Lost Co-Creator to Direct Star Trek Feature

HOLLYWOOD, February 28: J.J. Abrams, the co-creator of ABC’s
Lost, is set to helm the new Star
Trek feature film being released by
Paramount Pictures in the U.S. on December 25, 2008.

Abrams previous project with Paramount was the Mission
Impossible III feature film with Tom
Cruise. That feature was penned by Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, who are
writing the script for Star Trek.
The pair will also executive produce alongside Abrams and Bryan Burk. Another Lost co-creator, creator Damon Lindelof, is set to
produce the film, which begins shooting this fall.

The Star Trek
franchise already includes 726 episodes from six different series, beginning in
1966 with the original show created by Gene Roddenberry. The ten Star
Trek films, meanwhile, have grossed in
excess of $1 billion at the worldwide box office. Announcing the Abrams deal
today, Brad Grey, the chairman and CEO of Paramount Pictures, said the “revival
of the Star Trek franchise is an
important part of Paramount's turnaround."

"If there's something I'm dying to see, it's the
brilliance and optimism of Roddenberry's world brought back to the big
screen," said Abrams. "Alex and Bob wrote an amazing script that
embraces and respects Trek canon, but
charts its own course. Our goal is to make a picture for
everyone—life-long fans and the uninitiated. Needless to say, I am
honored and excited to be part of this next chapter of Star Trek."