Karl Urban Wants To Know What’s Up With ‘Star Trek 4’; Director Christopher McQuarrie Interested In Franchise

Star Trek actor Karl Urban was at New York Comic Con to promote the upcoming Amazon Prime superhero series The Boys, but he also talked a little about Trek as well. In addition, another Oscar-winning Star Trek fan is offering his services for the future of the franchise.

Karl Urban has no news on ‘Star Trek 4’

Two months ago, it was reported that Star Trek 4 negotiations with Chris Pine and Chris Hemsworth had stalled over a salary dispute. In late August Karl Urban said he was confident a deal could be struck and that Chris Pine wanted to do it, something Pine said himself in early September.

It has been quiet since then. Over the weekend, in an NYCC roundtable interview about The Boys posted by ShowBizJunkies on YouTube, Karl Urban was asked what he could say about movement on the project. Urban replied:

I know nothing about Star Trek, I wish I did…No news, apparently there is no news.

Momentum on the project seemed to have been building since late April when the CEO of Paramount confirmed that Star Trek 4, along with the Tarantino Trek project were both in development and director S.J. Clarkson was hired for Star Trek 4. Clarkson began meeting with cast members and shooting was said to be set to start in early 2019.

Even if Paramount was moving forward without Pine and/or Hemsworth, one would expect that actors like Karl Urban would be aware of the plans to allow for working the production into his 2019 schedule. After all the progress that seemed to be happening in the first half of 2018, things seem to be regressing back to where things were in 2017, with actors lamenting the lack of news or progress.

Karl Urban as Dr. McCoy in Star Trek Beyond

There were a couple of other Trek connections to Urban’s trip to New York. His Star Trek co-star Simon Pegg was a surprise guest at the NYCC The Boys panel, announcing he had a role in the upcoming series. Also, during the live stream interview from NYCC, Karl Urban decided to get the crowd fired up by channeling Dr. McCoy and belting out: “Are you out of your Vulcan minds!” TrekMovie posted the moment on Twitter over the weekend.

Mission director Christopher McQuarrie has thoughts on directing a Star Trek movie

While it isn’t clear what is going to happen next for the Star Trek film franchise, there is another successful filmmaker looking to head into the final frontier. At a recent Collider screening of Mission: Impossible – Fallout, the film’s director Christopher McQuarrie (who is also an Oscar-winning screenwriter) said he would like to direct a Trek feature film, and he also offered some thought’s on the state of the franchise, saying:

I feel like Star Trek is kind of… it’s gone away from what the tenets of the series were about, which was kind of the hope and the promise and the science.

These are interesting thoughts from McQuarrie as he was hired by Star Trek producer J.J. Abrams and Paramount to helm the last two Mission: Impossible films, both of which have performed well for the studio, and another is expected.

We also know that McQuarrie is a big Star Trek fan. Back in 2005 and 2006 he was part of the team, along with director Bryan Singer, that developed the “Star Trek: Federation” concept which had been planned to be pitched as a TV series but was abandoned after J.J. Abrams was tapped by Paramount to reboot the film franchise.

At the Collider Mission: Impossible – Fallout screening, McQuarrie also got practical when talking about how he would approach directing Star Trek:

It’s simple math, you know what you have to do with Star Trek? You have to make Star Trek for a domestic audience. Star Trek does better domestically than it does internationally, so I would come to Star Trek, and go, “Realistically, how much money should I make this Star Trek movie for?” And you’d give me a budget, and I’d go off and make the movie. That’s what I would do. You look at any movie like that, if you just be honest with yourself about the economics, it’s just a very real part of doing that.

It is these economic realities following the under-performance of Star Trek Beyond that are at the heart of the dispute with Pine and Hemsworth as Paramount has recalibrated for a more modest budget for the follow-up.

S.J. Clarkson has already been tapped to direct Star Trek 4 and McQuarrie is already at work on the next Mission: Impossible film, so it doesn’t look like he will be coming on board the Enterprise anytime soon. But there is always the Trek project based on a Quentin Tarantino pitch, which wouldn’t necessarily also be directed by Tarantino. McQuarrie obviously has a strong relationship with entities involved with the Star Trek movies – Paramount, Skydance and Bad Robot – so he could be a good fit, once Paramount decides how it wants to move forward with its venerable Trek film franchise.

Director Christopher McQuarrie on the set of Mission: Impossible – Fallout (Paramount)

Keep up with all the news on Star Trek 4 and upcoming Trek films at TrekMovie.com.

 

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What McQ sez about the dollars and domestic is a very sharp observation, though you’d think it was obvious. Was impressed with his output last century (and would KILL to read his never-used THE PRISONER screenplay, done for a hack), but not with anything in this one thus far, but slightly hopeful about this for down the line.

It appears that after three Abrams megapaloozzas, only two of which were even moderately successful financially, Paramount hopefully will now return to the Harve Bennett model of tightly scripted-and-budgeted modest features aimed primarily at nerds and people more into character development, science, and hope than CGI. Long overdue, IMO.

Yeah, if you look at stuff like SPLIT (five mil budget!!!), ingenious films are being made for a song in some quarters. It’s really unusual that budgets seem to be shrinking for even medium-sized films now, with a lot of pics in the 30-50 mil range instead of closing in on 100 mil, though the giant pics continue to cost an arm, a leg and a tail. )

Split…great movie, and a great example of quality on a budget.

Well, when you looks at something like the Avengers, Downey, Rufallo, Hemsworth and Evans are probably 60-70MM worth of budget all by themselves, with the entire cast payroll probably topping 100MM. When you do 2 billion in revenue, you can afford that. 350MM, not so much.

@Phil — conversely, Marvel spent the money to hire many of those higher paid actors from the start. I’d argue that Trek has never tried to hire an international celebrity of that caliber to test the waters, and has almost always hired unknowns for cheap deals, gambling that the franchise would make stars out of them. It failed pretty spectacularly with BadRobot and Chris Pine, and many of the rest. Saldana is the closest they’ve come, and I’d argue she’s still not an international draw. I’d frankly love to see a Trek film with a major box office draw or two in the leads. Maybe it wouldn’t work for Trek, but at this point it wouldn’t hurt to try.

@CC – most of the Marvel talent were not higher paid in the initial outings of the franchise. Outside of RDJ Disney is pretty frugal with the pay deals.
https://www.businessinsider.com/disney-rarely-pays-movie-stars-huge-salaries-2018-5

@Phil — I see that in Hemsworth and Rufallo. It’s also true with Pratt. But RDJ is a different story. As is Samuel L Jackson in AVENGERS, and Ryan Reynolds in DEADPOOL. Those are star driven vehicles as much as they are major franchises. Trek has never hired stars in the lead roles. My contention is that it has harmed its ability to succeed with mainstream audiences outside the US where Trek typically does poorly at the box office.

Par tried with Connery for TFF, not Par also offered Indy3, so Par lost to itself on that one that summer (and also won, if you’re an Indy fan, though I think Richard Attenborough would have been better as Indy’s dad.)

I like that idea. Trek has always been done on the cheap. Whatever Pine is asking for…correction…he doesn’t want to take a pay cut…but truthfully…he has not earned it. Never would have cast him in the role as kirk. He never sold me on his characterization.

So true. But they are no guarantee a film…no matter the stars or the budget will hit a billion let alone 2 billion.

I suspect this is probably what is causing the holdup. Recall that folks at Bad Robot in the past were of the opinion you couldn’t do a decent Trek movie for much under 200MM, I suspect Paramount is playing hardball with a budget of 100-120MM for Trek IV. So, until someone actually figures out how to do one for that, we wait.

When I heard the 09 was going to cost in the 150 mil range, I was flabbergasted, remembering how Par was so tightfisted with most of the previous batch of features that they nearly strangled the series to death in 1991, actually cancelling TUC for a few days before finally loosening the purse strings ever so stingily. (the last major outlay I think par made was to allocate something like 7 mil for INS reshoots (which required multiple physical miniature pyro shoots in addition to live-action and CG embellishments), although nobody seems to remember that the film’s final 65 mil cost got downgraded to 58 in Berman comments right after a less-than-ideal opening weekend.)

Then again, the Abrams pics actually made some money internationally I think, so that made them stand out from the TOS film sequels and also most of the TNG ones (which probably did good UK biz but otherwise didn’t travel any better than TOS.)

they were trying to avoid runaway budgets like TMP.
though they need to put up more cash with the TNG movies as more fantasy blockbusters were released in the late 90s like TPM and ‘matrix’ to compete.

@Phil — BadRobot can’t stay on budget to save themselves. The attitude over there is they can do no wrong and their productions are runaway trains that confound the studios. If Paramount is smart, they’re waiting for their first look real to end and reboot Trek without them. Right now BR is on a roll, but sooner or later they’re going to stumble. Now they’re launching a record label!

“Where’s my next paycheck?” ;)

Naah, he gets a LOT of work. He’s not worried about his next paycheck. He simply needs to be able to work around it, which is what all of the cast is worried about since ALL of them get a lot of work. This is the most successful cast Star Trek has ever had outside of Star Trek–not a single one of them isn’t making high-profile TV shows and films. So the producers need to give them adequate time to fit Star Trek into their schedules.

With three movies and a tv show out/coming soon, Urban doesn’t seem to be hurting for work. I just think he really likes playing McCoy. And an excellent McCoy he is. He doesn’t need Trek so much as Trek needs him, imo.

still can’t figure out why they can’t get DREDD squared away, I imagine he’d happily resume that if/when the op presented itself. I don’t even own DREDD and haven’t seen it a second time, but that’s largely because I want to be able to see MORE of it, not just one small isolated movie.

I have an affinity for the Stallone one, stupid as it may be, because I think the art direction is good and the vfx largely excellent … plus it has the ‘eat recycled food’ bit, which I seem to manage to include in my day-to-day dialog as much as anything from SEINFELD or TREK. I should find out from Peter Briggs if that came from his tenure on JD (there were a LOT of writers who did work at one point or another on the 90s film.)

That, and I’m still pissed about ‘Almost Human.’ What a great show with a lot of promise that Fox gave the ‘Firefly’ ax to. Urban and his co-star Ealy had great chemistry, too. Such a waste.

Nothing to figure out.
Dredd wasn’t successful enough for a sequel.

I just checked BOM. Yeah this is a no-brainer why they never made another one. Box office speaks for itself:

https://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=dredd.htm

Maybe it would be better to do it as a show on Netflix or something. I don’t think character is popular enough for a movie franchise.

So far as I know there was talk of a TV series pretty recently, but the non-performance of the first film was actually nowhere near as bad as other films that still got sequels. I think the reasoning with some franchise wannabes getting second chances is because homevid sales suggest people only discover it fully after it is out of theaters. AUSTIN POWERS 1 and FIRST BLOOD were popular, but their sequels did fantastic because homevid really primed the pump.

Actually, last I heard someone was developing a TV show of Dredd and apparently Urban was in talks to star in the show, although with his commitment to The Boys, I wonder if this will come to pass.

Agreed Danpaine!

The guy is busy these days! Sure he wants to earn money for the work but he loves the franchise. That’s obvious as he seems to be one the few in that cast that goes to the conventions to interact with fans (not that you don’t care if you don’t go to them) but Trek is clearly in his blood.

And I’m just happy he still wants to do another one because his McCoy is one of the best parts about these films. If he left I would be a lot less interested in them. He was what made Beyond a fun movie.

but that’s their job, of course they want to work. They also need to know if they are requested for trek, they can’t wait for them to make a decision forever if in the meantime they get offered other roles.

Chris Pine is on the Graham Norton show in a week – perhaps we’ll get an update then.

http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/graham-norton-show/news/a867640/graham-norton-show-guests-2018-chris-pine-michael-caine/

Hate to be the one to point out, again, that this has always been just speculation that was being breathlessly reported as progress. Incorrect. Today, we are exactly where we were six months ago: Paramount would like to make more Trek movies, and a couple of concepts are in development. A project can be in development for years, so until talent is contracted (according to Urban, that’s nowhere near happening), and actual pre-production activity commences (like building sets and retaining FX houses), we’ve got nothing but a project stuck in development hell.

A 2020 release date is on life support at this point….

Phil I hate to say it but you may be proven right after all when its all said and done. I doubted you many times about this and was pretty sure a film would happen by 2020. It still might but I have to admit now they seem to be taking their sweet time getting this thing off the ground. What does it say when the Picard show was announced just two months ago and they already have a starting date by April?

Meanwhile this film was announced over two years ago and its still stalling? Thats the difference between one studio that really wants a project to happen vs another that is clearly unsure about it.

And if we’re being honest this film should be released next year the latest. 2020 is already another 4 years since the last one. 2021 will be five freaking years. At this rate they will be on their second five year mission lol. Even less people are going to care by then! Paramount truly squandered these movies. A real shame.

Hey, man, nothing would thrill me more then to be wrong, but history is on my side here. Back during the run up to STID we were treated to breathless updates from the writing team about how great it was that everything was right on schedule…until they postponed it for a year. It seems that Trek is the property Bad Robot goes to to fill a hole in their schedule rather then to keep the franchise one on. And Paramount seems okay with that. Same thing happened with Beyond, and a common complaint is that STID and STB both felt like rushed productions.

While Paramount has had a decent year, they are still on shaky ground, ownership drama still abounds, and they have a pile of money tied up in another Transformers outing at year end that if it tanks, financing for another megabucks Trek production could be an issue. I don’t blame Paramount for proceeding with caution – while I doubt CBS would let them sell off the film rights they may just sit on it for a while. Clearly they are not in a rush.

I can’t disagree with much of that. I think what happened was that they got cocky after the first film and just assumed they would get the same audience and more for STID. It made more money than the original but that’s only because Paramount paid a lot more to distribute it worldwide, got it a bigger run in China and added 3D to boot. And while it made about $80 million more than the first one it also cost $40 million more to make as well so all said and done they probably made the same money off of that one as they did the first one, which wasn’t a big hit worldwide, but really just in America.

And yes after Beyond bombing I can’t blame them either but a lot of it IS their fault because they just took too long to make these films and Beyond’s marketing was a disaster. I don’t get it because they hit all the right marks with the first film in nearly every category. And then they sat on their butts and here we are now.

I was honestly just more optimistic this was going to move fast once we were told they had both a director and a script and yet it’s still in development hell.

I still have confidence it can get made but less and less so these days.

I have no great wish for Par to make money or prosper, but I gotta say, this next TRANSFORMERS has tremendous word-of-mouth from the folks I’ve interviewed who worked on it. They all seem to think this is more than a glossy CG car commercial (which has been my takeaway on the franchise, based on having to fast forward just to get through the first one and never bothering with any of the sequels), that it has real heart in an old-school/Spielberg/Amblin/80s kind of way. Two of the interviewees even indicated they would have turned it down flat if not for the script and the fact the guy who directed KUBO was involved. The cinematographer even screened ET (on film, not digital) before he got started on this after reading the script. So I’d be very surprised if BUMBLEBEE doesn’t reinvigorate the Par numbers in a big way, as it sounds like they think they actually have a good movie instead of just a cash cow.

kmart,

Is that the 1 that went with the script from the same team that’s writing this Trek script?

No, ‘BEE was written by one woman with just a few creds.

With the television shows now in full swing do we really actually need another Trek film at the moment? Do we desperately want to see one? A reboot isn’t really a good idea at this time.
There is not a real need or desire to rush on with this film at all.
Despite all the criticism regarding the TNG films, I still prefer them to the new films. I hope they take the time to think about something worthwhile and when they do, then push forward with that, but until then, why bother?

I’m starting to wonder though if they have to make another movie to keep the license? A lot of these license agreements are designed where you have to make a movie after a few years or the rights goes back to the original property. That was literally the entire reason the last Fantastic 4 was made and after that film Fox is probably begging Disney to take it back. ;)

But yes I generally agree with you, in reality no one seems to even be begging for any more of these films. I mean people will go but the hype for them is utterly dead now, especially with Trek TV starting up again in a big way.

But that may be the reason why Paramount is actually pushing ahead with it, to keep the rights. Could be wrong of course and if so they aren’t exactly moving at top speed to make it happen. People were literally predicting this movie would start filming NOW in the fall and it seems just as stalled as its been forever, now that we know Hemsworth isn’t even officially on board.

This film really could end up DOA! But I don’t think many fans will lose much sleep over either if it doesn’t happen.

FYI… FOX made a dirt cheap version of F4 in the 90’s to keep their license. That movie was never intended to get released but you still might find a version of it out there somewhere…

That was much better than the 2015 abomination.

Tiger2,

Don’t forget me. He who shall not be named, dragged us both over his coals for seeing his views as certainly premature.

LOL it took me a minute to figure out who you were referring to but yes you and Phil use to get a lot of grief over who shall not be named because you simply wanted something more official but constantly berated for it. Now it’s proving you guys were right this whole time after all.

I too thought things were really moving and stated MANY times here I thought the film was a foregone conclusion once a director was announced and the script was written. Now it looks like I was the one proven wrong too. I can admit when I’m wrong and in this case sadly I really was.

Now it doesn’t mean it can’t be approved soon, but it’s now October and you got Urban saying he has no clue what is happening with the movie. This was the same guy who said a month ago he expected for a deal to happen soon and shoot in the U.K. And now the cast are taking other jobs instead including Urban himself. Not a great sign!

So maybe it will happen, maybe it won’t. I’m going to go with you and Phil’s direction and will stop predicting it will UNTIL there is an official statement the movie has been greenlit, the entire cast has been signed on and a start date. Anything short of that is hot air as been proven the case time and time again.

It’s funny I been reading some of the threads here about the hype around the first film here a day or so ago and you forget just how excited people were about these movies. It was like Star Trek was reborn or something. Now eight years and two films later sadly I don’t think most Trek fans care all that much if the next one even happens especially now that it’s back on TV format which is what most fans seem to care about. And my guess is more fans are way more excited about the Picard show than another film.

I still want the next one to happen but I’m resigned to the fact they might be done and it does look like negotiations with Pine has stalled. Funny it’s two months to the day news broke that he and Hemsworth walked away and apparently it’s been zip since. It looks like Paramount is in no rush to make it happen which tells you the priority they have about it. If this was a Mission Impossible movie and Tom Cruise walked away you better believe something would’ve been ASAP to get him back.

If they did another one I would love McQuarrie to direct it, especially the amazing job he did with Fallout. That movie made $800 million and cost a bit less than Star Trek Beyond did which sadly didn’t even make half that. That’s why Paramount is no rush to make another.

I thought STB made a little over 600 mil worldwide?

Never mind that included DVD, Bluray, and digital sales. It only made a lil over 350 at the box office.

Actually it didn’t even make it to $350 million. It sputtered out at $343. That’s pretty bad for a film that size so its not a shock why they are stalling or don’t want to pay Pine the salary he wants.

Beyond probably booked a $150M loss overall as only 50% of the total box office gets returned to the studio who made it.

As you noted, that may have included broadcast rights and home sales. I’m under the impression no Trek movie has ever lost money, it’s just a question of how much time it takes for any given project to turn a profit. Clearly the studio would like it to be during the initial box office run, but that isn’t always the case.

That is the one positive about Trek films, they all make money eventually. Even Nemesis ended up making money and that probably was the biggest flop in the franchise although technically Beyond probably lost the most money overall.

But I also think Star Trek will never die on the big screen because with the exception of Beyond and Nemesis they all made money in the theaters so they are probably always worth taking a shot with. I think just like they just have to find a way to change gears to what the next set of films will be to keep it fresh. Before they just relied on the TV shows transferring to films which worked out pretty well. Kelvin was the first set of movies that were directly film related although it obviously used known TV characters to make them. The question will they do after these films? They can always play it safe and reboot TOS or TNG again but they may also roll the dice do something different but chances are it will make money IF they don’t go too crazy on the budget like these films are now and they are just good films.

Under Sherry Lansing, Paramount had perfected a Brooksian THE PRODUCERS film financing scheme that quaranteed Par would turn a profit even with BO bombs. NEMESIS didn’t lose her 1 red copper cent.

Wow interesting! I did not know that. Paramount has certainly seen better days compared to today.

I’m definitely more excited for TV Trek than the JJ-produced movies. The first one was great. I’d definitely watch another one with this cast, but I also wouldn’t mind if they went in a different direction with new people.

I think a lot of people feel as you do MattR!

It’s really hard get yourself psyched up for these movies which seem to take forever to get made and most of the fanbase seem pretty divided on them now. There was actually a time people were suggesting the Kelvin Universe should replace the prime universe entirely and now people don’t even want the Romulus explosion as canon in the Picard show. How quickly things change.

I like these movies but the TV shows is where my heart is at as well, at least the past shows. I think Paramount needs to rethink their movie strategy and come up with something new and original. No TNG reboot or anything. It could stay in the Kelvin universe, even the 23rd century but maybe create new characters with decent known actors to build it on. Something more original.

I really think a feature film needs Kirk or perhaps Picard to fly. TV… They have the wiggle room to try something more daring. Which is another reason I feel like Trek is better on TV than in a feature.

You definitely could be right, it would just be nice for them to take a chance and do something new with it on the big screen. But yes more than likely it will probably be Kirk or Picard related for the time being or until they get another hit show big enough to put on screen.

I think a lot of people feel the same way about Star Wars too, that it can only work with the Skywalker family or at least OT related but I’m glad Lucasfilm is going to roll the dice and present new characters and situations outside those characters in the future. I would just love to see Trek do the same thing but I guess the fanbase isn’t strong enough to take that kind of chance in the films.

beyond disappointed me a bit but I’m still more excited about the movies than the tv series that I see more as a plus spin off than anything else.

the two cannot get compared though, especially when you are too focused on an US audience of existing trek fans only while those in charge really care about a wider audience than that. I think having feature movies is different and bigger than having series that only a small part of the audience is able to access to or is willing to (pay to watch them). Discovery is well received for the most part and has more fans than haters, but I don’t honestly think it does have an audience that is as big as that of the movies, nor as diverse and less niche.
The problem with everything trek is that it constantly fails in what other franchises succeed: making the general audience interested too, not just the old trek fans (whose most vocal side online only creates bad publicity because everything they do is complaining and spreading negativity)
The movies at least managed to make non-trek fans a bit interested too, but the series seem to still be something only old fans know about and are interested.

I definitely agree the Discovery audience is probably tiny! At least in America. Outside of it’s obviously a lot bigger being on Netflix but it’s hard to say how big it is country to country since Netflix hasn’t released any numbers but I suspect it’s doing well enough at least.

Don’t get me wrong, it will always be nice to have films too. I’m a greedy Trek fan, I want it all lol. But I think the Kelvin films are most likely coming to an end if they can’t find a way to get them more hype or the films can’t be done for less since they need a large set of people to even succeed and that’s becoming the issue. That and because Paramount decided to make them tentpole films and it’s obvious as much as we love Trek they just can’t compete on a level like Marvel, Transformers or Star Wars can and yet they are spending literally the same amount of money as those. Some cases even higher.

Ant-Man and the Wasp is probably Marvel’s lowest performing franchise but it still managed to make $600 million with a $130 million budget. Paramount would kill for that kind of success with the Kelvin movies even with a higher budget. But I doubt it will ever happen.

As others said it’s probably better to come up with movies with a much lower budget. Whatever comes next after the Kelvin movies should be smaller base at least.

the thing is, there are people who are more likely to watch a feature movie that comes out once every few years, than following a series and thus watching episodes on the regular. The latter needs more commitment and it’s harder for a series to keep people interested for too long.
I used to not understand this but now I do because I find myself in a time where I’m a bit more.. lazy. I easily lose interest in tv-series because they need my attention and dedication more than waiting for a movie and just watch it. I also prefer to watch series when they get to a solid point, instead of watching them right when the first season is released, because I was burned before by series that were either canceled before they got a proper ending, or they were renewed for too many seasons and got a bad ending.

I think movies and the tv-series are very different things with different goals and different audiences. So back to the main point of this thread: it shouldn’t really be a matter of either tv trek or movie trek. We need both.
In a perfect world, though, Discovery would be linked to the most recent trek iteration that the general audience knows nowadays (the movies), and it would thus have better chances getting that audience on board instead of possibly alienating it a bit with its being apparently placed in the tos timeline but looking like the kelvin one.

Well I don’t disagree, we definitely could use both! I mean that’s what was so great about the late 80s through the 90s because you had both a TV show(s) running while you had a new movie to look forward to every few years. And when the TNG films started it was more fun because DS9 and Voyager could be connected to them. Usually not in a big way but felt more like a shared universe that the films and shows took place in the same time period. That’s when Trek just felt big and was everywhere.

And yeah I can understand it’s just easier to follow a movie instead of the 12 Trek shows AA probably plans to make in the next decade lol. That’s certainly how it is with MCU. But that franchise is BIG to the point there literally is 10 Marvel shows and 3 films a year. I’m a huge MCU fan but I literally can’t keep up with all those shows. I literally don’t have the time lol. But I watch all the films.

Sadly with the Kelvin movies, they just don’t bring in the money as Paramount expected and probably why its taking so long just to get another film the greenlight. I miss the days we got a Trek film every 2 years basically. So I would love to return to that but I think they have to come up with cheaper films with a more dedicated team to make that happen. Only then that can happen IMO. Maybe it will when the BR films are officially done or the companies merge together again.

Actually now I think about it I think that’s the other problem with the Kelvin films and that they may start to feel too disconnected from the new shows. When it was literally nothing but the Kelvin films that was fine.

But now with DIS, the Picard show and whatever is coming my guess is they are going to make the TV world feel more connected with the same people working on all these shows like the Berman years. But the Kelvin films will practically feel like an outlier being literally in another universe and with a separate studio making them.

It would be nice to have the films and shows connected again, even if that just means sharing the same canon. In a world where shared universes are bigger than ever it’s sad Star Trek is less connected today than it was 20 years ago.

Speaking for myself… As someone who thinks Trek works better on TV than it does on a movie screen… Based on the quality of the recent tv and movie productions I’d rather see a new movie than another season of STD or a new Picard show.

That’s so vague though in a sense. Anyone can say that but to execute that in today’s industry…I don’t know

McQ would be a great choice he can do story & science instead of endless FX blowouts. Paramount are clearly not going to pay Pine what he is due now so its in limbo or turnaround & not going to happen unless he budges. You can see both sides of the issue Pine was promised & has a contract, the studio feels its too much after Beyond under performed due to terrible marketing choices by the previous management regime (now all long gone).

I thought the first Abrams film was quite good, but the second and third were awful in my opinion. No story, no heart. Just big explosions, strange music choices, weird chases. There was nothing Star Trek about them. It all became rather ordinary. So I lost interest and now we have Star Trek back on TV, where it belongs, so I care even less about the movies.

My hope for a new Star Trek film is a movie on a ‘small’ budget, like 100 to 120 million, with more emphasis on story and characters and less on special effects and big explosions. Something like Arrival or Interstellar.

A fresh start with a new crew, new ship or no ship at all… To boldy go where no Star Trek movie has gone before in a long long time.

And stop making a movie about a villain!!!

Beyond was the closest anyone has ever gotten to capturing the feel of the original series.

‘it’s gone away from what the tenets of the series were about, which was kind of the hope and the promise and the science.’

got it in one.
not another cliched villain but a journey, exploration to a strange new world with problems and dilemmas to solve.

Instead of starting with a villain how about starting with a problem or a struggle? Maybe a villain would organically come from that or not. But it might feel a bit more Star Treky. Although, that seems to be NOT what Paramount wants.

Yes at the very least if they make another please don’t have it be another revenge story. I mean it’s like they can’t think out of the box even a little with these movies. It would even be nice if there was no villain at all but I doubt that will ever fly for these movies.

it seems like the mess with the two Chris is the biggest issue that put everything to pause and it’s really disappointing.
Actors are the least to know anything, but they got a director who was already meeting with some of the cast.

to be honest, I’m still more interested about the movies than the new series. I’m not really invested in the new characters yet or enough to care too much one way or another. But the feature movies are bigger and more mainstream.. it’s a different audience, and it’s characters I love and want to see more of.

Agreed, love the Kelvin crew, Discovery not so much, but it’s good to have ST back on the small screen

The Kelvin-movies have run it’s course. Beyond was a flop, Into Darkness nearly too and really, really dumb. They should stop that stuff now.

I do think IF they can get Pine back they will do one more at least but if that one bombs too then they are probably done.

And it WILL bomb. Just see the backlash at Disco.

The backlash at Disco?? The show is IMMENSELY popular.

Oh yes, keep telling yourself that. Or try to prove that.

It would be more accurate to say the show’s response has been mixed at best. “Immensely popular” is exaggeration at its finest.

“…Star Trek is kind of…it’s gone away from what the tenets of the series were about, which was kind of the hope and the promise and the science.”

Abso-effing-lutely!

If they cannot make the film for under 300 million dollars, or if Captain Kirk is not in the movie Paramount might as well cancel the series.

Or, Have the Enterprise disabled by some new foe, that puts Kirk into a comma, the way Han Solo was encased in carbonite, but for the whole movie; and bring Captain Robert April played by Tom Hanks on board to helm the Enterprise. Maybe bring Samuel L Jackson in as Commodore Matt Decker (yup I did that), spend the $300 million and see if the star power makes a difference in the worldwide box office draw.

I doudt that. The casual moviegoers Abrams wanted to attract have enough of “Trek light”. They will save money, if they stop that series now.

I actually agree with you that the casual movie goers has stopped caring about this series. They had them with the first two films but by the time Beyond rolled around, most of them stopped caring sadly.

And I think that’s why Paramount is really on the fence with another movie. They know if they can’t get the general audience back like the first two films did this movie is likely dead in the water like Beyond because it’s just NOT enough hardcore fans to make the movie successful enough, at least not on those budgets. That was the entire reason TOS and TNG films had conservative costs, they were only appealing to mostly long time fans. The Kelvin films were meant to break that streak and it did initially at least.

But now, its really up in the air and why I WOULDN’T blame them if they did cancel the next film. I don’t want them to, but I’m not the one losing another $100 million if it goes bust again.

cut the budget a bit but still try to deliver a alien world that will rival Pandora in ‘avatar’.

They really jacked up Trek. The reboot was good. Then Into Darkness took way too long to come out…not to mention screwing up Khan….and BEYOND…my favorite of the 3…was a little too late…not to mention…got treated like crap durning the 50th anniversary. Looking forward to the new picard series as well as Discovery’s return.