Update: The folks over at TrekMovie have confirmed with producer Bryan Burk that the film is eyeing a “late spring or early summer” start.
JJ Abrams is going to be a very busy guy for the next little while. This fall, he will be shooting his mysterious Steven Spielberg homage “Super 8,” which he will have to turn around quickly to make its tentative and still undetermined summer 2011 release. He will also be producing the upcoming “Mission: Impossible IV” with Tom Cruise and Simon Pegg, which is scheduled to hit theaters on December 16, 2011 and tentatively slated to begin this fall as well. And oh yeah, there’s a little movie called “Star Trek 2” that he needs to deliver by June 29, 2012.
Speaking to MTV on the red carpet for “Dinner For Schmucks,” Bruce Greenwood said “the plan” is to shoot the sequel in January. Hmm…something tells us that date is definitely going to shift for a couple of reasons.
Firstly, Abrams is going to need time wrap and finish “Super 8” before he even begins the monumental task of getting “Star Trek 2” in front of cameras. Secondly, if the Jack Ryan reboot “Moscow” gets underway for its planned late winter/early spring shoot, Chris Pine simply won’t be available.
Could pre-production start in January? Certainly, but we think a spring start for “Star Trek 2” is more likely. “Batman 3” will hit theaters two weeks after “Star Trek 2” and it won’t be filming until March or April so we would imagine the similarly sized blockbuster will probably be working with the same production timelines.