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Paramount isn’t confirming any of this, but I’m told that there soon should be good news and bad news on the Star Trek sequel front. The good news: With his film Super 8 set for release June 10, JJ Abrams is expected to announce shortly his return as director of Star Trek 2. The bad news: Even moving at warp speed, Abrams will be hard pressed to make the June 29, 2012 release date that the studio set for the film. I’m told that the move being considered right now is to push Trek back for a Holiday 2012 release. This comes after Paramount pushed back the other franchise film in its arsenal that has Chris Pine as its star. Pine’s also playing Jack Ryan in the reboot of the Tom Clancy-created series. Pine was expected to shoot that film first, but the script wasn’t ready. Paramount hired David Koepp to rewrite Adam Cozad’s script. Koepp just began writing this week after completing his film Premium Rush.
Why is Star Trek in such precarious shape, just 13 months before its release date? The film has three top-flight writers in Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman and Damon Lindelof. Like Abrams, all of them have been busy on other films. Kurtzman directed Welcome to People. Orci has been busy on Cowboys & Aliens and in prepping the Gavin Hood-directed sci-fi epic Ender’s Game. Lindelof has been busy working on Prometheus, the Ridley Scott film for Fox that was conceived as a 3D prequel until Lindelof came on to do a rewrite and changed the concept so much that they consider it an original. The result? It doesn’t sound like they are close to having a script that will live up to the high quality of the first film that revived a dead franchise. On the Trekkie fan site Trekmovie.com, Orci confessed this week that they have a 70-page outline, and are waiting for Abrams to commit so that they can really get going. Well, that is hardly an enviable position to be in, exactly 13 months before the release of the film. Orci suggested in the interview they could prep the film from an outline. That is hard, particularly for a sophisticated, futuristic science fiction film. This is basically what happened on Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, and director Michael Bay has been open about the fact that the rush to make a release date with a script that wasn’t ready hurt the film. The cost of a Vfx-heavy film rushing like this raises the budget considerably.
Don’t be surprised if Paramount and Abrams push back six months at least. While Paramount doesn’t have the Marvel movies anymore, the studio could slot its G.I. Joe sequel for that early-summer release (I’ve heard other studios are now eyeing that date, too). Unless Koepp does an amazing job quickly and gives the studio a Jack Ryan movie that’s ready to go, Pine is still expected to shoot Star Trek first. According to the studio, nothing falls into place until Abrams declares his intention for the Trek sequel.
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SO many of you just don’t get it. Telling them to take their time is like telling a room to lower its light level. Your words go nowhere; they have no impact. There is no connection between your desire and the reality of the industry. Its all about cash flow.
Its all about money. The industry is not about providing time for quality writing, quality production, quality fx – its all and only about money.
Dude, you’re lecturing people about words that have no impact… with an anonymous comment on a Hollywood gossip blog?! And you think we are the ones who don’t get it?
Funny.
And you need to work on some better metaphors. The “light level” thing doesn’t quite cut it.
These studios rush the most important part of making a movie, writing the f’ing story!
No wonder these movies end up sucking. The creative process takes time.
Take away the lens flares and ILM’s VFX and there’s nothing of worth in the JJ Star Trek reboot.
At least the best Treks of past had some decent stories and dialog.
I was wondering if anyone else noticed the lens flares. I think they used at least one in every scene. The first time I watched the movie it was not that noticeable, but during subsequent viewings, it just got annoying.
That being said, it was the only negative thing I can say. I loved the new cast – especially Karl Urban (who did a fantastic job in Red btw), the perfect casting for Bones.
I too hope the suits can hold out and let them make the movie they want to make, but I don’t see it happening. Don’t get me wrong, I want it to make the most money as quickly as possible (I’m in the exhibition business) but as a ST fan – I’d prefer a great movie over a sooner ROI.
You are comparing ONE movie with 30 years of prior movies and TV Shows??? Ok..If that’s how you want to roll. I would take JJ’s Star Trek over practically the entire series run of both Voyager and Enterprise.
I agree.
It was mildly entertaining. Great cast. But the writing was generic. A number of huge cheats in logic.
Eventually there will be a day when people no longer sit around waiting for Mr. Genius to show up to a meeting.
Holding up 47 Ronin and Ouiji as bigger then Superman is a joke. Only Twilight and Bond will be huge hits in Nov 2012. Superman is far easier to market the Watchmen or Sucker Punch and Nolan and Goyer will supply the script. All Snyder has to do is give us cool visuals and big fight scenes which have been lacking from a Superman film since Superman 2. You can bet that Nolan’s name will be front and center in the trailers for this movie. I also don’t see Star Trek and Superman hurting each other, but rather helping each other. We don’t get that much SCI FI in the holiday season aside from Avatar.
I think the point, which wooshed over your head, is that November is busy and December is comparatively empty. If 47 Ronin wasn’t R-rated it’d easily be bigger world-wide than Snyder’s Superman rehash. Ouiji shouldn’t even be made, but that is another story. Much like Warners is being forced to go ahead with the half-baked Superman, Uni is being forced to do the same with these Hasbro titles. Maybe Uni should move Ouiji opposite Superman Rehash and we can see which movie repels the public more? LOL. More seriously, Star Trek will completely crush the Superman remake. Trek was very well received. Hobbit is greatly anticipated around the world. The November films will still be unrolling around the world. In this environment, the Superman remake is left in back of the pack. It won’t be disastrous, unless the budget is disastrous. It will fulfill legal obligations and that is enough really.
They are going to ruin 3 scribes, and a whole bunch more if they keep things going at this rate. I’m willing to forgo conjecture on what the final products will be like, for the moment. But I do know that this is a good way to burn out and burn thru “Talent” both in front of and behind the computerized cameras.
What kind of bone-headed “Management” does the studio have?
They are the “Bright boys” who dug themselves this hole that the production side now has to dig themselves out of, or else.
Meanwhile, the audience gets kicked in the popcorn again, when they are asked (unjustly) to put up with something less than the best, because some suit can’t be bothered to look at a calender, and do basic maths.
G.I.Joe? I watched bits and pieces of this ‘time waster’ on the Movie Channel for the sole reason that there was nothing else on and kept channel surfing hoping I was wrong. They’re making a sequel? Unbelievable!
By the way I don’t see what the problem is for putting together the next Star Trek script. Its a reboot after all so why not just grab a good story from the original TV show, reboot and expand. Be good for marketing to all those fans of the original series who weren’t really satisfied with what came after its short TV life albeit an after life of long syndication.
Okay, let’s flash back to 2006 I think it was, when the new film was first announced for summer 2008. And then Christmas Day 2008, they actually put that on the first teaser trailer. Finally May 2009 was the day, and despite the wait I was glad they took the time.
Yes, I know it didn’t fall into any of Roddenberry’s 4 types of episodes except ‘police action’ if you close one eye and squint sideways with the other… BUT show me how else they could have done it and guaranteed that there would be more Trek, EVER, and I will happily join the side of the naysayers. And the fact that you can get that plot out of it gives me hope.
How about announcing a release date when you know what your making and have it scheduled and budgeted and everything locked down? What value is there in rushing this?
Also – the desire to revive “Jack Ryan” as a franchise is kind of silly – particularly for how the movie will inevitably be marketed. You would think all those MBA’s would have a spreadsheet telling them that most people under 35 don’t know what a Jack Ryan is (and the Clancy books have all been filmed, right). If they are desperate to ape them they could look to Vince Flynn’s stuff I suppose…
Or you could reboot Red October and let Millenials and under mock the Cold War out of ignorance.
June 2012 is 3.5 years after the last one was done (Dec 2008)and they still need more time to do a second one?? So much for a ‘Young Crew’ in this new series
You don’t hear people whining about the 4 year gap between “The Dark Knight” and “The Dark Knight Rises”, do you? I’d rather have a quality ST film than a slapdash rush to make it to summer 2012.
Also, whoever suggested “The Amazing Spider-Man” will be huge competition for the ST sequel (should it make it to June 29, 2012) deserves to be laughed at. If it was the long-gestating “Spider-Man 4″, perhaps. But with a wafer-thin British actor playing Peter Parker and attempting to capture the darkness that made TDK so popular? Good luck trying to win over audiences again, Sony.
I have to laugh at the comment that “Star Trek is finally gaining respectability.” Oh, really? Star 2 & 3 set the records for highest box office opening for their times, up to that point. Adjusted for box office inflation, they made around as much as the 2009 “movie” – while ST:TMP & ST IV probably made more. Back then, those were true “event” movies – not just another mindless big budget summer action movie.
And maybe if they do take their time for the script for the next movie, they won’t have a plot with holes big enough to embarrass a second-grader.
So by the time they make the 3rd movie, the actors will all be older than Shatner, Nimoy, etc during the original series. I guess by then, they’ll just decide to reboot it again.
It’s Star Trek, not a documentary on war or homelessness. Eat popcorn. Enjoy the ride.
When is Star Trek coming back with a new serie like Voyager, Enterprise, Ds9 ???
Sad, but I’m guessing the film industry is never going to understand that rushing things rarely works out. They’ve got a good thing going with the reboot. Don’t ruin it! Moviegoers will wait for quality.
I’m getting the distinct sense that no one at Paramount, Bad Robot, et al. is all that interested in more Star Trek. While the last film did good business, it was not a mega-blockbuster (e.g Transformers), and despite the filmmakers best efforts, it didn’t do very well overseas. Trek movie merchandise was was tossed into the discount bin at Target while the movie was still in first-run theaters. Trek is not the cash cow that perhaps they thought it was, and they might be wary of investing their money and their time in another one.
If this were Transformers, the second movie would have come and gone and they’d be filming the third by now. Whlie, I’m not surprised about a potential delay (I wouldn’t be surprised if they waited until summer ’13), I don’t think it’s beyond the realm of possibility that the film never gets made.
Just don’t fuck it up royally.
How much time does it take to rewrite the search for the real Spock.
Star Trek 09 made around $150m overseas. Not exactly chump change. It opened bigger than all the other franchise reboots in the US too. The sequel will do even better…if they don’t rush it.