'Star Trek 2' Close To Locking In Director J.J. Abrams

Since finishing 'Super 8,' Abrams working on 'Trek 2' script.
By Terri Schwartz

JJ Abrams
Photo: Getty Images

Trekkies and J.J. Abrams fans alike can rejoice, for the "Super 8" director is at long last close to committing to helm "Star Trek 2." Now that Abrams can no longer use his stock answer — "The truth is that my focus has been so much on finishing 'Super 8' " — to avoid giving any "Star Trek 2" updates, Deadline has confirmed that he is working with the flick's writers and is close to committing to direct the sequel to his hit "Star Trek" reboot.

This must have been the "announcement" Abrams promised MTV News would be coming "soon" back at the "Super 8" premiere in June. But it also means that the film will miss its intended June 29, 2012, release date.

That's good news for "G.I. Joe: Cobra Rises," though, which Deadline is calling "G.I. Joe: Retaliation." The entertainment news site has learned that Paramount is planning on giving the June release date to the "G.I. Joe" sequel and slating "Star Trek 2" for either winter 2012 or summer 2013.

Either way, Paramount has agreed to be ready to jump into production on the flick whenever Abrams is. Abrams is now sitting down with writers Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman to polish up the "Star Trek 2" script, which Deadline is guessing will begin production in January.

MTV News caught up with Damon Lindelof at San Diego Comic-Con, where he chatted about the current status of the script. "There was a lot of work going on over the course of the last year between Bob [Orci] and Alex [Kurtzman] and I," Lindelof said. "We generated, like, a 90-page half-script half-treatment based on some meetings that we've had with J.J. [Abrams]. Now that J.J. is finally finished with 'Super 8,' we've kind of, not thrown out that material, but we're reworking a lot of it."

He added that the final product of the script will hopefully improve upon the sequel the same way "Batman Begins" improved upon "The Dark Knight." " 'Trek 2' has to be better than 'Trek 1,' " Lindelof said. "It has to."

Check out everything we've got on "Star Trek 2."

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