Zachary Quinto: ‘No Guarantees’ For Another Star Trek Film

Star Trek’s new Mr. Spock was on NBC’s Today show this morning promoting his new film Aardvark, which premieres today at the Tribecca Film Festival. At the end of the segment, Al Roker threw Quinto a question asking if he had any “insight as to what is coming up” for the next Star Trek movie.

Like his co-star Chris Pine’s recent comments, Qunito too seems in the dark as to the current status, although he does indicate there had been work done on a script, saying:

I don’t know Al. We are waiting. I know they were working on a script for another one and we will see how that all plays out.

The actor then went on to talk about how it is nice to have time in between the “big tentpole” films so he can do other work he loves on stage and with independent films.  But then he added this ominous note:

I’m hopeful that we will do another [Star Trek film], but there [are] no guarantees

You can watch the full segment from NBC here:

Star Trek Movie Limbo

While Quinto’s comment about no guarantees is a bit ominous, it is of course a truism in Hollywood that things change all the time. But remember, last summer Paramount did officially announce they would produce a fourth Trek film with J.J. Abrams, and just last month the CEO of Viacom (Paramount’s parent company) was talking about Star Trek being one of the key tent pole franchises for future releases.

That being said, the box office returns for Star Trek Beyond did not meet expectations, so it would be natural for the studio to want to take their time to plan out the next step for the franchise. And added to that is the recent ouster of Paramount CEO Brad Grey, with the new CEO only on the job for a few weeks.

With the current lack of movement and the busy schedules of the actors having a Trek film out by next year summer would be impossible and even the summer after that may not be in the cards. Of course a two-year gap between Trek features wasn’t expected. The previous J.J. Abrams-produced films had four and three-year gaps respectively.  As of now Paramount has already lined up franchise tentpole summer releases for 2018 (Mission: Impossible 6, currently filming) and 2019 (another Transformers film). So they may feel they have some time to think when it comes to the next Star Trek.

Zachary Quinto as Mr. Spock in 2016’s Star Trek Beyond

Keep up with all the news on the next Star Trek feature film at TrekMovie.

 

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Wouldn’t that be the sixth MISSION IMPOSSIBLE film?

That’s because it’s not Star Trek, its Guardians Of The Galaxy in red, blue and gold shirts.
Let it burn.

Or better yet, you could Fry!

If Voyager, Insurrection, Nemesis, or Final Frontier get to be called “Star Trek” so do the latest 3. If Trek is going to burn, there’s a lot I’d burn before the JJ movies.

They are all Star Trek. And they all have their bright moments. But if I had to choose any three films to blink out of existence it would be the JJ films. The most frustrating waste of money, good will and studio confidence ever.

Agreed. Wholeheartedly. RIP Kelvin timeline.

It is Star Trek.

See how that works, Fry?

Exactly. I won’t shed a tear. Let it burn.
(and I’ll just get my popcorn and watch it while it slowly burns :)

“They say time is the fire in which we all burn.”

New producers. New concept. New cast.

Give us something to be hopeful for.

Fry
That’s because it’s not Star Trek, its Guardians Of The Galaxy in red, blue and gold shirts. Let it burn.

Exactly.

Paramount WISHES Star Trek was GOTG and made the money GOTG made and will make in its sequels. If the last, lets say five Trek movies have been failures (and yes if the Kelvin Trek movies are considered failures than certainly at least the last two Next Gen movies qualify) is it the company? Paramount? Producers? Directors? Actors? Perhaps, just perhaps, it’s the property itself. No one cares about it anymore except the few bitching and whining entitled brats still living in the 60’s and clinging to Roddenbury’s dead Utopian pseudo-intellectual sci-fi property.

People keep saying movies like Interstellar or the Martian proves a slow, intellectual Trek movie can draw audiences. You know why Interstellar and the Martian were successful? It’s because they WEREN’T Trek movies. You slap Trek on it now it had better have action and comedy and spaceship battles and be loud, bold, and in your face. No one cares about your tired old Trek show outside of this core fanbase. NO ONE. Let that sink in.

BTW, as much as I like the last 3 Trek movies, GOTG kicks Treks ass all around the galaxy. *mike drop*

loser.

Wow your well thought out counter-argument has made me rethink my stance. Good job.

Perfectly said Harry.

For a Star Trek movie to be critically successful, make a boat load of money, and appeal to the masses it would have to be the perfect movie to get over the perceived Star Trek stigma.

“Paramount WISHES Star Trek was GOTG and made the money GOTG made and will make in its sequels. If the last, lets say five Trek movies have been failures (and yes if the Kelvin Trek movies are considered failures than certainly at least the last two Next Gen movies qualify) is it the company? Paramount? Producers? Directors? Actors? Perhaps, just perhaps, it’s the property itself. No one cares about it anymore except the few bitching and whining entitled brats still living in the 60’s and clinging to Roddenbury’s dead Utopian pseudo-intellectual sci-fi property.

People keep saying movies like Interstellar or the Martian proves a slow, intellectual Trek movie can draw audiences. You know why Interstellar and the Martian were successful? It’s because they WEREN’T Trek movies. You slap Trek on it now it had better have action and comedy and spaceship battles and be loud, bold, and in your face. No one cares about your tired old Trek show outside of this core fanbase. NO ONE. Let that sink in.

BTW, as much as I like the last 3 Trek movies, GOTG kicks Treks ass all around the galaxy. *mike drop”

@Harry – I hate the “you’re not a real fan” argument. But honestly, your posts where you essentially admit you arent a fan and then whine, its like why even bother. If I went to a Judge Dredd forum and whined incessantly about how lousy the films were and how I hate Dredd, guess what, Im not the audience. You’re not the audience. You’re not a fan. that much is clear.

What else is clear is you are clueless. What Interstellar and The Martian and Gravity etc show us is that there is an audience for GOOD and interesting sci-fi films that arent just mindless flash bang blow em ups.

It also shows us that regardless of how much money you throw at it, Trek has a finite audience. At least now it does. And going MORE stupid action and convoluted plots did not result in MORE revenue (or profit when you factor in the increased budget for STID).

I think quite clearly we have learned that Star Trek can be a lot bigger than the TNG/TOS film days. But it’s not Star Wars. Its not Marvel. So you decrease the budget, you hire better writers (like seriously, stop paying WAY too much for lousy writers with a name when you can pay a lot less for good ones)and you craft a film that is thoughtful. That doesnt mean devoid of action either.

Stop writing set pieces and then trying to link them with crap writing. Write a great dramatic film…and then punch up the flash bangs later. Its not difficult. Sure, barely capable hacks like Orci make it seem really really difficult. But I’d bet you could go to any college campus and solicit scripts from the students and fine a dozen better then the garbage Orci and Co. put out.

“I hate the you’re not a real fan argument……..that being said you aren’t a real fan”.

You are the dirt worst.

A “Real Fan” is the one who pays to go see the movies, buys the merchandise, gets the blu ray, etc. Whether we like it or not, JJ Abrams makes Star Trek movies people actually want to see. If he made Trek films to cater primarily to Statner & Co fans, those fans would have loved it, but they are the only ones who would have seen it. To imply that Kelvin fans aren’t real fans is lunacy. They’re the ones willing to spend the money, so Paramount needs to make Trek films that cater to them.

The only story I would like to see in the 4th movie would be the Kelvin timeline to be aborted and undone.

Perhaps the crew could go back in time, blow up the Narada the moment it came out of the “black hole” and then simply fade away like Marty McFly in back to the future at the enchantment under the sea dance.

I’d pay good money to see that.

It’s a real shame they can’t make these movies faster or with competence. If you’re gonna pour so much money into a franchise you care a lot about, don’t keep the fans and actors in the dark as to when to expect the next one. I still think there will be more films, but maybe not with the full crew.

Well, that’s just it: long-time Trek fans will tell you that Paramount only cares about Trek so long as it makes them $$$, and Star Trek Beyond didn’t. I wouldn’t be surprised at this point if the studio opted for another reboot.

Paramount is a commercial enterprise. Like any of the big studios their goal is to make money. If they think that there’s money to be made doing another TREK they will do another TREK. If they think that there’s no money in TREK they won’t do it no matter how much they care about the franchise. No studio will fund a movie unless they think they have a chance of making a profit from it.

DIGINON,

Re: Paramount is a commercial enterprise.

Paramount is beyond that as it has a HUGE deficit so it has to topload films that’ll fill their billion dollar hole rapidly. Based on Trek’s movie track record no one at Paramount is expecting it to deliver it that rapidly. All Trek eventually delivers billions to Paramount — they just no longer have the luxury of being able to wait around for it.

Paramount has always screwed up the Star Trek films. From day one. They don’t know how to make them. They don’t know how to market them.

I hope they do another one. The last one was ace. Just up the marketing for the next one and… please alter the new Ent-A.

The marketing for the last one was awful: they tried to make it look like The Fast and Furious in space, and that turned off any casual interest non-fans may’ve had.

The Fast and Furious franchise makes tons of money. Their last movie made 1.5 billion at the global boxoffice. The first trailer for Beyond may have turned off part of the TREK fanbase but if it had been able to lure in the Fast and Furious crowd that should have paid off nicely for Paramount. Unfortunately, it seems that Beyond didn’t manage to attract the Fast and Furious audience, nor its traditional core audience (or those are just too few).

Because Star Trek isn’t Fast and Furious. Yeah they tried to make it look like that along with hiring the FNF director but it just turned a lot of fans off. And I like FNF (but haven’t seen the last one yet) but that doesn’t mean I want other movies to resemble those. I want FNF to be FNF but I want Star Trek to be Star Trek.

All it did was drive away the bigger fans and probably why it bombed.

Is the Magnum PI reboot still happening? Cause Mr. Quinto looks like a dead ringer for a young Thomas Magnum with his ‘stache. The only thing missing is the Hawaian shirt.

So, if the Kelvin-verse passes, he could still be part of a reboot.

Maybe it’s the angle, but that haircut doesn’t really work for him.

I thought you were full of b.s., but then I scrolled back up and I think you are on to something. He looks like a slightly less beefy Thomas Magnum alright.

The reboot of Magnum P.I. is happening with the daughter of Magnum following in his footsteps as a P.I. (Selleck is too busy being on Blue Bloods.) And the Kelvin verse isn’t going to pass, stop being such a hater and an a**hole.

I don’t think Quinto’s comment means anything one way or the other.
But is is a very slow news period in the world of Trek these days.
So, there is that.

It doesn’t. It’s well known the new CEO of Paramount is a big Star Trek fan.

At the moment the big holdup in any concrete information regarding Star Trek 4 is the upheaval in the leadership at Paramount. The new regime has only been in power for a matter of weeks. I would expect that we will have a solid answer one way or the other within 3-6 months as they settle in.

What we do know seems to indicate that the studio is leaning towards moving forward with a new Star Trek film with the current cast, but certainly nothing is set in stone…Here are a couple of hints that they are leaning towards making a new ST film.

1/ The studio has recently mentioned Star Trek along with Transformers and Mission Impossible as their future “tentpole franchises”

2/ A script is being written (or may even be complete at this point) for the new film

VOODOO,

Re: …settle in.

It’s going to take longer than that. Paramount has yet to fill the vice-chairman position that actually does the job of running the studio.

Making Trek a tent pole means nothing as far as the existing cast playing TOS characters in a series of films that left paramount in the red. And they write scripts all the time that go unreported in Hollywood. Ask Bob Orci, he wrote two scripts for Beyond that were never produced.

I’m betting that you think these scripts were better then Beyond? I highly doubt it.

Who do people want to see make these films that they think is better than Orci, Kurtzman, Abrams and Lin? I want to see a list of these supposedly ‘better’ people, and I warn you, it better be a good list.

No more films? Well, when they keep cranking out shit, what do you expect?

Harry Ballz,

Re: ,,, what do you expect?

Regularity? ;-)

No, they keep cranking out movies that are “the shit”. You’re thinking of the Next Gen movies. Those were just “shit”

If these newer movies had the budgets of the 90s movies, you’d be describing them as shit as well.

The 90’s Next Gen movies had horrible acting, stories, and one of them suffered from having Shatner in it (oh my). The budget doesn’t enter into it.

You couldn’t be more wrong Harry.

Except the one that suffered from having Shatner in it, oddly, the scenes with Shatner were the best part. The best way to watch Generations is to fall asleep when you see “75 Years Later” and wake up as the E-D is crashing.

Jokes aside, Shatner ate Stewart alive during their scenes. And keep in mind, these were badly written lines for everyone. Stewart is an awesome actor but he was the clear sidekick to Shatner. Either by choice (deference) or the sheer lameness of the dialogue.

Hey, First Contact and Generations were great.

I’d happily take the Next Gen movies over the garbage that’s been served up to us in recent times.

We’ll get through this Trek dark age.

Funny how it seems like Next Gen is Trek’s golden era.

Funny too how the BBC is the only network making money off the shows these days.

Don’t Litter!

TreKMadeMeWonder,

Re: …the BBC is the only network making money off the shows these days.

This is a blatant falsehood. The OTA broadcast networks of HEROES&ICONS, MeTV, and DECADES are all making money off the TREK shows these days

I still want to see them make another one for closure at least. Give them one last big mission and then have them go their separate ways. Not holding my breath a fourth one will happen but hopefully it will. Just have to be a much smaller budget, maybe $120 million next time.

I liked the last one, if that’s indeed “the last one”, then to me it is a good bridge to TOS despite the Ent-A/reboot thing.

No more Chekov, no more Nu-Trek movies.

Just put this JJ-verse to rest and move on

My hope is that if we have a fourth film, We will find out that Chekhov has been promoted and reassigned.

I agree. Keep something of OS with the character…have mention or something of a little CGI magic (cut footage), etc. to have Chekhov reassigned to the USS Reliant, and move on in order to preserve the character and Anton’s memory.

It’s a minor point but that’s what I’d do. Promote Chekov to the Reliant. Use archival footage to have him on view screen in a casual “good luck” type deal. Or if you can feature the Reliant in the plot, have chekov appear on the screen.

Yes exactly. They bungled Trek badly. Too much time between films, no cohesive vision, or direction to take the reboot. Now they’re changing the formula and losing one of the iconic characters. Time to move on, and to hire a production company that actually cares about making Trek great as it is, not turning it into something else.

Ah, Just like the old days – all the stars positioning themselves for salary negotiations, and doubts as to whether or not the last one (IV excepted) made enough to justify another…

No this is different. Quinto ALREADY is contracted to be in the next one. That was all negotiated with Beyond including salary. In this case, the last film simply bombed and with new people at Paramount its no telling if they want to make another now.

But in one way you are right because many others are not signed on and so it may cost too much to justify another one if they want too much money.

The lesson has to be that you can’t rush these films. Get Abrams back to direct and be more hands on. He knows how to rescue a franchise.

I wouldn’t hold my breath with Abrams for several reasons. A. Since TFA his directing price has probably gone WAY up and they probably want a cheaper film next time. B. In fact the reason why STID cost so much is because he refused to shoot outside of L.A. and added scenes to the film that weren’t in the original script that added greatly to the budget. I think STID cost $20-30 million more because of his demands and it barely made a profit because of it. C. After all the fans raked him over the coals with STID I don’t think he want that experience again. Sure some fans raked him over the coals with TFA but that made $2 billion lol. And even then he said he has no interest to direct another SW film again so I doubt he would for Trek….or that they even want him to.

And I think he has something to prove meaning he wants to do something original. Every interview I see him in he talks about how he’s known for sequels and reboots at this point. He sounds like he wants to do something that doesn’t already have a known IP behind it.

Tiger2 once again with a comment that sums it up nicely

Nope. Abrams is part of the problem, not the solution. Add to that Bad Robot apparently can’t make a Trek movie for less than around $180 million, and Paramount has a real problem on their hands. Fortunately BR first look deal is coming to an end, and rebooting is the only way to get Abrams and BR out of Trek for good.

Got to agree with James. Both Abrams movies were huge successes

Doesn’t matter if Jj is directing if the script is garbage. Plus JJ’s arrogance is a problem. He was fine when he was directing Star Wars because Kennedy was the boss and kept him on a leash.

Paramount handed JJ the keys to Trek and he acted like a 15 year old with dad’s corvette when parents were gone for the weekend.

Didn’t help the the Trek “expert” Orci had no clue what made Trek great. If Beyond ends up the last in this series blame STID and Orci’s politics run amok for putting the bullet in it.

Carrie,

Re: huge successes

Apparently not HUGE enough because Paramount is HUGEly in debt and aren’t getting out of it based on their Trek’s HUGE successes.

Be fair, it was Beyond that failed to perform. Not ST09 or STID

James,

Re: Be fair

All 3 Bad Robot Trek films were part of Brad Grey’s failed legacy which resulted in his getting the boot and Paramount HUGEly in the red. If any of his Trek films had actually been the HUGE success that people keep touting them as, Brad Grey would still have his job.

Nope. St09 was arguably the only success. STID had a massive budget and even more massive marketing budget. It lost money domestically over ST09 which was only a modest success given its budget, and while it made money internationally, it came at a significant marketing cost. A cost that was intended for an international expansion of the franchise that failed to materialize with BEYOND — I.e. Good Money after bad. Taken as a whole, Paramount dug themselves a hole with Trek at the hands of Bad Robot’s inept budget management. Since BR likely has approvals over anything done in the Kelvin Universe as he created it, Paramount can’t make any more KU Trek without involving Abrams, especially since he currently has a first look deal. So Paramount will have to wait until BR’s deal expires, and will have to reboot Trek when they do.

ST09 and STID are the reason Beyond failed to perform. Even life long die hard trek fans didn’t bother going to watch it and just waited for it to come out on bluray.
This is a direct consequence of the previous two movies being utter tripe and unashamedly throwing far, far too much money in to movies with bad guys and big space ships blowing up and crashing.

ITD was abysmal, effectively pissing all over WOK, which was a really, really stupid move.

They make these movies by committee, trying to please everyone and ending up turning everyone off.

@Erol – exactly. 09 was fine. It brought in new and lapsed fans. They were all pretty fine with it. STID turned everyone off.

I know its one example but it is surely the same for many but I had some friends were not Trek fans. They went to see 09 because they heard it was good (good word of mouth) and liked the cast. They enjoyed the movie. Those same people were confused and bored by STID. When I explained some of the “cool” things like Khan and Kirk’s death and how it related to the original Trek those same friends thought it was a lot better now that they understood it but it still didnt resonate with them emotionally because they werent fans.

But they werent as confused. Like the big “I am Khan” reveal…in the film it felt like a big reveal. But to so many people it meant nothing. So it left them confused.

The plot was a mess and transparently politically motivated by a lefty writer who didnt have the balls to explain the opposing view he was railing against.

The “bigger blacker” ship as the enemy was so boring and literally, we just saw the same plot in 09.

It was probably Cumberbatch’s worst performance as an actor. And while he chewed the scenery well, it came across so empty. Like its how I imagine reading any lines if they had just been handed to him ten seconds prior.

Compare his reading of lines to Stewart in First Contact. And I know some wont like it but Picard’s scenes with Lily always came across, to me, as deep because Stewart got the character, he knew where those words were coming from. He was conveying more. Cumberbatch didnt. Not his fault. Lousy writing, lousy directing.

The fact Orci so vehemently defended STID as this masterpiece…I mean, I get it, he is going to defend it. But if he really thinks STID was THAT good, thats all the proof you need that he doesnt know Trek, cant write and everyone else along the chain of command including JJ were asleep at the wheel.

It’s a shame, it was the one film in the series that seemed to be most like the originals.

Paramount has big problems, no doubt. It’s films like monster trucks that are sinking them, not disappointments like Star Trek Beyond, which was still their highest grossing movie last year.

James,

Re: monster trucks,

Philippe Dauman got fired in August of 2016 for trying to finance out of Paramount’s HUGE debt by selling off a piece of it. MONSTER TRUCKS wasn’t released until 2017. Try again.

OK. Zoolander2, Allied and Ben Hur.

I realize monster trucks wasn’t released in 2016, but the write down was.

http://www.cartoonbrew.com/feature-film/monster-trucks-lost-paramount-115-million-film-isnt-even-147292.html

Fortunately, paramount have the latest Transformers film, which should be good for a billion or so.

James,

Re: …the write down was.

Philippe Dauman was fired on August 20th of 2016. The write-down didn’t happen till the fall on his successor’s watch, by your own citation.

Again, ALLIED wasn’t released until November of 2016, cost $85 million AND raked in $119,520,023 world wide (Why did you cite this???). BEN HUR wasn’t released until August 19 of 2016, Dauman was removed on the following day. There’s no way BEN HUR had enough time to contribute to his firing or the debt which ignited the board’s decision to eject him.

The original ZOOLANDER, a comedy, only made $60 million world wide. I want some of what you are drinking if you are peddling that Paramount expected its sequel to rake in HUGE blockbuster bucks.

Steady there chap. I think we’re at cross purposes. I don’t care about what this man got fired. I was simply pointing out that Star Trek isn’t the thing that’s sinking Paramount. I cited Allied because it lost paramount 75million.
Source:https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/mar/30/paramount-disney-flops-hollywood-ben-hur-star-trek-beyond

A quick search reveals that there was a political power play that led to Dauman being fired. I’m not sure that his firing was related to box office performance.
https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/media/2016/jun/16/sumner-redstone-fires-viacom-ceo-philippe-dauman-from-board

James,

Re: … political power …

FWIW, Tom Freston, Dauman and Grey dismantled Lansing’s:

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/the_hollywood_economist/2005/12/meltdown.html

”Although the old regime’s [PARAMOUNT’S] movies had performed badly at the box office, in the old regime, under Dolgen’s tutelage, the executives had so perfected the art of the convoluted deal that 75 percent of Paramount’s movies, even those that appeared to be bombs to the outside world, made a profit. This happy state of affairs was due to the a$$iduous use of OPM, aka Other People’s Money, which includes the proceeds from “money for nothing” tax shelters, foreign-production subsidies, and foreign presales [Anyone remember the Blind Bid?]. Consider Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, the acme of such deal-pyramiding. Its budget was reported as $94 million, but, after the enterprising financial arrangements, it actually cost Paramount less than $7 million to make. While the art-of-the-deal formula didn’t always produce award-winning movies, to say the least, the studio under Dolgen and Lansing had a nearly 60 percent return on its invested capital. The disadvantage for Dolgen and Lansing is that such legerdemain works best when it’s invisible to outsiders.” — MELTDOWN, By Edward Jay Epstein, Slate.com, Dec. 19 2005 3:43 PM

formula for a guaranteed can’t miss one of their own making that left Paramount in the hole for films that fell short.

But neither Abrams films were huge successes Carrie.

Star Trek 09 basically just broke even. It made a profit but a small one. STID had the biggest box office for sure but according to reports it only made $30 million profit in the theaters as well. Again it probably would’ve made more if Abrams didn’t hike the budget so much by refusing to shoot it outside of L.A.

So to call them ‘huge successes’ is a misnomer. The problem is the KT film has NEVER been huge hits for the money they cost. They are behind every major franchise in Hollywood, especially when it comes to international box office. In fact the first film essentially bombed overseas. Its really the American box office where the films were big hits but sadly it fell hard with Beyond and $100 million off from the first film domestically.

If Beyond just fell slightly in America the way STID with ST09 did then it would probably be a different story and the film could’ve made it over $400 million….which is still nothing to write home about.

In terms of box office, STID is the highest grossing in the franchise, but look beyond that.

St09 is still one of the best selling blu rays of all time. (12th)

http://www.the-numbers.com/alltime-bluray-sales-chart

STID had massive digital downloads successes, 3rd best selling for its year according to Rentrack.

Paramount made a pretty penny on these movies, hence the sequels to them. Now, beyond flopped badly and they have to reconsider

The problem is they still made close to nowhere of what a Marvel, Harry Potter, Transformer or a Batman movie makes but STILL cost the same as all of those. Thats the problem. Mission Impossible 3 is considered the ‘bomb’ of that franchise and it still made more money than the 1st and 3rd Trek film.

STID is one of Paramounts most expensive films and yet it sill made less than half a billion. Transformers 2 cost what STID did and made $830 million. So yes it may be the highest grossing in the franchise but for the money it cost its one of the lowest producing ‘hit’ films. These movies just don’t seem to make a lot of money. I mean Ant-Man made more money than these films and that only cost $130 million but yet made over $500 million. Star Trek just can’t break that ceiling no matter what they do.

Sad, but true. The old movies were mid budget films, with mid budget returns. At the end of the day, they will keep making Trek films so long as they make money.

James,

Re: St09 is still one of the best selling blu rays of all time. (12th)

In the UNITED STATES, in case you haven’t noticed Paramount and its parent VIACOM are more interested in a little place known as, CHINA.

I cannot locate sales figures for China. STID saw a big increase in box office performance in China, compared to ST09. Obviously, the studio don’t get such big cut of the profit there. No idea on DVD or Blu ray sales though.

I would love to have one more to finish of the alt timeline, not the biggest fan, well, I do love the comics, so much better than the films, even so, finish off the timeline please

Beyond was a fine ending to this timeline. Prime Spock ushered in the timeline, and they gave him a sendoff at the end of Beyond, completing the bond between Kirk and Spock. One could say that’s all this trilogy was about — one possible origin story that brought Kirk and Spock together after Nero tried to tear them apart. The end.

Nice

Yeah honestly that’s the thing, Beyond felt like such an ending I just don’t see the need to have any more films. Anton is gone, Nimoy is gone, the Enterprise is gone, Kirk’s daddy issues are more or less gone, just like…that was the end. The box office returns only confirm it.

They’ve got the cast for one more film if they want it. Depending on their deals with Bad Robot etc, if Im Paramount I see the revenue as worth exploring but you have to have a stripped down budget.

I think JJ dangling George Kirk was similar to Orci dangling Shatner but in different ways. It was trying to look ahead beyond the now and get people excited for it. Sort of a “yeah this one might suck, but the NEXT one will be great”. Paramount didnt fall for it with Orci and it seems they arent falling for it with JJ.

I think if Im Paramount, I do some informal checking around to see what kind of story we can get on a lower budget, more dramatic, featuring Shatner as Kirk and have it all make sense.

The obvious idea if you want to close loop it is correcting the time line. Then it actually makes sense of why it sucked so much.

The problem is, to do that story justice as an epic you need a lot of money and stroke to get the right people. And they don’t have it anymore.

If STID hasn’t been so bad and turned off the audience and snubbed the good will frayed by 09, one could argue they’d be in position for an epic. But they aren’t.

They could still do the stripped down closed loop story and fix everything. But then it sort of makes Beyond incongruent to the series. Although I think I’d kick it off with something coming to light among Spock Prime’s possessions.

Sort of how TFA was all about Luke even though he wasn’t on it. You can do justice to Nimoy by making his character critical to the plot but not having him in it.

Hopefully Discovery will help us to forget.

Don’t count on it. That show is not boding well with all the delays and double-speak.

I’d count on it. It looks like it’s gonna be huge.

I hope you are right. But the omens aren’t good. There’s precious little hype, no trailer or even promo pics. I sure wish that it’s great, because Star Trek needs a quality hit right now.

Discovery has been a disaster from the word go. 12 months on and we still don’t even have an actual trailer yet. It’s yet another prequel, the showrunner “left”, CBS is not having a great time generally, and to top it all off Americans are going to have to subscribe to a rather weak streaming service in order to watch it, while the rest of the world get it included in their Netflix subscriptions.

At this point leaks appear to show that they are making a reboot, which after In To Darkness you would think that would learn a lesson or too, particularly with the last prequel having been cancelled and put the franchise in to complete close for over a decade. The latest reboot movie was a flop and cost Paramount lots of $$.

This should have already aired by now, instead they have pushed the date back twice, and now won’t even commit to a date at all. It may not even come this year!!

On top of that you’ve got a lockdown on fan productions due to one douchebag, a PR disaster with a ship very few people have shown any interest in, and splitting the fandom in two by making a show which really only holds interest to TOS fans eager for Enterprise season 5.

If someone had told me of all this last year I would have said shut the whole thing down immediately before it rapes the franchise of everything that had previously made it great, but here we are, almost completely in the dark over what is actually going on in the sound stages, with the only “leaks” appearing to show a retcon of pretty much everything that could possibly be retconned.

Do they even know who they are aiming Discovery at? It’s going to be the same situation as the recent movies – production by committee pleasing neither the fandom or casual viewers. You didn’t need to watch In To Darkness to hate that Khan had been recast, and as a consequence it was voted “the worst star trek movie” by the fandom. There comes a point where you just want them to stop screwing with the franchise as preferable to continually making these stupid decisions time and time again.

It’s been painful to listen to the Star Trek movie news after Star Trek in 2009. As a fan I was filled with so much optimism before its release and now after 8 years here we are. The movie franchise has no direction and it’s apparent Paramount had no real plan for it. I was hoping the new movies would build off of one another, but sadly there was limited character growth and each film independent of the last. Although I am very grateful they decided to forget the events of Into Darkness. Paramount doesn’t care about the franchise or the fans. Paramount over the last 8 years has just cared about making a Trek film for the sake of making a film.

Honestly I kinda disagree; I feel like the movies built on each other well, just not in the direction they should’ve been going. They should’ve explored the Vulcan situation, which would have been a very interesting thread. Instead, because STID was so off the mark, they had to do reset a bit with Beyond, which still managed to address a lot of the things that have been running through the series since 09. Some of the major arcs I can think of include: Kirk’s dad issues, Kirk growing into the captain’s chair, Spock and Uhura, Spock fitting in on the Enterprise despite New Vulcan and all that…like I’d say the characters underwent growth through the trilogy. It’s just not the trilogy I wanted to see.

You’re kidding, right?

Three movies, all about bad guys with big space ships smashing the crap out of the Enterprise, the first two were Earth-based, the 3rd they just made a proxy earth with Yorktown, and yet again we’ve got some fruitcake who turned against the federation.

There has been zero character development, three movies about Kirk’s daddy issues, angry spock crying and yelling, Uhura might as well not be there, Sulu has a boyfriend, chekov doesn’t do much, and Scotty’s comic relief has given him an umpalumpa sidekick.

What the hell is Star Trek about any of that? Drop in the Guardians Of The Galaxy crew and change to a different space ship and you’ve got virtually the same movie!

Would like to see another ST film with this cast, but who knows when or if that will happen.

Oh well, At least we have ST Discovery coming, sometime.

Honestly I like the cast. Especially pine. If they ever had a good script and good direction they could be tremendous.

I honestly think it would have served better as a television series. I think that it needed a BSG type of revival. I was cool with creating an alternate reality because given the over 40 years of canon, it made sense but they clearly they lost the momentum created by the 09 film. I personally liked Into Darkness but maybe caving into the ‘Khan’ pressure was not a good thing even though Cumberbatch gave an amazing performance. In Beyond they were trying to please fans who had issues with the last film and that was a mistake. They should have mapped out a trilogy with real stakes for the characters. Commit to it like the Star Wars folks do. They have a plan. Star Trek needs a plan. That is the problem.

All of the actors in Trek have movie careers that are continuing to grow. Look at Chris Pine and Zoe Saldana. With the exception of William Shatner, most of the original cast only had Star Trek going for them. They were available. Most of them still are. They need a vision for that universe. I think they need to wrap it up with the next film and shelve the original cast concept. I remember there were all these plans to make Star Trek like Star Wars and then boom, Disney buys Star Wars. Maybe they need to sell the property to Disney. That would be interesting. They seem lost right now.

Wishful thinking my friend…Disney purchasing the Trek brand would and could save it to a point. However, Paramount and CBS would never allow one of their major brands to leave. Plus, I think even if Paramount/CBS would consider it, they would stamp a price tag on it so large it would make Disney purchasing Lucasfilm seem like buying candy. I just don’t see it ever happening. Though I see your point and agree with the notion.

sergei did not like new star trek films. too much explosive, loud noise, peoples running around and waving arms in air.

i like so very nice original star trek, so full of thought, peoples think about things before shooting. very academic to be sure.

i have the respect for the peoples who like the new star trek, but for me best star trek will always be original star trek. i like so much, i even buy large model kit of original enterprise for 8000 ruble. my girlfriend beat me most harshly for this purchase, to be sure, but i do not care

Sound like Sergei need new girlfriend. One with large breast quiet mouth and make good meal.

Sound like Harry need look at calendar to check what century it is.

They need a massive white board with pics, alien races, and all the quadrants in the Star Trek. They need to figure this out better. They need to look at what Star Wars has done. 09 they had people loving Trek again. Even people who never liked it before. Take it away from bad robot.

Bob Orci killed it. But don’t worry he has a huge bank account.

TUP

But what does that mean in a world where Donald Trump is president and Bob Orci’s not and can never be?

Trump being a disaster and Orci thankfully not being president aren’t mutually exclusive.

TUP,

You missed my point: both men publicly shared an epistemology that in a discussion all that matters is what they have the power to do that others don’t.

Connecting the dots, Donald Trump presents somewhat of confounding conundrum for Orci’s view of his personal place in the world, for Trump has essentially paraphrased Bob to say that Orci and his goverment conspiracies concerns don’t matter because Trump’s president and he’s not.

And the good news is Orci won’t be writing any more Trek films either.

Although I would like to read his Trek 3 idea

No worries! We have a Transformer film to tide us over until another Trek is released. Barf!

I am not surprised by this in the least. If they make a 4th…it will probably be in 3 to 5 years which is way too long. Why not do an animated film ? STAR WARS gets all the love. Sometimes I wish Disney would buy the rights from Paramount.

I honestly see the next film being the last (if they can get it moving). I would not be surprised if after Star Trek 4, they move towards reboot/revamping a version of the TNG. Mark my words.

TNG Reboot will never happen

Concerning Star Trek 4….she’s dead Jim.

Didn’t make their budget back on Beyond and the new TV show Star Trek: Discovery I think is going to be a SJW mess that will not appeal to the masses of America.

Sad but true.

The fourth film isn’t quite dead yet.
No decision has been made at this point.
As for Discovery, I would say that they are very much alive.

idk where this DSC = SJW crap came from. Like seriously? Every show is like this nowadays. Television is diverse. Plus if the producers want to appeal to a younger audience [which they certainly do], diversity will only help. This isn’t some “SJW mess”. This is how you make television.

Forgive me if this has been asked before—just wondering, could Paramount be waiting to see how Discovery does before it commits to another movie? You know, gauge how much the public is still interested in Star Trek.

No

Ah, well, who could argue with that?

On the other hand, maybe.

The audience will have to find and pay for DISCOVERY on CBS All Access. This series is for Trek fans. Paramount is interested in a general audience that won’t have seen it. CBS AA won’t give them the kind of viewer feedback to inform their decision to make a film. Also, Paramount is not likely to make a film similar to DISC anyway, so the people turning up for, or turning off DISC may not have any relevance on a general release theatrical film. Ultimately, there are business decisions which are holding Paramount back from moving forward, having more to do with the current producers and cast, and the declining box office results than anything else over the last two films. Reboots take some time and Paramount is only now just getting into a position to start developing one. There is something to be said for launching something completely different at the box office, at the same time CBS is launching a series. If nothing else they aren’t going to want to compete for the headlines announcing anything until the series has launched. This is part of the reason CBS had its hands tied by BR with the rebooted films.

As with all things, its the story. As Quinto says, they are working on it. It seems a given, Kirk’s Dad is in it. It looks like another time travel movie. Can’t be flashbacks since Kirk was just born having not met Dad and got killed by Nero.

I’m hoping for a decent real sci-fi movie dealing with a real sci-fi concept. We haven’t really seen one of those in the newer Trek films. Somehow work in some contemporaneous storyline be it politics, the state of the world affairs. The TOS series was good at working in 60s era themes in a futuristic settings.

As for budget, we’ve become used to high budget productions. It would be a shame to start cutting them down. I like getting my $18 worth on the IMAX-lite/Dolby Atmos theaters. The new cast can’t command salaries that ate into the budget the way the TOS films did. Let’s see that $ on the screen.

Since JJ isn’t directing anything, why not be more involved with the new movie besides just producing?

And please, no more battle scenes with the ship doing down after a brief battle. Have more character scenes that let the characters shine doing what they do best. Maybe pair off like they did in IV. Maybe its time for Spock and a new Nurse Chapel to be together since the romance with Uhura has cooled off. Lastly, Chris Pine needs to beef up and learn to fight. He’s gotten his butt kicked in every movie. :)

I want a Discovery movie!

13 episodes is too little for season 1. We need a 120+ minute action packed movie between season 2 and 3!

Discovery seems to be following The Expanse’s style, but with so few episodes and so much time between seasons, the audience will forget. Unless there’s a movie to look forward to!

Unless those episodes are so good that people remember. Keep in mind, Game of Thrones is only 10 episodes a season, yet it’s basically the most popular genre show on the internet. Those 10 episodes are like church for GOT fans. Maybe Trek, if done right, can resonate on that level.

I’m hoping for a reset (of sorts). Would be pretty awesome if this somehow brought the series to the Nerada incident and this was somehow stopped.

Kirk working with his dad to stop Nero…

I can see Captain Robau(?) and George Kirk looking at the view screen as Picard et al did in Yesterday’s Enterprise alluding to something happening but then… nothing, we could then see Kirk being born and the Kelvin moving on to their next mission.

On the other side of the anomaly we could see Ambassador Picard (Sir Pat Stew’s star is pretty high at the moment!) as per the end of the Countdown comic paying tribute to the friend he has lost/ or taking Nero into custody OR the jellyfish has to be sent back to reset the timeline, and as Spock Prime is dead Alt Spock is sent back!

This sounds like a Dr. Who episode. If Trek were a TV series, you might see a multi-parter episode of that story. Since it’s a movie, probably not. Much too convoluted a story, which depends heavily upon having seen ST09 which will be almost a decade old by the time the next movie makes it into the theaters. And since that’s an unreasonable expectation, they’ll have to recap the events of that film (already complicated itself), and tell a complex story on top of that. Doesn’t really sound like the kind of movie a struggling studio would want to gamble on …

Beyond was a solid movie considering it was only 16 months start to finish including the screenplay! I hope we get an ST4 with this cast but clearly they need to downsize some of the action in favour of a few more scenes like Kirk McCoy drinking at the bar on the Enterprise. Small but important touches which will trim the budget a little bit and improve the profit margin. Not making an ST4 with this cast would be a massive mistake as Paramount already invested so much money in setting this new franchise up! Call Nick Meyer up let him run the movie show along with Ralph Winter!!!

I watched Beyond recently. And there was a lot wrong with it that I didn’t pick up when I first saw it on theatres. It made a better effort of the moments but again it seemed to be written by people who didn’t really know the characters.

Throwing good money after bad is never a good idea. The movie can’t be made without Bad Robot at this point, and BR doesn’t know how not to spend money. Those three movies helped put Paramount in the red, and there’s no guarantee this cast will produce better results than STID or BEYOND did. Add to that, it’s likely the last movie to be made with what has become at this point and expensive cast. Better to cut their losses and reboot with a lower-cost new producer and cast.

Look, there are only so many times you can destroy the Enterprise, and the SWARM CGI effects aren’t the best enemies….seems like somebody’s idea of action is simply chaos.

Some of the best star treks in the old days were the drama between spock going rogue….and courtmartialed….or the doomsday machine…. the borg have been over done. Q.

I agree. I think where Beyond really missed the boat was this idea they were going to show us the Enterprise out on its deep space mission. But the first thing they did was have the ship arrive at an insanely futuristic Starbase.

The concept of the lost crew being impacted by their years of abandonment rang a bit hollow when we see how close they actually were. And then you’re coming up with plot contrivances to explain why sensors and communications dont work or whatever.

The destruction of the Enterprise didnt feel emotional. And this, to me, shows us the root of the issue with these writers. They see the Enterprise being destroyed in TSFS and Generations and say “see, look how early in those film series they blew up the ship and how awesome it was”. They think the destruction was what resonated but it was the emotional connection between fans and the ship. The ship was a character and we lost her.

Who gives a crap about this flying Apple Store? No one. There was never a sense of the ship being a character. The decision to make it big, new, shiny and ultra futuristic hindered our ability to connect with it. In TOS, you had the sense the ship itself was holding together, squeezing whatever last ounce of power it had to help our crew survive and succeed.

When Kirk utters “My God, Bones, what have I done…”, he spoke for all of us watching.

So really, the mistakes of the JJ series started way before we ever saw it on screen. They made decisions to make Trek like Star Wars and it failed.

Random but is it time John Williams Trek theme was re-introduced to Trek?

What John Williams theme? He sadly never wrote anything for Trek.

If you mean Jerry Goldsmith’s TMP Overture/TNG Theme, then yes I agree!

Quinto finally says what most people are thinking. Don’t hold your breath. As far as putting any stock into an ‘announced’ fourth installment – nothing more then speculation. Paramount also announced a sequel to WWZ – at least that project is still on a few TBA’ed lists. Trek 4 has disappeared all together.

We don’t need anymore JJ-verse nonsense anyway. #TeamAxanar

I think their time has now come and gone, and that they ended their “trilogy” on a high note (well, a higher-than-the-previous-two-films note anyway). Let it go.

Ahhummm. THANKS and ALL! Buuuuuut,… we don’t need that crew ANYMORE!!!!

How about a smart low budget Trek styled after the 60s with a bump up, and some no name actors?

If you want ships that look like the original Enterprise with rotating nacelles and rubber rocks you may be waiting for well to the end of time. 60’s Trek is dead Jim has been since the 60’s.

Annnd the Kelvin timeline bashing begins from the “true” fans ….

As for me, I like the new films and hope there will be at least one more, if not two.

While I don’t care either way, there won’t likely be any new films set in the KT.

Well, that was a given. While I don’t think the franchise will ignore the KT anymore then it ignores the mirror universe, it does beg the question, what will ST look like moving forward? The admonition for those who did nothing but spew venom since 2009, the admonition remains…be careful for what you wish(ed) for…you might get it.

I hope they make 50 more Kelvin films. Just to tick them all off.

I want to see more Chris Pine as Kirk but if it doesn’t happen I probably will be okay. Especially with all these Star Wars movies coming out to keep me busy!

I said 6 months ago that there would be no more ST movies.

I didn’t watch Beyond in the end. I wasn’t that fussed to start with and Simon Pegg’s PC virtue-signalling rant really irritated me, so I decided I’d rather wait for another episode of Star Trek Continues.

We’re unfortunately in a Hollywood era of brain-turned-off, loud, expensive action films and Star Trek, which works best as a medium budgeted, more thoughtful film series, will never work well in that context.

In the end – and this goes for Discovery too – you begin to wonder whether they’re altering something so much that it doesn’t really rate being called Star Trek anymore and they should just create something new instead.

Trek isn’t defined by its explicit canon, nor its dearth or excess of action sequences. And Trek has always been about PC rants. Every other episode of TOS features Kirk up on his soapbox lecturing to the TV audience about his PC liberal values. That is the core of Trek, and Pegg is following suit. Any Trek fan who denies that is more clueless than a sitting president who can’t understand why the Civil War couldn’t have been prevented by Andrew Jackson.

I wouldn’t be surprised if “Discovery” wasn’t dropped. It’s sure to be a one season show if it ever happens. Like everything else in Hollywood, the left has taken it over and PC rules. No wonder movie after movie loses money.

Point made. As a fan I went to all the moves. Some twice.

If you want my continuing support, Make good sci fi Trekking stories.

or,… Don’t Litter!

click the link, dummy. : )

While the cast is terrific and the production values top notch, the problem with the JJ Star Trek movies is that while there seems to be some meaningful character and philosophical plot points, the scripts tend to chase one action sequence after another to the detriment of any lasting impression. They just end up being a jumble of action sequences in the memory. Ultimately, the disproportionate focus on whiz-bang dilutes the essence of Star Trek and leaves me frustrated.

There should be a fourth, final film by May 2019 to mark 10 years… and JJ Abrams back directing. The story hinted at is as fitting as any alternates I can think of.

I say that as someone who took a while to get the Kelvin timeline.

Kirk and the Enterprise-A crew sacrifice themselves only to end up passing through a black hole. On the other side, Commodore Picard and the crew of the Enterprise-E from the Prime timeline confront them and demand to know their business! The End!

They should bite the bullet and remake “Yesterday’s Enterprise” as a film. It’s Quentin Tarrantino’s favourite ever episode of Star Trek… and that’s good enough endorsement for me. A crossover in either timeline direction would be fine by me. TNG or ENT.

Paramount would not sink more money into a losing proposition. Better to cut their losses and reboot fresh with new prospects for success, rather than address any potential fans who might still be hanging on and looking for a satisfying conclusion to an expensive trilogy. With such a convoluted storyline involved in the proposed 4th film, it’s unlikely to make for a satisfying film for anyone not 100% invested in the Kelvin timeline.

Star Trek will always suffer in wide audience appeal because it’s being stifled by the core fans who troll repeatedly day in and day out their singular vision and stance on what ST should be for them.
No new idea’s, no new directions, and most of all no rekindling of what made ST great to begin with.
After so many spin off series and running down the same old “safe” stories and characters, re-creating Star Trek for a new generation has become blasphemy.

Sadly even ST Discovery will be a further failure with it’s already feeble attempt to some how please the puny fan base that trolls here on TrekMovie.com

Will be a bummer not to have him back! He is a good Spock, what did he do before Star Trek?

Russell Withrow

He played the baddie, Sylar, on HEROES.

You trolls need to get a life, it’s movie for crying out loud. Don’t go see it it will make millions without you.🖖