‘Star Trek 4’ hires female director, ‘Black Widow’ still seeking one

Star Trek 4 is making franchise history, hiring Jessica Jones and The Defenders director S.J Clarkson to helm the massive science fiction project, becoming the first female to direct a Star Trek movie in franchise history.

Paramount’s Jim Gianopulos confirmed the studio is developing two Star Trek films during his CinemaCon presentation. There other is the sequel to their existing franchise and the mysterious Quentin Tarantino project, which recently landed The Revenant screenwriter Mark L. Smith.

Details on Star Trek 4 are still under wraps, but the film is expected tol see the return of Chris Hemsworth as Captain Kirk’s (Chris Pine) father, who died in the opening scene to 2009’s Star Trek.

Per the report, the film is said to feature a time travel plot point that allows Pine’s Kirk to encounter his father. The script comes from J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay with J.J. Abrams and Lindsey Weber producing through Bad Robot, alongside executive producers David Ellison and Dana Goldberg of Skydance Media.

Zachary Quinto is also set to return. Quinto and Pine got big time raises when they signed on for a fourth film back in 2015, but according to THR, the studio doesn’t have acting deals with other cast members including Simon Pegg, John Cho, Zoe Saldana and Karl Urban.

Clarkson also directed hit TV shows like Dexter, Orange is the New Black, Bates Motel, and Banshee. Most recently, she directed all four episodes of the miniseries Collateral.

Meanwhile, Marvel is setting a course to hire a female director for the rumored Black Widow project. According to THR, the studio has evidently been meeting with a number of different female directors.

“Marvel Studios has been looking for a director to break its glass ceiling with Black Widow and has been meeting with filmmakers such as Deniz Gamze Erguven (the Turkish movie Mustang), Chloe Zhao (The Rider) and Amma Asante (A United Kingdom), among several others. That search is still ongoing, according to sources. ”

Variety added in a report that two other names are also in consideration: Maggie Betts(Novitiate) and Angela Robinson (Professor Marston and the Wonder Women).

Scarlett Johansson would star in the potential Black Widow movie, although anything is possible with Marvel going into a new phase of films.