The latest name to surface in the Star Trek casting rumour mill is very familiar to genre fans. It's Karl Urban, who played Caesar in Xena and Eomer in The Lord of the Rings, who may be under consideration to play a villain or a major character depending on which story on reads.

The IESB kicked off the reporting yesterday with a story that Urban would be playing "the Big Bad Romulan" in J.J. Abrams' eleventh Star Trek feature film. The IESB also reported that the movie's storyline concerns Romulans interfering with Earth's timeline...a description that sounds a lot like Pocket Books' Killing Time by Della Van Hise.

Screenwriter Roberto Orci, who worked with Urban on Xena and Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, refused to comment about what role the actor might be under consideration to play, but told TreKMovie.com:

We worked with Urban back in the day...he always came through for us, and he is such a decent guy. None of what I just said, however, should be taken as a sign that any decisions have been made. Our only point is that, whatever happens, we’ve always loved Karl, and we all got our start in the same place.

A "source close to the production" told TrekMovie.com that Urban was indeed under consideration for a role, but neither the villain nor Kirk. At 35, Urban might be a more appropriate age to play McCoy, Scotty or a Starfleet senior officer than young Kirk.

Urban has a film, Run, to which he is attached, but director John McTiernan's legal problems are likely to cause delays in production. In addition to several highly regarded New Zealand films, Urban appeared in The Bourne Supremacy and Ghost Ship.

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