Deadline reports that Lin was offered the job after the studio and producers narrowed the list of potential filmmakers down to four names last week — a relatively quick process likely made more urgent by the franchise’s upcoming 50th anniversary in 2016 and the desire to get the movie out by then.
Related: Star Trek Into Darkness review
Lin directed four installments of the blockbuster Fast & Furious franchise, including 2006’s The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, 2009’s Fast & Furious, 2011’s Fast Five, and 2013’s Fast & Furious 6. Those four films earned more than $1.9 billion worldwide. Lin is also attached to direct the first two episodes of the second season of True Detective, and the upcoming sequel to The Bourne Legacy, which was recently postponed and subsequently freed up his schedule for Star Trek.
It’s unknown whether the third installment of the rebooted Star Trek franchise will still follow the script penned by Orci, Patrick McKay, and J.D. Payne, but Orci will stay on as one of the film’s producers. There’s been no official synopsis of the untitled Star Trek film released yet, but the original script reportedly involved a deep-space adventure for Captain James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) and the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise.
