Star Trek sequel already planned

13 April 2009

John Howell

Paramount Pictures are so confident about the box office potential of the upcoming Star Trek reboot directed by J. J. Abrams that they’re already working on a sequel. Paramount has hired Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman and Damon Lindelof to write a screenplay for the second movie. The writers are aiming to complete a script by Christmas. If they do, we’re looking at a possible 2011 release for the next Star Trek movie with the same cast.

Watching the recent trailers I can understand why they would be pushing for a second already. What I’ve seen so far looks fantastic.

"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," Lindelof told Variety. "But we're so excited about the first one that we wanted to proceed."

The new Star Trek movie comes out on May 9. Lindelof is co-creator of Lost with Abrams.

While J.J. Abrams will produce the second movie with his Bad Robot partner Bryan Burk, they haven’t decided if Abrams will go back in the director’s chair. It’s too early for story details either.

"Obviously we discussed ideas,” said Lindelof, “but we are waiting to see how audiences respond next month. With a franchise rebirth, the first movie has to be about origin. But with a second, you have the opportunity to explore incredibly exciting things. We'll be ambitious about what we'll do."