Simon Kinberg is in talks to join the Star Trek franchise where he will produce the currently in-development latest feature film for Paramount.
The Hollywood Reporter is stating that Kinberg could be joining Star Wars: Andor director Toby Haynes and screenwriter Seth Grahame-Smith who are already at work on crafting what is being reported as a prequel to virtually everything we have seen in previously in Star Trek.
According to the Hollywood Reporter –
The project is said to be set decades before the events of the 2009 movie that was directed J.J. Abrams, likely around modern times. It is said to involve the creation of the Starfleet and humankind’s first contact with alien life.
(Cue the Star Trek fans who will point out that 1996’s Star Trek: First Contact dealt with humanity’s first contact with aliens in the form of the franchise favorite Vulcans.)
This new film would be separate from one also in development at Paramount that would serve as a finale for the Abrams reboot Trek cast of Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, Zoe Saldana and Simon Pegg.
Kinberg comes to Star Trek with some genre cred, having written and produced a number of entries in Fox’s X-Men franchise before that studio was bought up by Disney.
Although Star Trek has flourished in a number of TV series on the Paramount Plus streaming app, the film side of the franchise has lain fairly fallow since the release of 2016’s Abrams-produced Star Trek Beyond, which underperformed at the box office. But it hasn’t been for lack of trying that Paramount hasn’t been able to launch a new Trek theatrical project. At one point, the studio had other potential big screen projects into development that were new and different takes on the franchise from Fargo creator Noah Hawley and iconic filmmaker Quentin Tarantino. Both of these projects are dead though.
The Reporter is stating that although the studio has not announced a release date for the film, Paramount would like to have it in theaters by 2025. Even if it were to eyeing a December 2025 release, nineteen months seems like an ambitious time-frame to get this film ready. Additionally, the December 2025 frame is already staked out by Avatar 3, which seems likely to rule at the box office as the two previous film in that franchise have. I would not be surprised to see a release date for this film be pushed to 2026.
It should also be noted that currently both Sony and Skydance have expressed an interest in purchasing Paramount, and such a deal could potentially derail this film from happening.
