Paramount Pictures has a few successful franchises (once upon a time, they distributed the Marvel Cinematic Universe's offerings), but the studio's apparent inability to do more with Star Trek is beyond confusing.
When J.J. Abrams relaunched the franchise in 2009, the stage was set for it to become a mainstream property, something which looked increasingly likely when the sequels - Star Trek Into Darkness and Star Trek Beyond - were also moderate box office hits. Unfortunately, Star Trek 4 has been stuck in development hell for several years.
Filmmakers such as Quentin Tarantino, Matt Shakman, Lindsey Beer, and Geneva Robertson-Dworet are just some of the names who have been attached to the movie in recent years, with none of them ultimately sticking around.
Now, with it seemingly no closer to becoming a reality ("I honestly don’t know," was Captain Kirk actor Chris Pine's latest update on Star Trek 4), it seems Paramount's next prequel project is finally taking shape.
According to Puck (via SFFGazette.com), X-Men franchise producer Simon Kinberg is in talks to produce the new Star Trek with Andor filmmaker Toby Haynes attached to direct from a screenplay by Dark Shadows writer Seth Grahame-Smith. This news has since been confirmed by the trades.
It's previously been reported this movie "will serve as an origin story of sorts for the main timeline of the entire franchise," with the studio "focused on rightsizing the budgets to fit within the clear box office ceiling for 'Star Trek' feature films" in the case of both movies.
Star Trek has found greater success on streaming in recent years with the likes of Picard and Star Trek: Discovery, and upcoming projects include the Michelle Yeoh-led Section 31 and YA series, Starfleet Academy.
Paramount reportedly intends to still make the "final chapter" of the Chris Pine-led era of Star Trek movies, with Steve Yockey (The Flight Attendant) attached to write a new draft of the screenplay.
Recently, Alex Kurtzman - who oversees all of the franchise's television endeavours - described Star Trek as "an institution" and acknowledged that the series isn't an easy one to share with the masses.
"Doing 'Star Trek' means that you have to deliver something that’s entirely familiar and entirely fresh at the same time," he explains. "You cannot create new fans to the exclusion of old fans. You must serve your primary fan base first and you must keep them happy. That is one of the most important steps to building new fans."
We'll see what happens, but for comic book fans, Kinberg's involvement with Star Trek won't be cause for celebration. His work on the X-Men movies was incredibly divisive and borderline despised (particularly Dark Phoenix), but this is a second shot at sci-fi for Kinberg following a short-lived stint at Lucasfilm to oversee Star Wars Rebels.
For now, Kinberg is only attached as a producer and not the movie's director.