Paramount Pictures is moving forward with a sequel to its Star Trek franchise relaunch, and has hired Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman and Damon Lindelof to pen the screenplay, Variety reported.

J.J. Abrams, who directed and produced the latest chapter, is onboard to produce the follow-up alongside his Bad Robot partner Bryan Burk. No decision has been made yet on whether Abrams will return behind the camera for the sequel.

“There’s obviously a lot of hubris involved in signing on to write a sequel of a movie that hasn’t even come out yet,” said Lindelof, co-creator with Abrams of ABC’s Lost who produced the upcoming Trek but did not contribute to Orci and Kurtzman’s screenplay. “But we’re so excited about the first one that we wanted to proceed.”

The story is still in the embryonic stage, but the trio are aiming to deliver their script to the studio by Christmas for what would likely be a summer 2011 release. As for potential storylines, Kurtzman stressed that the writing team will wait to take a cue from fan reaction about which direction to go.

Source: Sci Fi Wire