It’s being reported that Pacific Rim and Luther star Idris Elba has entered into negotiations to play the villain in the upcoming Star Trek 3.
Who exactly Elba would be playing is not yet known at the moment, though there have been some whispers that Klingons could be the main bad guys for this latest entry in the franchise. Paramount Pictures and Skydance Productions would not confirm or deny.
Simon Pegg, the star of movies like Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz who plays Scotty in the most recent Star Trek movies, is set to co-write Star Trek 3 along with Dark Blue creator and writer Doug Jung.
Fast and Furious director Justin Linrecently took over as director on the movie, after J.J. Abrams moved on to Star Wars: The Force Awakens and previous director Roberto Orciexited the project. Both Abrams and Orci remain producers.
Earlier this month, we learned that Roberto Orci would no longer be directing Star Trek 3. A shortlist of people to replace Orci, who co-wrote with Alex Kurtzman the first two Star Trek installments of the rebooted universe, was revealed, but no official word… until now.
Justin Lin, who was on said shortlist, has been tapped to directed Star Trek 3 for Paramount Pictures, Skydance Productions, and JJ Abrams’ Bad Robot Productions, according to an exclusive from Deadline.
Ten days ago, it was announced that Roberto Orci would not be making his directorial debut on the tentatively-titled Star Trek 3, thus endangering any hope that the movie would be ready for release in time for the franchise’s 50th anniversary in 2016. Sources close to the production indicated that Paramount Pictures was hoping to snag Edgar Wright, who famously departed Marvel Studios’ long-in-development Ant-Manback in May and was later replaced by Peyton Reed, to replace the inexperienced Orci in the director’s chair on what looks to be an important motion picture on several levels.
It looks as if any hope of retaining the services of the Shaun of the Dead/The World’s End filmmaker has proven to be a pipe dream because a promising shortlist of potential directors for Star Trek 3 has been leaked and Wright’s name is not among them. According to Mike Fleming Jr. at Deadline, Paramount has narrowed their selection of possible directorial pinch hitters to Rupert Wyatt, Duncan Jones, Daniel Espinosa, Justin Lin, and Morten Tyldum.
Back in May, it was announced that Roberto Orci would be directingStar Trek 3 and the Transformers writer even dropped off as executive producer for the Power Rangers movie to focus on the Trek sequel.
Now, Deadline is reporting that Orci, who was to pick up where franchise director J.J. Abrams left off (when he moved on to Star Wars: The Force Awakens), will no longer be directing the third Star Trek movie, but he will stay on as producer.
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