Thankfully, Star Trek 3 - well, technically Star Trek 13 - will not be directed by Roberto Orci. The franchise was saved from being taken over by a first-time director late Friday.
There’s no specific reason for Orci’s departure from the directing chair, but it is entirely possible that Paramount might not have wanted a rookie taking over its most famous franchise. When J.J. Abrams came in for the 2009 film, he at least had a few movies under his belt, but Orci has never directed.
Orci wrote the 2009 Trek film with his frequent collaborator, Alex Kurtzman, although they recently went their separate ways for theatrical projects. So at least Paramount had hired someone with knowledge of the current Trek franchise. But it is clear from their Star Trek Into Darkness script that the two had already run out of ideas.
Into Darkness was a box office disappointment and not exactly welcomed by fans. It’s filled with annoying plot holes and a far too much fist-fighting. Suddenly, there’s no science in Orci and Abrams’ Trek world - it’s just overblown action sequences.
Deadline, which broke the news on Orci leaving, reported that Edgar Wright of all people is on the top of the studio’s short list. Sure, Wright would be a wonderful idea, but considering all the years he spent on Ant-Man for Marvel, only to have it taken away, one has to wonder if he would really take on another big studio project.
Can we see what Nicholas Meyer is doing? Considering his beloved work on Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan and his criminally underrated Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, he showed that he really understood what Gene Roddenberry’s franchise was about. Maybe Jonathan Frakes, who directed First Contact, the best Next Generation movie, is available.
Paramount really has to ask themselves if continuing with Abrams’ vision of the Trek universe is the best way to go. Casting is fine - Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto have done good jobs in both films - but the studio shouldn’t be afraid to embrace the tone of the best previous films.
There has been a critical error on your website.<\/p>
Learn more about debugging in WordPress.<\/a><\/p>","data":{"status":500},"additional_errors":[]}