"Perhaps one of the most exciting projects I’ve got slated for this year is a play called “Harry and Arthur” that I am to direct," Shatner explained. "The project developed out of an idea I had invented based on a meeting between Harry Houdini, the great magician, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the great writer. Although they had actually met, I fictionalized what happened during their meeting."

The STAR TREK icon says he co-wrote a book on the concept with friend Michael Tobias. That book is now the basis for the play, which he hopes to cast soon.

"The invention that I had created was that Harry Houdini was the great debunker of spiritualism and that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was the 1920’s great spiritualist. The play is about the conflicts of their ideas, which is essentially the debate about life versus death. The play is three acts, takes place on one set, and has five characters in it. I am now in the process of casting those five parts and a reading of the play is to take place very soon. The reading will give us a better idea of what we’ve got on our hands and the direction we want to take with it."

Everyone's favorite captain had hoped that a revamped "director's edition" of STAR TREK V: THE FINAL FRONTIER would be on his plate this year, but he recently told TrekWeb that he couldn't convince Paramount to invest the money he wanted for a new and improved ending to be attached to the upcoming DVD release of the picture.

Check out more of Shatner's web site announcement here.