Chris Pine, who steps into the iconic role as Captain James T. Kirk in the upcoming JJ Abrams-directed Star Trek prequel, is featured in the pages of the new issue of Vanity Fair magazine. Here is manly-looking photo of Chris taken for the mag (but could pass for an advert for J. Crew or Banana Republic) and the VF piece on his new gig as Capt. Kirk:

It’s been a while since Hollywood had a bona fide homegrown movie star: they tend to come from places like Missouri or Kentucky, not Studio City. But here’s Chris Pine, 28 years old, native to “the Valley,” and soon to be seen on-screen as the new Captain Kirk in director J. J. Abrams’s young-guns reboot of the original Star Trek. Pine didn’t slip effortlessly into William Shatner’s double-knits. “There have been, like, three auditions in my life where I feel like I’m in a Saturday Night Live skit. One was for Avatar”—James Cameron’s upcoming science-fiction epic—“which was probably the worst audition I ever gave. Another was for 10,000 bc, where I was just, like, on my haunches pretending to be in a loincloth in Burbank.” Pine laughs. “Then the other one was Star Trek. It was all this jargon talk of torpedoes and photons,” which, needless to say, didn’t quite trip off the tongue. Fortunately, he got a second chance seven months later and nailed it. Pine, who graduated from U.C. Berkeley, comes from two generations of actors: his father, Robert Pine, has 200-odd television shows to his credit; his grandmother is B-movie actress Anne Gwynne, who was often seen in horror films. Chris Pine isn’t jaded, but neither is he naïve. “I know where I come from and what I want and why I got into [show business]. I know the reality of it. I just hope that I have longevity in my career.”

It is my personal belief that if Chris Pine stays away from trying to mimic William Shatner‘s version of James T. Kirk then he will prolly do just fine in the role. I don’t think anyone wants to see the new kid trying to act and sound like the old guy for the course of the Star Trek prequel. Judging by looks alone, Abrams did a great job with casting the parts … every member of the U.S.S. Enterprise crew looks like an earlier incarnation of the characters that we all know already. As long as the writing is good (as I’m sure it is) then the new kids on the deck will do just fine. I’m really looking forward to see them all in action. After the jump, check out a few outtake photos of Chris from this VF magazine photoshoot …

Yes, clearly these photos were meant for the new J. Crew catalog. Meh. I’ll see the movie anyways.

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