…unless we’re both crazy.

Uh oh.

This may sound ridiculous…It seems ridiculous to me as I write it…but honest to God I would love to see Sam Raimi direct a Star Trek film.

His pedigree is horror films, but he showed a solid knack for suspense in “the Gift” and “A Simple Plan.” Of course, he’s best known now as the director of the “Spider-Man” films. In those films, he single-handedly elevated the comic book film into the realm of drama because of his approach to the material. Peter Parker, Aunt May, Mary Jane, and the other characters are so real and alive in those movies because Raimi insists on the films being about more than just superhero daring-do. Raimi takes the time to develop the strong connections between these characters and gives them real issues to deal with. He really is a fantastic dramatic director, and he has the perfect style for a Trek film set during the Original Series era.

I really do think he’d be a great Trek director, and we’d get the added bonus of Bruce Campbell and Ted Raimi in supporting or cameo roles. That’s fanboy heaven, baby!

If Trek XI is to be released in 2008 (summer or winter), a director needs to be found right away. The script is pretty much done now and Abrams is really excited about it, but a director will need to be secured to begin filming later this year, if Abrams chooses not to do it.

All kinds of names are being thrown out but two things need to be considered (and one of them is NOT whether or not the fans approve):

1) Is this director even available?
2) Is this director even interested?

A lot of the names mentioned above can be eliminated because the answer to the first question is “NO”.

I agree that there are some directors I would rather not see take the helm on the next Trek film, but it needs to be taken into account that those that answer “YES” to the first question may answer “NO” to the second.

The possiblity that if Abrams doesn’t direct Trek XI, that the director is not only from outside the Trek world, but is relatively unknown, is getting greater with each passing week.

And yes, Alien3 was horrible. I’ve never reaaly forgiven Fincher for that mess, even though I know he came in at the last minute into an already messed up situation.

95 – I wholeheartedly agree with you.

But that’s not all, it happened again 16 years later. When Lucas started going ahead with the prequels, he was going to only direct The Phantom Menace, then hire a director for the last two. When he approached Spielberg about directing one of the movies, it was Spielberg who convinced him that he should get back in the director’s chair and direct all three.

So twice we came very close to a Steven Spielberg directed Star Wars movie, and now we can only wonder what might have been.

Anyway, as far as Trek XI goes, I stand by Abrams. I think he will make an incredible movie.

Nice follow up…

I agree with all of the sentiments of that post, though I don’t presume to know what sort of relationship JJ would have as a producer with another director. I would certainly HOPE that it would evolve as you have predicted.