David Ellison, Paramount’s new CEO, is wasting little time getting the ball rolling on a new slate of projects. Per Deadline and THR, the studio’s priorities include Top Gun 3, Star Trek, Transformers, and World War Z.
“One of our biggest priorities is restoring Paramount as the No. 1 studio for filmmakers and talent in the world,” Ellison said. “Great filmmakers make great movies. For us, we’re going to strategically scale the amount of content for our streaming service as well as studios.“
Dana Goldberg, who has been tapped to lead the new Paramount Pictures studio alongside Josh Greenstein, specifically singled out Star Trek as “a priority across the company.” At the moment, there are two Star Trek movies in development. One of which will be another installment of the Kelvin-verse series with Chris Pine as Captain Kirk, and the other is a prequel set to be helmed by Andor director Toby Haynes with Seth Grahame-Smith writing and Simon Kinberg and J.J. Abrams producing. Not much is known about the film, but it’s previously been reported that it’s set many decades before the events of the 2009 movie and is said to involve the creation of Starfleet and mankind’s first contact with alien life.
As for Top Gun 3, that one’s a no-brainer. Top Gun: Maverick grossed over $1.4 billion and received rave reviews. “Top Gun is a priority for us,” said Goldberg. Nothing has been officially announced yet, but Tom Cruise is expected to return as Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell in Top Gun 3, alongside Miles Teller as Bradley ‘Rooster’ Bradshaw and Glen Powell as Jake ‘Hangman’ Seresin.
Earlier this year, Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski hinted that the next chapter will see Maverick grappling with an existential crisis. “I think we’ve found a way to do it, not only in the scale of what we’re proposing, but the idea itself of the story we’re telling. We’re thinking much bigger than… It’s a really existential crisis that Maverick has in this, and it’s much bigger than himself,” Kosinski explained. “It actually… I’m trying to describe it without giving anything away. [Laughs.] It’s an existential question that Maverick has to deal with, that would make Maverick feel small, I think, as a movie, compared to what we’re talking about.“
Although there have been rumblings of a sequel to World War Z for several years, I’m surprised it was mentioned today. Transformers has been stumbling with its last few installments, although Transformers One did receive some great reviews. As with Star Trek, multiple Transformers projects are in development, including one that could see Michael Bay return to the franchise.
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