In this April 18, 2013 file photo, Justin Lin arrives at the Cinemacon Big Screen Awards red carpet and receives Director of the Year Award at Caesars Palace, in Las Vegas. (Photo by Al Powers/Powers Imagery/Invision/AP, File)
LOS ANGELES (AP) --
The USS Enterprise is about to get a little faster. "Fast & Furious" director Justin Lin is taking the helm of the third installment in Paramount's "Star Trek" franchise.
Lin's rep confirmed the news Monday.
Lin is no stranger to franchises. He directed several of Universal's "Fast & Furious" films, including the massively successful "Fast & Furious 6," which made more than $788 million worldwide.
J.J. Abrams directed the first two films in the rebooted "Star Trek" series.
Roberto Orci was the co-writer on those first two films. He was slated to step into the director's chair after Abrams left to work on "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," but he exited that role in early December.
Orci will still serve as a writer and producer on the film. It's slated for a 2016 release.
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Cooter, actor Ben Jones, sits atop one of the 229 hotrods, named the General Lee, used in the show "Dukes of Hazzard" as ecstatic fan, Aliceson Johnson, of Charlottesville, Va., sits in the drivers seat in front of his store in Sperryville, Va., Tuesday, Aug. 10, 1999. (AP Photo/Steve Helber, File)
Ben Jones, who played the good ol' boy mechanic in "The Dukes of Hazzard" TV series and parlayed his fame into a political career and two terms in the U.S. House, has died. He was 84.
Jones had a heart attack in his home Sunday in Washington, Virginia, as he was waiting to watch his beloved Atlanta Braves play baseball, his wife, Alma Viator, said on social media. Rappahannock County Sheriff Connie Compton confirmed his death.
Jones' fame came from his role as Cooter Davenport, the mechanic who got the Duke boys out of jams as they tried to do the right thing and fight the corrupt Boss Hogg in the fictional Hazzard County, Georgia.
After playing Cooter for all seven seasons of the series from 1979 to 1985, Jones turned to politics and was elected to the U.S. House from a district near Atlanta in 1988. The Democrat served two terms before he was redistricted out of the seat.
Jones was born in North Carolina and in college got involved in acting and civil rights, he wrote in his autobiography "Redneck Boy in the Promised Land: The Confessions of 'Crazy Cooter.'"
Acting took over his life. Jones performed in numerous stage productions and had a few minor TV and movie roles in Atlanta during the 1970s before his life-defining break came on a TV show Jones defended as a modern-day morality tale and a fine example of Southern values.
For seven seasons, Jones was one of a small band of friends and family helping Bo and Luke Duke in "The Dukes of Hazzard." The cousins were on probation for running moonshine and were constantly trying to clear their names and stop the crooked and powerful Boss Hogg from stealing or cheating.
The Duke boys drove a modified 1969 Dodge Charger called the General Lee with a Confederate flag on... Read More
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