Two years ago, just before Star Trek Beyond opened, Paramount announced a fourth Trek movie—not to be confused with Trek movie Quentin Tarantino pitched—with Chris Hemsworth slated to return as Captain Kirk’s dad (he cameoed in the 2009 movie). At the time, I didn’t really get it. We had just discovered Hemsworth is a comedy grunt, and Pine had not yet emerged as the #1 Chris. But now we know Pine, the most versatile and straight-up talented Chris, is Top Chris, and Hemsworth is at his best when he’s funny. And now I’m kind of into this fourth Star Trek movie, because it unites the Top Chrises, and thing we now know we need. Another reason to get into it? Paramount is in talks with SJ Clarkson, who would be the first woman to direct a Star Trek movie. They’re boldly going where they’ve never gone before!
Clarkson has worked extensively on television, directing shows notable for their action. Most recently she directed Collateral, the Carey Mulligan procedural, but she’s also directed episodes of Jessica Jones, The Defenders, Heroes, Banshee, and Dexter among many others. She’s got a knack for action and Collateral, which she directed entirely, shows off a distinctive atmospheric style. Given how funny Pine and Hemsworth are, it would kind of be a bummer if their Trek movie doesn’t have a sense of humor, but I can see a kind of Edgar Wright thing happening, where Clarkson can bring considerable visual command to a movie with situational humor. We really don’t know what this movie will be, and we won’t for a while, but we now we know how funny Pine and Hemsworth are, and Hemsworth, especially, is so much better in comedy mode I don’t know why you’d bother with anything else. So I’m still hoping for a father-son space-road-trip action-comedy, but one with SJ Clarkson’s signature atmospheric style.
