Chris Pine and Chris Hemsworth Negotiations Put Future of Star Trek 4 in Doubt

It looks like some pay issues are causing the recent movement on Star Trek 4 to stall. The Hollywood Reporter indicates that talks have fallen apart with Chris Hemsworth and Chris Pine to reprise their respective roles of George and James Kirk for the planned fourth installment for the rebooted film series.

Previously in 2016 before the release of Star Trek Beyond, Paramount Pictures announced plans for a fourth installment for the franchise. The plot would reportedly feature an adult James T. Kirk meeting his deceased Starfleet father, George Kirk, who was portrayed by Chris Hemsworth in the 2009 Star Trek film.

However, despite strong reviews, Beyond only ended up bringing in $343 million worldwide at the box office, and only $158 million in the domestic market off of a $190 million production budget, not including prints and advertising. That put the future of the franchise in serious doubt.

But recently, there was some movement with the franchise, and it appeared that Paramount was moving forward with a fourth film despite the underwhelming box office returns. S.J. Clarkson was tapped to direct the project, potentially making her the first female director for a Star Trek movie.

Per the report, Hemsworth and Pine were both in negotiations to return to the franchise, but talks fell apart when both sides reportedly “walked away from the table.” Deals with other cast members such as Zoe Saldana, Zachary Quinto, Karl urban, Simon Pegg, and John Cho was expected to come afterwards.

The main issue here is that the scenario seems to hinge on the casting of both Pine and Hemsworth. Both actors want the studios to stick to their current deal. Insiders are claiming that Paramount is holding the line on the budget since Trek is not as profitable in theaters as Marvel Studios or the Star Wars Franchise, which is generally accurate.

Pine and Hemsworth’s parties are claiming that they have existing deals in place for the sequel, and Paramount is attempting to go back on them by forcing them to accept pay cuts. From Paramount’s perspective, it appears they are trying to cut costs on the budget after the mediocre box office performance for Star Trek Beyond.

Pine had reportedly signed on for a fourth movie when he re-upped for Star Trek Beyond. Hemsworth was previously attacked to Star Trek 4 as reported way back in 2016, but at the time, Paramount was under a different regime headed by Brad Grey. His status for the fourth film is said to be “murky.”

Paramount doesn’t want to back down due to the high cost of the third film, which one insider says lost the studio money.

The highest grossing earner in the franchise to date is 2013’s Star Trek Into Darkness, which made $467 million worldwide. The 2009 movie made only $385 million worldwide, but it made $257 million from domestic receipts. That was higher than the $228 million domestic for Star Trek Into Darkness.

Those amounts seem paltry in comparison to a major Marvel Studios, Disney or Star Wars release. Even the greatly maligned Justice League movie climbed to $657 million worldwide. The Trek films seem to have trouble reaching a higher ceiling despite ballooning budgets.

It’s not yet clear what will happen to Star Trek 4 from this point on. It’s still possible both sides could return tot he negotiating table.

Insiders for Paramount and Skydance are reportedly saying the Bad Robot co-production is a “priority” for the studio and won’t be put on hold.

It seems momentum has constantly been an issue for the franchise in 2009. Despite the new movie doing very well, there was no plan in place to fast-track a sequel, and audiences had to wait for four years until Into Darkness. Then in 2016, Star Trek Beyond failed to really capitalize on the film being released to coincide with the franchise’s 50th anniversary.

Paramount and CAA, who reps Hemsworth and Pine, had no comment on the story.