Writers Hired for ‘Star Trek’ Sequel

Published by Jeff Leins on March 31, 2009

It’s over a month away from the May 8 release of the newly rebooted Star Trek franchise, and already Paramount has locked in the writers for a sequel.

Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman and Damon Lindelof have all been signed to write a screenplay for the follow-up and turn it in before Christmas, according to Variety.  The studio hopes to make the twelfth Trek by Summer 2011.

“There’s obviously a lot of hubris involved in signing on to write a sequel of a movie that hasn’t even come out yet,” said Lindelof, producer on the new movie and now a writing partner on the sequel. “But we’re so excited about the first one that we wanted to proceed.”

No word on whether J.J. Abrams will direct again, but he’ll stay on as producer after Paramount extended their deal with his Bad Robot Productions through 2013.  Also no news on whether the actors’ contracts included multiple films.  I’m assuming they would want Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Simon Pegg, Zoe Saldana, etc. to return.

It’s obviously a risk to start putting together another installment before they even have audience reactions to the film, but they must have enough confidence from early excitement to pull the trigger.  Star Trek will make its world premiere at the Sydney Opera House on April 7 before starting a world tour, so we should be able to start reading reviews in the month leading up to its release. Will it be as highly regarded as Wrath of Khan, the fan favorite of the original movie series?

The final, full size Trek poster is below: