Lin drew inspiration from Magic character — all hallmarks of Johnson and the Lakers while movies, he called Lin. good storytelling. When paired growing up in Los Angeles: “Justin has proven himself as with his love of basketball, an incredibly strong storyteller, Star Trek had Lin but what struck me more than

movies speeding toward anything was his genuine love filmmaking. of Star Trek,” Abrams says. “He’s really the perfect fit.” HOOP HEAD But Lin wasn’t so sure. On When he arrived in the one hand, the series held U.S., Lin didn’t speak special meaning for him. On English and didn’t have the other, he would only have many opportunities to six months to take Beyond from socialize. His parents script to screen. Ultimately, it sent Lin and his was the memories of watching brother, Jimmy, Star Trek with his parents — to the local and the opportunity to set a Boys Club to help new tone for the series — that them get settled. There they met led him to take the job. “It was Coach Bob, who put them on the a really cool balancing act basketball team. Because they picked up the ins and outs of the game, making the film, to not only embrace were the youngest players, they as well as lessons in leadership, by what has made it great but to also spent most of the time on the watching him play. challenge everybody,” he says. bench. But in the last game of the “I enjoyed watching them going to Lin accomplished his goals on Star season, a blowout, Lin finally saw commercial breaks because before they Trek Beyond like he always does: by the floor. cut out you saw him run to his drawing on his basketball education. “The ball went off [an teammates,” Lin remembers. “The way He saw himself as a point guard or a opponent’s] foot and just rolled to he talked to them, you could tell he was coach motivating the team to go after me, and I threw it up and it went never negative. It was just him trying one common goal — whether that in,” Lin says. “And I got addicted.” to get the best out of everybody.” meant pushing his writers to think He skipped the soccer team other big, then go bigger, or inspiring his kids in his community joined and A NEW FRONTIER cast to take their characters into new shot around and practiced by Like any sports-obsessed kid, Lin territory by destroying their home, himself instead. “And when I imagined a life in the pros. But as he the Enterprise. The result is an went back to the Boys Club the got older he realized he didn’t have the action-packed spectacle that honors next summer, basketball skills or the height (he’s 5'4") for the the spirit of family, friendship, and definitely became my passion in NBA. So he turned his attention to a optimism that has allowed Star Trek sports. That’s where everything new goal, one born out of everything to endure for 50 years. ission log: Earth date, 1980. Eight-year-old Justin Lin A WORLD AWAY kind of linked up.” he picked up shooting hoops and Another Trek with Kirk and crew and his family arrive in Los Angeles from Taiwan. Hoops and Star Trek He spent a lot of time in the school watching Star Trek: filmmaking. has been announced. But if all goes After growing up on a farm, Lin suddenly finds himself guided Lin (above right, library practicing English by reading Lin attended film school at UCLA well, Lin’s next project will be his on set with actor Chris in urban Southern California — and a bunch of guys Pine) as he sought sports encyclopedias and biographies and made his first feature in 2002. most hoops-focused. He’s working on are celebrating in purple jerseys. A day earlier, the his passion in an of hoops heroes like Wilt Chamberlain, Four years later, producers tapped him Space Jam 2, a sequel to the classic Lakers had won the NBA championship, the first of five unfamiliar country. Oscar Robertson, and Jerry West. to take over The Fast and the Furious 1996 animated and live-action movie titles the Showtime teams led by Magic Johnson would claim in the “Those myth-building stories that I franchise beginning with Tokyo Drift. that starred Michael Jordan and the ’80s. Lin was instantly hooked on basketball. “It changed my life,” he says. loved as a kid really helped me through Lin directed the next three Furious Looney Tunes gang. LeBron James is Mission log: Earth date, 2016. Lin is now 44 and one of Hollywood’s hottest directors. His how to deal with adversity,” Lin says. films with a masterful blend of stepping in for Jordan. The story line four Fast and Furious movies have made nearly $2 billion worldwide — a run of success that “Basketball was what helped me find grip-the-armrests, high-octane action is pretty perfect: Lin will have gone earned him the job of directing Star Trek Beyond, which was released in July ahead of the empowerment. And learn that hard sequences and funny, heartfelt scenes. from loving basketball, science-fiction, franchise’s 50th anniversary this month. work can really lead to something.” The series became more popular — and movies to directing a sci-fi In a way, Lin was the natural choice to oversee the 13th Star Trek film: After coming to the He also learned from his role model, and more successful — with every basketball movie. States, Lin, his brother, and their parents would watch reruns of the original show after his Magic Johnson. At the time, the Lakers movie. Hollywood noticed. When “Making movies is very much like dad got home from a 12-hour workday. At first, Lin was interested mainly in the cool, weird were the best team in the NBA, and no producer J.J. Abrams needed basketball,” he says, “and I feel like

aliens and spaceships. Later, the series informed his sense of family, exploration, and KIMBERLEY FRENCH (LIN ON SET); MANNY MILLAN (JOHNSON) player was better than Johnson. Lin someone to take over the Star Trek I’m living my NBA dreams.” ■

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