Anton Yelchin lives on in unreleased projects
LOS ANGELES — Anton Yelchin’s accidental death Sunday ended the actor’s life and career far too soon, yet audiences will be able to see his talent and devotion to his craft in several unreleased projects.
The 27-year-old actor reprises his role as Pavel Chekov in the third instalment of the rebooted “Star Trek” film franchise due to be released in July, but at least five other projects showcase his talents beyond a big-budget summer action film.
Yelchin stars in “Porto,” a romance set in the Portuguese city that director Gabe Klinger hopes will be released this fall.
“The role, I wish people could discover it already, but we talked about it for a year before we rolled cameras,” Klinger said in an interview. “He was developing that character in his mind for a whole year. It was that level of seriousness. “It will be very bittersweet now.” “Trollhunters,” an animated series from Guillermo del Toro, is scheduled to debut on Netflix in December. The project, promoted as an ambitious family-friendly series, was previewed just last week in France.
Del Toro said he worked with Yelchin for about a year and called him “a great creative partner and artist.”
The actor had also completed filming on several independent movies with writer-directors: Mark Palansky’s science-fiction drama “Rememory,” with Peter Dinklage, Peer Pedersen’s family drama “We Don’t Belong Here” with Catherine Keener and Cory Finley’s Connecticut thriller “Thoroughbred,” with Olivia Cooke.
Yelchin was killed early Sunday when his 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee pinned him between a mailbox pillar and a security fence.
The actor’s death comes a month before Paramount is scheduled to debut “Star Trek Beyond” in San Diego at the annual fan convention Comic-Con.
Director J.J. Abrams, who cast Yelchin in the franchise, wrote in a statement that he was “brilliant ... kind ... funny as hell, and supremely talented.”
Klinger agreed, saying Yelchin studied film and aspired to be more than just an actor.
He said Yelchin was grateful he got to work with one of his acting heroes, Willem Dafoe, on the film “Odd Thomas.”
“He used to refer to Willem as an artist, not an actor,” Klinger said. “That’s the kind of actor he aspired to be, where people didn’t regard him as an actor, they regarded him as an artist.”