Robert Orci takes over Star Trek 3
 

Interesting choice. A ton of writing and producing credits, but never directed anything.



http://variety.com/2014/film/news/ro...-3-1201180140/



After weeks of rumblings that Roberto Orci was the frontrunner, sources have told Variety that Skydance and Paramount have indeed tapped Orci to direct Paramount and Skydance’s “Star Trek 3.”

Orci is currently writing the story with J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay and had been campaigning to replace J.J. Abrams as director for some time. Abrams is busy with directing the next installment of the “Star Wars” franchise and will only be producing this pic.

Par, Skydance and his reps had no comment.

Plot details are unknown, but cast members including Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto are expected to return. Abrams will produce along with his producing partner Bryan Burke and Skydance’s David Ellison.

The news comes after Orci and longtime writing partner Alex Kurtzman decided to go their separate ways on future filmmaking endeavors (although their TV production company is staying intact). Sources had told Variety that both were looking to direct more pics and that going solo would be in the best interest of both parties.

Good news. I like the cast. I'd hate for a reboot.

Bring on the Klingons bitches!

Yeah. This can't possibly go wrong.

Most of the issues with the previous movie(s) had to do with the script. Guess who co-wrote it/them.

RIP Star Trek.

He also wrote the brilliant script for Amazing Spider Man 2. Yea, I have lost faith in this already....

Look on the bright side. Five years from now, the reboot might actually be faithful to the original Star Trek.

We're dicked.

Well this ****ing sucks.

I know nothing about Orci. Why is this bad?

I thought everyone was pissed at Abrams anyway?

LOST

Didn't watch. I presume he took something good and added gay?

If it has Klingons, it has a chance to be epic.

Hes written a ton of stuff. Mainly for JJ Abrams and Michael Bay.

Very, very mainstream, crowd pleasing type of stuff. Nothing too deep. Which is the anti-Trek, and why it irks alot of longtime Trekkies.

Plus, hes never directed one single thing and Paramount gives him 150 milly to go make a film? He must have pics on a Paramount exec?

http://variety.com/2014/film/news/ro...-3-1201372245/

Orci out as director. Doesn't sound good.

Roberto Orci is giving up the helm of the USS Enterprise, and will no longer direct the third installment of Paramount Pictures’ “Star Trek” franchise, sources confirmed to Variety.

Orci wrote the first two films in the series. The reason for his departure was unclear.

Orci got the helming job after J.J. Abrams had to exit the sequel due to his commitment to direct Disney’s “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.”

Paramount and Skydance Prods will have to act quickly to secure another director, as “Star Trek 3″ is being eyed for a 2016 release.

Orci will remain on the project, however, as a producer with Abrams. Patrick McKay and John D. Payne worked on the most recent draft of the script.

Deadline Hollywood first reported Orci’s departure, adding that Edgar Wright is one of the potential candidates to fill the director’s chair. Wright is a fan of the “Trek” franchise, having visited the set of the last outing and even helming a shot.

The previous installment, “Star Trek Into Darkness,” grossed $467 million worldwide including $229 million domestically.

Just stop making these bullshit reboot films.

The first one was OK, the second one was embarrassing.

Star Trek is over, make way for the ****ing King Lucas, bitches.

King Lucas? You mean the King Lucas that shit all over his own franchise with the prequels? I'm glad he gave control to someone else.

Am I the only Star Trek fan that doesn't mind Johnathan Frakes' directing?

I think he's actually pretty good.

I don't mind him at all. Don't know about him doing one of these though.

Speaking of Jonathan Frakes, I'm still pissed off that they left Thomas Riker to rot on the Cardassian prison world. They never rescued him. Bastards. :cuss:

He kicked ass with First Contact.

That was one thing that sucked about DS9.

The Maquis were right.

Interesting. Paramount probably realized they made a mistake handing the keys to a guy who's never directed before.

Edgar Wright would be sweet , but doesn't really seem like his kind of gig.

Star Trek is dead once again. It'll a take a dedicated visionary to revive it and even that person faces massive obstacles because Paramount's leadership is garbage.

Orci sucks, Edgar Wright would be amazing assuming he has enough time to take a pass at the script.

I'd like to see Star Trek go back to TV, that's where it's at its best. It might just be nostalgia talking, but I'd like to see an 8 to 12 episode Next Generation miniseries. Give those characters a chance to go out on a high note.

Unfortunately it seems that way.

Too bad, because that first Abrams reboot movie was so good and the future seemed bright.

The 2nd one was ok, but the half assed 'Wrath of Khan' reboot was poorly done.

They're all old and fat. It would bomb.

New cast, new voyages.

[cue recent photos of Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher]

And you have to admit, Patrick Stewart has practically not aged at all.

Unfortunately, the public doesn't clamor for TNG films. I'm a fan and I'd love to see a two hour movie or even a mini-series, but a box office release doesn't make sense for anyone, fans included.

I think a new TV series is Paramount's best bet but they can't seem to agree on an era, let alone whether it could be profitable.

The closest they had seem to come was Michael Dorn's new proposed series, but as far as that got carried along in the process, it ultimately fell on deaf ears before it could see any kind of life.

I don't know how if Ronald Moore's tensions with Paramount and the Trek franchise have healed or not, but I'd love to see him lead a new series. It's not like anything he's been putting on TV since BSG has been worth it anyway. His writing and vision is 90% of what's good about the Star Trek series of the 24th century. Let him have another shot.

I'd love to see something happen as well, whether it's Dorn or Moore or even an Orci idea for TV. The problem is Paramount.

As someone who worked for them for nearly a decade, as an executive mind you, they are out of touch and slow to react. It's analysis by paralysis.

They've run this studio, with some incredible IP, like a Mom & Pop shop from the 20's, for decades. And the thing is, they won't listen until they're literally on death's doorstep, until nothing they have is working. Like, the studio has to be failing, big time, before they say, "Okay, let's run with this great idea that's been gestating forever".

It's really dumb.

PS - Marina and Mike moved a few years ago but Ms. Kendrick moved in directly across from her old house. Not a bad trade. :D

They couldn't do a film for a lot of reasons, but if Twin Peaks and Arrested Development can come back I think they could make the economics work to do a TV miniseries. It's been a long time since Nemesis, I think people would be excited to see those characters again. Star Trek is supposedly one of the most popular things on Netflix, and that would be an ideal place for something like this.

But to be clear, I think it would work, not that it could happen. I've heard similar things to your other posts about Paramount, and that the relationship between Paramount and CBS is so dysfunctional that it's unlikely that Star Trek will come back to TV in any form in the foreseeable future.

Um.... Did you watch DS9? The show did a good job painting the Maquis' POV as they were being stamped out by the empirical Federation. If anything, DS9 exposed TNG's 'perfect' Federation's dark side.

I believe it's paralysis by analysis.

Interesting insight. Thanks. Hopefully they get in deep shit so they put out something good:D

Not at 12:15am on a Saturday morning! :D

Paramount is a weird joint, mainly due to Sumner Redstone. If he ever kicks the bucket, things should change over there.

That said, it's hard to envision a weekly Star Trek show due to the budget. They were at $4 million an episode back when it went off the air in the 90's and would like cost significantly more in 2015. They might be looking at $6 million an Epi, even with a new cast, which would put a 13 episode commitment at $78 million, which is more than Game of Thrones. Star Trek TV programs have never had a GOT type audience.

It's a tough sell.

I remember when they were the 'cool' studio back in the 80s


They put out all the top hit movies it felt like.

Fast and Furious. Justin Lin hired to direct.

http://screencrush.com/star-trek-3-justin-lin/

I live my life a quarter parsec at a time.

Yeah, this doesn't bode well.

One word............Klingons

A top quality Kligon war and battles? I'll be in line for that one :thumb:

I wonder what things would be like if movies were still made as they were in the 20s and 30s, with different types of stories told by the same stable of actors. I think it'd be neat to see the same core group of thespians take on different types of major and minor roles and in different genres.

Closest thing we thing we've seen is the Judd Apatow / Chris Nolan reusing the same roster of actors for their flicker shows.

Yeah, get Klingons right it will hide a lot of sins. That and don't **** with the major cast members.

Orci's script was dumped.

I think Paramount is going to screw this up by forcing a film out by 2016. New director, new script, filming and post in the next 18 months spells disaster, IMO.

What's the best case scenario for this film if they do force it out by 2016? Maybe I'm crazy, but I'm intrigued by Lin directing this thing.

This is going to be the worst Star Trek movie ever.

Worse than V? That's a tall mountain to climb to get to that level of suck.

It's really not. At least that had cool characters in it.

I'm not emotionally involved with any of this fraud crew masquerading as the real McCoys....so to speak.

Hey maybe Spock could felch Uhura this time!

With Orci yea.
I think they hired Lin because he's shown he can turn a franchise around, works well with ensembles and brings it in on time and within budget

I'm guessing it goes even more popcorn and cgi now, so the 'more shit blowing up!' crowd may get what they want, but people looking for less blockbuster action movie and more science fiction may not have a lot to look forward to. Time will tell.

I hope Nimoy and Shatner do not dignify this film with their presence.

Perhaps.

It's a business. The problem is that Traditional Trek is a niche audience. In order to justify the bigger budgets they have to expand the audience

Then don't spend so much money on dumb CGI.

The original cast movies made plenty of money.

It's hard to say, especially since they haven't announced a writer. But I doubt they'll even get a rough draft in before March and it'll need several re-writes before filming.

I would imagine that a July shoot is their target, which would give them about a year for filming, re-shoots and Post. But man, that seems rushed without a script, unless they have their new concept in place.

The ones in the 80s did, but as they moved into the 90s and 2000s it was diminishing returns.

The only film to gross more than $100 million was Star Trek 4.

I wouldn't say that they made "plenty" of money. Paramount was only concerned with jumping into the Sci Fi game after seeing the success of "Star Wars", which of course, Star Trek never even got close to seeing.

The latest Star Trek movie was saved by foreign income. The domestic income barely covered production costs and the marketing was more than $50 million.

Paramount need to be very cautious moving forward or they'll end up with a big loser on their hands, which is something that studio really can't afford.

LMAO

Do you really think that Shatner, of all people, would reject the chance at playing Kirk one last time on the big screen?

Probably not.

I'm just saying I would hope he doesn't. It would feel cheap and fake to me.

I saw Kirk die and I made my peace with it. RIP.

That's because the TNG films tried too hard to be action films. They got further and further away from what made Star Trek...Star Trek.

Budget/domestic gross for I-VI:

35/82
11/78
16/76
24/109
30/52
27/74

Paramount made a lot of money on those films and that doesn't include worldwide gross. The original actually grossed 139 million worldwide.

http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/franchise/Star-Trek

I thought it was horrible. So did Shatner, so much so, that he brought Kirk back to life in a subsequent novel.

Let's face it: Star Trek's film history isn't the best. Khan, arguably the Whales, 6 and First Contact were all good to great films but everything else has been a big giant "meh".

If the next movie flops, Paramount will effectively kill the Star Trek brand for another decade, so they had better take their time, get it right and not worry about the 50th anniversary date.

The problem is, Paramount usually gets things wrong.

Oh and one other thing: As well as Justin Lin did with F&F, he's bounced from project to project to project over the last several years, which IMO, is not a "good" indicator for Star Trek.

Can you just go area and buy Paramount so they get it right? Pls and thx. Kbye

http://m.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-30930693

News a few days old: Pegg will co-write the script.

That will probably help... So long as they don't encounter alien robots as they pub hop from planet to planet.

I don't know about anyone else but I have serious doubts about ST3. Simon Pegg is a fine actor and comedian but it's difficult for me to believe that he'll deliver a script that will appeal to the fans and the general public.

Hard to tell, he's done a lot of writing, and most of it has been well received from the geek side of the aisle, but he's never done anything like this. At least not that I remember.

Still, it ain't Orci and Kurtzman and especially Lindelof. So there is that.

I certainly agree. There's a chance that he writes a story that will have endless appeal to Trekkies and Trekkers and everyone that loves Star Trek, while at the same time, is a box office failure and the end of this reboot cycle.

I hope it works because I like the characters and cast.

That's my feeling. I think he's capable of writing a good Trek movie the nerd in me will love, but can be do mass appeal which paramount obviously wants and how much will that plus studio pressure affect it?

Very much this. I didn't even hate ST2 like most of these trekkies. It would be a shame to waste the cast.

I'm not one of these convention going, uniform wearing guys; but I can talk Trek until other people drop dead of boredom.

I thought with ITD, if you can mentally separate it from the original 2, it's a good movie. The problem is, they could have gone anywhere after the reboot, but they go there and just swap stuff around like Kirk and Spock and the Khan yell.

It's a good movie but lazy story telling.

You can basically do anything you want, do something new. Tell that story with Benedict C as John Harrison and not Khan.

Has there been a trek film that was more than a marginal financial success?

I'm a lifelong trek fan and a serious fan of science fiction and I've liked both of the reboots. I think the thing that's hurt these movies the most at the box office - and I think this is true for movies in general - is herd mentality stemming from the growth of social media. People make their minds up before they even see anything, which of course has always happened to a degree but I think it's extremely heightened now. And I don't think spoiler culture has helped either. I've done my best to only go with general, non-spoiler reviews for the past couple of years, and I'm finding that I enjoy more movies in general. Now maybe that's a coincidence and I'm happier in general, but I suspect it has more to do with limiting preconceptions.

In any case, that's a big tangent. We'll see how this goes. I'm not sure the director of fast and furious movies paired with a guy known for writing comedic movies screams 'star trek' but there's always a chance they can surprise us.

I liked both of them. Not really Trek movies, and i am fine with that. But as far as wasting the cast, I do not think of them as a ST cast. Just people doing a ST movie..

To me, it needs to be like the ST or TNG, they need a tv show first before they get a movie to become the actual cast if they are going with Kirk again.. The problem is I do not see a tv company outside of CW giving it a chance to grow before they cancel it... For a new ST tv series unless they hit it right out of the park the 1st(which is tough) it will need 3 seasons to hit its groove.

I would rather it be set after TNG, have Riker be the leader of the Federation or something for a tv show.

I like Worf the character, but he had his chance on DS9.. There is no way this idea gets picked up as himself as the focal point.. Maybe as a webseries..

The reason there are no Sci-Fi, space set TV shows is cost. That's why LucasFilm is in its second animated series, with no immediate plans for a live action program.

Cost.

Paramount won't sell or "loan" out the franchise to a network in which it could really prosper (can you imagine a new Star Trek show as a Netflix series? How huge would that be?). It also won't make new stuff because it believes the bullshit with UPN and Rick Berman tainting the writing is indicative of the demand for the product.

That's the really frustrating part-- the formula for a new successful Star Trek series is so simple. They know who's good at it and who's not based on the work they've done over 18 years. They know what the fans like. With social media it's never been easier to take the pulse of a fanbase to find out what is good and what isn't.

For crying out loud, it's not like the would lose money on this. Trekkies are people who kept TNG going after the first two abysmal seasons when they still had no marriage or reason to call the series anything closely related to the original that they loved. They would do the same for this one, too if it took awhile to get going.

A dream exists in the delusional part of my mind where a group of Paramount executives realize this and get the project going. They hire Ron Moore as producer, who hasn't been doing anything productive other than get some of his shows cancelled on SyFy after Caprica went down. He creates a new reboot that takes place in the 25th century, establishes some shattering premise similar to TNG's Klingon/Federation alliance (maybe something humans invent trans-warp drive or something) and then goes from there, taking a cue from BSG by establishing large arcs over the course of a season/half season. He sets a rule of NO child actors allowed in the main cast and NO shitty holodeck scripts.

Like I said, it's in the delusional part of my brain. Maybe some day.

SNR, do you watch the internet Star Trek stuff? Apparently there is a series of Star Trek movies directed by Tim Russ that stars a ton of the actors that have played in the various ST shows/movies over the years. I have never heard about these until literally today. I want to watch this stuff, but I'm afraid that all of it is just god awful, and I don't need that shitting on the good memories of those ST actors.

I heard about them as well. In theory, they should be good enough to satisfy the needs of Trekkies. But... eh...

The first one they did was called Of Gods and Men. It brings back all the old warhorses and some new ones playing different characters- notably Nichelle Nichols and Walter Koenig, as well as John Harriman (Cameron from Ferris Bueller's Day Off, who was briefly captain of the Enterprise-B in Generations). They also put in appearances by Ethan Phillips, Tim Russ, JG Hertzler, and a few other recognizable faces. It's got actors, and the props/computer stuff/image setting is no worse than anything you'd see in early-mid 90s sci TV. They're not exactly filming this at some guy's house using bathtub mock-ups for the starships. In theory, it should be good or at least halfway decent.

But it's... it's just not. I don't know. I watched Of Gods And Men and just didn't get a Trek boner like I should have. I'm sure the new Tim Russ-directed films are probably about the same. I think it has to do with the lack of professional editors. Or something. I know nothing about producing or filmmaking, but yeah. Watch the opening scene below and you'll get what I mean. It clearly still screams "fan-made"

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/kFqAME7dx58" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

The Axanar stuff should turn out better then that.

Are they going to make an actual movie? Or was Prelude to Axanar just a little thing they drummed up?

If they do, that should be pretty good. I actually liked that one.

Having JG Hertzler in there doesn't hurt, of course.

If I remember right, that was only made to promo the kickstarter for preproduction of the full feature, and they ended up with 5 or 6 times their goal, equalling their projected cost for the entire production. I'd have to look it up to be sure, but I'm heading out the door right now.

They're using low quality cameras, bad lighting and cheap looking costumes.

The lighting is especially bad and the audio pickup isn't great.

God the music is bad, too. And the dialogue is soooo terrible it just takes the actors into Hayden territory.