I sincerely hope that Mike Fleming’s report is correct and that JJ Abrams is finally ready to commit to directing “Star Trek 2.”
Now that Paramount has dealt with the reality that the film won’t be ready for the June 29, 2012 date they originally claimed for it, Jon Chu’s “G.I. Joe: Retaliation” (which is evidently not called “Cobra Strikes” as previously reported to my endless amusement) will be moving up into that spot. I have no idea what to expect from that sequel as they’ve basically thrown out most of what made me cackle about the first film, like Joseph Gordon Levitt as Cobra Commander or Chris Eccleston as Destro.
On the other hand, having Abrams onboard as director for “Star Trek 2” makes me feel like the film is off to the right start. The first film works because it has a tremendous sense of energy and because that cast is so great together. The script had the unenviable task of both setting up a franchise and figuring out a way of folding the original series into it seamlessly. It’s impressive how much heavy lifting they pulled off without ever forgetting to entertain.
Now Paramount has exercised their option on the cast, and it looks like Abrams is hard at work with Damon Lindelof, Bob Orci, and Alex Kurtzman to nail down the final drafts of the script. I’m dying to see where they go with this one, since they have the entire history of “Trek” to play with, and they have said enough about their approach to make it seem like a safe bet that they’re not just going to rehash what we’ve already seen from the voyages of the Enterprise in the past. So many fans were yelping about Khan from the moment they walked out of the theater that I hope we don’t see any Khan at all. That’s the safe way to go, and totally lacking in imagination.
So when will we see “Star Trek 2”? The easy choice would be to push it a full year for the summer of 2013, but with “Man Of Steel” having just moved out of the December 2012 spot, maybe we could stand a little science-fiction action for the holidays.
Whatever the case, I just want to see them take the time to get this right, and it sounds to me like it’s more important for them to nail the script than nail a release date. That’s a heck of a good start.