Back in May, many ‘Star Trek’ fans were surprised to hear that writer Roberto Orci would be making his directorial debut with the sequel to ‘Star Trek Into Darkness.’ After months of shaping his vision of ‘Star Trek 3’ and developing the script with J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay, Orci ended up leaving the project over the direction of the screenplay a few weeks ago. That prompted a search for a new director that saw many names throw their bids into the running, including ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’ star Jonathan Frakes. But now it looks like the Enterprise will be getting fast and furious with the person filling the director’s chair.
According to Deadline, Paramount Pictures, Skydance Productions, and J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot just set Justin Lin to direct ‘Star Trek 3’, which is scheduled for a 2016 release in time for the celebration of the franchise’s 50th anniversary. After directing projects like ‘Better Luck Tomorrow’, ‘Annapolis’, ‘The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift’, and some memorable episodes of ‘Community,’ Lin revitalized the ‘Fast and Furious’ franchise in 2009 by helming ‘Fast & Furious,’ ‘Fast Five,’ and ‘Fast & Furious 6.’ Now he’ll shift his focus from cars to starships as he takes the Captain’s chair behind the scenes to bring the third installment of the modern ‘Star Trek’ story featuring Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, John Cho, Simon Pegg, and more.
This isn’t the first major blockbuster franchise that Lin has been up for. In 2011, he was up for ‘Terminator: Genisys’ before Alan Taylor eventually got the job. He was also lined up to tackle the sequel to ‘The Bourne Legacy’ starring Jeremy Renner, but the studio opted to postpone the film in favor of another ‘Bourne Identity’ film from Matt Damon and Paul Greengrass. Now that his schedule has been freed up, ‘Star Trek 3’ fits perfectly into the filmmaker’s schedule, which is still supposed to include another ‘Fast & Furious’ film, but who knows where that stands now that he’s beaming aboard the Enterprise.
What do you think about Justin Lin directing ‘Star Trek 3’? Do you think that it’s an improvement over the previous director Roberto Orci? Sound off in the comments below.
