The Star Trek franchise will get a shot in the arm following last year's cancellation of spin-off TV series Enterprise with an eleventh cinema outing for the Starfleet chaps and chappesses.

According to the BBC, citing New Variety, the new movie will centre on the early days of Spock and Kirk at the Starfleet Academy. It will be co-written, produced, and directed by JJ Abrams of Alias and Mission Impossible III fame.

Other movers and shakers in the project are Mission Impossible co-writers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci and Lost producers Bryan Burk and Damon Lindelof, who'll be in the co-production chair.

The new Star Trek adventure has yet to be named, and is slated for a 2008 release. ®

Related stories

• Star Trek XI logged for Xmas 2008 launch (28 February 2007)
• Trekkies hit Seattle for show's 40th birthday (8 September 2006)
• Shatner to return as Kirk (14 August 2006)
• Star Trek stuff up for auction (3 August 2006)
• Scotty's ashes get new launch date (25 July 2006)
• Definitive Bladerunner heads for DVD (31 May 2006)
• Trekkie turns flat into Starship Voyager (8 February 2006)
• GoldenPalace.com buys Captain Kirk's kidney stone (18 January 2006)
• Star Trek parody hits 450k downloads (6 October 2005)