Back in January it was revealed that Simon Pegg had signed on to rework the script for Star Trek 3, which had originally been penned by Roberto Orci, Patrick McKay and J.D. Payne. No official reason was given, but now Pegg – who is co-writing with Doug Jung – has revealed to The Guardian that the studio felt the previous draft was “too Star Trek-y”.
“They had a script for Star Trek that wasn’t really working for them. I think the studio was worried that it might have been a little bit too Star Trek-y. Avengers Assemble, which is a pretty nerdy, comic-book, supposedly niche thing, made $1.5bn dollars. Star Trek Into Darkness made half a billion, which is still brilliant. But it means that, according to the studio, there’s still $1bn worth of box office that don’t go and see Star Trek. And they want to know why. People don’t see it being a fun, brightly coloured, Saturday night entertainment like The Avengers. [The solution was] make a western or a thriller or a heist movie, then populate that with Star Trek characters so it’s more inclusive to an audience that might be a little bit reticent.”
What do you make of Pegg’s comments? Is Paramount right to want to de-Trek Star Trek? And will that help to make it a billion-dollar-a-movie franchise? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below…
Star Trek 3 is being directed by Justin Lin (Fast & Furious 6) and is set for release on July 8th, 2016.