In addition to the update on the future of Trek TV, today also brings some news about Star Trek on the big screen. Not to be confused with the Section 31 streaming movie (or potential future Paramount+ movies), Paramount Pictures appears to be closing in on a plan for the Star Trek feature films, with 3 different movies reportedly in development.
New writer for Star Trek 4
The Variety cover story and a follow-up article include tidbits on Star Trek feature films. According to the trade, the “Star Trek 4” sequel to 2016’s Star Trek Beyond has brought in another screenwriter. The latest scribe to take on the long-gestating project is Steve Yockey who has primarily worked in TV writing for shows like Supernatural and Doom Patrol, and more recently creating and showrunnering Max’s The Flight Attendant and the upcoming Netflix Sandman-spinoff series Dead Boy Detectives.
Paramount still sees this movie as the final film for the Kelvin crew of Chris Pine (Kirk), Zachary Quinto (Spock), Zoe Saldaña (Uhura), Karl Urban (Dr. McCoy), John Cho (Sulu) and Simon Pegg (Scotty). Members of the cast have consistently indicated they are eager to do another film if they can align their busy schedules, but “creative differences” and “script issues” have reportedly kept the film from getting off the ground.
No details are available regarding the story for this film which has gone through a number of iterations since Paramount first envisioned a sequel to Beyond in 2016. Paramount had put the movie on the release calendar for Christmas 2023 but director Matt Shakman (WandaVision) exited the project in the summer of 2022 months before filming was set to start, moving Star Trek 4 back to the development queue. Shakman was working on a script written by Josh Friedman (Avatar 2) and Cameron Squires (WandaVision), based on an earlier draft from Lindsey Beer (Pet Semetary: Bloodlines) and Geneva Robertson-Dworet (Captain Marvel). According to Variety, Yockey is writing a “new draft,” indicating the film is still at least partially based on those previous drafts.
Simon Pegg as Scotty, Sofia Boutella as Jaylah and Chris Pine as Kirk in Star Trek Beyond (Paramount Pictures)
“Origin story” movie update
In January it was reported Paramount was developing a separate Star Trek movie to be directed by Toby Haynes (Andor and Black Mirror “USS Callister”) from a script from Seth Grahame-Smith (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter). At the time it was reported the movie “expands on the Star Trek universe” and will be “an origin story that takes place decades before” the 2009 Star Trek movie. Today’s Variety article added a bit more clarity, saying this movie will “serve as an origin story of sorts for the main timeline of the entire franchise.” This indicates a movie is set in the Prime Timeline, before the Kelvin attack that split off to make the movie franchise timeline used in the last 3 feature films.
Variety is also reporting that this origin story is “further along” than the current status of Star Trek 4, which makes sense because it already has a director. This Haynes-directed Star Trek movie is reportedly “on track to start preproduction by the end of the year,” according to studio insiders. In theory, that could get a Star Trek movie into theaters by 2026, the 60th anniversary year of the franchise.
The Variety cover story points out that the Star Trek film franchise has failed to break past the $500 million box office barrier and so the studio is now “focused on rightsizing the budgets to fit within the clear box office ceiling” for Star Trek feature films, which is a smart move. The franchise has seen this kind of adjustment throughout its history, most famously after Star Trek: The Motion Picture in 1979 failed to hit Star Wars box office levels the studio cut the budgets for subsequent Trek movies — which became solid earners for the studio through the ’80s and ’90s.
Oh, and there’s another Trek movie
Back in 2021, it was reported that former Star Trek: Discovery and Fear the Walking Dead writer Kalinda Vasquez had been tapped to write a Star Trek movie based on an “original movie that she hatched.” There haven’t really been any updates on the project since, and with so many failed attempts to make a Star Trek movie, it had been assumed it had been added to the discard pile. However, today Variety reported that the Vasquez Trek film “remains in development.” So, there’s that.
Could it be that Paramount will finally catch up with Star Wars, Marvel, and DC and start putting out a variety of Star Trek feature films over the next decade? Could they finally have the right mix of budget and box office expectations? Have they found the creative and production teams to make this all happen? For now, let’s go with a solid: maybe.
Find more news and analysis on upcoming Star Trek feature films.
Great, an origin story. That’s exactly what the doctor ordered. /s
Between Enterprise, the existing Kelvin movies, the first two seasons of Discovery, several of the Short Treks, and SNW, one might think Star Trek already had a sufficiently rich assortment of prequels and origin stories, but apparently we need not just one but a *couple* more, just to make sure we have it all down. Who knew?
Exactly. We already have 3 shows and JJ verse. It’s a been covered. Do we really need anymore prequels?
And nice to see you BTW. 😊
Nice to see you, too!
👍
Enterprise wasn’t an origin story? Technically, First Contact was an origin story. Right? 2063 isn’t that far off….
Wait hold up this is hilarious, so now there are THREE movies?? 😂😂😂
And one of the was also from several years ago? Bro this is just too much. These clowns keep making all these announcements but yet can’t get beyond a script for 8 years now.
Paramount stop announcing all these. movies until you can actually get one in production first.
Make something first and then I’ll believe it. It’s amazing though they suddenly have all these movie plans for a studio that’s being sold off lol.
I’m surprised they are even still trying with JJ verse. Pine will probably be fifty by the time it happens.
“I’m surprised they are even still trying with JJ verse. Pine will probably be fifty by the time it happens.”
Yep a TOS-MOVIE era as a final end
I’d be up for another new take on the monster maroons or by this time it’d still be the disco (small d) uniforms, Karl Urban with a huge beard and medallion, etc…
Plus S31. Suddenly we’re up to our collective @$$ in Trek movies.
There was an entirely different 3 movies in production just a few years ago (Hemsworth ST4, Tarantino Trek, Hawley Trek) now there’s an entirely new 3 films in production!
Good point!
OMG that’s even more hilarious! 😂
Like seriously what is wrong with this studio???? I bet you in a week they are going to announce Tom Cruise is the new star of the movie before anyone bothers to ask him first.
LOL you can’t put it past them at this point.
Wow… just wow.
Aren’t three imaginary movies better than just one imaginary movie though? Heck, let’s make it seventeen imaginary movies. Paramount can schedule imaginary Trek movies through 2050.
Well, in Trek lore humanities first FTL flight is only 39 years away. Maybe one if these movies is a documentary….
3 imaginary movies is better than the previous 3 action dumbed down Star Trek movies.
I remember movies and projects coming up the last time acquisitions and mergers were happening (most notably JJ’s announcement which took the Kelvin cast by surprise.) It’s funny how that seems to have coincided with each other again 🤭
Yeah great point.
I think after that debacle I finally just stopped caring about any of it. It was clear it was only for PR/stock purposes and you really have to question if this is the same situation again.
I don’t trust these people at all anymore. Paramount has turned it into a shit show for 8 years now.
It’s a disgrace.
Kinda like watching a hamster run on a wheel. Or herding cats.
It’s hilarious bro. Like why do they keep doing this to themselves?
And us?
Well, we do keep on clicking the bait, don’t we….
Franchise origin story?? I mean in the world of Trek our real life NASA and such is the origin story. The furthest back that Trek deviates from IRL is the eugenics wars which has now been reconned to 2024 or later. Past that there is the Phoenix warp flight. In both cases we have already had those stories. So I am very curious what they are thinking,
The origin story worries me. I mean, how much earlier can they go before Enterprise and have it still be recognizable as Star Trek?
If it does take place before Enterprise, then I hope this isn’t their way of rebooting the entire franchise.
I was thinking the timeline between the Enterprise tv show and George Kirk’s Kelvin’s might be a good way to go. It would allow them to explore the early days of the Federation. Not sure about the mass appeal of it though. Then again if the budget is small enough it may not matter.
I wonder what concept they could come up with to generate mass appeal during that time period. Romulan war perhaps?
Most origin stories seem to be complete reboots to clear the way for a new vision and creative interpretation. I hope this will not be the case.
I don’t want Star Trek to become like comic book characters and get a new origin story every decade.
the RTomulan war would be tough (if they stick to canon) because no human had ever seen a Romulan (that they know about)
You could do something that included a side plot a la HELL IN THE PACIFIC or ENEMY MINE, where a rom and fed — the latter probably an officer on the main hero ship in the film — are stranded together and eventually die, but in so doing accomplish something (possibly against an opponent who actually rigged the whole war, a la SPECTRE in the early Bond films) that either paves the way for the future or at least hints at what the future might bring, given a certain level of understanding on both sides (shoot, just finding their bodies together in a position indicating they fell while defending a position as a team 120 years later could be a revelation to Kirk-era folk.) Also, a human Fed who has a lot of old fashioned beliefs, like The Devil, could be worth some laughs when seeing the ears on one of these guys.
That’s true that could totally work. Just please do it well!
“the RTomulan war would be tough (if they stick to canon) because no human had ever seen a Romulan (that they know about)”
Yes if they stuck to canon…
And Kirk’s Enterprise was originally the first group to run into the Gorn.
They were also the first to discover the Mirror universe.
First Contact with Klingons originally started a decade long war with them.
Starfleet wasn’t aware of the Borg until the 24th century.
Khan was originally born in the 20th century.
I could go and on lol. In other words don’t bet on it. They are just going to change whatever they want.
And of course we already know Pile and La’an knows what they look like now lol. Why they haven’t gone to Starfleet yet with this news is beyond me? And before someone says but the Temporal Prime Directive take note when baby Khan was born again.
Star Trek has done so much time whiney stuff or just plain ignored canon nothing really matters anymore. Just say an alien unicorn created the Temporal Cold War and you can excuse anything.
I totally get what you are saying my friend. But a lot of those examples are explained away. The Borg for example were always on their way to Earth. IMHO Q in actuality gave Picard a warning they were coming. When watching the season 2 ep of Enterprise with the Borg, they said they sent a message to the delta quadrant but it wouldn’t reach till the 24th century. Also, it explained why the Hansons knew about the Borg before the Enterprise encountered them. There are of course several examples of TPTB messing up canon but my head canon is pretty strong HAHAHAHAHA
But that’s what I mean it will probably just be explained through more time travel stuff or that they will have the war but Section 31 will decide they have to classify their appearance for reasons.
I’m not saying it will be good lol but if they do make a Romulan war story they are going to get around it.
We know season 5 of Enterprise was supposed to set up the Romulan War. Manny Coto really cared about canon and while we didn’t see humans see Romulans in season 4 we did see a Vulcan meet one which of course was supposed to be secret to them too.My guess is Archer and the NX-01 crew would’ve saw them too at some point.
But you could be right and it won’t be at all.
Yup, exactly. Canon basically doesn’t exist anymore. For me, the entire franchise is rapidly becoming a joke. It’s amazing these ‘producers’ are actually being paid to come up with this nonsense.
The thing is tho that they said this takes place in the prime universe not the Kelvin universe. I suppose in the prime universe George Kirk could still have served on the Kelvin but he didn’t die because he survived long enough to see JHim become captain of the Enterprise.
Oh gosh if they reboot I will totally freak out!!!
Not sure if that is a good or bad freakout, but I’m hoping that my speculation ends up being way off the mark. I want to be proven wrong. LOL
Ditto hahaha
Enterprise took place entirely in Riker’s holodeck fantasy world. Where do you think that gel came from?
Why do you keep trolling???
What do you get out of it exactly?
Dude you’re just a waste of space. You’re generally harmless but stop baitimg people like a 7 year old.
Got up one the wrong side of the bed this morning, didn’t you. 🃏
Stop trolling.
The only person I see trolling is you. Be Better.
That was just more troll bait and you know it. You don’t actually believe that it’s just to get a rise out of people.
Stop trolling.
Be Better!
Stop trolling.
The Treksperts podcast indicated that it takes place in the First Contact era.
Oh… That’s certainly earlier than I expected.
I wonder how many movies they plan on making in that era.
I consider For All Mankind to be the real Star Trek prequel.
You know what I’m thinking? Tomorrow is Yesterday – Shaun Christopher, son of John Christopher and commander of the first Saturn mission. That seems to me as interesting and plausible an “origin story” for Trek as any, since it’s a reference to one of the earliest episodes connecting the past to the future. It’s near enough in time to be relatable space drama, but still in the future from our perspective (although John Christopher being from the 60s seems pretty unrealistic as the father of a Saturn mission commander at this point). Or alternatively, in the same vein, the Terra Nova mission from Enterprise, the first off world Earth colony. That one would definitely have more of that swashbuckling frontier attitude of TOS.
Oh they’ll get a movie greenlit and then Paramount will be acquired and all productions not starring Tom Cruise will be halted until the new regime can evaluate projects.
What worries me most about Seth Grahame-Smith writing the origin film is that he scripted the travesties that were the 2012 Dark Shadows movie and the 2015 Fantastic 4 movie, and he cowrote the recent Flash film. This is not a guy with a good track record for writing in other people’s sandboxes, as he doesn’t seem to have respect for source material. Seth is a nice guy (I met him last year and he was very friendly), but that doesn’t make him a good writer. His writing credits are not impressive to date, which makes me wonder why Paramount would entrust Star Trek to him after all the problems it has already faced with these movies.
Hey just remember this…the first director they wanted for Star Trek 4 about 50 years ago went on to direct Madam Webb. 😂
So it could be worse
And don’t worry Madam Webb 2 probably has a better chance of happening than this movie lol.
HAHA right? IRL Dakota Johnson alone could ensure a sequel but maybe even more a reboot.
Is the direction to blame for MADAM WEBB? Are you saying it had a good script and was undone by the filmmaking? Just wondering, as while I haven’t like everything Clarkson directs, I did like a lot of her work, especially the UK stuff.
Oh no some of the directing was truly awful too though.
Screen Junkies just released their Honest Trailer on the movie and pointed out all the bad shots and bad acting in it.
Yes the script is probably what killed the movie overall but the directing did it no favors either.
I actually didn’t hate the flash film. If anything that movie died because a). Ezra Miller and b) it came out after we all know the DCEU is dead.
Agreed. Flash really isn’t a bad movie. Dark Shadows and Fantastic Four 2015 were, though.
Yep it was just a victim of its larger circumstances.
Yeah I really liked Flash. I thought it was very creative and fun.
And having Michael Keaton back? How can anyone not love that!
Yep Keaton was awesome! Just like the TNG actors on Picard he slipped back into the role with ease.
Actually I should watch that movie again. I only seen it once so far.
I liked The Flash movie, but it had the disadvantage of being the umpteenth multiverse movie instead of the first one like they had planned a decade ago.
Yeah which is really sad BvS screwed up everything.
Star Trek: The Final Voyage , 10years from events of Beyond, nearly promoted Admiral Kirk is shocked to learn Khan has escaped and resurgeried his own face! (now played by Javier Bardem), meanwhile Carol Marcus (Alice Eve) is putting finishing touches to project Genesis, that the Klingons are planning to steal headed by Captain Kruge (Jason Momoa) On the Enterprise Lt Saavik (Dua Lipa) joins the crew as they are ordered to track down Khan who has hijacked the federation ship Excelsior.. But Khan isn’t on a mission of revenge, rather he’s after a fabled long lost timeline altering device that could potentially revert the Kelvin timeline (that he considers an abomination) back to the Primeverse .. Only with the help of Shatner Kirk who has somehow returned can Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise A save the universe from armageddon!
I like it! It’ll be BIG BIG BIG!!!
I went as BIG! as possible!, remake of Trek II & III with some of Orci’s ST3, plus I’m imagining the epic climax would be like a redo of the end of Yesterdays Enterprise with deaged 1990s Shatner alone on the bridge of the original movie Enterprise saving the JJprise from the onslaught of the Klingons/Khan as it heads into the kelvin rift to reset the timeline so the kelvinverse endures (which involves something to do with Nero & the USS Kelvin – Bana & Hemsworth cameos!)
I’m not sure I left anything out .. Maybe the whale probe could show up? (no too early), Vger? with some borg connections? (no thats too much), maybe some TNG? (but they have their own thing going good now, so no need to bring them in, ok maybe Dorn can play his grandfather again lol)
Wouldn’t touch Khan, but another TOS style aged movie and the end of the Kelvin crew.
and up goes the above the line costs….
I’m thinking 150m max. lol
The sad truth is, I’d probably go ahead and pay to see that. I’m not proud.
Isn’t Star Trek First Contact the origin story of Star Trek? Zephram Cochrane even spoke the words “Star Trek” to cap it all off.
That’s what I was thinking too. The only thing they could really do before Cochran is the Eugenics wars,
Wow, 5 writers over 7 years.
Everyone always brings up Nicholas Meyer, but you’ve gotta admit that man is a gifted machine for Trek. He finished his first draft of his half of “The Voyager Home” in under 2 weeks, and his polish of “The Wrath of Khan” in the same amount of time. Even “The Undiscovered Country” took less than 6 months even with the studio and every actor at the height of their clout demanding changes.
But while Meyer solved countless problems on TWOK (and probably created a few on TVH with his casual approach to things temporal), he didn’t really fix TUC on paper at all. It’s still very scatter-shot, mixing pathos and real drama in a shaky way with humor and the occasional WTF wrong turn.
Once I got over the initial disappointment of seeing it in the theatre, I eventually made peace enough to be okay with the movie and rewatch it at least a quarter as often as TMP, TWOK or TFF, but script-wise it seems at least as flawed as TFF, just often lacking that film’s heart.
Love TUC, very lucky to have it.
Just watched it again the other day, to honor Wm. Shatner’s birthday.
Have to admit that I’m pretty surprised at the extent of your criticism. Tonally, I’m with Roddenberry in that much of TUC is way off the mark as Trek. But as pure cinema, I think it’s easily the best of the feature films. The zero-gee assassination, Klingon courtroom, and space battle over Narendra III are for my money really well-executed set pieces, more than worth the price of admission on their own.
Spock’s pride and Kirk’s prejudice work in the context of the film but always seemed way off for a project wrapping up the first quarter century with these guys. With more subtlety, I might have bought into some of this, and I’ve made uncomfortable peace with it but won’t ever love it as it squandered so much potential in favor of safe/routine. If you want we can discuss in detail but I’m on break and have to go back to work now.
Yeah i hate that they made the crew racists in VI,i’m sure Roddenberry must have been delighted by the story. It works barely, because Kirk overcomes his prejudice and realizes he was wrong.
I am pretty sure I mentioned this here before, but I honestly think more of a comedy of manners approach would have addressed the fed/kling aspect in this. Not an actual comedy, but something where after Kronos-1 is attacked, its crew and that of the Enterprise have to work together closely to get the ship and chancellor to the conference — which would be held on Earth. You’d get a chance to see genuine surprise at social moires on both sides, and hints of future understanding, though Kirk remains a question mark for the Klingons. They have to fight through a significant aspect of a rebellious insurrectionist Starfleet (and others) to get there, and ultimately, after evacuating his crew, Kirk crashes the E into spacedock — stronghold for Cartwright’s bunch — to destroy the bulk of the enemy while permitting the Kronos to reach its destination.
Alternately, you could do it with the whole bridge crew staying to do this too (you could even echo Kirk’s ERRAND OF MERCY line about how much Starfleet has invested in them and how it is time for a return on that investment, and I say to hell with the no-money line of TVH), but I really always liked the ‘die alone’ aspect of TFF and this would have paid it off spectacularly while allowing Kirk to do on the bridge instead of beneath one.
And hasn’t been heard from since…
Based on dsc, heard but no listened to is my best guess.
He created a successful show that only ended 5 years ago and has worked steadily as a respected screenwriter for the last 40+ years, but the point is that he was a great and efficient fit for Trek. As it hires writer #5, no other film has had this much turmoil getting a script together that Paramount and co. could agree on, and that’s saying something.
What show did Meyer create?
Development Hell is other Trek movies.
Umm isn’t Star Trek First Contact the “origin story of the franchise ” The creator of Warp Drive itself and he utters the words “Star Trek” . Can’t get more “origin story” than that.
I’m going to pass. I don’t watch Star Trek prequels.
Same. I don’t care about the insipid reboots or more tired prequel. After Enterprise they should’ve stopped there and made everything else post Nemesis.
Most fans are tired of going backwards. This fan certainly is.
This fan as well.
I’m with you. Now it seems TPTB are devoted to ‘Boldly Going Backwards.’
Where do you draw the line on that? Technically everything is a prequel to the 32nd century timeline now, if you consider Discovery to be canon.
That’s not quite the same thing though. Most prequels like ENT, DIS and SNW are either telling certain parts of known but unseen canon or building up to a fixed point in time like the birth of the Federation or when Kirk takes over as Captain of the Enterprise. Look at all three of those shows and they all had storylines that we know will either influence the TOS era like the Gorn, Klingon War, Mirror universe etc or give more context to how things came to be later like the Augment Klingons, how Kirk and Spock became friends, the importance of Talos IV and so on.
Everything post Nemesis is not doing any of those things. The Burn is 800 years away. It has no bearing or influence on any of the current shows. Those shows aren’t operating as prequels because there isn’t any ground work laid by Discovery to follow unlike all the pre-TOS shows.
I would have watched a well acted and directed Ceti Alpha V. But i agree in that its not a show/movie that needed to be made.
Unless they find a way to put Archer or T’Pol in the movie I don’t care.
Why keep going back to the past again and again? Give us something exciting and new. Go to the 26th or 27th century with new characters. Maybe the Federation made it to a new galaxy. That would be fun.
It makes no sense. The two things fans seem to care the least about these days is more JJ verse and prequels and they are doing both. 😂 🙄
I understand some fans want these things but I don’t think enough to build any real excitement or momentum. I know the prequel is for ‘new fans’ but good luck with that.
A 26th century movie with new characters in a new galaxy, yeah sign me up.
I just love how everyone keep rolling their eyes over this constant nonsense announcements lol.
Alas, nobody but Trek purists will be lining up to watch a Trek film about Archer and T’Pol. Like it or not, Enterprise was Trek’s first big flop there’s not getting around that.
i fully agree with the rest though. I’m fed up of Trek looking backwards. Do something new, bold and fresh.
Only Trek purist cares about any prequels.. Which is why I think it’s a ridiculous thing to do.
Yeah….
That’s always been the problem with prequels, you usually have to already be invested in the universe to care. They are made for devoted fans in mind more than anything.
I see Star Trek is pulling out a Filipino (don’t worry I should know) work ethic lately, all grandiose announcements with no visible results.
Watching this movie-plans fall thru time and again is like our MRF procurement saga, just focus on one project and get on with it.
They should just do the Kelvin Beyond sequel forget about another prequel for now see how well a Beyond sequel does then make another or then go in a different direction. I just do not see any mainstream interest in a non Kelvin cast theatrical release! Its throwing bad money after good at this stage the theatrical landscape has shifted a lot since 2016……
Because clearly the Kelvin movie is probably just too expensive and since the last one failed they are probably trying to find a way to bring the budget down.
Dude you keep saying this and people give you the same answer.
If the movie probably could be made for cheaper and/or it was guaranteed to succeed it probably would been made back in 2018.
The fact it’s 6 years and 4 movie scripts later with still NO starting date anywhere in sight makes it very obvious.
I’m guessing the prequel movie will be made for around $130.million tops which Beyond should’ve been made for.
And that’s why it’s getting made first…in theory.
Because JJ verse has become a failure and they know the next one can fail.
I still don’t get why are they are even bothering anymore? The prequel is back in the prime universe and all the shows are back in the prime universe.
Just focus on that.
They obviously given up on that universe long ago but maybe they just want a Picard season 3 thing and just end it on a high note.
I still think it’s going to bomb because Trekkies moved on long ago.
Yeah I don’t get it either?
I mean if they plan to just keep making more of them and continue to build out the universe and these characters then that I understand.
But in this case it sounds like they already have other plans with their other movies and those sound like prime universe stories.
And this isn’t the TNG cast that has built up this large fanbase and nostalgia for the past 30 years. And people really wanted to take the stink out of Nemesis lol. So that made sense.
With the Kelvin movies there is really nothing to tie up story wise. Beyond wasn’t the greatest movie but it was solid enough. Just leave it as a trilogy and put your focus and money on this new stuff that is probably supposed to be a new franchise going forward if it makes enough money.
Especially when no one is really begging for these movies anymore. And they obviously know this since it’s the final one. A weird business decision IMO.
Maybe I will be proven wrong in the end but I really just think it’s just more PR BS to help beef up their movie slate to help sell their studio
Because beside what you said why wouldn’t that movie be made first? They been trying make it forever now and it’s bumped aside for another one they announced a month ago.
I’m really thinking it will never get made, just keep poking at it as long as they can and once they get a new buyer to sell to they can then decide to make it or cancel it.
Or maybe they are serious but just can’t come up with a good enough story.. but I don’t buy that either because you can write these movies plots on a paper napkin. It really shouldn’t be that difficult to come with something they like after 8 freaking years.
They are probably serious about the prequel movie because it’s much cheaper and not a huge risk like JJ verse with it’s Marvel size budgets but make less than Ant-man movies.
..continuing to poke it is a good note. Quite likely as long as they are “in development” there are contractual and rights issues they can keep at bay, until, as you say a sale.
I definitely agree with both of you and think that’s a real possibility. It just doesn’t make a lot of sense; at least from the outside..
It’s just strange the prequel movie was just announced and either they already finished the script or they are still writing it. If it’s the latter it seems odd they are so confident to still make the movie and has already announced a starting date with a new director in tow without finishing it.
Meanwhile the Kelvin movie has been worked on for literally years now and still zero movement on a start date. They still haven’t found another director after the last one bounced all the way back in 2022.
I always say this, when a studio really wants to make a movie and feel confident in its success they go full steam ahead. Many movies like some of the recent Mission Impossible movies started shooting even without a full script. Those movies don’t languish for years waiting to find the perfect story. And any delays has always been scheduling issues with Cruise.
In fact that’s literally what happened with the last Kelvin movie with Beyond and they were writing the script as they were shooting it because Paramount was so desperate to get it out for the 50th anniversary. That’s all the proof you need.
So this idea that the Kelvin movie is stuck in development hell this long seems pretty ridiculous to me too.. Sure maybe they just don’t know where to take it but after all these years it’s still this much am issue is bizarre.
Personally I just think they feel the movie is still just too expensive and they just don’t have enough confidence it’s going to be successful enough..
But yes it could be even worse and they really have no real plans to actually make it and just stalling until the studio is sold and leave it up to the next buyers because they are obviously in no rush to make it.
It’s probably easier to develop a movie from scratch for a lower budget (the proposed origin story) than it is to scale back an existing concept (the many versions of movie #4 for Pine and Co) without sacrificing the spectacle that those movies are known for. I mean, from what we’ve heard Hawley’s attempt (which allegedly was also a smaller movie) made it into preproduction before being axed last-minute.
Yeah I still think that is the main issue for sure and why it’s much easier to do the prequel because it’s probably much lower costs.
But as I also said I don’t even understand why they are still wasting time trying to make another Kelvin movie if A. It’s this hard lol and B. They have decided to just go another way with the next movie and the future of the franchise in general. It sounds like the Kelvin universe is being put out to pasture after the next one.
But maybe there is no real push to even make one. Maybe it is just another project they can tell buyers it’s something they are working on and just another tactic.
Sure it may come off as ridiculous Internet fodder but these are the same geniuses who pretended they were making a movie for their big stockholder event which was nothing more than a press release and to get their stock up.
People are very cynical for many reasons lol.
And it does feel pretty ridiculous at this point they now have three active movie projects for a studio that hasn’t been able to get one made in nearly a decade.
Wrong post
You’re not wrong.
I agree as well.
i like all treks and supportive of all treks… but this is hilarious IMO. ive worked in hollywood for 20 years… i even worked on star trek in the early 00s. ive been in casting and production and agency work, writing… etc and i’ve never ever seen something like this. yes movies have trouble getting off the ground all the time and go through multiple rewrites but the number of attempts and tangents this has taken with hawley and tarantino and shankman and that madame web director (woof) and origin stories and original pandemic stories and part 4s and release dates and announcements and changing of the heads of paramount with no follow throughs and nothing actually happening is not normal. and JJs there the whole time saying “nothing to see here everything is great.”
of everything that’s ever been suggested… the tarantino one is the one i want to see. they should just hand him 100 million and say give this to a director you trust and make it.
oh and bring back Sofia Boutella
TMP had a troubled development and it seems to be something that happens to the ST movies when they hit a bump in the road at the box office.
“oh and bring back Sofia Boutella”
Yes big time!
Well i found Insurrection to be pretty awful, and Nemesis worse. TNG turned to crap after First Contact. I almost feel bad for Frakes over Insurrection, but its too much like a retread of a tv episode.
“oh and bring back Sofia Boutella” YESSS! She’s the only way I’ll watch another Trek movie! ;D
k
How about a movie called “KHAAAAAAN!” Make it like the Joker movies.
At this point I think Paramount truly believes that announcing a movies makes it happen. I don’t know why they keep doing this unless they have everything locked in and ready to roll the cameras. Make the announcements then. In terms of the “origins” movie I think that maybe something related to World War 3 as a kind of allegory for what is going on in the world right now and how so close to a World War 3 we actually are.
I think they do this just to pump up excitement in shareholders, which they need badly these days. I’ll be surprised if any of the announced Trek movies get made.
Fun! At this rate, we’ll all get a go at writing a Star Trek 4 draft.
Until filming starts, I’m not convinced any of these will happen. Especially with the possible pending sale of Paramount Global.
I’ll wait and see and hopefully be surprised, but having horror and supernatural directors all set to do the scripts and such doesn’t say to me ‘These people know Star Trek”…
Interestingly enough several TOS season one stories were inspired by Lovecraft and most year three episodes were ghost stories.
This franchise is a complete disaster. Nice work, Paramount. Who the h@ll needs another prequel….
Yeah agree as usual. I don’t understand the thinking behind when most fans want to forward and new fans isn’t going to care one way or the other
They already made an origin story movie for new fans, it was the Kelvin movies. It literally started with the birth of Kirk. Do they really think new audiences care about a story pre-Enterprize?
Hi new here
How about just using Pine and company (since I think most like the casting) for a prime movie outside of the Kelvin alt universe?
Just a thought
Love Pine as Kirk
Because they already have a new Kirk and other TOS characters in the prime timeline who are on SNW.
It would just confuse things more if they are both literally in the same universe.
Right, of course. But I do like Pine one heck of a lot better than Wesley as Kirk, even though I still think the character should never have been recast. Just imo, of course.
Oh yes agree on that and I wasn’t a big Pine fan at the start either.
I have not warmed up to Wesley’s Kirk at all. But others like him which is great because we’re stuck with him.
The average moviegoer doesn’t have a clue about Star Trek timelines. They just want to be entertained.
I’m sure that’s exactly what JJ Abrams said when he decided to cast Cumberbatch as Khan.
It’s very very simple, if they want to make a Star Trek movie for newbies, fine, then just put it in a COMPLETELY separate universe and do what you want.
People keep saying this but yet they seem too afraid to reboot it and I mean REALLY reboot it and just make it anything they want. Right?
I’m completely for that.
But the idea of putting 15+ years old characters in another universe and pretend they always been there will just confuse all the people who already watched the last three movies.
And if they just want to be entertained then just do it with new characters. So again I don’t get the point of doing any of that then?
Also if you did that it would mean you then you have to shape the characters to their prime universe counterparts and abandon all the character development from the last three films.
That would just confuse things way more to audiences who watched the previous films. That sounded similar to what Tarantino wanted to do with his movie and that sounded like a total disaster waiting to happen.
Point taken but Kelvin movies pretty far removed I think it would not be a problem to craft after TOS characters and eliminate confusion personally just prefer that group
I just don’t think that would work on so many levels. And I doubt the people who are fans of those movies would like it and feel betrayed as well they should.
Sorry but this is getting ridiculous. The priority should be to close out the Kelvin movies.
The Kelvin movies were a brain fart in JJs noggin.
At this point a movie about the non-making of ‘Star Trek 4’ would almost certainly have to be more entertaining than the film itself.
Just get something done Paramount.
The difficulty with an origin story is how do you attract a general audience whose only real familiarity with Star Trek is Kirk, Spock or maybe Picard? Will they show up to see a movie set decades before which doesn’t feature well known characters? It will need to have something spectacular to help it rise above just being another generic science fiction movie.
Don’t bother they won’t make the 60th, its a joke at this point.
They blew the 50th. In the process of blowing the 60th.
I just feel like The Powers That Be don’t “get” our favorite franchise at all, and think it might suck.
New writer, new director, new movie idea …. Same procedure as every year. I don‘t give anything on that!