In a time when we’re blessed with too much Star Trek on TV, there’s been a shortage of Star Trek in the movie theaters. Noah Hawley wants to change that. The acclaimed writer, director, and executive producer of hit shows like Fargo and Legion, is in pre-production for a Star Trek movie that will introduce a new crew.
In recent interviews, Hawley shared that the script is finished and some conceptual work is in early stages for the new Star Trek film for Paramount. He said the new crew would connect to the existing franchise canon, similar to what he did with the Fargo television series, which was based on the film of the same name. Unfortunately, the project was placed on hold by Paramount’s new president of the Paramount Motion Picture Group, Emma Watts, as reported by Variety.
We don’t have confirmation on why the movie project was put on hold, but rumors surfaced in August that the plot somehow mirrored our current pandemic so it may have been a little too much on the nose for the studio (and audiences).
There are also rumors circulating that Watts is interested in switching gears to bring a Star Trek film to the silver screen featuring Chris Hemsworth, reprising his role as George Kirk who somehow gets to work with his son James T. Kirk, played by Chris Pine, despite dying years before Jim Kirk entered Starfleet. Frankly we’d rather see a fresh crew and storyline than more time-traveling antics in a Star Trek movie. Please … NO MORE TIME TRAVEL STORIES!
HIS WAS THE MOST HUMAN?
Hawley also shared the film would explore humanity’s role in the creation of the United Federation of Planets in another interview in Entertainment Weekly. Hawley said:
“I can’t say much about it except it’s an argument for why humanity should prevail and why we should come together and unite, which I think is important—to look at the United Federation of Planets and remember at some point Earth is what we are now and then we invented warp technology and met extraterrestrial life and everybody came together.”
This is an interesting concept worth exploring. We know that Earth’s humanity finally starts to get its act together in the late 21st Century, as well as other interesting milestones like the invention of the warp drive by Zefram Cochrane. We’ve never really seen an in-depth exploration of how the Federation and Starfleet became what it is based on mostly human ideals, however.
WHICH STAR TREK MOVIE WILL WE GET?
There are actually three potential Star Trek films in the works. Beside Hawley’s Star Trek and the (yet another time travel story) Chris Hemsworth project, a third movie is on the table from Quentin Tarantino. The movie would be based on an episode from the Original Series.
That episode is “A Piece of the Action” from the second season of the Star Trek: TOS. The script has been written but needs additional work according to Tarantino. It’s an interesting concept, but knowing Tarantino, it will be more a gangster flick than a Starfleet film. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it would be terrific to get a fresh story like the one Hawley envisions.
Hopefully, Watts can bring some effective guidance to the Star Trek franchise, which is currently on overload. We love the new Star Trek series, but with even more shows on the way to run concurrently with the existing shows, it may be a little too much Trek.
