Less than 18 months before its release, Star Trek Beyond didn’t have a script, any sets, or a director. Justin Lin has been sharing his story.
It was all the way back in 2016 that Star Trek appeared on the big screen for its next feature film. This was the third movie starring the ‘Kelvin’ crew, Star Trek Beyond. And, after two Trek films in a row directed by JJ Abrams, the controls were handed over to Justin Lin.
Lin’s most successful movies comprised several Fast & Furious sequels, and he was an unusual choice on the surface to direct the film. But Lin was also a huge Star Trek fan. As such, when he got a call from JJ Abrams, offering him the chance to direct the film, there’s no way Justin Lin wasn’t taking the meeting.
Chatting on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Lin revealed that he was shooting the TV show True Detective when Abrams contacted him, and asked if he had any ideas for a Star Trek film.
Thinking the movie was already in pre-production, Abrams explained that it was shut down at that point. Four days later, Lin was in JJ Abrams’ office pitching what became Star Trek Beyond. He swiftly got the job.
The problem was that it was the end of January. “He said ‘let’s do it’, but we have to start production in June’. No script. Nothing. It was tough. The toughest thing I’ve ever had to do.”
Lin had to make his way to London to meet with Simon Pegg. Pegg and Doug Jung had been hired to write the screenplay at this stage (with Pegg co-starring, of course), and as much as they got on, Justin Lin described what happened as “intense”.
“I had quit three times, and Simon had quit four times… also we didn’t know each other”. On the one hand, you thus had Simon Pegg and Doug Jung writing the script. On the other, Lin had to go to Vancouver so that set construction could get underway.
“I love Simon and Doug”, Lin added, “but it was rough and I didn’t know if we were going to make it out of that first week”.
But, remarkably, filming did begin in June 2015, and the film would be in cinemas to a reasonable response just over a year later. It’s a feat, despite many efforts, that no Star Trek film since has managed…
Read more: The five-year mission to make a sequel to Star Trek Beyond
