Mission Impossible director for Star Trek movie

Mission Impossible III director JJ Abrams is going from Cruise control to warp speed.

Abrams has committed to produce the 11th Star Trek feature film and there are plans for him to direct as well, Paramount Pictures announced in Los Angeles.

Abrams also will write the script with his Mission Impossible III co-writers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, Paramount said.

The studio is hoping to release the film in 2008.

No plot for the movie has been nailed down and no one has been cast for the film.

The Star Trek franchise covers several centuries of a future in which humans make their way in a universe populated by a bewildering variety of aliens, from the ultra-logical Vulcans to the merciless, hive-like Borg.

The starship Enterprise in various incarnations was the focus of the original series and many of the movies.

Two Star Trek series followed the exploits aboard a space station called Deep Space Nine and a marooned spaceship, Voyager.

Abrams created the hit series Lost and Paramount said it hoped Lost producers Damon Lindelof and Bryan Burk would produce the movie.

William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy portrayed Kirk and Spock in the original Star Trek TV show in the 1960s and in numerous movies but “they have not yet been approached”, Paramount said.

Shatner, 75, currently stars in the hit series Boston Legal and won an Emmy for his role as an egotistical lawyer.