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'Star Trek' actor Simon Pegg to co-write the script for third film

Pegg stars in the rebooted 'Star Trek' franchise with actors Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, and Zoe Saldana, among others. Pegg has previously co-written such films as the 2013 movie 'The World's End' and the 2011 film 'Paul.'

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Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP
Simon Pegg stars in the 'Star Trek' films.

“Star Trek” actor Simon Pegg is reportedly taking on another job for the upcoming third “Trek” film: that of script writer.

According to Deadline, Pegg will be co-writing the script with writer Doug Jung, who has previously written for the TV series “Banshee” and “Big Love.”

Pegg starred with actors Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, and Zoe Saldana, among others, in the 2009 movie “Star Trek” and the 2013 film “Star Trek: Into Darkness.” The films had the actors playing younger versions of the characters featured in the original 1960s “Star Trek” TV series, with Pine taking the role of Captain James T. Kirk (originally played by actor William Shatner) and Quinto playing Spock (first played by Leonard Nimoy). Pegg portrays ship’s engineer Montgomery “Scotty” Scott. 

The actor isn’t new to the screenwriting world – he co-wrote the 2011 movie “Paul” with Nick Frost and 2013’s “The World’s End” with “World” director Edgar Wright. 

The first “Star Trek” movie starring the current cast was critically well-received and currently holds a score of 83 out of 100 on the review aggregator website Metacritic. However, the second film, “Darkness,” which found “The Imitation Game” actor Benedict Cumberbatch playing famous “Trek” villain Khan, was less praised and currently has a score of 72 on Metacritic. Our movie critic Peter Rainer gave “Darkness” a B, writing that the movie “delivers the goods, even if some of the goods are less than fresh… Capt. James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) and Mr. Spock (Zachary Quinto) are the emotional core – such as it is – of this space odyssey… 'Star Trek Into Darkness' is a sci-fi blow-out with overtones of the real. Series founder Gene Roddenberry would, I think, approve.” 

The planned third film has already experienced some shuffling behind the scenes. J.J. Abrams helmed the first two “Trek” films with the current cast but Roberto Orci, who co-wrote the first two films, was set to direct the third movie. However, “Fast & Furious 6” director Justin Lin is now set to direct the third “Star Trek” movie.

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