After finding massive success with the revamped Star Trek universe on TV, Paramount Pictures is ready to return to the Final Frontier on the big screen.
According to Deadline (multiple other trades have since weighed in), a new Star Trek movie is in the works from Andor director Toby Haynes. Details are few and far between, but the project is said to be an "origin" story set decades before the events of J.J. Abrams' 2009 reboot.
Seth Grahame-Smith is writing the script, and Abrams will produce through his Bad Robot company.
A fourth Star Trek movie featuring the "Kelvin-Verse" crew first introduced in the 2009 film has been stuck in development hell for years at this stage, but is reportedly still in development as "the final chapter for this crew."
This news is sure to be welcomed by fans, but, as far as we know, the film is still without a director since Matt Shakman departed the project to helm Marvel Studios' Fantastic Four reboot.
In his last interview on the subject, Shakman said that, even though his Trek movie would have been a "large tent-pole film," he believes the universe is better suited to a slightly smaller budget.
"I actually think that the way forward on a Star Trek movie is maybe to make one that's like $30 to $50 million, that's hard sci-fi, aimed right at the fans. In our day and age now, any time you go to space in a movie it's expensive. When you're flying around in the Enterprise, even if you're going to land and be in one place for a long time, it's still pretty expensive."
Principal cast members Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldaña, Karl Urban, John Cho and Simon Pegg expected to return, but nothing is set in stone just yet, and it's been far from smooth sailing for the crew of the Enterprise.
"I think there’s a lot of other stuff, creative things. It’s complicated," Quinto said during a recent convention appearance. "The fact that anything good gets made is kind of a miracle. I think it’s about different people having different agendas and ideas about what it will be. And I don’t know if and when it will happen. And if coalesces again, and we come back, and we’re able to do it, wonderful. If not, we had a great run."
The "different agendas" quote is likely a reference to the sheer amount of ideas that have been considered and creative teams that have been attached to the Star Trek Beyond follow-up over the years. One early concept would have focused on a reunion between Chris Pine's Captain Kirk and his father, played in 2009's Star Trek by Chris Hemsworth, and there was even an R-rated take from Quentin Tarantino in the works at one point.