Star Trek 3 has to get its dilithium together, pronto, in order to exist at all. That means replacing the recently booted Roberto Orci as director, and Paramount is aiming fairly high.
Deadline got its hands on Paramount’s director shortlist, and it is, in order of our interest:
- Duncan Jones: Yes, they want the director of Moon to make a Star Trek movie. That said, Jones is deep in post on Warcraft and might not be available.
- Rupert Wyatt, the studio’s main choice and best known to nerds for saving the Planet of the Apes franchise from the ravages of Tim Burton.
- Morten Tyldum, currently hot thanks to his Alan Turing biopic The Imitation Game. It’s… interesting that he’s on this list, especially since he’s never done an effects-heavy movie before and seems to have little interest in science fiction.
- Justin Lin, who’s been making Fast and Furious movies for years now.
- Daniel Espinoza, who despite the name is another man from the land of the ice and snow and mostly known by Denzel Washington fans for turning out Safe House.
All in all, a solid list, albeit with a weird obsession with Northern Europeans. Honestly, Wyatt is an excellent choice; he not only know SF and special effects, he knows actors. Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes was a surprisingly effective character drama and got you to feel badly for a CGI chimp. So if that’s where Star Trek goes, the franchise is in excellent hands.