Paramount to negotiate with ‘Star Trek’ cast members Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto for fourth film

Washington [US], February 16 (ANI): Paramount has planned to enter negotiations for ‘Star Trek’ stars Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, John Cho and Simon Pegg to return for their fourth tour of duty in the venerable sci-fi franchise ‘Star Trek’.
According to Variety, the announcement was made by JJ Abrams during the Paramount Investors Day Presentation on February 15.
“We are thrilled to say that we are hard at work on a new ‘Star Trek’ film that will be shooting by the end of the year that will be featuring our original cast and some new characters that I think are going to be really fun and exciting and help take ‘Star Trek’ into areas that you’ve just never seen before,” Abrams said.
He added, “We’re thrilled about this film, we have a bunch of other stories that we’re talking about that we think will be really exciting, so can’t wait for you to see what we’re cooking up. But until then, live long and prosper.”
The six actors first stepped into their respective iconic roles as Kirk, Spock, Uhura, Bones, Sulu and Scotty in 2009’s ‘Star Trek’, directed by Abrams, which reset the ‘Trek’ timeline and allowed for the reboot to exist unencumbered from the hundreds of hours of ‘Trek’ continuity that had come before.
The actors returned in two sequels, 2013’s ‘Star Trek Into Darkness’, also directed by Abrams, and 2016’s ‘Star Trek Beyond’, directed by Justin Lin.
Abrams is producing the new, as-yet-untitled film through Bad Robot, with Matt Shakman directing from a screenplay by Josh Friedman and Cameron Squires based on a earlier draft by Lindsey Beer and Geneva Robertson-Dworet.
Paramount was close to bringing back this cast once before. In 2018, S.J. Clarkson had signed up to direct a sequel that would have reunited Pine’s Kirk with his late father, played by Chris Hemsworth reprising his performance from the 2009 ‘Star Trek’. That film never materialized, however, after Paramount reportedly couldn’t close a deal with Pine and Hemsworth.
Since then, insiders say the studio has done market research to determine audience interest in the rebooted cast, given the long wait period between ‘Beyond’, which lost money for Paramount and a prospective new ‘Trek’ film.
Execs determined that there was still lasting audience enthusiasm for Pine, Quinto and the rest of the cast in their established roles, which allowed the studio to feel comfortable with moving forward with bringing them back.
One member of the 2009 ‘Trek’ cast, however, sadly cannot join them. Anton Yelchin, who played Chekov, died in an accident in June 2016, a month before ‘Beyond’ opened in theaters.
As per Variety, at that film’s premiere at San Diego Comic Con, the cast, filmmakers and invited guests sat in a full minute of silence in tribute to the late actor. (ANI)