Shoplifting starlet Winona Ryder has landed a role playing Spock’s mother in the now-filming “Star Trek” movie. Under director J.J. Abrams guidance the “Heathers” and “Beetlejuice” actress will be playing a human woman that falls in love with a Vulcan ambassador, marries him and eventually gives birth to the green-blooded Mr. Spock. First introduced in the 1960s “Star Trek” series the character was played by Jane Wyatt. “Heroes” bad guy Zachary Quinto has been cast as her young adult son while the original Spock, Leonard Nimoy, will play the future incarnation. Yes that’s right, time travel is involved with the storyline of this new movie. It just wouldn’t be “Star Trek” without aliens and time travel, would it?

After earning a name for herself as a rising actress Ryder was arrested and found guilty of shoplifting from a Beverly Hills boutique back in 2002. She kept her profile low before rebounding back last year in the cartoony sci-fi film “A Scanner Darkly”.

In other “Star Trek” news Bruce Greenwood (”Deja Vu”) has been cast as the first captain of the USS Enterprise. Captain Christopher Pike was Mr. Spock’s original commander before Capt. Kirk launched his five-year mission. The character of Pike was seen in a two-part episode called “The Menagerie” where it was revealed that he nearly died in an accident saving the lives of younger Starfleet cadets.

Abrams’ movie is set in the early days of Kirk’s command and will show how the original crew of the Enterprise met each other and bonded. Chris Pine (”The Princess Diaries 2″) plays the 20-something Kirk and Karl Urban (”The Bourne Supremacy”) plays the crusty curmudgeon Dr. McCoy. The movie will be in theaters on Christmas Day 2008.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 9th, 2007 at 4:10 pm and is filed under Actresses, Movies, Winona Ryder. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Be sure to subscribe to the PopTherapy.com feed because it is really, really funny. Have something funny you want to share? Please let us know.