'Star Trek' Sequel Moving Ahead at Warp Speed

Probably a bit of a foregone conclusion, but they're going to make a Star Trek sequel. The surprising news is that it has been officially announced over a month before the reconfigured series even blasts off. Paramount has re-hired Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman to to write the screenplay in conjunction with Damon Lindelof. Lindelof is well-known to fans of Lost; along with Trek director J.J. Abrams, Jeffery Lieber, and Carlton Cuse, he's one of the driving creative forces behind the show. In a statement, Lindelof commented on the peculiar nature of the early greenlight. "There's obviously a lot of hubris involved in signing on to write a sequel of a movie that hasn't even come out yet, but we're so excited about the first one that we wanted to proceed." Lindelof isn't just jumping on board now; he's a Trek producer, and given the complicated but sometimes mind-blowing structure of Lost (did you see that last scene this past week?), where the story goes from here is a more enticing prospect with him in the mix. "With a franchise rebirth, the first movie has to be about origin. But with a second, you have the opportunity to explore incredibly exciting things," notes Lindelof. "We'll be ambitious about what we'll do." Whoa, daddy...sign me up.The sequel is tentatively planned for summer 2011, and it's not yet known whether Abrams would return to direct.