Simon Pegg To Co-Write Star Trek 3 With Doug Jung

According to Deadline, Simon Pegg has been hired by Paramount Pictures to co-write Star Trek 3. He'll be working on the script alongside Doug Jung, the co-creator of the TNT police drama Dark Blue.

Pegg and Jung are replacing screenwriters Patrick McKay, John D. Payne and Roberto Orci who had been working on the script when Orci was attached to direct Star Trek 3, but when he was removed from his directing duties so went their script. Orci was replaced with the Fast And The Furious director Justin Lin.

Pegg is an interesting choice as he also stars in the rebooted Star Trek film series as the ship's engineer Montgomery Scott, better known as "Scotty." Pegg is no stranger to writing scripts as he co-wrote Edgar Wright's Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and World's End. Hopefully, he doesn't use his new writing position to beef up Scotty's role. Then again, maybe he should. He is very entertaining in the part.

Paramount Pictures will release Star Trek 3 on July 8, 2016