Paramount Pictures is doing some fine tuning on the release date for Star Trek Beyond, the third film in the rebooted series of films that began with J.J. Abrams’ excellent 2009 picture. Per THR, Star Trek Beyond will now open in theaters on July 22, 2016 instead of its initial date of July 8th. It’s only a two week delay, but it makes all the difference to Paramount—on its July 8th date, Star Trek Beyond would be denied an IMAX run given that Warner Bros.’ Tarzan has all those screens booked up at that time. And while the July 22nd date currently has Guy Ritchie’s gritty Knights of the Round Table: King Arthur slated for release, sources tell THR that the Charlie Hunnam-fronted film may be shifting release dates itself.
If King Arthur doesn’t move, it will get the IMAX screens on July 22nd, so it would be a wash as far as Star Trek Beyond is concerned. It’s unclear exactly what kind of deal is worked out between the studios and IMAX, but it would appear that Warner Bros. films get precedence whenever applicable.
Regardless, instead of facing off against Tarzan, Steven Spielberg’s The BFG, and The Purge 3, the new Trek film will now open opposite Ice Age: Collision Course (and King Arthur if it doesn’t movie), one week after Ghostbusters, and one week before the next Bourne sequel.
Fast & Furious helmer Justin Lin steps into the director’s chair for Star Trek Beyond, taking over for Abrams who is only producing. He is working from a screenplay co-written by Simon Pegg and Doug Jung, though Star Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness co-writer Roberto Orci was previously involved as writer and director of Beyond before eventually dropping out.
Pegg also co-stars in Star Trek Beyond alongside Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, Anton Yelchin, and newcomer Idris Elba.
