Star Trek beams up first female director for next film
S.J. Clarkson makes sci-fi history as the first woman to direct Spock and his fellow Enterprise shipmates in Star Trek 4.
Chris Hemsworth is slated to reprise his role as Captain Kirk's father George in the new Star Trek movie.
The Star Trek franchise is known for traveling in uncharted territory, and now it seems it's going where none of its movies have gone before -- into a new outer space tale with its first ever female director.
S.J. Clarkson has been tapped to direct Star Trek 4, making her the first woman to helm a film in the Star Trek film franchise, according to a report from Variety on Thursday.
While Paramount Pictures had no official announcement of the hire, the movie studio announced at CinemaCon in Las Vegas on Thursday that a fourth Star Trek movie is in the works with the possible inclusion of actor Chris Hemsworth (who starred as Captain Kirk's father in 2009's Star Trek film that initially rebooted the movie franchise).
Actor Zachary Quinto is rumored to reprise his role as Spock.
Details on the new movie are vague, but fans are speculating from the casting that time travel must be a plot point in the new story arc.
Clarkson is known mostly for her work directing TV shows such as Dexter, Bates Motel, Orange is the New Black and Jessica Jones. She also recently directed various episodes for Marvel's The Defenders series on Netflix.
Paramount Pictures isn't the only movie studio to hiring female directors. Recently Warner Bros. appointed Cathy Yan to helm the upcoming Harley Quinn spinoff film, its first female Asian-American director for a superhero movie. It also hired director Ava DuVernay to handle its upcoming comic book movie New Gods.
Paramount Pictures did not immediately respond to a request for a comment.