After the primary try at a direct sequel to 2016’s Star Trek Past fizzled out, Paramount turned to Fargo’s Noah Hawley to write down, direct, and produce an entire new tackle a Star Trek characteristic movie. That film was on monitor to start out manufacturing in 2020 when it acquired killed off by a brand new Paramount exec. Now Hawley is speaking extra about his dormant Trek characteristic, and the way he’s holding out hope that it might reside once more underneath Paramount’s new administration.
Paramount wished to “play it secure” with Star Trek
Noah Hawley was the visitor within the newest episode of the favored Smartless podcast. Because the lengthy dialogue was wrapping up co-host Jason Bateman famous it could be “prison” in the event that they didn’t ask about Hawley’s Star Trek film. Hawley mentioned that after making his 2019 movie Lucy within the Sky, he wished to strive one thing “a bit greater,” and he explains what drew him to Star Trek:
“It’s all franchises. And I assumed, all the pieces’s conflict, proper? Star Wars is conflict, and Marvel is conflict. However Star Trek isn’t conflict. Star Trek is exploration, proper? It’s individuals fixing issues by being smarter than the opposite man.”
For example of how Star Trek makes use of brains, Hawley pointed to the scene in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan when Kirk outsmarts Khan by decreasing the USS Reliant’s shields, because the “finest second” from the “finest film” within the franchise, including “It prices like 45 cents, however you see, ‘Oh, he’s smarter than Khan.”
Hawley once more remembers the standard Hollywood story of what occurred subsequent:
“I wrote it. They mentioned, ‘We find it irresistible. Let’s prep it.’ I used to be going to maneuver to Australia. We have been reserving levels. After which, as occurs in Hollywood, Jim Gianopulos, who was operating the studio on the time, he he’s like, I’m going to usher in anyone else underneath me, they usually’re going to take over the movie studio. And the very first thing they did was kill the unique Star Trek film. They mentioned, ‘Effectively, how do we all know persons are going to love it? Shouldn’t we do a transition film from Chris Pine, play it secure. And so it sort of went away.”
The precise government that killed the film was Emma Watts who joined Paramount as head of characteristic movies in 2020 after leaping ship from Fox. The idea of doing a transition from Kelvin to the brand new unique idea shouldn’t be totally unreasonable or unprecedented. In fact Star Trek: Generations was a transition film from the TOS to TNG period movies. And even the primary Kelvin film, 2009’s Star Trek, itself had connections to the Prime Timeline within the TNG period, notably via Leonard Nimoy’s Spock Prime character. Nevertheless, springing it on Hawley as he’s set to start out taking pictures was unreasonable. Such a basic factor nearly definitely couldn’t simply be shoehorned into to his film on the final minute.
Zachary Quinto and Leonard Nimoy in 2009 Star Trek film (Paramount Footage)
After Hawley’s Trek was shelved, it was Watts that pivoted again to make what the studio had mentioned was to be the fourth and remaining Kelvin film starring Chris Pine. That try at a “Star Trek 4” was handed to director Matt Shakman and after going via a number of scripts it was prepared to start out taking pictures in 2022. However, like with Hawley’s Trek, the challenge was abruptly shut down not lengthy earlier than cameras have been set to start out rolling. Shakman exited to direct what turned this summer time’s Incredible 4 film and Trek returned to growth hell… at the least till not too long ago.
Talked to Ellison about his Trek
As for Hawley, he’s simply coming off the critically acclaimed FX collection Alien: Earth, which has been renewed for a brand new season to shoot subsequent yr. However he hasn’t forgotten that script he wrote for Star Trek, and he has even made a pitch to the brand new man in control of Paramount. On Smartless, Hawley revealed:
“I talked to David Ellison not too long ago, and I used to be like, ‘You continue to haven’t made a Star Trek film.’ I’m simply saying it’s in there.”
It’s unclear when this podcast episode was recorded, as a few weeks in the past Paramount did announce their subsequent Star Trek transfer for the massive display. The studio has as soon as once more shelved any plan for a follow-up to Past, probably ending future adventures within the Kelvin Universe. Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley, who made Spider-Man: Homecoming and Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Amongst Thieves are growing a brand new unique Star Trek film, apparently with new characters not tied into any earlier films or collection.
However who’s to say Hawley and his idea can’t make a comeback? Star Trek is a giant universe and if issues go nicely, Paramount might look to develop a number of Trek options, as has been seen in different franchises.
Sustain with information concerning the Star Trek Universe at TrekMovie.com
