Star Trek Veteran Jonathan Frakes to Direct Sci-Fi Adaptation of Arthur C. Clarke’s Venus Prime

Jonathan Frakes, best known for his appearance of William Riker in ‘Star Trek’, is set to direct the sci-fi series ‘Arthur C. Clarke’s Venus Prime’ Variety reports. 

The former ‘Star Trek’ actor has also joined the producing team. 

The show has promoted the show’s writers David Cormican and Dwayne Hill to executive producers and showrunners. 

The series will consist of six episodes and will go into production at the end of the year in Canada.   

“When the materials for ‘Arthur C. Clarke’s Venus Prime’ were presented to me, I couldn’t help but devour them,” Frakes said. “When asked if I wanted to direct what I read – my answer was a resounding and immediate ‘Hell, yes!’ 

“Working on such a tremendous piece of IP from the mind of another sci-fi legend (who is also a contemporary of the true #1 Gene Roddenberry), will be both an honor and a dream for me.”

Frakes is no stranger to directing science fiction productions, as he helmed two of the ‘Star Trek: Next Generation’ films, ‘First Contact’ and ‘Insurrection’. 

He also directed episodes for ‘Star Trek: Picard’, ‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’, and ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ shows.

The show will be adapting the ‘Venus Prime novels from author Paul Preuss, which itself took inspiration from Clarke’s short stories. There are a total of six novels.  

Preuss will serve as a consultant on the show and its production. 

Cormican and Anand Ramayya and Juliette Hagopian will produce the series. Executive producers are Volume Global’s Christopher Rush Harrington and Michael Hamilton-Wright along with Claxson’s Roberto Vivo and Bernd Schlötterer of Palatin Media.

No release date has been announced.