After J. J.Abrams left the Star Trek for the new episodes of Star Wars, James Kirk and company have brooded behind the curtains, patiently waiting for developments for the franchise. Now with the lead actors Chris Pine and ZacharyQuinto finally receiving well deserved salary raises, new doors haveopened for the Star Trek franchise with a confirmed fourth movie coming out inthe future.
The lastinstalment, Into Darkness grossed an impressive $467 million worldwide, buttaking into account the gross totals of Avengers, Transformers or the recentlyreleased Jurassic World (above $1 billion already), this number is still farbehind expectations.
The studio, Paramount, only gave small raises tothe actors for their roles in the new sequel, Star Trek Beyond, that has just begun shooting. Pine and Quinto's agents did not like this approach a bit.
The actorsjoined the franchise in 2007, initially signing up for the reboot and twosequels. Although only one sequel has been made so far, the agents argued that contractscannot bind someone for more than seven years, or 2014 in this case. Paramount at first dissented, but did not wantto get into an ugly court battle either, so the two sides have finally reached an agreement.
Thisbasically means that Captain James Kirk and Spock will both survive theupcoming third Film, Beyond, however there's been no word about Zoe Saldana.
Ofcourse, Saldana's profile became noticeable after her debut in Guardians ofthe Galaxy, so she is due to a proper pay raise as well. Whether Paramount isencouraged to give her that remains in question. Pine will reportedly earn $3million for Beyond, and $6 million for the fourth movie. Quinto's new salary hasn't been disclosed.
Star TrekBeyond is directed by Fast and Furious 6's director Justin Lin, with Simon Peggand Doug Jung as screenwriters. Originally Bob Orci was tasked withdirecting and writing the movie, but Paramount wasn't pleased with his directions for the franchise.The new Star Trek is to be released on July 8, 2016 with Pine, Quinto, Saldana,John Cho, Karl Urban and Simon Pegg all returning along with Idris Elba as thepotential villain of the movie.
