Paramount Moves G.I. Joe 2 Into Star Trek 2 Release Date; Moves Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol Up a Week
Posted 07.28.11 by Ryan
It was inevitable, but Star Trek 2 (working title) is now without a release date. Paramount Pictures scheduled the sequel for a June 29, 2012, release last January, just months after Star Trek had arrived on DVD. There was only one problem with Paramount setting a release date two and a half years in advance: there was no script and no promise that director J.J. Abrams would return for the sequel. With Star Trek 2's release date now less than a year away, there's finally some progress on those fronts, but not enough to salvage the release date.
Deadline reports that Abrams is "moving toward a commitment to direct" the sequel, now that Super 8 is behind him, but has yet to formally accept the director's chair. At the 2011 Comic-Con Star Trek 2 screenwriters Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, and Damon Lindelof revealed that Abrams is now available to sit down and work on the details of their 70 page outline and could start production in January. According to the report, a January start would mean a possible move to either December 2012 or summer 2013 (our bet is the latter).
Filling the June 29th slot is G.I. Joe 2, referred to in the Deadline report as G.I. Joe: Retaliation, though that new name is unconfirmed at this time. The G.I. Joe sequel was originally scheduled for August 10, 2012, but Paramount is obviously feeling confident that director Jon Chu (Justin Bieber: Never Say Never) can deliver a quality tentpole movie that can compete against Sony's The Amazing Spider-Man, which opens less than week later on July 3rd. Zombieland screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick wrote the script for the Joe sequel, which just recently cast Jurassic Park's Joe Mazzello.
Paramount also moved another sequel, Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, to a new release date, according to Box Office Mojo. Originally scheduled to open on December 16, the fourth installment in the Mission: Impossible franchise will now be released on December 21st, the same day as The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and the same holiday weekend as The Adventures of Tintin.