‘Star Trek’ Creator Gene Roddenberry Biopic In Works With ‘You Don’t Know Jack’ Scribe Adam Mazer

EXCLUSIVE: Here’s some news that’s fitting for a day that would be Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry’s 100th birthday.

Roddenberry Entertainment has been working quietly on a feature biopic of the sci-fi TV icon, and there is a script by Adam Mazer, whose credits include the Emmy-winning script for the 2010 HBO movie You Don’t Know Jack which starred Al Pacino as Dr. Jack Kevorkian.

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Producers include Star Trek caretakers Rod Roddenberry and Trevor Roth, who executive produce all current franchise series including Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Picard. Next up the development will be finding a director and actors.

There’s no shortage of subject matter surrounding Roddenberry, the fighter pilot-turned-LAPD cop-turned-TV writer who survived two plane crashes and the rough waters of Hollywood to create Star Trek, one of the world’s most enduring sci-fi franchises, with the original 1966-69 TV series eventually spawning spinoffs, movies, books and a legion of hard-core fans.

“Gene led a remarkable life,” said his son Rod Roddenberry and Roth, who executive produce all the current Star Trek series 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.”

Roddenberry’s original Star Trek ran for three seasons on NBC and starred several actors (Leonard Nimoy, Nichelle Nichols, Majel Barrett, DeForest Kelley) he worked with previously on series like The Lieutenant and Wrangler. Having fought with studios in the past over diversity in casting, the crew of the USS Enterprise reflected his inclusive worldview. It is a staple of the Star Trek Universe that has endured through several feature-length movies (Star Trek: The Motion Picture, helped by the box office success of Star Wars, launched the film franchise in 1979) and TV spinoffs (beginning with the successful Star Trek: The Next Generation, which Roddenberry helped get off the ground and contributed to the first three seasons).

Roddenberry died in 1991, but the franchise is going full-force with the spinoff series and, once again, movies. On the latter front, Deadline recently scooped that WandaVision director Matt Shakman has come aboard to helm a Star Trek movie that has a script by Lindsay Beer and Gena Robertson-Dworet — the first Star Trek film to be written by female screenwriters.

Meanwhile, remembrances are pouring in on social media today celebrating what would have been Roddenberry’s centennial birthday.

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