'Star Trek 3' movie news: Simon Pegg will be co-writing with Doug Jung

Simon PeggReuters

British Star Simon Pegg has always been known to be a great scriptwriter aside from being an actor. Proof is that he has done so for films such as Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. And now he takes his act in what could be one of his biggest challenges in his career, co-writing for Star Trek 3.

Pegg will be working alongside Doug Jung for the new script as they try to make the July, 2016 target date with a whole lot of changes. That includes a new director in Justin Lin, the same one who directed Fast and the Furious films.

Pegg will have to work double time though as he will continue to play the comedic chief engineer of the USS Enterprise. Pegg is better known as Montgomery Scotty in the film.

Pegg joins the new team that will have a big task ahead of them as they try to follow the footsteps of Jung, Patrick McKay, John D. Payne and Robert Orci.

But being the good scriptwriter he is, Pegg is expected to provide a big boost to help salvage the credibility of the Star Trek franchise, something which many believe became more like Star Wars. Previous director J.J. Abrams drew heavy criticism for doing so with his versions, Star Trek: Into the Darkness and Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan.

With a practically new group behind the scenes, hopes are high that the third Star Trek film can squash all the criticism it has garnered. There is no working title nor plot yet as of this writing.

Paramount hopes the film could be finished by the July next year and in time for the 50th year celebration of the Original Star Trek series back in September, 1966.