A biopic based on the life of the late “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry is in the works from Roddenberry Entertainment.
Gene Roddenberry’s son Rod Roddenberry is producing with Trevor Roth; the duo serves as executive producers on current series “Star Trek: Discovery” and “Star Trek: Picard.” Adam Mazer, the Emmy-winning writer of the Dr. Jack Kevorkian movie “You Don’t Know Jack” starring Al Pacino, is writing the screenplay. The search is now on for a director and cast.
The biopic will cover Roddenberry’s life before and after creating “Star Trek,” which was notable at the time for its diverse cast and was threatened with cancellation after the second season before becoming a massive worldwide franchise.
The project will also cover his survival of two plane crashes and the events leading to his death just as “Star Trek: The Next Generation” was becoming the most successful series of the franchise.
Rod Roddenberry and Trevor Roth said in a statement, “Gene lead a remarkable life. 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.”
Thursday would have been the 100th birthday of Roddenberry, who died in 1991. Raised in Los Angeles, Roddenberry was an Army Air Force pilot during WWII, then a pilot for Pan Am before joining the Los Angeles Police Department, where he wrote speeches for the chief of police and became an advisor for television shows before leaving to become a full-time TV writer.
The original “Star Trek” series only ran for three seasons, starting in 1966, but spawned an empire of spinoff TV shows, feature films, books and merchandise.
The news of the biopic was first reported by Deadline.