Huh.
Fargo and Legion creator Noah Hawley has signed on to write and direct the next Star Trek film for Paramount Pictures.
The last Star Trek movie that was being developed by director S.J. Clarkson ended up being shelved after Chris Pine and Chris Hemsworth dropped out of the project after the studio tried to change the deal on them. According to Variety, though, Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, and Zoe Saldana are expected to all return to the U.S.S. Enterprise for the new adventure.
To my (mild) embarrassment, I have not yet seen STAR TREK: BEYOND. I am told that it was not wretched, though. Depending on how you feel about the reboot, that may not be entirely reassuring. Still, I like all those actors in all of those roles. I should probably catch up, in my copious free time.
Beyond was OK, in my book. Felt s lot like an extended episode of one the better TV series, for good and ill. Marked improvement over Into Darkness.
I thought the reboot was cute, and enjoyed it pretty well — especially its setup, which I thought was very Trek. The second one, I went in predisposed to like, and exited the theater fuming. While Into Darkness is objectively not the worst Trek movie, I would rather watch William Shatner’s dumpster-fire Star Trek V five times in a row then watch it even one more time.
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So I went in predisposed to hate the third one…and by the end of the film, it had managed to win me over to a state of more or less complete passive indifference. if I had gone in with an open mind, who knows, I might’ve liked it. As it is, I have no use for Beyond…and no desire to revisit it. But I must admit, this news mildly intrigues me. I’m not sure if the man behind the trippiest Marvel series ever (Legion) will give me anything resembling Star Trek. But I’ve got a notion it could be very entertaining, regardless.
Beyond felt wretched to me. It stopped playing on the airplane screen because it was descending for a landing, and I was relieved that it was done.
Beyond is an okay sci fi adventure movie, which is all I really want out of a Star Trek movie anymore. I think it helped that they were doing their own story (unlike Into Darkness, which was basically a Wrath of Khan do-over).
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On the other hand, the fact that they want Chris Hemsworth involved is troubling, because that pretty much implies some sort of wacky time travel/alternate universe shenanigans which seems to me most likely to end poorly.