Paramount Extends Deal With JJ Abrams & Bad Robot

The love fest between Star Trek director/producer JJ Abrams and Paramount Pictures looks like it will continue into the future. This afternoon Paramount Pictures announced they are extending their deal with Abrams and his Bad Robot production company. More details below.

 

JJ, Bad Robot and Paramount sticking together

In the summer of 2006 JJ Abrams followed up his directorial debut of Mission Impossible III with an exclusive film production deal with Paramount Pictures, and Star Trek was slated as his first project. This deal was the first time Paramount had entrusted their Star Trek franchise (one of the crown jewels) to a another production company (even one under its own umbrella). Since that time Abrams and Bad Robot have worked closely with Paramount to produce a number of films including Cloverfield, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, Super 8 and of course the Star Trek sequel currently in production, with Abrams at the helm.

And today Paramount and Bad Robot announced that they are extending their deal with Abrams (and his Bad Robot producing partner Bryan Burk) until the end of 2015. The net result of this is that Abrams is likely to continue to be part of the Star Trek franchise, assuming Paramount puts another film into development following the release of the sequel in May 2013. Bad Robot also has a number of other projects in development at the studio.


Bad Robot title card from the credits of 2009’s "Star Trek"

press release

PARAMOUNT PICTURES & J.J. ABRAMS’ BAD ROBOT EXTEND EXCLUSIVE FIRST-LOOK DEAL

HOLLYWOOD, CA (February 22, 2012) – Paramount Pictures, a unit of Viacom Inc., and Bad Robot Productions jointly today announced an extension of their exclusive, first-look agreement through December 2015.

The prolific production company, whose original first look deal with Paramount began in 2006, is currently shooting the next installment of the studio’s Star Trek franchise. Once again, Abrams is directing and Bad Robot is producing the tent-pole, which will be released in 3D on May 17, 2013.

“J.J. is a unique talent and a captivating storyteller,” said Brad Grey, Chairman and CEO of Paramount Pictures. “J.J., Bryan Burk and the whole Bad Robot team are an integral part of Paramount and we’re proud to continue our collaboration. Their pictures have extraordinary resonance around the world and we’re so pleased Paramount will be their home for years to come.”

“Brad, Rob, Adam and the whole Paramount team have given Bad Robot truly incredible support, a fun and smart collaborative environment and access to the best film distribution people in the business. I couldn’t be happier knowing that Bad Robot features will remain at Paramount,” said Abrams.

Bad Robot’s previous project with Paramount was “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol.” The film, which was produced by Bad Robot, to date has brought in over $600 million in global box office revenue. Bad Robot and Paramount’s creative partnership has resulted in great success over the last 6 years. In addition to the above mentioned films, projects between the companies have included: 2006’s “Mission: Impossible III,” 2008’s “Cloverfield,” 2009’s “Star Trek,” 2010’s “Morning Glory,” and 2011’s “Super 8.”

82 Comments
oldest
newest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Great news, more great Star Trek adventures!

I hope this will mean that the third Star Trek movie will be out in 2015 just two years after the second one.

Paramount made a excellent extension

……………..so I’ll be waiting for the second and the third Star Trek… and others great projects……;-) :-)

Wait a minute. Doesn’t Paramount make movies anymore themselves?

Sad commentary.

I don’t know, it’s been four years since the last movie by the time the sequel comes out. So if they hold that record, the third JJ-verse movie will come out in 2017, 2 years after their deal is set to expire. Hhmmm…

so..how long before the griping starts…..

@ 8

No gripes from this Trek fan, I’m pleased with this move. This post could use a little more lense flare though.

Paramount should try to plan releasing the movies every 2 or 3 years and not have the fans wait forever between the movies.

And somebody please tell CBS to greenlit a new Star Trek TV series asap

Star Trek 3 should come out in 2016, the 50th anniversay.

#10 I am not sure Paramount and CBS want to oversaturate Trek. I think they learned their lesson last time and I think they will probably wait until the Trek reboot movies are over before doing another Trek series. Anthony am I right on that?

Awesome!! But I can’t think much on Trek 15 right now. All my hopes and dreams are tied up in Trek 13,sorry. Can’t wait for more news from the set!! :)

So……it seems that Bad Robot’s secrecy regarding the sequel has been extended three more years!

You think the wait has been agonizingling slow already……. :-)

agonizingling=agonizingly

DAMN TYPOS!!!

Actually I think I now know why their isn’t that much news from the set because we know what the new Trek Univese looks like. We know what the ships, equipment, uniforms and the style of Abrams Trek Universe so I can now see why their isn’t that much news coming from the set. All that is really newsworthy is the plot and who the villain is. Unless the plot spoils the movie? Would a plot or synopsis be better as to not spoil anything about the sequel? Or are they considered the same thing?

#16.

If Bad Robot is refusing to release one measly photo from the set, then I don’t see why they’d release a plot synopsis, which would obviously reveal more than they’d like.

Sorry, but there will be no photos, no word on the villain(s), no minor details revealed, no snippets of Chris Pine walking to work.

Nada. Nothing. Nathan. Zilch. Zippo. Zero.

It’s how it’s going to be from now on until the fall, at the earliest. So we might as well just forget about it.

Looking forward to the Trek after this one sometime in 2020 if Abrams and Co. can squeeze it in by then; shame I probably won’t be around for it.
:-P

Damn the typedoes, full speed ahead!

And where are the geniuses who said he was locked in for three, and only three?

Yeah, I know CBS owns Star Trek rights to television. But … Sumner Redstone has majority interests in both Paramount and CBS. You know where I’m going. Captain Pascale has said many times that Star Trek belongs on television. And I agree.

Could we somehow get CBS Les Moonves to green light a Star Trek TV series? Since CBS and Paramount have a mutual owner, enough with the faux conflict. Get a job for Moonves’ wife Julie Chen on the Trek series so we can have Star Trek back on TV with Bad Robot producing, Oh, and hire some kick ass science fiction writers for the series.

#20.

They’re in the witness protection program.

17:

I’m sure by San Diego Con and Vegas this summer, JJ & team will cook something up. Peter Jackson managed to create a full trailer with realized FX and music one year prior to the release of “The Hobbit.” Maybe “The Avengers” will tack a teaser on.

Blah blah blah! Still no news about Trek XII!

Signed,
Always Complaining

#23.

I hope so. But I wouldn’t bet the farm on it.

Anthony, thank you for the clarification on “tha biz.”

I take this announcement to mean that Bad Robot can now make the third Star Trek movie. It is surely a total no-brainer that Paramount/Bad Robot should have the third movie ready for release by the summer of 2016 or 8 SEPTEMBER 2016!, the 50th Anniversary of the date that Star Trek screened for the first time on US television. Lock that date in now for want of a better date!

That is achievable, especially if the third anniversary movie was given priority.

I think it’s a bit premature to suggest a third movie coming out on the fiftieth anniversary. It’s more likely that the Bad Robot team, after the sequel is finished, will work on a number of other projects. Those will result in the third movie being pushed back a year….

Just keep the Star Trek flowing, JJ…

We Trekkies need our fix. ;-P

Trek belongs on the small screen. Having ONE series on TV and a very infrequent movie series is not oversaturation.

Particularly when the folks making the movies aren’t 100% focused on Star Trek.

Congratulations to all the parties involved!!!

*Sigh*

JJ, when are you going to start making “Star Trek?” Enough “Star Wars-Trek” already!

@ Claypool2011: I agree fully. The issue with the 90’s was we had three shows in a row (TNG, Voyager, and Enterprise) with a DS9 being on the air at the same time as TNG and Voyager. Plus, we had films out for a while there every two years. Here is the thing, I don’t get Paramount. It was their idea to have that much Trek on back in the 90’s, yet now, they worry about have one tv show with one film series that seems to be making films every four years on at the same time?

I wish Roddenberry had been able to buy “Trek” from the studio back in the day. The current powers that be are going to tear the franchise apart.

The following is a message to the original Phil, a.k.a. Phil Prime, a.k.a. Show-Me-The-Script Phil:

Happy Birthday!
(It’s already February 23, here.).

@32. Jason — “JJ, when are you going to start making “Star Trek?” Enough “Star Wars-Trek” already!”

This gets said a fair bit by folks on here, and I still don’t really know what it means.

That it was entertaining? That it had a fairly exhilarating pace? That two ships blew up?

P.S. Based on MI4, I’d be interested in seeing Brad Bird do a next one, if there is a next one.

@27. Keachick. I wonder if anyone really cares that it’s Trek’s 50th anniversary (I mean, yeah, they’ll use it to sell stuff to us, who will buy stuff anyway), but I mean general movie-goers. Heck, Trek’s anniversary might be actually keep folks new to Trek away — just like the TV news images of Trekkies in bad Klingon masks lining up for past premieres (the message is — it’s not for us, it’s for die-hard fans).

27:

I could totally see JJ looking at a 50th anniversary launch for ST13, and then cock-blocking it at the last minute because he’s working on something else. ‘Three times the charm.’

He really needs a new Executive Assistant.

The lack of a new TV series increases the value of the HD remastering of TNG. The long-term investment in that project is not Blu-ray sales but having cable/satellite/Internet reruns of TNG look good enough to attract new viewers when HD is the minimum acceptable picture quality.

It takes two years to watch all of Star Trek at a rate of one episode or movie per day. If that all stays on the air that’s a lot of saturation even without a new series.

I hear there was a no Khan clause in the agreement.

@32 re Roddenberry buying back Trek- Huh?

Gene Roddenberry almost effed Trek into the ground with TMP
Only because there had been no Trek for 10 years did it do enough business to green light TWOK .
If TMP tanked financially Trek may well still be in fanzines only.
Mr Roddenberry was a creative genius not necessarily a good business person.

Cool. The human adventure continues….

38. Denny, I recall reading in Shatner’s biography that Roddenberry allegedly insisted on getting a cut of Nimoy’s appearance fees for anything in connection with Spock, and ultimately Shatner and Nimoy joined forces to make sure they got something from merchandise sales, as Mr R was keeping the proceeds all to himself. So in one respect he seems to have been ruthless enough as a businessman. Whether that makes him a good businessman or not is up for discussion!

#20 Trying to figure out what you mean by this comment?

I’m one that believes JJ and this cast will only make 3 Star Trek movies…. i do give a slight chance for a fourth. The way this cast is rising up the charts of stardom make it just about impossible to imagine them doing more than that. Money is the biggest reason, but time is the second.

JJ’s track record also shows his love for new ideas, new projects and casting new, relatively unknown actors to star in them. I doubt he really wants to make Star Trek movies indefinitely.

This news certainly doesn’t change any of that. All it does is solidify the likelihood that JJ will do a 3rd Star Trek. Doesn’t give any evidience at all to suggest anything beyond that.

God not another Trek Wars, with absolutly no intelect for a movie, has flash flares to hide defects of the set, and plot holes through out the film. But all that said, it has action and special effect, and big bangs theories.

I’ll skip this one unless they correct this type of movie making, to me this was Star Trek by name, not by concept.

#42 Couldn’t disagree more. Glad so many more people liked this than those that didn’t.

I would love if they have a different strategy this time and out of the sequel already thinking about the third film… but, of course if boborci is around … he will not answer this question………. LOL

;-) :-)

Paramount. Consider a director like Pete Jackson, etc.

Sorry to not be thrilled. We do not have the ‘best’ for Trek.

These folks are still part of the ‘It is just an entertainment property’ and seem to have no interest/idea in leveraging the other aspects of Trek.

2013 for ST2
2015 for ST3
2018 for Next Trek on CBS at this rate.

No confidence at the moment.

Peter Jackson would be amazing!

…and don’t get me started on Paramount/Moonves/CBS/Abrams NOT leveraging the MMO to make absurd monies for Trek.

Sure…let Syfy beat Trek to be the first MMO TV show tie-in.

The most behind the times, worst business decisions in a generation.

448 days
sigh….

#45 – I could imagine the CGI in 2018. Would we even need actors at that point? They could come in and do the voiceovers. Anyone see the latest Far Cry 3 Trailer?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bypdZUcVw5w

41:

Jay, why do you think these actors will grow beyond an ability to make ‘Star Trek’ movies? What do they graduate to: Transformers movies? Avatar sequels? Hangover VI? Chris Pine already co-starred with Denzel Washington in “Unstoppable.” He’s peaked. Hollywood is nothing but franchises these days. The “Big Stars” of today are so because of an era gone by. If starring in low-budget Oscar-worthy dramas is the next step, they’ll need “Trek” to bring home the bacon.