On the company’s earnings call today, Viacom COO Tom Dooley noted a few projects that the company is looking to produce for release beyond next September.
Star Trek 2 was already known. It has a release date of June 29, 2012 and Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci and Damon Lindelof are hammering out the script as we speak. They’re supposed to deliver it by the holidays. J.J. Abrams, who is producing, hasn’t committed to climbing back into the director’s chair, but the studio definitely wants him. (He’s working hard on Super 8, which Paramount has slotted for June.)
The other projects Dooley mentioned were a second G.I. Joe movie that Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick are writing and the Jack Ryan reboot that Jack Bender is directing.
More surprising, he listed a new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie (the company spent $60 million to acquire global and merchandising rights to the franchise a year ago for its Nickelodeon label). Michael Bay and his Platinum Dunes banner have been developing a screenplay with writers Art Marcum and Matt Holloway.
And blissful news for Derek Zoolander fans: Dooley also included the Zoolander sequel that Justin Theroux is writing for himself to direct. Sounds like Ben Stiller could be back on the runway as the really, really ridiculously good-looking model sooner rather than later.
