'Star Trek 3' to open in July 2016

The day after Justin Lin was confirmed in the director's chair, Paramount Pictures, Bad Robot and Skydance Productions have dated the release of the next "Star Trek" feature to July 2016. Justin Lin will helm "Star Trek 3" after directing the first two episodes of the second season of "True Detective" for HBO. Chris Pine, Zoe Saldana, Zachary Quinto, Simon Pegg, Karl Urban, Anton Yelchin and John Cho are expected to return to the cast for this follow-up to "Star Trek" and "Star Trek into Darkness." Slowly but surely, Justin Lin has been rising through the ranks in Hollywood. The Taiwanese-American filmmaker behind "Fast & Furious" 3, 4, 5 and 6 was recently in line to helm the next Jason Bourne movie, at least until the announcement of Paul Greengrass's return to the director's chair, and the possible "Lethal Weapon" reboot. J.J. Abrams, who will co-produce "Star Trek 3," was originally attached to direct before he decided to focus instead on helming "Star Wars 7." Roberto Orci, Abrams' friend and regular collaborator, was also eyed to direct the sequel, before turning down the offer two weeks ago. The release of the third "Star Trek" film in 2016 will coincide with the 50th anniversary of the original TV show's first broadcast.