Simon Pegg Rewriting STAR TREK 3 Script, Will He GUARDIANS It Up For Paramount?

Deadline reports that Paramount has hired Simon Pegg and Doug Jung (Dark Blue) to rewrite the existing Star Trek 3 script. They might be under the gun as production is expected to being in April. Considering it's projected production start I'm expecting this is more of a punch-up than a page-one rewrite. The extent of the rewrites wasn't revealed in the report.

The studio really doesn't want to push that July 2016 release date as it meets the 50th anniversary of the franchise.

Another angle could be that everything in Roberto Orci's version of the film is getting kicked to the curb. Having two writers coming in to rewrite could mean a complete rewrite wouldn't take as long, but they don't have a huge amount of time to do that. A script by Patrick McKay and John D. Payne was ready to go when Orci was originally hired to direct the third installment but he would be eventually replaced with Fast And Furious franchise director Justin Lin.

Rumors of Roberto blocking other candidates such as Joe Cornish and Rupert Wyatt, to get his way into the director's chair were making the rounds. Let's remember, Orci was a screenwriter without a single directing credit to his name but was hired to direct a huge blockbuster. A move that had a lot of people scratching their heads, since Roberto had plenty of opportunity to direct on the many television shows he wrote for and created.

Will Keenser turn into a wisecracking son of gun?

 Apparently, the original vision for the film involved a new alien race and the rehashing of the time-travel trope to force a William Shatner cameo on audiences. Something I honestly don't want to see since Shatner's Kirk had a great exit in Generations.

Paramount scrapping the script could be happening due to talk of the studio wanting the film to include a lot more comedy using Guardians of The Galaxy as a blueprint. A huge tonal shift for even this version of the Star Trek universe which has some comedic moments but isn't focused on it.

The Guardians comparison isn't that bizarre since it's said hey are trying to make Keenser the Trek version of Rocket Raccoon. He doesn't speak so that's going to be a hard sell unless they give him a voice communicator.

Why spend two movies setting up Klingons not to make them villains?

I'm a bit more shocked that the Klingons aren't going to be our main villains, as far as we know. We've seen J.J. Abrams and the writers basically setup the combative alien warriors in the last two films. At the end of Into Darkness possibly have planted seeds for a full-scale war between The Klingon Empire and The Federation which had been looming for a while.

Considering the script is getting an overhaul or just a punch-up we could see a lot of these rumored elements nixed or just improved. At the very least we can expect some really funny moments via Pegg.

Simon of course having huge comedic screenwriting chops from co-writing Edgar Wright's Cornetto Trilogy which includes Shaun of The Dead, Hot Fuzz and The World's End. Doug Jung recently wrote the film Diamond for Bad Robot and Paramount which would explain his connection as well.



SOURCE: DEADLINE