MARCH 22, 2022 - His name is all over Star Trek these days, but his film and television credits go back as far as 1994. Akiva Goldsman has been a writer, director and/or producer on Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Short Treks, Star Trek: Picard, and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Now Deadline is reporting that Goldsman has signed a first-look feature film production deal with MGM. The deal also includes his production company, Weed Road Pictures. 

MGM Film Group Chairman Michael De Luca and President Pamela Abdy said, “Akiva is an incredibly talented writer, director and producer who has successfully adapted some of the most acclaimed books in modern history. He and his team at Weed Road Pictures have an exceptional track record of producing entertaining, distinct and emotionally [resonant] films with global appeal.”

According to The Complete Film Dictionary, a first-look deal is a “contractual agreement between a studio and independent producer that the studio have first rights to consider a film by that producer for production and/or distribution by giving financial support during the development period."

Goldsman’s earliest film credits include writing the screenplays for the Oscar-winning A Beautiful Mind and for I, Robot, which featured Trek alums James Cromwell and Bruce Greenwood. The television side of his résumé began with Fringe, for which he mostly wrote but also produced and directed.

For more on Akiva Goldsman’s film deal with MGM, head over to Deadline.