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I know that some of you didn’t like Cloverfield. I haven’t seen it yet being as I’m stranded in Mexico, but I want to like it. I like JJ Abrams a lot and he seems to know exactly what he’s doing, a rarity in Hollywood directors lately. I also love LOST and many other things he’s done. And the fact that he’s directing the new Star Trek makes me all silly inside with geekticipation. But now I’ve got another reason to really like the man, and it’s about the un-geekiest, humanist, and touching thing I’ve read about all week.
Most of you are probably familiar with an Internet video called “The Last Lecture”, which features a popular professor who’s dying of pancreatic cancer giving a final oration to his class with strength, humor, insight, and fearlessness. The man, Randy Pausch, has become an inspiration in no small way for many who’ve seen his video, and the person who recommended it to me had a tear in her eye as she did so. And it was well deserved.
Pausch is also a Star Trek fan. JJ found the video of Pausch’s lecture and was so moved that he offered him a part in the new Star Trek film, a proposition the professor was quick to take him up on.
When you see the film this coming Xmas, you’ll see him as a walk-on role, a bit part, but you can tell this is one thing he never thought he’d be able to cross off his bucket list, if you’ll pardon the film crossing. Ain’t It Cool has the full email from Pausch, and from JJ, and if it doesn’t make your day, you need to get a kitten or something and grow a heart.
The professor’s blog [Via AICN, which has the video mentioned above, with others]