experiences. Our tech guy was former SAS, and a fucking blast. I got to use a World War II greaser gun, a machete – I wish my nine-year-old self got to do the stuff I get to do now.

Speaking of which, we are obsessed here with Victoria’s Secret models, are you a fan of their work?
Oh God! I think that’s a rhetorical question… Yes I am. Big, big, loving fan. I’ve never been invited to any of their parties, though, so can you get me an invite?

We’ll see what we can do. As an appreciator of the female form, if you were editing FHM, what girl would you put on the cover?
Good question. I’m a huge Jessica Biel fan, but I don’t want to offend Justin [Timberlake], who I know. He’s a hell of a good guy, but goddamn if his girlfriend isn’t beautiful. I think we all should be in agreement on that one.

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Esther and Richard Shapiro’s flick would be a prequel centered on a young Blake Carrington and his first wife Alexis.

Well, I just chatted with the original ruthless and bitchy Alexis—Joan Collins!

Who does she think should play the young future oil moguls? Read on to find out…

For Alexis, Collins thinks onetime Bond Girl and new face of G-Star, Gemma Arterton, would be perfect.

“She has all the qualities that Alexis needs,” she exclusively told me from Birmingham, England, where she’s costarring in stage show Dick Whittington. “She’s sexy. She looks clever and she’s kind of vixenous.”

As for Blake (originally played by the late John Forsythe), Collins said, “I do think Chris Pine would be great as Blake. He’s a wonderful actor.”

Collins said she’d love to play Alexis again. “I certainly couldn’t play her in a prequel in the 1960s,” the 77-year-old Hollywood icon said, laughing. “But I always thought they should do it today with Alexis’ grandchildren, who about 20 years ago were five and six.”

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The film, somewhat of a reboot of the franchise that kicked off in 1990 with Red October, will be directed by Lost alum Jack Bender. It was reportedly going to shoot as early as February this year. Seems not.

Asked by the lovely Neala Johnson whether or not he was prepared to be ’stacked up against those who have come before’, Pine replies assuredly “Look, at the end of the day, people will obviously prefer one version over the other, whether it be Alec Baldwin or Harrison Ford or Ben Affleck. I feel the same way about Star Trek – the only thing I can do is the best version of myself. I can only bring who I am to bear on the part and people either like that or not. Again, I don’t have much control over that, so all I can ask of myself is to do my best, try my hardest and to make sure that we have a really good story to tell, and then it to the hands of fate.”

Pine doesn’t know whether or not he’ll be doing anything as physical in the film as he did on Tony Scott’s Unstoppable.

“I dunno if any trains are gonna be involved”, the actor laughs. “I dunno what’s involved quite yet, I haven’t really seen the finished script, but some assorted running, for sure”.

In a recent interview with the delightful Katey Rich at Cinema Blend, producer Lorenzo Di Bonaventura mentioned that the script for the film is currently undergoing a rewrite and as yet, there’s no set date for filming.

“We’re going to shoot in the spring. There’s no set date. It’s a slow process of figuring out how much it’s going to cost and all that stuff. [It's] the same story– [Anthony Peckham] is going to bring his own particular flair to it. It is the origin story of Jack Ryan. Where you pick him up in his career is very true to what Clancy had as his backstory. You can explore some of the backstory you never had in previous movie. That will be fun for Clancy fan, and for an audience that hasn’t seen [the previous films], or seen them all in theaters. Chris Pine is going to make a great Jack Ryan. We really lucked out there.”

In Moscow, Ryan (Pine) will be fresh out of the Marines and gets himself involved in some sort of financial scandal in Russia. Apparently Wall Street plays a big part in the movie.

I had one casting director stop me and say, ‘All right, now do it again and make me believe you’,” he recalls with a traumatised laugh.

“That was half of what she said, but also the tone that I can’t really recreate. It was just about the most miserable feeling on the planet.

“I just interpreted that as like, ‘OK, stop sucking, and try to be talented’.

“At that point you’ve lost, at that point it becomes not about the material at all, it becomes about your personal beef, and that’s never what it should be.

“The audition room is one of the most awkward, uncomfortable places to be, period. I don’t even know how producers do it, quite honestly.”

But an actor’s gotta do what an actor’s gotta do.

“Yup,” agrees Pine, “par for the course. Born masochist.”

And yet, if an actor does it well enough, or gets lucky enough, auditions can become obsolete. And that’s where the Los Angeles-born and bred Pine finds himself right now.

After fighting for roles in films such as teen-ish rom-coms The Princess Diaries 2 and Just My Luck and offbeat indies Smokin’ Aces and Bottle Shock, in 2009 he struck gold playing Captain Kirk in J. J. Abrams’ Star Trek reboot.

Everything about the sci-fi blockbuster was huge – from its box-office gross to the impact it had on Pine’s career.

Pine sums up the Star Trek effect in succinct terms – “I can say ‘No’ more easily. It’s the first time in my life I’ve ever been offered stuff. And that’s really nice.”

But Star Trek may not have happened for Pine – before it he was so unhappy with the direction his career was going that he had told his agents not to bother (or bother with) him for a couple of years.

“Really what it was, like any actor you don’t have much … maybe this is not entirely true – you always have choice – but in terms of the breadth of choice and the opportunity and the luxury of being able to say ‘No’, and really truly cherry-picking, that I didn’t have at all.

“Like any actor I would go on an audition and hope to get the part, and if you get the part it’s very hard to say ‘No’ – it’s very hard to turn down work and the pay cheque and the opportunity to work on your, not to sound too artsy-fartsy, your craft, what you do for a living.

“But shoot, the summer before I worked on Trek I did a movie (Bottle Shock) with Bill Pullman and Alan Rickman and Dennis Farina and Freddy Rodriguez and Rachael Taylor – I worked with really talented actors.

“And at the end of the day, I was working – that alone separates you from a large swathe of the acting community.”

So now, post-Trek, Pine reckons he’s “won the lottery, so I’m going to try to enjoy my time with my winnings”.

That means relishing the ability to say ‘No’ and knowing the days of hellish auditions are over.

“I don’t know for how long, but for the time being it seems that way,” he says. “I just don’t know for how long … ”

Those winnings this year will bring a Star Trek sequel his way, the rom-com This Means War with Reese Witherspoon and sharing a locomotive cabin with Denzel Washington for much of his latest movie, the Tony Scott-directed, runaway-train thriller Unstoppable.

“I spent as much time as I could just watching and observing and asking as many questions as possible ‘cos it was like going to grad school,” Pine says of working with Washington.

“There were certain times when I think anybody, no matter how nice, would have shrunk away and avoided my persistent pestiness, but he was really kind about it.”

In the film, Pine is the newbie sent to learn from Washington’s grumpy and intimidating freight train driving veteran. And intimidated the newbie was.

“There’s no way not to be!” Pine exclaims.

“Denzel’s an intimidating character, just because he’s so talented and he has so much charisma that it can be kind of blinding. But I just looked at it as a way to step up my game.”

Pine may fake it pretty well in the movie, but don’t count on him to handle a locomotive in real life.

“If you were on the train, I’d tell you not to trust me. ‘Cos I’m an actor,” he laughs. “I don’t actually drive trains, I’m an actor.”

While he says he knows “for sure” that he wants longevity as an actor, the way he talks also suggests Pine wants something more – directing, perhaps?

“Yeah, I could see myself heading there at some point,” he says.

“I don’t know when but … especially after seeing how good Ben Affleck has succeeded in transitioning in his career. I think it’d be a lot of fun; it’d definitely take a lot of the onus off the acting, which can be petrifying sometimes.”

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Pine is just one of a handful of hot, young Hollywood lights on which the industry is banking to replace the vaunted old guard of box office stars.

Between now and summer 2012, audiences will see Pine, along with a small group of young actors, pushing — and being pushed — into blockbuster star-making terrain.

“We need these kids desperately,” one studio producer tells THR. “And there happens to be a crop of five or six of them that are actually filling the role.”

And clearly the new status has its bonuses. As Pine tells THR, “To have just a bit more power to say yes and no is very appealing and intoxicating.”

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A combination of Scott’s filmmaking style and the lack of CGI, in favor of practical sets and real action, contributes to the urgency of the situation from start to finish, taking the audience on an intense, gripping ride. During the film’s press day, co-stars Denzel Washington, Chris Pine and Rosario Dawson, along with Tony Scott, talked about the challenges of making a film like Unstoppable, doing many of their own stunts while on a train going 50 or 60 mph, and getting to meet their real-life heroic counterparts. Check out what they had to say after the jump:

Denzel, can you talk about playing average guys who get pushed into doing heroic things?

WASHINGTON: What’s a not average guy? He’s like most people in the world. I don’t know what “average guy” means, so I don’t worry about that. There’s nothing average about someone who can control a 100,000-ton machine or make it stop or risk his life to do it. I’m the average guy. What they did was not average. I don’t look at it that way. I don’t put characters in a slot before I start.

Tony, was it more challenging to shoot this film or edit it?

TONY SCOTT: To shoot it. I love the challenge, and this was the biggest adventure of my life. We didn’t do what are called major stunts, if you look at movies today, but it was a very dangerous movie to shoot. My goal was to not be inhibited by shooting on a train at 50 or 60 mph. I wanted to take my trade and craft that I use on a stage and apply it to a circle track at 60 mph with three cameras. At the same time, you have to watch that you don’t get in the way of the performance of the actors. But, shooting in real-life situations helps actors because they’re competing against the noise and the wind. Out of that comes things that shift and change, in terms of tone, but not in terms of re-honing the whole sequence.

Chris, what’s the most helpful thing you learned from the real people you talked to?

CHRIS PINE: What was interesting and frightening was that, when we went to the rail yard in L.A., they said the most dangerous place for trains is actually not really out on the track, but it’s in the yard. The trains can be so quiet and so seemingly innocuous, but they’re 100,000-ton beasts. This one guy told the story about this guy who got surprised on the track in the yard. The train was only going 3 or 4 mph, but it pinned the guy and they had to call the family out because the guy was still alive while he was pinned. They said their goodbyes, the train separated from the guy and then he passed away. That’s how dangerous these things are. Also, for pretty much everyone we talked to, everyone had an experience – whether it be a conductor or an engineer – with life and death stuff, like people trying to cross the tracks, and there’s no emergency stop button on a train. A lot of people experienced traumatic events, so there were counselors.

Denzel, did you get to drive a train at all?

WASHINGTON: Yes, getting to drive a train was great. Everything on them hurts. You can step on something or hit your knee. It was dangerous all the time. I was always more nervous because Chris and I were looking forward, and you had all these guys and women around us on this platform going 50 mph, so we could see what was coming, but they couldn’t. It was trippy. But, I couldn’t imagine making this movie on green screen. It wouldn’t work. You wouldn’t know what getting hit by puffed wheat cereal was like.

PINE: When I read the script, it said, “And cue cereal action sequence.” Who knew that cereal could be such a pain in the ass? But, it’s a credit to Tony, too. Everything was practical, so not only were we on train that were moving on tracks, but we had two trains. One train was the regular train, and then another was chopped up so that the cab could be circled by this 360-degree camera. We could run scenes over and over and over again, and feel like we were driving the train, and not be hindered by worrying about the coverage. We could just run the scene, and there was such a freedom and liberty to be able to do that.

Denzel and Chris, how much of the stunts were actually you?

PINE: I didn’t have a stuntman.

WASHINGTON: I had seven.

PINE: He had one for every day of the week.

WASHINGTON: I remember, early on, I was reading the script going, “Why does the other guy get to be the hero? I want to be that guy.” As we kept working on the material, I was like, “Maybe I shouldn’t be the guy jumping. Chris should be the guy. I can see why he’s the guy.” We had very experienced stunt men. They did Casino Royale and they knew how to jump. Chris pissed me off because he was doing a lot of his own stunts. Punk!

SCOTT: D’s got a fear of heights, and I had him up at 25 feet on a 50 mph train, which was no easy task. We mixed and matched stunt guys with the real guys. Chris was really down there between the two trains and the grain was really sugar puffs cereal. They’re hard-coated, so they travel better and they hurt more. They were mixed with potato flakes. I wanted a snow storm, but I couldn’t do it at that time of year, so we came up with the idea of a grain car and the seal breaking. We recreated a grain storm with sugar puffs and potato flakes.

Tony, what was the hardest scene for you to shoot?

SCOTT: It’s when I’m doing the performances, to tell you the honest truth. I look at the guys and hope that I’m covering it and handling it in the right way. Especially when you’re on a train, going at that speed, you have to make sure that, all of a sudden, the logistics don’t take over from the performance. This is about two guys resolving their differences through the course of this journey, which is great, and you’ve got the guys having to come to terms with who they are. It’s a great vehicle for me, in terms of the drama of putting together these two different worlds.

Was all of the trade lingo in the script or did the actors come up with some of that through their own research?

SCOTT: We always do a lot of research and I like to give a validation with the lingo, or the trade craft, as we call it. We put that in the script and sometimes we embelish it and sometimes we tune it back. You don’t want the audience to get confused.

How much time did you guys get to spend with the actual people you were portraying in the film?

PINE: (Conductor) Terry [Forson] and (engineer) Jess [Knowlton] came out here and we went to the Pig ‘N Whistle and had a couple of beers and talked. It was great. In real life, they say that they were married to one another for awhile, in the sense that they were conductor and engineer together. They were a couple. What was really interested from talking to them was learning that that hierarchy in the train is very real. Those guys that are old heads and have been around for a long time demand a certain level of respect. Just because the newbie has gone to school and learned to do his job doesn’t mean that he knows all the ins and outs of the job itself, in practicality. They told a lot of stories about, if a newbie came in and was pressing his luck, in terms of trying to show the old guys how it was done, he was in for a world of hurt.

SCOTT: Research is what drives me. When I get a script, I go to the real world and touch the real people. Chris’ character, Terry, was a pretty boy who got the job because of nepotism. That’s what turned me around. Originally, I was thinking “blue collar,” but then I met these two guys and we took from their lives and put it in the characters in the script. It was great. I get to educate and entertain myself by touching these worlds and these people.

ROSARIO DAWSON: That’s how Hooters came into the script.

WASHINGTON: Yeah, Jesse’s daughters really worked at Hooters.

DAWSON: I love that ‘cause it seems like one of those Hollywood things, but it’s true research.

Rosario, can you talk about developing the strength of your character?

DAWSON: I think that was something really amazing that we had an opportunity to create with her. We had a lot of choices to make about how we were going to express Connie. There are a lot of cliches about a woman in a man’s world, and there are a lot of cliches about a woman in a high position of power and how she should behave. I think we walked that line really well and were very clear about what we wanted Connie to come across as. She’s just someone very capable and sensible. At the end of the film, you’re not thinking about her being a woman in a man’s world, but just the right person for a very stressful situation. She’s someone who doesn’t get hysterical, but we wanted to express the frustration of being in this control room, miles away from where all the action is. We wanted to show, as calm and collected as she is, that if she could physically propel herself out a window and into that train and pull that lever herself, she would. That’s what makes the octopus arms come out and get on every phone and do anything that she could possibly do to make those blinking lights go the way she wants them to. That was something that we really played with, to show how her levels of emotion were and how much she showed to other people. It is a high-stress situation and she’s in charge, so you can’t freak everybody out or panic them. Your options disappear as the time goes by, so you don’t have time to freak out. You have to do the next thing, protocol wise, that’s going to save lives.

Denzel, now that you’ve worked with Tony five times, do you have a shorthand with each other?

WASHINGTON: Obviously, I think there’s a shorthand. He knows how I like to work, and I know what he likes to do. He knows I like research, so he’s going to have a ton of stuff, long before we start.

SCOTT: There’s never been a complacency with the work. Both of us are similar. We’re all researching for difference. We don’t want to repeat ourselves. That’s my goal. With every movie I do and every day I go to work, my goal is not just to reach for difference, but also figure out how to look at this world and these characters in a different way, and Denzel does the same. He reaches back inside himself and finds a different aspect of his personality. We’ve done five movies and every character is very different, from Crimson Tide to Man on Fire to this film.

Do you still learn about the craft of filmmaking from Tony?

WASHINGTON: I definitely know that I cannot do what he does. What he does is make films. I’ve directed a couple films. That has nothing to do with what he’s doing. I’ve learned so much from him.

Rosario, what was it like to work with Denzel again?

DAWSON: In the one scene that we had together, it was brilliant. It’s interesting because on the last movie that we did together (He Got Game), we also only had one scene together. Maybe we can figure out how to have a couple more scenes together in the next movie. That would be really, really nice. It’s an amazing, odd and interesting thing to watch how impressive it is, and it’s something that Tony is such a genius at, to have a great, fun ride in an action film where you actually care about everybody. The time is taken to really establish the different types of personalities there and give them time. Even if some of the conversation seems mundane or inane, it’s deeply connecting you to caring about these characters, as the story goes along, which is very unusual for an action film of this kind. I think it’s just amazing and remarkable that I feel there’s a chemistry between Frank and Connie, that was only brought together because of Tony being able to gauge our performances, in the weeks and months that were separated between them while we were in different cities. It’s magical to me that, in that one moment at the end of the movie, you can see chemistry and a comradery of spirit. They’re cut of the same cloth. They’re people of the same stock. They would appreciate each other and get what each other’s deep connection to doing life. You can see a hereafter after that, and that’s something really amazing. But, personally, I would like to flush that out on screen a little bit more next time.

Chris, you obviously must be dealing with offers on a different scale after Star Trek. How are you choosing roles now, at this point?

PINE: I’ve just been very blessed. It’s such a shock to me that people seem very interested in who I am and what I do, and that I get to work with people that I’ve watched since I was a kid. Star Trek has really afforded me the luxury of choice and being able to cherry pick, for I don’t know how long. I’m in a time right now where I can at least say yes and no to certain things. I think the guiding principal for me is working with people who I want to work with. Because I don’t know how long it’s going to last, I want to seize the moment. I’ve been very lucky.

Are you getting any input into the development of Star Trek 2?

PINE: Nope.

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Chris Pine, all dreamy intensity and blue, blue eyes, certainly sounds the part while discussing the links between “Star Trek,” in which he starred last year, and “Unstoppable,” his new film with Denzel Washington and Rosario Dawson. ”

“The stories couldn’t be any more different and any more alike,” he says at the Four Seasons in Los Angeles. “The reluctant hero is a story that’s been told for ages and ages, and the reason why we always come back to it is we see reflected in the reluctant hero the worst and best parts of us. They’re faced with that great challenge and the question is: Are they going to take it on or not? Are they going to become the best versions of themselves or not?”

The heroism in question in director Tony Scott’s fifth collaboration with Washington involves a runaway train loaded with tons of hazardous chemicals. Pine’s Will Colson is a rookie conductor on his first day, bristling under the tutelage of three-decade veteran Frank Barnes (Washington) when the pending disaster becomes clear. Frank immediately decides to pursue the runaway with their engine. Will, carrying a freight train’s worth of his own issues, is not sold on the plan.

“Kirk is a selfish little (jerk) in the beginning of ‘Star Trek,’ and he ends up leading men into battle,” Pine says. “It’s a humongous arc from one version to the next, and he’s still growing because we have more films. Will is a selfish, angry, rageful (jerk) and he has to shed that and his foil is Frank, who lets him swing his arms like a tantrum to get it out and become the best version of himself. Those are very similar journeys.”

The Los Angeles native is increasingly becoming known for action roles – he’s signed to play Jack Ryan in that series’ reboot. His next project is the action-comedy “This Means War” with Reese Witherspoon and Tom Hardy.

“Unstoppable” co-star Dawson says people called Pine “Kirk” on the set of their movie. But he asserts with conviction that he was a serious student while pursuing his English degree at UC Berkeley. Perhaps too serious.

“I studied a lot. If I could do college over again, I would probably try to have more fun,” he says, quick to dispel the myth that he walked on to the Cal baseball team. “I played sports all my life, and in a pipe dream, I thought, ‘Yeah, it would be cool to play sports at Berkeley.’ I was a rail-thin, gangly kid; there was no way I was going to be playing sports there.”

He comes from a family of actors, among them his father Robert Pine (a very familiar face with more than 180 credits, including a run on “CHiPs”), and served as a production assistant on Roger Corman’s “Black Scorpion” in his teens.

“I gripped and I gaffed, I was all over the place,” he says. “I locked up sets when we were shooting on location, prevented people from walking into the set. I was awful at that because I was a really nice guy, saying, ‘Please don’t walk …’ People steamrolled right ahead and did whatever they wanted.”

It seems funny for Pine to describe himself as a gangly kid and really nice guy who got blown by, because if people were trying to walk on a set past Will or Captain Kirk …

“Correct. That’s the magic of filmmaking and the greatest part of being an actor and probably why I chose it: You get to be people that you’re not. I’m definitely more interested in those hard-headed, everyday courageous guys – in many ways I’m a more than privileged kid who’s not all that working class. I’ve been very blessed in my life,” he admits.

Will is very much working class, as is the world of the railroads. But it wasn’t the jargon or protocols that stayed with Pine among the things he learned about the job.

“The one thing that every person who worked in a train yard said is, they’ve pretty much all had an experience with death or near-death,” he says. “These are thousands of tons of metal hurtling down the track. Conductors and engineers see people killing themselves all the time: Putting themselves across the tracks, bums who’ve fallen asleep or people who screw up and try to get across the train crossing … it happens a lot. So much so that they have counselors help them get through it.

“It was a shock that seemingly such an innocuous job – you’re transporting grain or coal or cars – that you’d have to deal with that whole other thing that’s traumatic.”

The kid who did not walk on at Cal was blown away to be picked for this team, though, as Washington has said he recommended Pine for the part.

“I heard about that recently. Denzel’s a very gracious guy, keeps things close to his vest and there’s a reason he didn’t tell me, I guess. But it’s so flattering, I can’t even begin to describe it to you. It’s a huge honor,” says Pine, who quickly names as his favorite scene the verbal confrontation between Will and Frank after the rookie makes a major mistake.

“He calls me on my s- and I get really angry about it. I go off on him and he laughs me off, which pisses me off more. I’m all coiled. I can’t land a shot because I have no traction in the scene: I screwed up, period. That was a lot of fun, because that’s sparring with one of the masters, with Bruce Lee or whatever.” {sbox}

Unstoppable (PG-13) opens Friday at Bay Area theaters.

To see a trailer for “Unstoppable,” go to www.unstoppablemovie.com.
Chris Pine
Born: Aug. 26, 1980, Los Angeles

Why we care: He’s Captain Kirk. That “Star Trek” reboot by J.J. Abrams was so great that expectations for the sequel in 2012 are somewhere beyond the Delta Quadrant. He’s going to be the next Jack Ryan, following Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford and Ben Affleck into the Tom Clancy franchise.

Resume builders: Apart from blockbusters and the forthcoming “This Means War,” Pine has appeared in “Bottle Shock,” “Smokin’ Aces,” “Just My Luck” and “The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement.” He got his start on a 2003 episode of “E.R.”

Quotable: On picking up leads in storied franchises: “I don’t know why it’s happened this way, but it just seems to be my journey. … It’s given me great opportunities and the ability to travel and explore and learn. Life is good.”

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Interviewer Howie Kahn discovered that this month’s cover subject had done his homework before their meeting. “He quoted my own work back to me,” says Kahn. “Obscure quotes, too, that made me think he had really gotten into the trenches of Google.” Khan met with Chris while he was working on “The Lieutenant of Inishmore,” the Martin McDonagh play that ran this summer at the Mark Taper Forum in downtown Los Angeles. Chris arrived for the interview in Ray-Bans, a white Hanes T-shirt, American Apparel hoodie, and mesh athletic shorts. The actor shifted in his seat to accommodate his pulled muscles from the play. “My body’s all sorts of fu**ed-ip,” Pine said. “I tore my groin. I pulled my neck and my glute, tweaked my rhomboid, sprained my fu**ing sacrum.”

More Highlights from the article:
On dating: “I’m single and very happy about it. It’s a good time to be single. I have a lot of friends getting married right now, having babies. But I think I’ll be more like … the George Clooney.”

On loosening up: “I feel prematurely old. I’m actually having this major belated quarter-life crisis. I’m turning 30 in a couple of weeks. I’ve been thinking a lot about mortality. A lot about what I’m going to do with my life and how to enjoy it. One of the things I’m going to work on is being more spontaneous, letting go, embracing the beauty of come-what-may.”

“Sometimes I think I need to get crazy. Go to Vegas. Do some drugs. Get some hookers. Gamble it all away. And it never happens. I usually just end up at home on my couch—reading.”

“I remember him asking a lot of questions. Questions for the director. Questions about the script. ‘What about this?’ ‘What about that?’ He kind of woke me up. I used to ask those questions.” – Denzel Washington

“Chris is a stand-alone. A star. He’s beautiful and sexy. He’s got mystery and darkness. He’s got everything.” – Tony Scott

Read the entire article at the source

An ongoing supporter of Habitat for Humanity, Chris Pine builds homes alongside Habitat for Humanity homeowners, advocates on behalf of Habitat and is a frequent contributor to Habitat’s fundraising auctions. Chris donated this experience to raise awareness and funds for Habitat’s mission of providing safe and decent housing for all. See a great film, meet Chris and do good for others at the same time. 100% of the proceeds from this auction benefit Hollywood for Habitat for Humanity

But we here at MTV News like to take every possible opportunity to clarify or confirm rumors. And when the very pleasant Pine called to chat about his upcoming thriller “Unstoppable” a few days after the Clooney news surfaced, we had to ask his thoughts about it.

“I have, I mean, I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said with some hesitation.

So, we told him the short version of the story.

“Wow!” he responded, sounding genuinely shocked. “Um … that would be another dream come true,” he said, having mentioned earlier that working with Denzel Washington and Ridley Scott on “Unstoppable” was just that.

“Farragut North,” written by former Democratic political operative Beau Willimon, revolves around the shady tactics a young presidential campaign wunderkind named Stephen Myers uses to get his candidate the nomination against a rival senator.

“I love that part, I love the story,” said Pine, who received rave reviews in the lead role of “Farragut” onstage last year. “I think it’s a wonderful, wonderful story about a really intelligent young guy who’s kind of hyper-articulate, and spinning a bunch of plates at once, that’s obviously hiding a lot of trauma and a lot of insecurity and a lot of hurt. And to work with George Clooney, that would be pretty f—ing awesome.”

We then mentioned the report that Clooney is eyeing Philip Seymour Hoffman and Paul Giamatti as Pine’s potential co-stars.

His reaction? He laughed out loud in disbelief.

“Jesus Christ! Well, you can’t get better than that,” he said. “I hope it works out. That would be a lot of fun.”

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Farragut North was written for the stage by Beau Willimon, who drew inspiration for the political drama from his experiences working on Howard Dean’s presidential campaign back in 2004. Clooney has been working with Willimon to adapt the play to the big screen for nearly three years now.

Pine would star in the role of spinmeister/wunderkind Stephen Myers, a shrewd political campaigner who is working to get his candidate nominated during the Iowa Democratic caucuses. The young man’s attempts are complicated by the efforts of an investigative journalist and a teenage intern – the latter of which Myers has an affair with. Marisa Tomei and Evan Rachel Wood are in talks to play the respective roles.

Leonardo DiCaprio was at one point attached to play the role of Myers, but that is no longer the case. Pine was widely praised for his portrayal of the character in an L.A. production of Farragut North last year (see below) and has seen his star meter in Hollywood rise significantly since – needless to say, he seems all but a perfect choice to play Myers in Clooney’s adaptation as well.

Chris Pine Farragut North movie George Clooney

Clooney already has two credible indie actors onboard to star in Farragut North as well: Philip Seymour Hoffman, who will play Myers’ boss, and Paul Giamatti, in the role of a rival candidate’s campaign manager. The politician Myers works for is never seen in the original play, but will have a short appearance in the film version and may be brought to life by Clooney himself.

Sony is currently holding negotiations with Clooney to distribute the pic, which will most likely be an independent production. The combination of a high-caliber cast and Clooney at the helm should be sufficient to attract the attention of financiers to fund the project.

We will keep you updated on the development of Farragut North as more news comes in.

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Wilson Milam directs the production, which stars Chris Pine, Ian Alda, Andrew Connolly, Coby Getzug, Seán G. Griffin, Kevin Kearns, Zoe Perry, and Brett Ryback.

Among the opening night guests were Courtney B. Vance, Shawn Christian, Johnny Galecki, Tate Donovan, Robert Pine, and Lorien Hawkins.

The show is set in 1993 on a rocky island in County Galway where Padraic (Pine), a hard-boiled terrorist is lured home by the news that his beloved cat, Wee Thomas, is doing poorly. When Padraic discovers the cat has been murdered, he initiates a cycle of revenge-killing that threatens everyone in his path.

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Thanks so much to JenLynn for the high qualities! <3

Finally, I asked him what projects are bubbling up to the surface and he said the next Jack Ryan movie, Moscow, that Chris Pine is attached to and The Associate – which is a John Grisham book that Shia Labeouf’s attached to. When I asked how the script was for the Jack Ryan movie, he said they had a great one and he is hoping to start shooting late winter/early spring.

Do you mind me asking what’s bubbling up what’s bubbling to the surface right now for you?

Lorenzo: Well, we’re hoping to get Jack Ryan off the ground with Chris Pine and that’s really exciting. And this movie called The Associate which is a John Grisham book that Shia Labeouf’s attached to. We’re hoping to get that off the ground shortly, too.

SW: I spoke to somebody about the Jack Ryan project and the last time I spoke it was I think I want to say it was somehow tied to Moscow? Am I wrong about that?

Lorenzo: It’s called Moscow.

That’s right. So I guess, do you guys have a script? Or just figuring out his….

Lorenzo: We have a very good script. I think it’s…I’m very happy with where we are today and we’re looking forward to…maybe with a little luck starting next late winter/early spring.

Oh this year or early next year?

Lorenzo: Of early next year, yeah.

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Directed by Wilson Milam (Tony-nominated for directing the Broadway production of this play), the cast of “The Lieutenant of Inishmore” features (in alphabetical order) Ian Alda, Andrew Connolly, Coby Getzug, Seán G. Griffin, Kevin Kearns, Zoe Perry, Chris Pine and Brett Ryback. The scenic designer for “The Lieutenant of Inishmore” is Laura Fine Hawkes, the costume designer is Stephanie Kerley Schwartz, the lighting designer is Brian Gale and the sound designer is Cricket S. Myers. Casting is by Erika Sellin and the production stage manager is David S. Franklin.

“The Lieutenant of Inishmore,” by Academy Award-winning, Olivier Award-winning and Tony Award-nominated Martin McDonagh, is a blistering, graphic satire on violence set in 1993 on the rocky island of Inishmore. Padraic (Pine), a hard-boiled terrorist, has been away in Northern Ireland with his busy schedule of torture and assorted nationalist mayhem, but he is lured home to Inishmore by the news that his beloved cat, Wee Thomas, is doing poorly. When Padraic finds out Wee Thomas has been murdered, he initiates a cycle of revenge-killing that threatens everyone in his path, except perhaps the love-struck Mairead (Zoe Perry), a 16-year-old terrorist groupie with a BB gun.

When “The Lieutenant of Inishmore” was presented in 2006 at the Atlantic Theater Company in New York, Ben Brantley of The New York Times said that the play is “. . . brazenly and unapologetically a farce, but it is also a severely moral play, translating into dizzy absurdism the self-perpetuating spirals of political violence that now occur throughout the world . . . [it is] directed with a steady gaze and acute theatrical instinct by Wilson Milam.” Michael Billington of The Guardian remarked of the earlier London production, “. . . a boldly brilliant play about the way rigid adherence to a cause destroys a sense of proportion . . . Like all first-rate satire, the play attacks excess and endorses reason.”

Center Theatre Group, a non-profit organization, is one of the largest and most active theatre companies in the nation, programming seasons at the Mark Taper Forum and Ahmanson Theatre at the Music Center of Los Angeles, and the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City. In addition to providing theatre of the highest caliber to the rich, diverse communities of Southern California, CTG supports a significant number of arts education and play development initiatives.
Tickets for “The Lieutenant of Inishmore” are available by calling CTG Audience Services at (213) 628-2772 or online at www.CenterTheatreGroup.org or in person at the CTG box office located at the Ahmanson Theatre at the Music Center.

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The 40-year-old British actor plays Montgomery “Scotty” Scott in the sci-fi adventure alongside Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto and Zoe Saldana. The film is directed by JJ Abramas and roughly scheduled for release in 2012.

Simon revealed: “We all talk to each other, I speak to JJ quite a lot and he’s very tight lipped – he doesn’t even say waht’s going to happen in Lost, he really can keep a secret that guy!”

He added: “I keep saying when are we doing it, when are we doing it and he says ‘Soon, soon.’ So I reckon towards the end of the year.

“It might be a similar time to when we did the last one, so over Christmas kind of thing.”

Asked what he was hoping might happen to Scotty in the new movie, Simon joked he would like him to have sex with an attractive green alien.