Star Trek Creator Gene Roddenberry Biopic Movie in the Works

This week, fans celebrated what would have been Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry's 100th birthday. They may soon learn more about Roddenberry's life via an upcoming film. Deadline reports Roddenberry Entertainment, headed by Gene Roddenberry's son Rod Roddenberry, has been working on a biopic about the sci-fi legend. Adam Mazer, who won an Emmy Award for writing the 2010 HBO movie You Don't Know Jack, starring Al Pacino as Dr. Jack Kevorkian, has written the script. Rod Roddenberry and Trevor Roth are producing the film. The next step in the process is casting and signing a director.

The film won't focus specifically on Roddenberry's time working on Star Trek but aims to provide a more holistic view of his life before and after Star Trek: The Original Series. Before becoming a television writer, Roddenberry was a fighter pilot and a police officer in Los Angeles. He also survived two plane crashes before winning the uphill battle to get three seasons of Star Trek on television in the 1960s. Though Star Trek's original run ended in 1969, Roddenberry lived to see the franchise revived in movies and return to television with Star Trek: The Next Generation. He died in 1991.

"Gene led a remarkable life," Rod Roddenberry and Roth said in a statement. Through Roddenberry Entertainment, the duo currently executive produce Paramount+'s slate of Star Trek streaming programs, including Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Picard. "He was an incredibly complex, compelling man, whose work changed the face of television, and whose ideas changed the world. It's time to share Gene's story with audiences everywhere."

ComicBook.com spoke to Rod Roddenberry for the occasion of his father's centennial. He discussed the legacy his father left behind in Star Trek and the franchise's fading in the early 21st century, only to return with more shows than ever in the streaming era.

"I 100% had no doubt it would come back, but that's not because I'm some great thinker or knew something people didn't," Rod said. "The only thing I knew, which is what I think most fans knew, which is Star Trek has way too important of a message for it to ever go away. It had a lot to say in the '60s when it came out, and sadly, it has a lot to say today still."

Are you excited about the upcoming Gene Roddenberry biopic? Let us know how you feel about it in the comments section.