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.
Zeb Larson says
The most common complaint I hear from Trekkies about the new movies (and I completely agree in regards to the second film) is that they turned Star Trek into Star Wars. If their idea is to make it even less like Star Trek, god help us.
chicagorob1 says
The problem is with the 2nd movie is that they basically reworked “Wrath of Khan” from 33 years ago.
The only way to be less “Star Trek-y” without losing Star Trek is to just come up with an original script. They also need to portray the Federation as a benevolent organization that’s supporting their mission, but from a distance. Hopefully the story will occur during the 5 year mission they began at the end of the last movie. Away from established Federation control and out in the “wilds” of unexplored space. The movie’s strength needs to come from the personal (and funny) interactions of the characters, not the politics, the tech or the ship.