Orci Talks (Again) About Linking Next Two Star Trek Movies + Saldana Says Script ‘Half Done’

All indications from Paramount over the last few months have shown they are anxious to keep the ball rolling with the Trek franchise and get another movie out ASAP. Now it appears they planning for the long term and want the creative team to be thinking two steps ahead. The latest news comes from a comment from Bob Orci at Comic Con. Also at Comic-Con, Zoe Saldana says the next Star Trek script is ‘half done.’

 
The new Star Trek trilogy takes shape
The latest indication of forward thinking comes from a comment made by Star Trek co-writer Roberto Orci at a party at Comic Con to io9. When asked if he could give an update on the latest meeting with Paramount about the next film, he said:

Nothing was decided [at the last meeting]. It was really about, hmmm. You know what, I’ll give you a tidbit. [They said to us] ‘We thought maybe you could do that as like 2 and 3.’

This is actually not the first time Orci has talked about the third film from the new team. Back in June he told Collider that the team were thinking about linking the next two films, saying:

In terms of thinking about more than one movie, we want the movie to be self-contained in a way, but we’re discussing the idea of having a couple of threads where if the second movie works, you could pick up into a cohesive whole.

At the time Orci cited the Spock/McCoy ‘remember’ scene in Star Trek II, which was picked up in Star Trek III.

Of course it has been reported before that the new crew are all up for options for two additional films, so it makes sense for the studio to be thinking long-term. Studio bosses have been touting Trek as one of their key franchises moving forward.

The question now is, how far will they take this link between the second and third films? An extreme case would be to go as far as filming them back to back, which has been done before, like with the Lord of the Rings films or the last two Back to the Future films.  One thing is for sure, it looks like there is more Trek in our future.

UPDATE: Saldana Says new script half-way done
And in another development, Zoe Saldana (Uhura) tells SciFi Wire that the script is "half-way done". This doesn’t mesh with what the writers have been saying, but Saldana offered this:

I do know that they are germinating a script. That’s what they told us a month and a half ago, which actually means—in that kind of talk it means that they’re probably halfway done with a script. They just can’t present it to anybody. But they’re very excited, and there is a lot of pressure, because now it’s like, ‘Oh, do you do The Wrath of Khan or do you do this or whatever?’

Saldana also noted she believed production for the second Star Trek film would commence in 2010. Others, including Bruce Greenwood (Pike) have also suggested a Summer 2010 timeframe for production on the Star Trek: Something Something sequel.

 

 

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One epic story filmed back to back……dare we hope to have 2 summers in a row with Trek???!!!!

No Khan!!

It doesn’t get much better than that.

After the Transporter, what fun Treknology will they screw up next? A hand phaser can penetrate a star ship’s shields?

This sounds like a cool idea. I personally prefer the option of an ending which hints at a sequel but doesn’t necessarily require one, like the ending of the first Matrix film

This is relevant to my interests.

I Vote Yes.

I would like to see the third movie finish off right before season one from TOS is supposed to begin. Then, Prime Spock goes to the Guardian of Forever to restore the timeline.

I think the “remember” thread is a good way to start ideas for linking Star Trek: Something Something and Star Trek: Something Something Else. I always thought that was the absolute most subtle way of making a sequel without specifically mentioning anything like a sequel.

@1: I too don’t wish Khan a major role in ST:SS, but maybe a mention would be good. If it fit into the plot, that would be fantastic. If not, then a nice little throwback.

@6: Care to explain why Spock HAS to fix the timeline? I don’t remember anyone claiming Kirk HAD to fix the Mirror Universe, or why no one’s complaining about how different it is to the Primary timeline, like the Abramsverse is.

”‘We thought maybe you could do that as like 2 and 3.’”

They were referencing wrath of khan and search for spock there. Now that would be incredible. But these movies MUST be self-contained in a sense. Thats sometime Orci just stated. Which i should say is gratifying !

Now the question comes… the BIG QUESTION fans are asking themselves….

‘What Story do you use , that will be worth telling through two movies ?’

Now thats the million dollar question. Possibly starting a Khan storyline can be interesting…. but it may alienate some ‘new fans’ or the ‘mainstream’ audience. If they choose to pick up some old ideas from the trek universe…. They really really need to balance it well. Otherwise… it can be a huge disaster… it’ll just look like a fan-boy’ish movie…. Now thats the fine line Robert Orci and Alex Kurtzman have to be carefull with at the moment. Good luck to them on the story development !

I’d go for a completely autonomous sequel, because ST09 was more or less only the introduction to the new timeline. We need a good and *real* Star Trek film next, something that can stand on its own, with a monolithic plot. After that they could do parts 3 & 4 as two closely tied sequels, shot back to back. In the TV series they’ve written huge arcs, so it could be interesting how this works in the movie realm.

I doubt that a villain will take up two movies…More like what they did with the old trilogy (2,3,4) when the fallout and circumstances from each movie will carry over in a larger arch. That, if anything, is what I really missed from all of the TNG movies. All were self contained episodes, and when they finally tried to show some progression in their lives in Nemesis, the movie sucked big time.

I don’t like this idea. They just can’t stop trying to mirror TOS movies. If one of the movies is bad whose going to look forward to the next one. Or vise versa. Plus it forces you to watch the bad movie just to connect it to the better one. They need to be stand alone movie episodes. I don’t care if they film them both at the same time just keep them separate.

If we get the Space Seed for #2 & TWOK for #3. I’ll skip them!

Just imagine if ST:TMP was linked directly to TWOK. I can’t watch TMP as much as I can TWOK.

Star Trek 2 – Klingons/Romulans v Federation….end the film with the klingons or a starfleet vessel finding the botany bay (like when Gordon hands the joker card to batman)….

Star Trek 3 – Khan vs the klingons/romulans vs the fereation…

you know youd love this so dont pretend otherwise!

@ 12. Right on !!! You took the words from my mouth !

We”ve thrown this around. You Know Khan’s sleep ship will be seen into the closing credits of the next film. Guaranteed. That will likely be the link with a Bardim Space Seed in the Third film. I want to see some sort of Cosmic Twilight-Zoney phenomina in the next film. Not a cardboard villian of the week. If you want to set it against the backdrop of war with the klingons then fine (Maybe the Organians?) then we can return to villian of the week with a Juiced up Bardim-Khan in the third

NO Khan please.

What should the films be about, look at the past week and figure it out.

Man’s ability to explore and undertake the impossible and make it possible. Taking the giant leap, achieving the unachievable and showing us once again the reason we look to the heavens for our next adventure.

Star Trek is not about villiains, please do more than just that.

@ 16. You thought Nero was a ”cardboard villain” ?

I’ve written this before, how about an epic with space battles, Federation wins but at a huge cost so that in the future it’s weaker and isn’t the “all powerful, technobable empire”. This way there’s the possibility in future movies that the Federation can loose – instead of us always knowing that they’ll win in the end. When the outcome is believably doubtful, story telling is so much more fun.

At the end show the burned out hull of the Botany Bay drift by, collateral destruction of the battle. All hands lost. No Khan this time around, New Adventures! New Voyages! Go Boldy Where NO ONE Has Gone Before!

Following a thread from 1 film to the next is very easy to do if the conflict in the first movie is more intimate in scale and fits into the conflict within the 2nd.

If you look at Bond, Casino leaves some unanswered questions but is closed ended in terms of it’s story, Quantum puts the events of the first film in a larger context. It’s easy to envision many stories in Star Trek that would look like that. You could have for example a break out of hostilities between the Klingons and the Federations in the 2nd film with the Enterprise on a scientific mission being diverted to a “Kobayashi Maru” scenario that Kirk’s inexperienced crew barely survives, then have the Enterprise rapidly repaired for nominal battle-readiness and sent to secure a planet that has strategic significance either as a diplomatic overture or to defend the settlement (classic trek). The planet itself could have wierd stuff going on (think Solaris or Forbidden Planet) or political machinations (though it would be good to get into sci fi for a change). After resolving the issue and surviving, Spock and Kirk realize that the event fit into a larger context of the conflict with the Klingons and follow that thread into a 3rd film. You could have the internal conflicts of Kirk’s dealing with self doubt and Spock deailing with his brutal Vulcan nature in his relationship with Uhura pursued continuously through the 2 movies. Frankly, this is not a particularly creative way to do it, but an example of what could be done.

What happened to Explore Strange New Worlds, Seek Out New Life & New Civilizations To Boldly Go Where No Man Has Gone Before? Instead all we are getting is Space Battle movies. As an TOS fan I want more of Gene Roddenberrys concept. And as an TOS fan I never felt like TOS movies ever really got it right.

FOR GODS SAKE—NO KHAN. Dont even TOUCH IT.
Let the fan boys go off and make their own crappy Youtube version with horrible acting and bad 3DS Max animation.
The end of the last movie promised to boldly go..so live up that promise.

This is great news. If anyone involved in the production is reading: DO WHATEVER YOU DAMN WELL PLEASE!

Ignore the haters.

I will go see your new movie five times! You guys are doing an awesome job!

I aggree No more space battles. While cool, Trek is so much more then battles and fighting. Let us have a movie that involves a mystery, whether it be a completly sci-fi idea or a traditional type mystery set in star trek. You know something weird, not cool happens; why does it happen; follow the clues;

What I was use for a ‘for instance” is the two parter UNIFICATION, and also THE CHASE. two great episodes that involved more of a mystery then anything else. What is spock up to. What are these genetic puzzle pieces leading us too?

I’ve also said that this would be a good premise for a game. Maybe some fighting, but in the context of the mystery at large.

What do you guys think?

Why all this talk about Khan, or other 1st season episodes? Am I the only one who notices that at the end of the 1st movie they are in the same year as Captain Pike’s first mission in the Prime Universe? What happened to Number One and the older doctor??? All of Pike’s missions now never happened. Even Mitchell is missing from the 2nd pilot, Kirk’s “best friend”. We have at least 10 years of missing history (perhaps 15) before the Khan time frame. I want to see more of the early years, not a rehash of season one. Development of the real ship phasers, upgraded engine room, the building of the 11 other Constellation class ships (mentioned in Charlie-X), exploration, first contact, Tholians, Andorians and other early things. If we don’t see all that (or at least that type of Universe in the next few movies) .. than we will have a really messed up, and I think unrealistic re-invention of this new Timeline. I loved the first movie … but I want Star Trek: The Early Years to be the subject of the next few.

these writers better not rehash Trek classics as it would be a waste of the reason they chose to do a alternate universe in the first place.

I love the new film but if they go Transformers 2 with the sequel then I will scream.

I want original ideas, to quote Picard in Insurrection “Remember when we use to be explorers?” Non coporeal entities would be cool.

Khan is one of my all time fav movies, it does not need to be redone, if I want to see Khan I will pop the film on.

With the next Star Trek movie only a outline script right now, continued bugging for the plot may damage the writing. What would please use fans for this holiday season is some thing as simple as the movies title. Thus the spring of 2010 all the fans can then be speculating as to how the plot will fill the title.

If we just leave the script authors have their privacy they then are able to spend their energy maturing a great script and we can be more than proud at the birth of this next beauty.

But if you know the money hungry Media jerks they will try to feed their addicted minds so they can try to get money to feed their addiction. Who wants to see a drug addicted media become an unfortunate star for a few minutes to a few days, and intern rubbing the shine and beauty of the new movie.

Now how do we fix these drug addicted media their drugs so they do not go through withdraw. My best guess is to pretend that we are fans of the other stuff that comes out so the drug infected media hunts down an hurts other films.

You know that addicted fools first hurt their friends, then end up destroying themselves. What we need to do is protect the Star Trek Movie Universe from being damaged by these drug infected Media fools.

On the economic side of things the money they could save in doing both movies at once would be pretty decent. And there is precedence in this. Back To The Future II and III were filmed at the same time. Getting the next two Trek movies in my opinion is a great idea!!

14. I’ll bite: I’ll pretend otherwise.
Leave Khan out of it. Do something new, but in the old Trek explore new worlds tradition–please! Enough already with the space wars (dare I say Star Wars)?!?

24. I think, yes! Exactly!

borg…

Speaking of conjoined sequels–I urge the creators not to make the mistake of the last two Matrix movies. Which would be to buy into their own awesomeness, over-reach in terms of “being epic” and deliver something bloated instead of human.

For the love of God, NO FREAKING KHAN!!! He’s been DONE in a tv episode and a movie already!

MOVE ON!!!!!!!!!!!! DO SOMETHING NEW! Stop satisfying a small minority of fan-boys/girls wet dreams who can’t move beyond the original series/films and come up with an original idea. Please!

FFS!

17, 21, 24, 28 – i think it was Harve Bennett or Denny Martin Flynn or Nick Meyer who said Trek works best when its action adventure as opposed to the more cerebal Sci Fi…and thats especially true of the films

theres no reason why they cant interject some serious thoughtful sci fi (like genesis in Trek II) but its best to keep it first and foremost action adventure, which means space battles, fisticuffs, fast pace etc

and why should there be no Khan in 2 or 3? just because a few fans say ‘NO KHAN!’?…

Khan is the most popular Trek villain and one of the most popular villiains in Sci Fi movie history, only been used twice before 40 & 30 years ago, and this new timeline is the perfect oppertuinty to resurrect him (although in diff circumstances), sure Montoban was great and it seems impossible to think of anyone else as Khan — but so were Shatner, Nimoy, Kelly etc and they’ve all been recast to perfection.

#3:”After the Transporter, what fun Treknology will they screw up next? ”

Nonsense. That “fun Treknology” is made up and the “science” behind the way the transporter and ray-guns function is nearly non-existant. New writers don’t “screw it up” – they *change* it.

I notice that Saldana didn’t actually say the next script is halfway done – she’s just guessing based on conversations: “they’re *probably* halfway done with a script.”

@24 While it would be a great Fangasm… it would kill the new spirit right where it stands!

After the bombastic movie that was delivered to us you can’t through it completely away and go back to the Past (that unevitabely WILL fail)…

Such a thing like The Chase etc. is great for one Episode but not for a 2 hour feature film….

Well here we go again with the suggestions. All can say is: no space battles and no Khan. Thanks.

yeah i want to see the whole crew fight somebody when i said the whole crew i mean Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Uhura….everybody. Even lil Chekov.

While I love a good battle in space, the original series did NOT have a space battle in every story, I’d really be overwhelmed (again) to see the next film focus longer on the character’s personalities and the human factor in all this “Seeking out of strange new worlds” and exploration, that’s a key word in our Star Trek world, EXPLORATION!!! I miss Gary Mitchell…

WHY WOULD THE DO KHAN. By the time theEnterprise and crew arrive at that scenario they’re in their 50’s. So instead of having a bunch of 50-somethings trying to look 40, we will have 20-something-years-olds looking 40???

@24, 33 etc – What if Nolan had said ‘NO JOKER!! HES BEEN DONE ALREADY…TWICE! (66 and 89)’

Thing is theres no getting away from the fact that Khan is an integral part of the Trekverse and the thought that the botany bay is out there…waiting to be discovered once again…is tantalising in the extreme

You go ahead and pray for The Chase or Tin Man to be given the big screen treatment…me? I want some KHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAN!! again

I won’t get into plot suggestions, that’s been done to death – other than to say that the “fans” have spoken, at least on this site. No Khan!! As an interesting side story, maybe, but not the main focus.

But let’s face reality. This is no longer your Star Trek, or even your father’s. This Star Trek, thanks to the success of the current film, is now in the action/adventure/popcorn movie/blockbuster territory. While intellectual, mysterious, exploration stories might make for good TV episodes, they don’t make for good blockbuster movies. For better or worse, that’s where Star Trek is at right now………

So expect another fast-paced action/adventure film, with even more special effects. Anything else would be considered a disappointment by the mainstream movie-goer, and it would gross less than the current film. That would be a big blow to the re-birth of Trek, and to Paramount’s hopes of a tentpole franchise.

The best we can hope for is a film with the right balance of drama, character development, and good storytelling mixed in with lots of action, adventure, and even more SFX. I think The Team did a very good job of that in the current film. Instead of trying to please some of the people (the die-hard fans) all of the time, they chose to please most of the people (the mainstream movie fan and most of the die-hard fans) most of the time. I think they hit on just the right balance in the current film. I have every confidence they can do the same in the next film.

Last Harry Potter book split into two movies. Simple mechanics they have too much material too many plot points to squeeze into one movie.

Nero was more of a cardboard villain than Khan ever was.

If you are going to visit any Star Trek villian, make it something that has no personality: like the Doomsday Machine, for example. Maybe at the end of the 2nd movie, have the Doomsday Machine show up before the credits roll, or maybe even after they roll. Hard to mess up something totally that has no personality.

Khan has a personality and frankly, though some say things like, “look how good the Joker was in Dark Knight”…you’re playing with fire if it is Khan. Forget Khan, for now. There are better and more ingenous things to do. And for God’s sake, even though they are my favorite Trek villian of all time, NO BORG!!!!!

9.

Why? Because it is almost obsurd that you have a franchise as huge as Star Trek, one of the tentpoles for Paramount pictures and having ‘multiple universes’ exist. Existing as a franchise and existing as a stand alone plot for one episode are totally different animals. I could see using a parallel universe for an episode like ‘Mirror, Mirror’ I just don’t see how it can work for a franchise. What about future projects? What universe will they exist in? What about what happens in the Prime universe after Spock Prime entered the black hole? The company making the Star Trek MMO is struggling with this problem as we speak. According to Robert Orci, he believes in the multi universe theory of quantum mechanics, meaning multiple universes exist, meaning the Prime universe is still out there. Now, from a logical point of view, how can Paramount say, we will live in this universe from now on, especially in a science fiction series that brought dead people back to life? They can’t just jettison the prime universe and leave it out there, Prime Spock is a living, breathing reminder of that universe. Can you imagine Indiana Jones having multiple parallel universes? Re-cast Harrison Ford and here we go! Woo hoo! How about a Star Wars alternate universe? I think fans like coherency and consistency and alternate universes don’t offer either of those things.

I’d like to see Captain Garth in a future film. As the events of the new universe take place prior to those of TOS, I’d paint him as a highly successful, yet arrogant field commander. He is jealous of Kirk’s success, in that he believes the young gun will steal his fame. Garth is British, giving rise to his pretensions of rank and title: He sits in the House of Lords. He sees himself as a latter-day Nelson.

However, I’d have Garth as a supporting character – a drive, or motivation for Kirk….for Kirk is really the latter-day Nelson.

Much of Star Trek is based upon British naval history (the use of Number One, the duties of a starship captain, etc.), and I always saw Kirk as a bit of a Thomas Cochrane (I’m interested in naval history). However there is also a lot of Nelson in Kirk.

I’d love to see a starship battle (I know some of you will be groaning now) led by Admiral Pike. However the reason for this is that I’d like to see Nelson/Kirk’s coming of age: I’d love to hear Pike utter the words that Admiral Jervis uttered when he spoke of Nelson’s actions at the Battle of Cape Saint Vincent:

“…if ever you commit such a breach of your orders, I shall forgive you also.”

If you are reading, please use these words Mr. Orci.

As much as I appreciate original thinking and new stories, I’ve always wondered what some of my favorite movies would be like with today’s special effects and movie making abilities. This is true with the Batman movies, James Bond movies, and I’ll even go as far as to say the Superman films. All of those have been remade using characters from the originals but not a direct copy of the source material.

Space Seed was a good episode from TOS, but I don’t think it was great. I think that with today’s technology a better and more thought-out and epic movie can be made using characters and mythos from the show. Khan included. Would people still scream bloody murder if Genral Chang showed up as a villain with a Klingon fleet seeking war? Maybe. I know I would appreciate seeing him again as I would appreciate seeing Khan or any other character from TOS, but that’s just ‘easy going me’.

Whatever happens with the next movie, I’ll still see it. I’ll most likely enjoy it as well just as I enjoyed the worst of the previous films. So remember kids: opinions are like @$$ holes, everybody has one and they usually stink.

I would like to see extensive use of the Talosians in the next movie. Their mind powers of illusion can open up many new locations and situations for the characters to encounter. The time is almost lining up perfectly for when ‘The Cage’ occured.

I’m all for filming back to back movies and for the next film to be a cliffhanger in the model of Empire Strikes Back. It also sounds like they’ve made their decisions regarding the next two films, so cries of Khan or no Khan are at this point irrelevant. I think it’s wise to link the next two films, and not to follow the purely episodic model of small screen TV shows. It will give them an opportunity to create an epic story line suitable to big screen Trek, while possibly giving us 2 straight years of Star Trek films.

Whatever they chose, I just hope they make it as good as the first movie, and better if they can.

Now the question becomes who will direct?

After seeing Valkyrie, I’d again like to nominate Bryan Singer as the perfect choice to pick up where JJ Abrams left off.

I am more convinced of this after reviewing the attitude of his films, Valkyrie, Superman Returns, X Men, X Men II. And after doing a Google search I discovered on Wikipedia that Singer is described as being a lifelong fan of Star Trek!

Not only does he have the solid directorial chops to do Star Trek, and do it good, but he’s a fan of the franchise who gets what it’s all about, and who is actually far more likely to focus on character development than JJ Abrams.

So if JJ isn’t coming back to direct, I think Singer is the wisest choice to replace him if they can get him on board.