Let’s not put ‘Star Trek 3‘ into warp speed just yet.
After promising reports that ‘Attack the Block’ director (and frequent Edgar Wright collaborator) Joe Cornish would be directing the follow up to ‘Star Trek Into Darkness‘ comes word that Cornish is “no longer involved” with the upcoming sequel.
Variety is reporting that Cornish, who was never officially hired as part of the production but was working closely with the team, is out as the ‘Star Trek 3′ director, with no reason given for the departure. At the same time, Alex Kurtzman, who had produced and co-written the previous two ‘Star Trek’ films, has also left the project. Replacing Kurtzman will be newbie writers J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay who will work with Roberto Orci. There were no potential replacement candidates noted for Cornish.
Cornish was a fan favorite to replace director J.J. Abrams on ‘Star Trek 3′ and even Abrams himself said, “I adore [Joe] and love him and can’t wait to see what he does next. Hopefully it will be Star Trek,” before calling ‘Attack the Block’ one of his favorite films of the year.
The hiring of Cornish, who co-wrote Marvel’s ‘Ant-Man‘ with Wright, would’ve stabilized a rocky franchise and given ‘Star Trek 3′ some goodwill with the fans who recently ranked ‘Star Trek Into Darkness’ the worst ‘Star Trek’ film of all-time.
Paramount is hoping for a 2016 release for ‘Star Trek 3.’
