Chris Pine to Play CIA Hero Jack Ryan

Having picked up where William Shatner left off as Star Trek's Capt. James T. Kirk, Chris Pine is now poised to take over from where Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford and Ben Affleck have trod – as Jack Ryan, novelist Tom Clancy's adventurous CIA analyst.

Pine, 29, is onboard to star in a new entry in the action series, Variety reports.

While no movie title has been announced, "Tom Clancy created an unforgettable character with Jack Ryan," Paramount president Adam Goodman says in a statement. "With Chris in this role, we've taken our first step in creating a re-boot that lives up to the successful lineage of the franchise."

Baldwin played Ryan in 1990's The Hunt Red October, followed by Ford in 1992's Patriot Games and 1994's Clear and Present Danger, while Affleck starred in 2002's The Sum of All Fears.

When not saving the Free World, Pine, currently costarring with Denzel Washington in Unstoppable, will also return to his Kirkian spacesuit for J.J. Abrams's sequel to Star Trek, then it's on to director D.J. Caruso's The Art of Making Money – about a Chicago-based counterfeiter.

Star Sighting: Big in Japan

Hot on the heels of their box office success in the U.S., Chris Pine and Eric Bana bow in Japan along with their Star Trek castmates at the sci-fi film's Tokyo premiere Tuesday at the Shinjuku Milano One theater.

Meet the Cast of the New Star Trek

A brand-new cast is beaming into the iconic roles of the crew of the starship Enterprise as the revamped Star Trek lands in theaters today.

Here's your guide to the Starfleet's finest and their first forays into the enduring sci-fi phenomenon:

NAME: Chris Pine
CHARACTER: Capt. James T. Kirk
WHERE YOU'VE SEEN HIM BEFORE: 2004's The Princess Diaries 2; 2006's Smokin' Aces
NEXT UP: The indie drama Small Town Saturday Night.

"As an actor you search for great roles," says Pine, 28. "This one just happened to be named James Kirk." While figuring out ways to make the part his own, he also watched William Shatner in the original series looking for "things that I felt that I could use without hitting people over the head with a bad impersonation," Pine says. "He's got a very theatrical quality that just made me smile every time." He admits donning Kirk's familiar gold uniform "was a fun day ... [but] as for the part being mine, I think people will always and forever connect Mr. Shatner to that role."

NAME: Zachary Quinto
CHARACTER: Lt. Commander Spock
WHERE YOU'VE SEEN HIM BEFORE: As the evil Sylar on NBC's Heroes; season three of 24.
NEXT UP: Back bedeviling the heroes for season four.

"I was sporting a Spock bowl cut when I was 12," confesses Quinto, 31. "I have pictures to prove it." He didn't think re-adopting the Vulcan's signature hairstyle for six months "would alienate me from myself as much as it did, but that alienation is exactly what the character is experiencing. It actually deepened my character and was certainly a sacrifice well worth making" Even more helpful? Having original Spock Leonard Nimoy, "as a resource and such a generous available support system made it much easier for me to step into the experience."

NAME: Karl Urban
CHARACTER: Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy
WHERE YOU'VE SEEN HIM BEFORE: In The Lord of the Rings trilogy; The Bourne Supremacy.
NEXT UP: The crime drama Black Water Transit opposite Laurence Fishburne.

The New Zealand-born actor, 36, playing the ship's irascible doctor, proclaims himself a genuine Trekkie. "I am definitely the resident geek," says Urban, who toted a childhood Trek toy along on the cast's international press tour. "I watched it as a boy, religiously, every Saturday morning." Two days after being cast, he was at a Santa Monica stoplight when "a gentleman in a Star Trek outfit walked across the road. And I think it was just on a random day! It struck me at that point, the effect of this wonderful series has had in our popular culture."

NAME: Zoe Saldana
CHARACTER: Lt. Nyota Uhura
WHERE YOU'VE SEEN HER BEFORE: Crossroads; Drumline; Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl.
NEXT UP: James Cameron's highly anticipated sci-fi thriller Avatar.

At first, Saldana, 30, wasn't sure why "for some reason every man on set noticed when I was working. It was like 'God, I don't know. Was it my line?'" Then she realized: It was Uhura's trademark short skirt. "Oh – okay." Her first fan encounter was with a hired driver who was once a stand-in on a Trek sequel series. "He had his entire memorabilia in his trunk," she remembers. "This could have been really freaky, but he was so respectful. But to this day I'm wondering whether he knew he was picking me up and that I was doing Star Trek, or that he happens to [always] drive his town car filled with memorabilia."

NAME: Simon Pegg
CHARACTER: Lt. Commander Montgomery "Scotty" Scott
WHERE YOU'VE SEEN HIM BEFORE: As the star and co-writer of the BBC sit-com Spaced and the films Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz.
NEXT UP: Voicing the one-eyed weasel Buck in Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs.

Pegg insists he's an even more avid Trek fan than Urban and is willing to challenge him in a duel, name-checking references from the original series. "We can sort of fight in an 'Arena'-style battle where I'm wearing the Gorn mask – which makes me the bigger Trekkie!" he laughs. The 39-year-old Brit, best known for comedic roles, says he understands why die-hards might be worried about his take on the chief engineer, but explains, "Scotty is definitely a lively character, and his humor is his own – it's not at the expense of him or the film. So I hope I've done them proud."

NAME: John Cho
CHARACTER: Lt. Hikaru Sulu
WHERE YOU'VE SEEN HIM BEFORE: The American Pie trilogy; Harold in the Harold & Kumar films.
NEXT UP: The comedy St. John of Las Vegas opposite Steve Buscemi and Sarah Silverman.

"My primary connection to the show was just being excited about George Takei being on television, and yelling across the house: 'There's an Asian guy on TV! Come quick! He may disappear!'" laughs Cho, 36, who was born in South Korea and raised in Los Angeles. He calls the role of the swashbuckling helmsman "a dream come true for me. What I did in this movie – flying a spaceship and having a sword fight – is exactly what my young brother and I would do for hours and hours as children, so it's weird to get paid to do that. We received no payment, oddly enough, as children to do that."

NAME: Anton Yelchin
CHARACTER: Ensign Pavel Chekov
WHERE YOU'VE SEEN HIM BEFORE: 2007's Charlie Bartlett; Showtime's Huff.
NEXT UP: As young Kyle Reese in Terminator: Salvation.

Yelchin, 20, was actually born in Leningrad, giving him Russian roots like his character, known for his slightly exaggerated accent. "You have to stay true to the accent," says Yelchin. "It's more of a stereotype of a Russian accent than it is a Russian accent. It was fun playing around with that." Born 20 years after the original series went off the air, he didn't grow up watching Star Trek but admits, "I'm a fan now. There's just something so great about it that you can't help but really love it."

Five Things You Didn't Know About Star Trek's Chris Pine

Chris Pine's career is poised to take off at warp speed as he assumes the iconic role of Capt. James T. Kirk in the re-launch of Star Trek.

Pine, 29, filed a captain's log with People, revealing five things you may not know about the Enterprise's rising star:

His father, actor Robert Pine, played Sgt. Getraer – Erik Estrada's boss on CHiPs: "I learned that life is not always wine and roses. As a working actor, there are the fouler times. Then there are those times that are really great. It's just a matter of keeping a head on your shoulders, keeping a sense of humor, and looking ahead."

He discovered hooking up with green alien girls isn't as sexy as it may seem: "That poor girl, Rachel Nichols, was in the makeup chair for two hours getting painted, so there was a lot of green paint on my nose after many a take. It wasn't as fun as it looked. It was a long day and, yes, the makeup proved to kill any buzz that I might have gotten otherwise."

His grandmother is a big William Shatner fan: "She watched T.J. Hooker every time she babysat me. Inevitably there would be some old rerun of Star Trek, but I was not a fan by any means – just via my grandmother by proxy. I was more of a Star Wars kid." Dad recently worked with the original Captain Kirk. "He actually did a Priceline commercial with him. Shatner was a chauffer and my dad was the rich guy in the back."

He met Shatner for the first time at his charity horse show on April 25: "I did not want to make it about any kind of big meeting between the two Kirks. I wanted to support him and shake hands with him finally. I hope to get a chance to really sit down with him sometime, one-on-one. It would be a lot of fun ... In my mind, Capt. Kirk will always be William Shatner, and William Shatner will always be Capt. Kirk."

He learned stuntmen have a way of dealing with actors who miss their marks: "On my first day of shooting I ended up breaking a stunt guy's nose on the second take. A word of caution to any young actor out there: Do NOT hurt stuntmen because they will pay you back in kind. The next take after that, this big stunt guy kicked me in the stomach. He said it wasn't on purpose, but I don't know."

Chris Pine: Ready To Be the Best Captain Kirk

He may play one of TV's iconic characters in the upcoming Star Trek movie, but Chris Pine believes he can add something new to the character of Captain James T. Kirk.

"No matter what your job, there are always ways to do something better than your predecessor," he tells the May issue of Men's Health magazine. "That's why you were hired."

Not that commanding the U.S.S. Enterprise was an easy task. "When I started Trek," he says, "I didn't have time for anything else but climbing the thing and getting to the top. There's tremendous responsibility. There's tremendous pressure. But all those just clarify your vision."

Tackling the role may have been daunting, but Pine knew he had to try. "I think the most dangerous word in the English language is should," he says. "'I should have done this.' Or 'I should do that.' Should implies responsibility. It connotes demand. Which is just not the case. Life ebbs and flows."

Lately, life has brought him to a happy place, complete with a sunny and optimistic girlfriend. Just one hitch: She's a morning person and he's not. "I'm so envious of that genetic wiring that immediately puts a smile on your face," he says. "My genetic wiring just puts creases in my eyebrows."

A buff Pine appears on the cover of Men's Health magazine, which hits the stands on April 21st. The latest movie edition of Star Trek hits theatres on May 8th.