Roberto Orci is best known for writing the screenplays to Michael Bay's
Transformers films, Jon Favreau's
Cowboys and Aliens, Marc Webb's
The Amazing Spider-Man films and J.J. Abrams'
Star Trek films - alongside his ex-writing partner
Alex Kurtzman.
Star Trek 3 was going to mark Ocri's directorial debut, but as you know from today's new, that is no longer the case. Why is he no longer directing it?
Devin Faraci From Badass Digest has been told by his sources that "
the script was one of the problem factors," so much so that Paramount shutdown production on the film last month to try to work on "
direction of the screenplay."
My sources tell me that the script Orci was working on saw the Enterprise, the Vulcans and a new alien race competing to get a time travel device. The Vulcans want to go back and stop the destruction of their planet, and the time travel schtick is what would allow Chris Pine and William Shatner to share the screen. - Devin Faraci
It is a bit of surprise that the screenplay would be an issue now as Orci announced that he and the
Boilerplate screenwriters
Patrick McKay and JD Payne had completed it in
August.
Orci seemed like a strange choice from the get go. He's never directed anything. Not even a commercial, let alone a big budget Hollywood movie. Though, Orci wouldn't have been the first
Star Trek director to make their feature film debut. It was previously done by
Leonard Nimoy ("Star Trek III: The Search for Spock") and
Jonathan Frakes ("Star Trek: First Contact"), but I would argue that Nimoy and Frakes had some directing experience before taking on a
Star Trek film. Nimoy had directed several television episodes for various shows and Frakes had directed 13
Star Trek episodes for
The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine &
Voyager. You also have to factor in that the
actors-turned-directors were much more familiar with the material as Nimoy began playing '
Spock' in
1965 and Frakes began playing '
Commander William T. Riker' in
1987. I think I made my point.
When the crew of the Enterprise is called back home, they find an unstoppable force of terror from within their own organisation has detonated the fleet and everything it stands for, leaving our world in a state of crisis. With a personal score to settle, Captain Kirk leads a manhunt to a war-zone world to capture a one man weapon of mass destruction. As our heroes are propelled into an epic chess game of life and death, love will be challenged, friendships will be torn apart, and sacrifices must be made for the only family Kirk has left: his crew.
STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS was directed by J.J. Abrams ("Super 8"), from a screenplay written by Damon Lindelof, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci. Returning for the sequel are Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, John Cho, Bruce Greenwood, Simon Pegg, Zoë Saldana, and Anton Yelchin. Joined by new cast members Benedict Cumberbatch, Alice Eve and Peter Weller.