The long-awaited follow-up to 2016's 'Star Trek Beyond' is reportedly put on a fast track after Paramount's honcho Emma Watts pushed hard to hire Shakman as director.
- Jul 14, 2021
AceShowbiz - A new "Star Trek" movie is coming at warp speed. The next installment of the sci-fi film franchise is reportedly in development at Paramount and Bad Robot's J. J. Abrams with "WandaVision" director Matt Shakman on board as director.
According to Deadline, it was Paramount's motion picture group studio chairman Emma Watts who pushed hard to hire Shakman for the job. Shakman, who has directed "The Great" and episodes of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia", "Fargo" as well as "Game of Thrones", is now an A-list film director after "WandaVision" earned 23 nominations at the upcoming Primetime Emmy Awards for Disney+.
The filmmaker was allegedly offered several other jobs, but chose to direct this new "Star Trek" sequel. He will reportedly direct the movie with a script written by Lindsey Beer and Geneva Robertson-Dworet. This will mark the first "Star Trek" film to be written by female screenwriters.
Words are the currently untitled fourth "Star Trek" film is now put on a fast track after it was in development hell since it was announced in 2016. It eyes a production date for next spring, but a release date for the movie is yet to be known.
In 2016, it was reported that Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto had signed on to return for a fourth "Star Trek" movie, and that Chris Hemsworth would reprise his role as Kirk's (Pine) father George, whom he played in the first film. In 2017, it was revealed that Quentin Tarantino had pitched an idea for a potential "Star Trek" film with the possibility of directing it. Writer Mark L. Smith was then hired by Paramount and Bad Robot to write a screenplay based on Tarantino's original pitch.
Later in 2018, it was announced that two new "Star Trek" films were in development at Paramount. S. J. Clarkson was tapped to direct the second film in development. However, the project fell apart after Pine and Hemsworth walked away from negotiations to star in the film after allegedly refusing to take pay cuts as a result of "Star Trek Beyond" under-performance at the domestic box office.
In November 2019, Pine was reported to have signed on to return for a fourth installment alongside Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Simon Pegg and Karl Urban, with Noah Hawley in talks to write and direct the film. However, in 2020, the project was canceled after Hawley left.
Tarantino, meanwhile, said in March 2019 that his "Trek" film was still in development. But reports emerged in December of the same year saying that he abandoned the project to make a smaller budget film.
