Paramount Sets Writers For STAR TREK 3

While Star Trek franchise mastermind JJ Abrams is off playing in the Star Wars universe, Paramount is moving ahead at getting a third film in the revived series underway by hiring writers J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay to work with previous installment co-writer Roberto Orci to get started on the film’s screenplay.

Orcis is perhaps best known for his work with partner Alex Kurtzman, with whom he worked on the screenplays for a number of profitable franchises including Mission: Impossible III, the first and second of Michael Bay’s Transformers films and the first two Star Trek films in the recently rebooted series as well as next summer’s upcoming Amazing Spider-Man 2 and the already announced Amazing Spider-Man 3 for 2016.

Star Trek 3 will mark one of the rare times that Orci is working without partner Kurtzman, and I have to wonder if he will be taking on a more mentor-ish role for Payne and McKay. The pair are fairly newcomers to Hollywood and don’t have any produced credits to their name, but do have a couple of projects in development, one of which is the comic book adaptation Boilerplate, which is set up at Abrams’ Bad Robot production shingle.

Paramount has not announced a date for the film, but rumors are suggesting that they would love to have it in theaters in 2016, the 50th anniversary of the franchise’s birth on television. Abrams will not be able to direct, but he is serving as a producer. No director has been chosen, but reportedly the studio is leaning towards Attack The Block-helmer Joe Cornish.

Via Hollywood Reporter.