‘Star Trek Beyond’ is locked into a July 8, 2016, so production should begin soon, but the project has recently hit a few bumps, with writer/director Roberto Orci stepping away after failing to see eye-to-eye with Paramount, who deemed his script “too Star Trek-y.”  It then fell into the hands of cast member Simon Pegg, who plays Scotty in the movies, to retool.  Pegg is a noted screenwriter, penning among other things his fan favorite Cornetto trilogy; ‘Shaun of the Dead’, ‘Hot Fuzz’ and ‘The World’s End.’  Pegg and writing partner Doug Jung were tasked with whittling the 180 page script– with each page equaling one minute of screen time– down to an easier to digest 135.

It apparently took some doing, as Pegg and Jung just submitted their first draft roughly a month before filming was to begin.  Pegg admitted, “We started again six months before we were due to start shooting, which is insane! In fact…we start shooting in Vancouver in four weeks—and we’re only handing in our first draft today.”

This allows for a bit of time for tweaking before filming begins and it is not uncommon for scripts to be adjusted throughout the entire filming process.  The new script, according to Pegg, is hoped to appeal to general audiences as they “don’t see [‘Star Trek’] being a fun, brightly colored, Saturday night entertainment like the Avengers.” His take on the script rewrite was to “make a western or a thriller or a heist movie, then populate that with Star Trek characters so it’s more inclusive to an audience that might be a little bit reticent.”

Pegg has already revealed that the new movie will depart from Earth and capture the crew of the Enterprise with the five year mission “to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before.”  This should satisfy fans who disliked the fact that so much of the first two movies took place on Earth.

With a release date already locked in, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the original TV series, it looks like filming is about to take off at warp speed, regardless of the state of the script.

What do you think?  Are you anxious to see what Pegg and Jung have done with the screenplay?  Or are you worried that things may be too rushed?  Comment below!

Source: Cinema Blend, Radio Times