4. Star Trek 3 Aiming for 2016 With New Writers
The future of Paramount's Star Trek franchise has been up in the air ever since J.J. Abrams, who helmed both the 2009 reboot and this year's sequel, Star Trek Into Darkness, shocked geeks everywhere by signing on to direct Star Wars: Episode VII. Needless to say, he won't be in the captain's chair of the third film, and now that Joe Cornish has denied his involvement in the project, there's no news on who might direct. We do, however, have news on who will write the movie, and when Paramount hopes it will hit theaters. The film is aiming for a 2016 release date, which marks the 50th anniversary of the original TV show. We've long speculated that this may be the case, since it would be a shame for the studio to miss out on the opportunity of honoring the longevity of the franchise with another film the same year (the same way MGM managed to release Skyfall on the eve of Bond's 50th).
THR has the scoop on the writer situation, and have reported that Alex Kurtzman, who helped pen the script for the first two films with long-term creative partner Roberto Orci, won't be returning, and has been replaced by Patrick McKay and J.D. Payne (who are currently working on the Boilerplate comic book adaptation for Abrams). Kurtzman and Orci are extremely busy with other projects, including next year's The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (and the upcoming sequels), Fox's Sleepy Hollow series, and a handful of other shows and films. It makes sense that Kurtzman would want to take a daunting film like Star Trek 3 off of his already full plate (more on that in a minute), and it may be a good thing to get some new blood to work on the franchise. We still have no official word on who will helm the film or what direction it may take, but at least this is a step in the right direction.