Momentum is building steadily over J.J. Abrams sequel to his 2009 Star Trek. The director stated in January that he was still waiting for Damon Lindelof, Bob Orci and Alex Kurtzman to complete their sequel draft for Paramount to approve before deciding whether he’ll come aboard and direct the follow up to his critically acclaimed reboot. Well things now seem to be progressing.
The director recently chatted to IGN on about the sequel's status.
Q: How is Star Trek coming?
Abrams: There’s a script that’s being written by Damon Lindelof and Bob Orci and Alex Kurtzman and I can’t wait to read it!
Q: So at this point, you’re not quite sure what’s in it?
Abrams: Oh, no. I’ve been developing the story with them, so I know the story. But they’re writing it and obviously I’m on the edge of my seat to crack the script open.
Q: Do you know when you might make the decision on whether you would direct it or not?Abrams: Well, as soon as I get the script, that will be the thing. It’s just difficult to direct a film when you haven’t read the script, that’s all. But they’re hard at work, so…
The details we do know about the sequel are scarce, Kurtzman & Orci stated in september:
"We’re looking at a movie like The Dark Knight, which went one step beyond Batman Begins… It was really about something, and at the same time it was a superhero movie. We don’t want to abandon all the things that made the first movie work…but we also really want the movie to thematically resonate."
Then Lindelof went a step further and revealed in october the movie would be based on "family". Speaking back in october the writer stated:
"Trek is not about villains, It is about the crew and their relationship with each other, that family. If the villain helps sort of flesh that out and bring that to life, then we have hit a home run."
Despite not yet having a shooting script the movie already has a release date: June 2012. Bob Orci via twitter revealed their deadline is sometime in March.
All going well Abrams should announce his involvement by April/ May. So we would be looking at production commencing sometime in the summer although Chris Pine’s schedule may have to factored in.
