The new "Star Trek" movie, with its tagline "The Future Begins," may indeed begin a new phase in the careers of two of its stars, Winona Ryder and Chris Pine.

Pine is a fast-rising actor of 28 with solid stage and screen experience behind him. Playing Captain James T. Kirk, he is stepping into William Shatner's large shoes — large in terms of fan following and Shatner's notorious ego.

"I could be laughed off the screen or have my career blown seriously off course for this," says Pine, a son of actors, whose grandmother Anne Gwynne was a noted character actress during Hollywood's golden age.