Paramount Places Star Trek 2 as Priority Over Jack Ryan Reboot

Paramount is invested in Chris Pine. He's headlining the Star Trek franchise (co-headlining along with Zachary Quinto, to be exact) and the studio decided to cement that working relationship by making him the new Jack Ryan for the planned reboot Moscow. Clearly, they want to be in the Chris Pine business.

That was a year ago though, and the plan was for Moscow to lens before Star Trek 2. Things even advanced as far as Jack Bender being assigned directing duties and Oscar-winner scribe Steve Zaillian (Schindler's List) performing rewrites.

Word from "TOLDJA" is those plans have been scrapped as Zaillian backed out of the production. In a surprise move (given the mentality of meeting release-dates, quality be damned!), Paramount has placed Moscow on hiatus as they search for a new writer and waiting to get it done right with Bender remaining attached to direct, for the time being.

With the return of Jack Ryan stalled, the priority's been placed on the Star Trek sequel. Despite the script still being worked on (No word if there's even a first draft completed yet; I think that's fans' #1 concern) and J.J. Abrams being ambivalent towards his return to the director's chair, they’re still insisting on that June 29, 2012 release with the start of filming going this fall.

Quiet the tall order all things considered. It's doable where things stand right now, but as time keeps a ticking with no visible progress that opening next summer is looking less and less likely. Thankfully our pals at Coming Soon cornered Abrams and brought up that concern with this response:

"We're working on the story. That's probably more important than the release date at this point, but at the moment, we're not going to change anything."

If Paramount is serious about keeping that date (and they badly need Star Trek 2 after losing The Avengers), a "Ya" or "Nay" answer from Abrams, whose producing the sequel regardless, should be given so they can lock down a directorial replacement and get the ball rolling. Matt Reeves, anyone?

And if (God forbid for fans...like me) that Star Trek 2 can't hit summer 2012, there's always that Christmas instead. Ironic considering the reboot was originally set for Christmas 2008 before they opted for Summer 2009 months into filming (read: they saw the footage being pulled together and knew they had a mega hit on their hands). The way I see it if they keep their release, they'll kick The Amazing Spider-Man's ass and if they move to say Christmas '12 they'll kick Superman: The Man of Steel's instead.