Top 6 Directors To Take Over The Star Trek Franchise

Ok, so the “bad” news is that shooting has begun on Star Trek: Beyond, and former Fast and Furious director Justin Lin is filling the shoes of J.J. Abrams for this latest installment. Lin is a peculiar choice, and when one looks at the Furious movie franchise, one doesn’t necessarily scream “let that guy direct science fiction!” However, after Star Trek: Beyond, Lin has a lot on his plate: he’s directing the next Bourne movie, leading the remake of Shaolin Temple, and producing the remake of Highlander. It seems unlikely that he’ll be able to continue with the Star Trek film franchise, so here are six directors that can take the Captain’s chair and put the Enterprise back on course:

6. Chan-Wook Park

Oldboy. Stoker. The upcoming remake of Fingersmith. When you watch these films, you see Chan-Woo Park has lots of vision. He comes up with great ways to take a piece of text and move it in directions never thought about. He’s got a style that wouldn’t be the most obvious for Star Trek, but might be the freshest. Considering that the franchise is turning an impressive 50 years old, innovation is something that should be on the top minds of the producers.

5. Neill Blomkamp

Ok, so technically Neill Blomkamp is batting one (District 9 was awesome) for three (Elysium and Chappie were box office duds), but he’s got a lot of vision. Right now he’s attached (sort-of) to the reboot of the Alien franchise, so he knows all about being able to carry through with someone else’s vision and reigniting a franchise.  He has an understanding of aliens and space and technology, and his filmmaking is quite unique and innovative.

4. Danny Boyle

Star Trek is tough because it can be a lot of things; it can be cerebral, it can be allegorical, it can be action-packed, it can be horror, comedy… you name it. Danny Boyle has made a movie in almost every genre, ranging from low budget horror (28 Days Later) to  big Bollywood musical (Slumdog Millionaire) to an underrated, visually stunning sci-fi (how come no one has seen Sunshine?). He can handle Star Trek’s nuances with ease and with excitement.

3. Jon Favreau

Have people forgotten about this man here? Jon Favreau more or less put Marvel back on the cinematic map by making Iron Man a film that was filled with joy and action and comedy, making us root for both Tony Stark as well as Robert Downey, Jr. If anyone can carry a franchise successfully, it’s The-Actor-Formerly-Known-As-Gutter. When it also comes to big action films set in space, don’t forget Zathura (which a lot of people unfortunately did).

2. Kenneth Branagh

I was shocked at how majestic Thor was. Kenneth Branagh treated the material like it was Shakespeare, and did not drown us with exposition about how Gods walked among us. He gave us the premise and then ran with it. Star Trek can be bogged down with technobabble, but Branagh can cut through all of that and give us great character development. Plus, he’ll be able to handle it with the same seriousness that Patrick Stewart gave Jean-Luc Picard.

1. Pete Docter

It’s just a matter of time before Pete Docter makes the live-action jump similar to Brad Bird. More and more directors are making amazing action films even though they did not have those origins. Marc Webb directed Amazing Spider-Man, but was known for 500 Days of Summer. The Russo Brothers, before being Marvel’s current go-to guys, directed episodes of Community and Arrested Development. Pete Docter has proven that he can take animated characters and have audiences laugh, cry, and cheer at their actions.  Imagine what he can do with actors wearing pointy ear prosthetics. Paramount, give this guy the football and let him run with it.