One month after Paramount announced that they would release a new Star Trek movie in July 2016, the film has a screenwriter. Two screenwriters, in fact. And one of them is Simon Pegg, the actor who currently plays Scotty.
This is interesting, in light of some of the rumours that have been flying around ever since Roberto Orci ankled the project, and in light of how these films have been developed in the past.
First, it shows that Bad Robot, the production company owned by previous Star Trek director J.J. Abrams, is still very much in the mix, even though neither Abrams nor any of the writers on the last two films have any significant hands-on involvement with the new film. Not only has Pegg co-starred in the last two Star Trek movies, but he has also co-starred in all of the Mission: Impossible movies since Abrams started producing that series. Plus, Pegg’s co-writer is Dark Blue creator Doug Jung, who reportedly got this gig after writing a script for Bad Robot called Diamond.
Second, if Pegg’s script makes it all the way through production, he will be only the fourth regular Star Trek actor to get a screenwriting credit on any of the Star Trek movies — and the track record so far is fairly mixed. On the plus side, there is Leonard Nimoy, who got story credits on Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, which he directed, and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, which he produced. On the not-so-plus side, there are William Shatner, who got a story credit on Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, and Brent Spiner, who got a story credit on Star Trek: Nemesis.
(Three other Star Trek regulars got writing credits on the various TV shows, according to the IMDb: Walter Koenig with Star Trek: The Animated Series, Majel Barrett with Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Robert Picardo with Star Trek: Voyager.)
Third, when Orci first stepped down from the director’s chair, it was rumoured that Paramount was thinking of replacing him with Edgar Wright — and Wright, of course, has collaborated with Pegg on a number of movies and TV shows going back to the turn-of-the-millennium series Spaced; these include the sci-fi comedies Paul and The World’s End. So while the studio didn’t get Wright himself, the new film could have a tone that is somewhat similar to the films and TV shows that Wright has made.
Fourth, last month Devin Faraci reported that Paramount might have ditched Orci’s script because they wanted the next Star Trek to be more like Guardians of the Galaxy:
They want the third film to be huge, and they want it to be huge overseas especially. They look at Rocket and Groot and then they look at Keenser and they wonder why he doesn’t have more of a role.
Keenser, of course, is the short alien sidekick that Scotty had in the last two films. If the actor playing Scotty is writing the new film, then it stands to reason that Scotty and his sidekick might play a bigger role.
Fifth, I have been saying for years that Star Trek movies don’t need to be all about the space battles, and that there was plenty of variety genre-wise on the original series. Could the hiring of Pegg mean that the next film will tilt in a more comedy-oriented direction — perhaps kind of like The Voyage Home, which was the top-grossing Star Trek film ever until the Abrams-directed reboot came along 23 years later?
If so, then this could be good news, indeed — but I also get the feeling that many fans don’t care for Keenser, so if emphasizing the humour means emphasizing that character and others like him… Well, let’s just say it remains to be seen whether the new film will be closer in spirit to the original series or whether it will take the franchise even further away from the series than the last two films did.
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