EXCLUSIVE: After orchestrating the Marvel/Disney+ series WandaVision to a 23 Emmy nomination haul, Matt Shakman has made a deal to direct the next untitled Star Trek film for Paramount and Bad Robot’s JJ Abrams.
Deadline hears the film will now move at warp speed and begin production next spring. They have a script by Lindsey Beer and Geneva Robertson. Recent attempts at scripting Trek films were done by The Revenant‘s Mark L. Smith (for Quentin Tarantino) and another by Noah Hawley.
Shakman came out of theater and remains the artistic director of the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles, and before WandaVision he was EP and director of The Great, and helmed episodes of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Fargo and Game of Thrones.
After the visionary job on WandaVision, Shakman’s now an A-list film director who chose Star Trek over several other offers. This is a coup for Paramount’s motion picture group studio chairman Emma Watts, who pushed hard to land Shakman. He is repped by UTA and Artists First.
