• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

STAR TREK 4 BACK ON! Noah Hawley to write and direct

Status
Not open for further replies.
I think possibly one of the biggest problems with cinema Trek going forward is that movie franchises are big budget and big stakes. Star Trek, after the magnificently extravagent Motion Picture, pretty much 'got by' by having modest budgets, and good stories that hid those cheap origins. But they never had a lot of money to play with, so the margin by which they needed to become profitable was less, and Paramount had enough give to be able to absorb the occasional flop without putting the brakes on Star Trek movies completely. It's hard to say if in today's cinema climate, the old Trek way of doing things could work. And you have to at least match the kind of spectacle that the TV Trek is currently doing, if not exceed it. Go big or go home. So, there's that. :)

I also kind of like the idea of the TV Trek continuing in the prime timeline, and the movies continuing in the Kelvin timeline. That way the movies are complete unrestrained by canon.

Agreed. :techman: I don't want the movies to be 'episodic' like they kind of got under the Next Gen crew, but keeping them in their own continuity means that the movie-makers and TV people have the freedom to be truly creative, without worrying about stepping on each other's toes.
 
I'm happy never to see a movie with the Kelvinverse cast again. Half of the actors are probably too expensive, their ages will start showing, etc... While I enjoyed the films (well, Beyond much less so that the first two), to me the trilogy chronicled the end of the most iconic Trek character: Spock. In that sense, it was "prime out of prime". They were a great placeholder while CBS geared up the new batch of prime Trek. Discovery and Picard bookend the entire franchise, with the latter continuing on with the prime universe where ST'09 left it.
 
I'm happy never to see a movie with the Kelvinverse cast again. Half of the actors are probably too expensive, their ages will start showing, etc... While I enjoyed the films (well, Beyond much less so that the first two), to me the trilogy chronicled the end of the most iconic Trek character: Spock. In that sense, it was "prime out of prime". They were a great placeholder while CBS geared up the new batch of prime Trek. Discovery and Picard bookend the entire franchise, with the latter continuing on with the prime universe where ST'09 left it.
it does seem that with the success? of DISCO, the return of PICARD and the Primeverse that the Kelvin movieverse has become redundant (esp with the movie quality FX/sets etc of the streaming series) and the collapse of ST4 and Tarantino seemingly losing interest in his movie, and the ongoing silence/rumours abut this guys movie suggests that the studio isnt that fussed on even doing another movie .. I mean they must think 'well a Trek film is only ever going to pull in 400m absolute max and it'll cost at least 130m to do it so kind of whats the point now everything is expected to do a billion dollars to be seen as a hit'
 
it does seem that with the success? of DISCO, the return of PICARD and the Primeverse that the Kelvin movieverse has become redundant (esp with the movie quality FX/sets etc of the streaming series) and the collapse of ST4 and Tarantino seemingly losing interest in his movie, and the ongoing silence/rumours abut this guys movie suggests that the studio isnt that fussed on even doing another movie .. I mean they must think 'well a Trek film is only ever going to pull in 400m absolute max and it'll cost at least 130m to do it so kind of whats the point now everything is expected to do a billion dollars to be seen as a hit'

I dunno, prime timeline stuff is more redundant to me than exploring a completely new and unpredictable universe where you have more narrative freedom, and aren't trapped by established canon. In that, I feel like kelvin trek is the gold mine and Paramount is the luckier one, but I concede they may not get it or take advantage of it like others would've done already. And yet, they still are the ones who have, in my opinion, the trek iteration with more potential.
Truthfully, even if Paramount is concerned about trek not having the box office results of other franchises, it still kind of is the only franchise they have right now that can make money. So I don't think they'll never make other trek movies, but we aren't allowed to know what is happening behind the scenes. It's true, however, that they wasted too much time. Their laziness and mismanagement isn't necessarily indicative of the franchise's potential or success, thus whether kelvin trek is redundant, though.


I guess for fans of current TV trek the kelvin movies might feel like an 'extra' right now but the bigger, diverse, audience of movies isn't necessarily the same audience of the shows so their needs may not be placated by getting trek on a streaming platform only. Besides, I find it more likely you have kelvin trek fans who watched discovery&co because they are fans of the more recent movies, than fans who exclusively watch only the shows.

I get what you may suggest here, though. When it comes to quality, tv has improved a lot in terms of budget and there is a feeling by some that movies released the old fashioned way are redundant. This hardly is an issue, if it's one, related to trek only though. Using that logic, marvel&co shouldn't make feature movies either but they do. Take disney/star wars, Baby Yoda is super popular right now but how many people actually watched the Mandalorian? I'm a star wars fan but even I watched it mostly because of the memes about cute baby yoda lol
It's a spin off not particularly linked to the movies but still, I feel there are aspects you can understand only if you watched the other stuff otherwise you will only see a show about a guy with a helmet who adopts a cute baby alien (which is a totally valid reason to want to to watch it, btw). I feel it's still the audience of the movies that is more likely to want to watch the TV spin offs than the reverse.
 
Last edited:
it does seem that with the success? of DISCO,
DISCO is a success. We wouldn't have Picard, Section 31 and Lower Decks without it being so.
Kelvin movieverse has become redundant
No for my money. I would much rather have Kelvin movieverse than the current output if I had to choose. Kelvin Universe is more open, more interesting and the crew dynamics are something I really want to see explored further. The comics have done an OK job but not great.
 
That bit about the film is not a quote from the ViacomCBS CEO as you suggest.
True, that sentence is not attributed to anyone in particular.

The ViacomCBS CEO is quoted as uttering a fair amount of dynamic-sounding but ultimately not-terribly-specific phraseology--"extending it across the house" and "maximizing the power of our content" and "applying more rigor to managing our content mix" and so forth--but the bit about "a new Star Trek feature film at Paramount" was not a direct quote.

So, for now, we can easily ignore those 4chan leaks.
Wait-- we need another reason to ignore leaks from 4chan besides simply that they're from 4chan? :confused:
 
The ViacomCBS CEO is quoted as uttering a fair amount of dynamic-sounding but ultimately not-terribly-specific phraseology--"extending it across the house" and "maximizing the power of our content" and "applying more rigor to managing our content mix" and so forth--but the bit about "a new Star Trek feature film at Paramount" was not a direct quote.
He's quoting the business equivalent of one of those foreign language phrasebooks.
Well, there you go. For now, I'll take the official word over a highly dubious "leak".
 
I'm gonna guess they have no idea what they're doing with the movie franchise at the moment.
This is nothing new lol been there since 2009 circa tbh.

But then again, I'm sure they are talking about it and they do have plans. .we just aren't allowed to know the details.
My concern honestly isn't whether we get a movie or not. I think they'll make more movies at one point, I'm just not sure they won't waste this iteration...again. The rumors such as the Tarantino stuff and now this other guy don't give me confidence that they want to make good movies and continue what was started (that they seem to not even recognize was, after all, successful). It seems like heartless ...pretty much making a trek movie for the sake of making one. But to be fair again, we only know part of the story. From my perspective it seems Paramount&co are a mess but I concede that all the work behind a movie is far more complex than what we are allowed to know. Unlucky actually are the producers and directors who care about the story and characters because they have to still meet the demands and expectations of investors and other executives that might represent an obstacle to any plan you may have or not have.
I thought star wars was in better hands for example but after reading about the behind the scenes drama around the new trilogy I realized I was wrong. I thought those guys had a plan but it seems they actually didn't.
 
I don't know much about the current state of hollywood. That being said it appears that the powers that be don't see room for a new Star Trek film. Genre films are such corporate, pardon the pun, enterprises which cost so much to make and market. There's so much competition and Star Trek isn't as unique as it used to be. Add to that they have to find the right writer/director with a moneymaking record.
I don't even know how much money a new film has to make in order to be considered a success.

It seems a far cry from the 80s and 90s where you could get the cast together for a limited budget, you had a trusted creative productive team to shepherd the films and you knew you'd garner a respectable 60 to 80 million dollars at the box office.

Perhaps the JJ Abrams films were just a fluke at the right time and place?
 
Last edited:
Perhaps the JJ Abrams films were just a fluke at the right time and place?

The first two took advantage of the lack of new Star Wars films, there was a gap in the market. Now that the sequel trilogy is finished and Disney is being cautious about new films, there will be room for new Trek movies at the box office. This requires Paramount to realize this fact and get the release timing right.
 
I take what this site says with a grain of salt but according to https://wegotthiscovered.com/movies/star-trek-4-director-reportedly-doesnt-original-cast-return/
Hawley and Paramount are in a disagreement because he doesn't want to use the current cast but Paramount doesn't want a reboot.
If it's true, I dunno what's Hawley's issue tbh. I can't see why he necessarily needs a new cast to do what he supposedly wants to do. He doesn't even have a story and script yet.

Frankly, reading that interview the guy made recently he needs to chill. He already turned me off a bit because I'm sick of people pulling that pretentious "oh I understand trek's spirit more so my movie gonna be better than the others blah blah blah' narrative. That's painting yourself into a corner. Besides, these movies aren't just mindless action scenes and I find it disingenuos and silly for someone to reduce these movies only to that.

Putting yourself into a competition with the previous creative team is always lame and counterproductive for me. JJ's movies were successful so in this case it might also come across as insecurity too.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top