‘Star Trek Beyond’: Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos To Make A Cameo


What Star Trek fan wouldn’t want to play an alien in the movie? Apparently that’s something that even tempts billionaire fans.

Amazon founder Jeffrey Preston “Jeff” Bezos has lived the fantasy of every Star Trek fan and sci-fi enthusiast by making a cameo appearance as an alien character in the latest installment of the Star Trek series. The credits of Star Trek Beyond revealed that Bezos played the role of a character called “Starfleet Official” in the movie.

Producer J.J. Abrams and director Justin Lin confirmed Bezos’ appearance on Friday. Lin says that Bezos arrived on set with a lot of security during the day of filming, and he waited while the crew filmed the single tracking shot that included his character, according to The Guardian.

“He was awesome. It was like a president was visiting, you know? He had a big entourage. But it didn’t matter because he was so into it. He had to wait around all day because it was one day we were shooting like three different scenes and, it was also credit to Jeff because … he just nailed it every time.”

And as it turned out, Bezos’ appearance caused a stir even among the Hollywood A-listers staring in the film. Chris Pine, who stars as Captain Kirk in the movie, spoke of the experience of having Jeff Bezos on set.

“I was there for the bit with his, like, nine bodyguards and three limos. It was really intense. I had no idea who he was. Not a clue. But he was obviously someone very important.”

Jeff is a big fan of the Star Trek and has spoken before of his passion for the franchise in different interviews. And his fascination with space travel goes beyond sci-fi movies. He had admitted that it was his childhood dream of going to space that led to the foundation of his private space travel company, Blue Origin, that only last month successfully landed its fourth rocket.

Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos stands next to a copper exhaust nozzle to be used on a space ship engine during a media tour of Blue Origin, the space venture he founded. (Photo by Donna Blankinship/AP Images)

Bezos, 52, was named the fifth richest person in the world by Forbes Magazine in 2016, and has an estimated net worth of $65.2 billion as of July, 2016. Most of his wealth comes from Amazon.com, one of the largest online retailers in the world, which he founded in 1994.

Star Trek is one of the most followed sci-fi franchises in history. It started in 1966 as a weekly television series on NBC. The first movie of the franchise, titled Star Trek: The Motion Picture, was released in 1979. Star Trek Beyond is the third installment of the rebooted Star Trek movies, the first of which was released in 2009.

Star Trek Beyond has drawn a lot of attention recently after it was confirmed that one of the most important characters in the Star Trek universe, Hikaru Sulu, would be revealed as being gay in the movie. This would make Sulu the first LGBT character in the 50-year history of the franchise. John Cho, who plays Sulu in the movie, shared his thoughts on the matter with the Herald Sun.

“I liked the approach, which was not to make a big thing out [of] it, which is where I hope we are going as a species, to not politicize one’s personal orientations.”

John Cho’s Hikaru Sulu is set to be revealed as the franchises’ first gay character. [Image via Shutterstock]
Director Justin Lin and the movie’s writer and cast member Simon Pegg have said that they chose to make Sulu gay in honor of the now-openly gay George Takei, the actor who played the role of Sulu in the original TV series of the 60s.

https://www.facebook.com/StarTrekMovie/videos/10153747384043716/

Star Trek Beyond will hit theaters in the United States on July 22. The movie stars Chris Pine as Captain Kirk and Zachary Quinto as Vulcan Commander Spock, among an ensemble of cast including Zoe Saldana, Idris Elba, and the recently deceased Anton Yelchin.

[Photo by Susan Walsh/AP Images]

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