New Emmy nominee, Matt Shakman, who is up for a directing award for his work on WandaVision is moving from the Marvel Universe to another franchise in a different medium. He has been tapped to direct Paramount’s next Star Trek movie which already has a release date of June 9, 2023.
The screenplay is by Lindsey Beer (The Magic Order, The Kingkiller Chronicle) and Geneva Robertson-Dworet (Captain Marvel, Tomb Raider), and J.J. Abrams is attached to produce. In March, Paramount announced that Kalinda Vazquez had been hired to tackle this screenplay, but it appears that Paramount has opted not to go with her take.
It has not been revealed whether or not this will be a continuation of Abrams’ Kelvin timeline, with the cast consisting of Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Simon Pegg, John Cho, and Karl Urban. (R.I.P. Anton Yelchin.)
This will be Shakman’s first film. Among his past TV credits are Game of Thrones, The Boys, Succession, Fargo, and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Some may know that as a child, Shakman co-starred on the spin-off of Growing Pains, Just the Ten of Us. (That’s him in the blue shirt at the bottom.)
(Was this a popular show? I’ve never seen it. I’ve barely seen a couple of episodes of Growing Pains. But I recognize Heather Langenkamp from the Nightmare on Elm Street movies in the glasses holding his shoulders.)
WandaVision was nominated for 15 Emmy Awards including Outstanding Directing for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for Shakman. It was also nominated for Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series; Lead Actor for Paul Bettany; Lead Actress for Elizabeth Olsen; Supporting Actress for Kathryn Hahn; Writing for Laura Donney/”Previously On”; Writing for Jac Schaeffer/”Filmed Before A Live Studio Audience”; Writing for Peter Cameron and Chuck Hayward/”All-New Halloween Spooktacular!”; Casting for Jason B. Stamey and Sarah Finn; Special Visual Effects for Tara DeMarco (visual effects producer), James Alexander (visual effects producer), Sarah Eim (additional vfx supervisor), Sandra Balej (additional vfx supervisor), David W. Allen (additional vfx supervisor), Marion Spates (vfx supervisor – Digital Domain), Steve Moncur (vfx supervisor – ILM), Julien Hery (vfx supervisor – Rodeo), Ryan Freer (vfx supervisor – MARZ); Outstanding Fantasy/Sci-Fi Costumes for Mayes C. Rubeo (costume designer), Joseph Feltus (assistant costume designer), Daniel Selon (assistant costume designer), Virginia Burton (costume supervisor), for “Filmed Before a Live Studio Audience”; Period and/or Character Hairstyling for Karen Bartek (department head hairstylist), Cindy Welles (co-department head hairstylist), Nikki Wright (hairstylist)
Anna Quinn (hairstylist), Yvonne Depatis-Kupka (hairstylist), for “Don’t Touch That Dial”; Music Composition (Original Dramatic Score) for Christophe Beck for “Previously On”; Original Music and Lyrics for Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez for “Agatha All Along” from “Breaking the Fourth Wall”; and Original Main Title Theme Music for Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez.
As for Star Trek, the film franchise has suffered from diminishing returns as each movie has made less than the one before. A script for a fourth Kelvin film was penned by S.J. Clarkson and would have featured a time travel story. But the contracts for the cast had been fulfilled so they would have been able to demand higher paychecks. In addition, Clarkson’s script would have included the return of Chris Hemsworth as George Kirk, James’ father. Of course, Hemsworth is Thor and he would have demanded a Thor-sized paycheck as well. Paramount simply could not afford to make this movie, so it was scrapped.
Noah Hawley (Fargo, Legion) was hired to pen another script, the details of which are unknown, but that project was paused last August as Paramount reportedly wanted to “re-examine” the direction of the film franchise.
Of course, during all that, there was the loud chatter of a potential Quentin Tarantino-crafted Trek movie, but that amounted to nothing but hype as Tarantino only plans to direct one more movie and then retire, and that project will surely be an original creation, not part of an outside brand.
Stay tuned to find out whether Shakman’s take on Star Trek comes any closer to fruition than these others. What would you like to see in a new Trek film?
