It’s been six weeks since Paramount announced they were moving forward with a fourth film set in the Kelvin Universe, which turned out to be a bit of a surprise to the cast. But over the last few weeks members of the cast have expressed excitement over the project, with the latest update coming from Captain Kirk himself, Chris Pine.
Happy to get back to work on Star Trek
In a new interview with IndieWire promoting his new movie, All the Old Knives, Chris Pine confirmed he didn’t know about the February Paramount Investor Day announcement in advance, nor was he aware of the current status of the project, saying simply “I don’t know.” However, there does seem to be some progress as the actor revealed he had met with the film’s director:
I met Matt Shakman, the director. He’s a super-cool guy, very smart, I like him a great deal.
Producer JJ Abrams tapped WandaVision’s Matt Shakman to direct the film last summer with a script being written by Lindsey Beer (Sierra Burgess Is a Loser) and Geneva Robertson-Dworet (Captain Marvel). More recently it has been reported the latest version of the script is being penned by Josh Friedman (Avatar 2) and Cameron Squires (WandaVision), based on the Beer/Robertson-Dworet draft.
Earlier this month Pine expressed his enthusiasm for reuniting with his costars for the first time since 2016’s Star Trek Beyond, but he was still waiting to see that script. And it appears he continues to wait, telling IndieWire:
I know there’s a script out there somewhere and I’m waiting to see it. Looking forward to reading it. I love the group. I love the team. I love the world. Happy to go to work.
An official green light has yet to be confirmed, but Paramount has set a release date of December 22, 2023, with a reported start for filming this fall. However, Karl Urban has revealed a complication as he set to film a new season of The Boys in Canada through the rest of the year.
Chris Pine as Captain James T. Kirk in Star Trek Beyond
Pine’s Oscar weekend looks
Pine’s red carpet look from early March was notable for a rather bushy beard, but the actor has since dialed it back. He showed off a more trimmed beard and dapper style at Elton John’s Oscar Party.
And the actor was definitely making a statement with his fashion choices at the Vanity Fair and Chanel parties.
Keep up with all the news on Star Trek 4 and upcoming Trek films at TrekMovie.com.
He’s turning into Jeff Bridges.
Someone call the Coens.
I was getting more latter day Brad Pitt vibes.
“I’m The Dude, So That’s What You Call Me. That Or, Uh His Dudeness, Or Uh Duder, Or El Duderino, If You’re Not Into The Whole Brevity Thing.”
On alert. Really hope this is finally moving forward. More positive news. :D
need to bring in Shatner to make the movie relevant for todays audiences
Not trying to be mean here, but is Shatner really relevant for ‘todays’ audiences?
If you were born the day Generations arrived, you’re nearly 30 years now (I feel so old lol). Even for younger Star Trek fans, they been watching it for a long time without Shatner. It’s great for older fans (and of course people who love his Kirk) but I think it’s proven for a long time now the franchise has been thriving fine without him. I don’t think he’s very relevant to the franchise at this point and of course I love Kirk, but I’m also an old fan.
All that said, it was short sighted not to include him in the last film when it was representing the 50th anniversary of the franchise. If there was a time to bring him back, that was it. But Paramount bungled that whole thing up to an amazing level.
The wouldnt need him to be relevant. However it would be cool to see him in a new Star Trek movie. I know one thing Paramount should recognize is that he would be amazing at marketing the movie. He alone could have done a better job then the studio did on Beyond.
Sure it would, but it would only matter to older fans, who is going to see the movie anyway if they liked the other Kelvin films. If you are a younger Trek fan (under 30) or never been into TOS specifically, then it won’t matter much. The guy is 90 years old and hasn’t played the character in nearly 3 decades now.
But that said, I don’t disagree with you and putting him in the last film would’ve done better than Beyond. Beyond was missing a marketing hook other than, ‘here is another Star Trek movie’. That was a big part of the problem. They included Shatner it would’ve gotten a lot more people to go see it in the theaters instead of just waiting for it at home. I don’t know how much better it would’ve did, but certainly better.
they had idris ‘luther’ alba but they covered him in latex, losing his cache as a worldwide tv star
I liked Alba in the Thor films and I guess I will always associate him with those films, i can not remember his character’s name but I sure wished that Marvel had not killed him or that they would bring him back by some trickery or fake death as they have other characters.
asgard and its people have a habit of dying and resurrecting in the comics.
and i think elba was seen on set for the latest ‘thor’ film…
Generations didn’t come out in 1992, it came out in 1994. You’d be 27 going on 28.
I didn’t say it did. I know it came out in 1994.
Tiger2 wrote “If you were born the day Generations arrived, you’re nearly 30 years now.” So your reply in no way negates this.
Correct you are — I read that wrong!
News Flash. Not all of us older fans were Shatner
or Kirk fans. More Mccoy and Spock myself. Always thought Shatner (and Kirk) were enough fans for themselves and didn’t
need any more.
Hey Tiger2, I may be wrong, but I interpreted the post as being “tongue-in-cheek”! I would be surprised to see Shatner brought back on either the TV or motion picture Trek projects, but as they say, never say never!
Oh sorry, I guess I was wrong… he apparently was being very serious!
Was that a joke? I hope so. A 90-year-old man would not make the movie relevant for today’s audience.
no joke, shatner is agruably still the biggest star of Trek (PStewart a close second now Nimoy is gone). Has 2.5m followers on twitter (how most of todays fame is measured. PStew has 3.5m but hes also Professor X and has obviously returned to Trek which has given his profile a boost), and just recently grabbed headlines worldwide for being the most famous (& oldest) person ever to go into space. Him in the new movie (obviously deaged abit via CG/DF) would create extra buzz obviously for hard core fans but also general audiences who’ve seen him in the odd TOS/movie and going into space
and Tiger2 yeh not including him in the 50th anniversary film was pretty ridiculous esp when nostalgia/bringing back original actors was at its height for movies due to SW:TFA coming out and all the buzz of Ford & Co returning (plus doing a time travel based plot for the anniversary made alot of sense in celebrating the past)
Number of Twitter followers is not a measure of Hollywood star power. If it was, you’d be seeing a lot more of Ellen Degeneres and Kevin Hart on the big screen, and nobody would want Brad Pitt or Meryl Streep in their movies
Well Hart is in alot of movies, Ellen is a (cancelled?) talkshow host so why would she be in films?. Brad and Meryl aren’t on twitter tmk. And yes studios do take note and base decisions on who to cast on SM popularity.Its kind of obvious they would
It would be interesting to do a time warp thing (like they did with Leonard Nimoy as ‘old Spock’) and have old Kirk interacting with young Kirk. At 90+, Wm Shatner’s not going to be alive that much longer. I’m sure Star Trek fans have seen the original series reruns as well as the movies the original series actors did in the late 70’s and 80’s.
I would really love to see one last Trek appearance by Shatner in a movie, but as you note he is 91 now. If they have no plans for him yet, it is probably too late to make any.
that would not be relevant to today’s audiences, only fans would love that to happen.
Shatner who?
Shatner is relevant for today’s audiences? We should bring in Pauly Shore then with that logic.
How is it that the main star of the movie has not even seen the script yet for a movie that is supposed to start filming imminently? This sounds like another Beyond disaster in the making where the freaking script is not even finished when they start filming.
This begs the question of why the Star Trek movie development process is so screwed up under JJ Abrams’ supervision. They have had more than six years to get this straightened out, yet it sounds like they are back in the same development hell, and it never gets better.
Abrams has been screwing up the development of Star Trek movies ever since The Motion Picture. Next thing you know, they’ll be releasing them without the special effects finished. This guy needs to be stuffed in a cannon and fired into the sun!
Abrams does good work sometimes and I wish him no ill-will. I really liked his first Trek movie, but for some reason under his guidance Trek movie development has been an endless mess. A lot of that may be the turmoil at Paramount also with its multiple management changes.
Maybe it is time to just take the Trek movies away from Abrams and give it to Noah Hawley, as they very nearly did, or someone new.
Please do not give them to Hawley. After finally seeing his attempt at making a movie(Lucy in the Sky), I do not want him anywhere near Star Trek. That was absolutely the worst movie that I have ever seen and I fully understand why it bombed at the box office.
I never seen it but yes the reviews for that movie are brutal lol. I just looked up the RT score for it and it’s at 21%. Wow!
I still at least want to see what his idea for the movie was, but yes maybe Paramount dodged another bullet there.
How was JJ Abrams involved with TMP?
He would have been about 13 at the time.
TMP was just about as screwed up as any of them, even w/o Abrams (and that’s coming from somebody who, as much as he hates Berman, thinks Abrams and his whole company of clowns were worse than Berman and Freiberger.)
On TMP, they finally signed Nimoy and held an announcement of the film press conference the very next day, but at that point, just a few months prior to shooting, the script didn’t even have Spock in it. They could have probably just written a whole fresh script w/o all the problems in the time they spent coaxing and trying to massage TMP into a shape it wasn’t ever really going to fit.
BEYOND, for all its problems, was at least somewhat free from Abrams’ influence, and it was probably wise to jettison the intended third Kelvin film in favor of a new story, even if the antagonist is a failure and the movie has a third act that just goes on and on and on. It’s the only film after TFF that actually felt right (at least on the first viewing) and engaged me emotionally (in ways other than the usual disappointment and rage.)
“Abrams has been screwing up the development of Star Trek movies ever since The Motion Picture.”
Wait… what?? How the heck has Abrams been screwing up Trek films since 1979? He was 13 years old. LOL
Abrams brought Trek back from the dead. God Bless him.
Abrams has his fingers in too many pies and puts too much focus on mystery boxes and not enough on completing projects. I don’t have high hopes for this movie.
Abrams also stabbed Paramount in the back by going off to do Star Wars while still under contract with them.
But it’s Paramount management that’s to blame for the bungling of Trek movie development as of late.
“Abrams also stabbed Paramount in the back”
Oh, puh-leeze.
Fair enough. He stabbed us in the back.
Have you been drinking?
You can pop out a script in less then a week. No big deal. The script will be there when the cameras roll. It’s film making not rocket science.
I still find it pretty hilarious he didn’t even know a film was even happening with his cast until they announced the thing at the Investor’s event. So that was true after all. I still don’t understand how that happens when you have been working on a script, lined up the producers, directors and writers and announced the opening date of the movie since last year? But the actors you need on screen isn’t told until the day it’s announced to the world.
And even though he hasn’t seen the script yet, which is still a little odd, has he not been told what the story is at all? I assume he knows the basics but it doesn’t seem like it. Why not tell your main star what the film is at least about since you are this far in? I’ll never understand Hollywood.
I really hope this all works out, but I still feel pretty cautious about it when the main star still seems in the dark. But it looks like they passed the main hurdle and he’s completely onboard. It looks like if nothing else they agreed to pay him what he asked for because he’s pretty positive about being in something he seems to know little to nothing about. I think he really wants to just play Kirk and be with this cast again more than anything.
It does seem crazy. I’m still optimistic though, I’m guessing that a lot of the conversations that the studio had prior to announcing this were with the cast representatives rather than the actors themselves. Pretty much all the principles have a willingness to return, their agents know there schedules and what they’re worth so maybe the cast don’t need to know too much until it gets to the script reading stage. Pine and Saldana who are clearly the biggest two stars in KU crew both seem to be onboard so presumably there’s no scheduling issue there. We know Karl Urban might have a problem but as much as the fans love him that’s not necessarily a big concern for the studio. Whether it’s giving him a smaller role or contriving a scenario similar to Scotty in Beyond in which he’s not on the ship I’m fairly confident that they’ll be able to work around his commitments and still have him involved. I’m not going to say that this will be released on its planned date as tentpole movies are regularly moved around for a variety of reasons but I do think that it will at least happen this time. Then again maybe this is just wishful thinking on my part and the studio really has announced a movie without speaking to anybody!
I agree with nearly all of that. Although I still have my reservations about it, I also said it looks like it will happen since everyone has said they want to do it. Even if they are not signed on yet, I have to think it’s a formality at this point. And Paramount just basically gave them a blank check (within reason) at this point anyway.
It just sounds like it will come down to whatever the script is and being able to align filming dates. Yes Urban said it may be a problem but I can’t imagine making the film without him, especially since he seems to be the biggest fan favorite for a lot of fans. I personally think Beyond is my favorite of the three because he was in it more. So I think they will work something out.
Or simply move the filming date because I still have a hard time believing this movie will even be ready by next December. It does feel like they are rushing head first to get it made when there are clearly a lot of big obstacles.
And I think the biggest reason it will get pushed is that its rumored Disney supposedly will keep the next Star Wars movie for December 2023. It’s no way they will keep Star Trek there if that happens. Its not an issue for the streaming shows to air at the same time but the films are wildly different obviously. But we’ll see since SW is having the same issues with their movies these days and most of those make a billion dollars lol.
He looks like Don Johnson!
That picture makes me think Pine was a few years too late in adopting this late 60s washed-up actor look … it’d have gone great in ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD. Not sure how it works in the real world, but it kind of strikes me as a manorexic version of Anson Mount, or Powers Boothe minus the swagger.
I hope the movie doesn’t call for Pine’s Kirk to get beaten up again. He’s always getting a beating in all the Kelvin movies. He’s supposed to be the star. No more I say, LOL!
At this stage, the movie is going to be pricey just go get all the crew back. Its been 13 years now since the Kelvin crew debut. Pine will surely get paid handsomely more than the $500K or so for the first one. Maybe even have script approval/producer credit, too.
I think it’s pretty clear he’s not getting script approval since he hasn’t been allowed to even look at it yet.
And I don’t think he cares that much anyway. All that matters is that they pay him. I don’t mean that in a negative way just that he seems to trust everyone involved. In fact I can’t think of a single time he’s been critical about any of the previous films. He seems to been happy with all of them and his role in them.
If he isn’t signed on yet, he gets script approval indirectly because he can just not agree to do it if he doesn’t like it.
He’s playing nice, talking about how much he likes the Trek crew, but you will notice that he doesn’t actually confirm he’s in. His repeated “I haven’t seen a script” could also mean he want’s Paramount to put something concrete on the table.
That’s the question, is he ALREADY signed on? It’s just weird because he talks as if it’s already a done deal and he’ll be on the set once they let him know but as you said he keeps going on about not reading the script yet.
I think me and you talked about this before in a previous thread so you could be right. It just goes to the point NONE of this is a done deal at all if true. I’m not trying to be cynical but after the last time….
I think he will do it at this point though. He may ask for a few changes to the story but since they ALREADY announced both a filming and premiere date, it’s no way they are going to redo the whole thing either if it delays things too much. That’s exactly why I don’t think he has script approval because A. the clock is already ticking and B. they been writing the movie for months before they informed the main star he was even in the movie lol. That’s still totally bonkers to me but I guess it’s common maybe.
But seem like he would’ve been involved at the very beginning when they were working on the first draft. So I don’t think he’s going to get much clout and Pine is not Tom Cruise. No one writes a Mission Impossible movie and tell him a year later if he’s even in it or not. But you’re also right, if he’s not signed on he can still just agree not to do it. I just go back to my first feeling and that he doesn’t really care what the story is per se since I never heard him balking at any of the previous stories like Shater and Stewart did when they were doing the films; just maybe how his character is portrayed more than anything.
Until we get a clear confirmation from the actors that they are actually in and there’s a schedule I guess I’m staying skeptical. And by clear confirmation I don’t mean a non-committal “I love these people”.
I’m right there with you! Again, I think everyone WANTS to make the film, so that’s a great sign. Paramount seems very serious at this point but anything can still happen, especially before everyone is signed on. I remain very cautious until that happens, but it’s the most positive I been about it since 2018. Still crazy it’s been almost four years.
If you remember in one interview recently Pine said he did not trust anyone.
Given what happened the last time, I can’t blame him. ;)
But this is supposedly a new team of people and if they really want this movie to happen since they already announced it multiple times, they will probably do whatever it takes to get him on board.
Let Pine’s good sense be a lesson for any bearded celebrity or non-celebrity — don’t dye your beard, it’ll make you look like Billy Mays.
That bottom photo makes him look like he’s playing TMP Bones. Which I am all for.
Pine got him $5M then which means Quinto got his as well so that’s already $20-30M from the budget gone when you throw the other actors salaries into the mix. Hope they have enough left to make the actual movie!
should have about another 100m. should be ok
Beyond cost $185M that was why a sequel took so long it cost too much they rolled Orci’s aborted Trek movie startup costs into the Beyond budget…now they will roll the time travel with 2 kirks costs into ST4…..
Paul, maybe you are a ‘different’ Paul from the usual poster here, but aren’t you the one who has been adamant that they were going to use the Kelvin cast? And your reasoning was (which I still disagree with) that it would be cheaper to use them versus using a new cast.
But now you’re starting to sound like me lol. That was a big reason why I was convinced they moved on from the Kelvin cast because they didn’t seem like they wanted to pay the crazy salary fees from before and make a cheaper film. But clearly I was dead wrong because they basically gave them a blank check to come back considering they announced a movie and writing a script without signing any of them on first.
But it’s funny you seem skeptical about it now considering you been so adamant another film will happen with them. I think maybe they will find other ways to lower the budget like less CGI and big explosions every twenty minutes to compensate, which shouldn’t be THAT hard if you don’t throw in ridiculous action scenes for forty straight minutes.
My only other guess is that they are willing to roll the dice on a big budget film because they think enough people will want to watch it on Paramount+ and it will earn it’s money back that way if it doesn’t do that well in the BO.
I’m pretty convinced this is more about Paramount+ than it is making a film for the theater. That almost seem like the second priority IMO, especially when you look at the Kelvin films previous BO. The next movie shouldn’t be a dollar over $130 million tops and I have a feeling it’s going to be much higher than that now.
Why is Abram still involved though?
Bad Robot is his production company. I suspect they have an exclusive agreement to make this version of the film franchise.
Looks like Brad Pitt in once upon a time in Hollywood
“Chris Pine Has Met With ‘Star Trek 4’ Director And Happy To Get To Work… But Still Waiting For Script”Then get the rejected scripts!
And so the headline changes. All these years it was kinda like “Happy with the script…But Still Waiting to get work.”What does Bob Orci say?
Can’t call the kelvin movies high schoolers in space now ..actors in their 30s and 40s, hopefully a more mature movie to go with it!
Doubtful, if Abrams is involved. Although WandaVision was quite good so that’s encouraging. These movies have just been so mishandled that I’m not interested anymore. Meanwhile Paramount+ is doing some very interesting things with Star Trek, and yet we have the also-ran fanboy wannabe JJ Abrams still at the helm here.
They aren’t far off the ages of the original cast when they started the movies in late 1970s.
I’m numb on the idea of another movie in the kelvin series. I’m not a fan of them. I don’t hate them, but definitely don’t love them either. I don’t think I’d be totally against it if they went ahead with another one, as so much time has past that the next movie is going to be a lot different in terms of how the actors look, how they will portray older characters etc since 2016.
Personally I don’t think its going to happen. Beyond didn’t do well. In my opinion it wasn’t a very good movie either. The effects looked great I guess, though it’s debatable. The actual movie was about on a par with Insurrection but I far prefer Insurrection because I’m already a fan of TNG whereas the kelvin cast really never clicked for me from the start so it made the experience for me just a bit boring I guess.
I’m a Rihanna fan so her track – Sledgehammer – was cool, so Beyond does have something I love after-all… so there’s that!
They wont scuttle ST XIV again as it’d be like the 5th time. Fans would be ready to go all Will Smith on Paramount!
and yeah Beyond was a big disappointment (especially after being teased with Shatner and the timelines plot which would’ve been a major event for the anniversary like Dr Who’s 50th). as you say it was similar to Insurrection. a subpar 2part episode on the big screen. Paramount obviously *had* to get something out in time for the 50th after ditching the Orci ST3 for being ‘too star trek’ (presumably the return of Shatner Kirk and seeking to alter the timeline would’ve been ‘too trekkie’ for audiences) and Pegg was put in the position where he was like the last hope to get it out for then (no doubt with some stipulations like destroy the enterprise, plenty of action like Guardians/F&F, make it feel like a big ep of star trek to make the fans happy)
He looks just like his dad on the show Chips except with a beard.
A lot of Getty images. How professional. Why not alamy, too?
Chris Pine just gave a great in-depth interview for Deadline where he talks about everything in his career including Star Trek. He strongly implies that Paramount has always been chasing the “billion dollar” gate with Trek, like the Marvel films, and how that is a mistake. Pine thinks they should spend less on the budget for the film, making a story that will appeal to the core fan base “rabid” for Star Trek. Make a film with a good enough story about the characters and that will make it a solid hit. He says if they then make “half a billion” at the box office, everyone should be happy.