Alex Kurtzman To Shepherd Star Trek Franchise Expansion Under New 5-Year Overall Deal With CBS TV Studios
REX/Shutterstock The Star Trek TV franchise is expanding. Under a big fiver-year new ov..
REX/Shutterstock
The Star Trek TV franchise is expanding. Under a big fiver-year new overall deal with CBS TV Studios, Star Trek: Discovery co-creator/executive producer Alex Kurtzman will oversee the development of new Star Trek series, mini-series and other content, including animation.
There are no specifics about any of the projects at the moment though there is talk that one of the first shows would be an eight-episode limited series. Kurtzman and Co. may reveal some details at the upcoming Comic-Com convention. Production on season 2 of Star Trek: Discovery is underway with Kurtzman, who directed the premiere episode, as sole showrunner. He recently replaced Gretchen Berg and Aaron Harberts at the helm.
Under the new five-year overall deal with CBS TV Studios, Kurtzman and his Secret Hideout production company, with Heather Kadin as president and Aaron Baiers as SVP of television, will continue to develop and produce projects across broadcast, cable and streaming platforms exclusively for the studio.
The company is currently developing The Man Who Fell to Earth for Hulu with Jenny Lumet (Rachel Getting Married), Tandem Productions, Timberman/Beverly and Studio Canal. The series, based on a novel by Walter Tevis, is about an alien who arrives on earth at a moment of intense geopolitical crisis and must confront his own past to determine the worlds future..
“There is a very short list of writer-producer-directors that every film and television studio wants to be associated with, and Alex and his Secret Hideout team are always at the top,” said David Stapf, President, CBS Television Studios. “His talent, taste and ability to shepherd a successful project is unparalleled. Alex has done remarkable work for our Studio, dating back seven years to the launch of Hawaii Five-O, and we are thrilled that he, Heather and their team will be partnering with us for a long time to come.”
Under the new pact, Secret Hideout will expand its production operation, adding diverse voices.
“Heather, Aaron and I are thrilled to continue Secret Hideouts amazing partnership with CBS Television Studios,” said Alex Kurtzman. “Since our first collaboration with Hawaii Five-O almost a decade ago, Les, David and the full team at CBS Studios have been our foremost collaborators and champions, treating each project with integrity, supporting the creative visions and working breathlessly to make each episode of every show the best it can be. CBS has also allowed us the great pleasure of reintroducing the world of Star Trek audiences new and old, and we are very excited to keep working alongside them to expand that world.”
Since 2010, Kurtzman has served as executive producer of CBS Hawaii-Five-O, which remains one of the top-20 most-watched programs on television and a mainstay of CBS Friday night schedule.
His other series credits include Instinct, Salvation and the recently departed Scorpion for CBS as well as Sleepy Hollow, Alias and Fringe. In features, he has been involved in multiple films in the Star Trek, Now You See Me and Transformers franchises. He has also written, directed or produced Mission Impossible III and The Proposal.
Kurtzman is repped by CAA.
