Jendresen Blames 'Regime Change' For Film Delay

A "classic case of Hollywood regime change" doomed Eric Jendresen's script for an eleventh Star Trek feature film, the writer said, blaming new management for shelving Star Trek: The Beginning.

"A project is greenlighted by one regime, and by the time it's delivered, there's a coup d'etat," Jendresen told Sy Fy Portal. He explained that the replacement of Paramount's David DeLine with Gail Berman after the announced CBS-Viacom split and Paramount reorganization had brought new priorities for the franchise.

The Beginning, explained Jendresen, was meant to fill the "huge void" in Star Trek canon between the end of Star Trek: Enterprise and the beginning of the original series picks up. During that era, the United Federation of Planets came together to fight the Romulans. "The notion was to do a prequel to the original series and fill that void with, ostensibly, a trilogy," added Jendresen. "Three films, which all would deal with Kirk's progenitor, a man by the name of Tiberius Chase."

Jendresen, who won an Emmy for Band of Brothers, said that he wanted to explore the causes of the Romulan war. But the project was put aside by the new management. "Essentially, what's being said is true...this is 'dead' because it's not moving forward," he noted, saying that in Hollywood a film has to keep moving through the production cycle or it is considered dead.

"There is a producer at Paramount who has been championing this and the notion that we have the opportunity to plug the gap with this trilogy," he added, saying that the idea was to find a concept that would bring new fans to the franchise as well as keeping current Star Trek fans happy. He did not know when any further developments might occur.

The original item is at Sy Fy Portal.

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