Orci & Kurtzman To Produce ‘Vampire Chronicles’ Movies For Universal

deltarising

Roberto Orci is still at work with co-writers Patrick McKay and J.D. Payne on the script for the next Star Trek film, slated for 2016. But he has also added a couple of new movie projects as producer to his slate. TrekMovie has confirmed reports that Orci is teaming up with long-time writing/producing partner Alex Kurtzman to reboot the Anne Rice Vampire Chronicles series as well as The Mummy. More details below.

Orci and Kurtzman Making Monsters For Universal

TrekMovie has independently confirmed reports in The Wrap and Deadline that Universal has aquired the rights to the Vampire Chronicles series from author Anne Rice and that Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman are attached as producers along with Brian Grazer. Universal has also recently tapped Kurtzman to direct a revitalization of The Mummy series, and Orci is also on board that project as a producer.

News of Orci and Kurtzman’s collaboration on these Universal monster movies has some outlets wondering how this fits with the long-time partners’ recent announcement to work separately on movie projects. For example after collaborating on Star Trek Into Darkness and The Amazing Spider-man 2, Kurtzman is working solo on future Spidey movies, while Orci is focused on the Trek franchise.

TrekMovie has confirmed that this solo work for the pair is related to developing new film projects. The Universal deals for The Mummy and Vampire Chronicles have been in the works for a long time and so Orci and Kurtzman are sticking together for those. Kurtzman and Orci’s K/O Paper Products production company is also still developing new TV projects, such as the hacker-drama Scorpions coming to CBS this fall.

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“Orci is focused on the Trek franchise…”
For what? 5 minutes per week?
Star Trek 3 … just in time to celebrate 50 years of Spock’s Brain.

I love vintage Anne Rice (who also did a Mummy story and the wonderful Witching Hour books) but Orci needs to choose priorities or he will always make formulaic, disposable films like STID.

I agree, they both need to focus on fewer projects. Too many irons in the proverbial fire hurts the quality. I’m hoping the new Trekmovie gets made before any of this stuff gets going, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they try to juggle it all.

CmdrR

I would hope that merely moments after your comment, the fact that I have responded indicates my commitment to trek..

There are no other websites where I am commenting on any other projects.

Right;)?

windkelkin

You should also understand that we have a vibrant company full of great partners. We don’t do everything ourselves.

Let’s make sure history never forgets the name, [INSERT NAME OF NEXT TREK MOVIE HERE].

Star Trek Extinction?

#4 Will these vampires have “magic blood” as well?

#7 Remember, Spidey has “magic blood” too!

Good, let ’em ruin that franchise instead.

Wow! Thanks for responding, Mr. Orci, and it does say a lot about your interest. You given me faith that you can pull off a great exploration/adventure/mystery tale worthy of the name Star Trek. Don’t let us down!

Bob,
We appreciate your immediate replies, but this is what happened to JJ and STID.
He got busy in his own other projects, there was a 4 year gap, all the new audience earned for ST 2009 went to drains..
ofcourse there was this irrational STID story on top of it.

All that we (the fans) need is a “Star Trek” movie which stands for what it stood for – “to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and civilization and to bodly go where no one has gone before”

Bob Orci

After Star Trek Into Darkness stunk up the place, and I mean really bad, I’m sure you understand our trepidation.

Prepare to hear the tale of the immortal Roberto Von Schlockmeister, forever cursed, doomed to walk the Earth in search of established intellectual property, not wholly within one franchise or another.

On these boards, he is legend.

Not to throw a monkey wrench into the whole are you focused on Trek enough or not- have you ever thought of cameoing in an ST film?

I notice Bob Orci isn’t willing to provide an answer “merely moments after your comment” for my pointing out how bad Star Trek Into Darkness was at post # 12.

Yes, unlikely he will respond, as it’s pretty hard to defend pure crap.

I’ve been a huge fan of the Vampire Chronicles since the 80s, so this is very promising news Indeed! Anne Rice has created such a detailed and rich world that I hope the movies would do justice to.

The last big screen adaptation, Queen of the Damned, crammed 2 massive novels into 90 odd minutes, sacrificing alot of the core essence of the stories and characters. Interview with the Vampire though was a pretty good adaptation and still is one of our all time vampire flicks ;)

On a side note, the Queen of the Damned film had the most amazing soundtrack which still makes regular appearances on my playlists!

at this stage I am not excepting much from the trek movies, the only good thing that come out of the film’s is the comics

boborci — Thanks for your effort demonstrating your commitment to Trek. I like that :)

Also interesting to see more work from you. Looking forward to it.

So, when Star Trek 2009 came out, everyone was an up and coming talent. Now Star Trek is being made by some of the most sought after talent in Hollywood, both behind and in front of the camera.

I am not complaining!

And absolutely thank you for your commitment, boborci.

# 7. Finnigan – August 7, 2014

“Will these vampires have “magic blood” as well?”

Not it the traditional meaning of your query, but they will drink it.

@15 (Harry Ballz): boborci doesn’t respond to rude commentators. If you didn’t like STiD, you don’t use ‘colorful’ rhetoric to make the point.

Omg! More vampire stuff?? The market is flooded with it

I am just glad that Anthony Pascale is back at trekmovie. I’m not sure what happened, or if he ever left and just worked behind the scenes, but I am glad he is writing articles again. I always liked his straight-shootin style.

Back to topic: I never got into the Anne Rice novels. I gave them a shot, and I was bored by the Pittt/Cruise movie. But, who knows, maybe this new one will be better? Eh, doubtful….

I just want good Trek for the 50th. sigh

21. Disinvited – August 8, 2014

Nicely done.

boborci —

Yes, thank you for responding.
You understand, I’m sure, that:

a) We’re Trekkies; we kvetch
b) We REALLY want Trek 3 to be a home run!

Beyond that, I have said before and I will state again: I believe you and the rest of the team possess all of the tools and skills it takes to make great films. I also understand that it’s a risk to try something different in a Hollywood that rewards conformity and punishes free thinkers.

Risk… is what it’s all about. We WANT to see your masterpiece. Go for it, please. Characters, a NEW story, lighter on the cgi and fistfights.

Good luck! We will be watching.

Maks sense – the vampire genre has been worked over so much recently, might as well bring these 2 on to really kill it off. The fans will love it though – it will look familiar without any real insight.

15. Harry Ballz – August 7, 2014
I notice Bob Orci isn’t willing to provide an answer “merely moments after your comment” for my pointing out how bad Star Trek Into Darkness was at post # 12.

Yes, unlikely he will respond, as it’s pretty hard to defend pure crap.

****************************

Or…….

1) Orci possibly doesn’t spend all day hanging out on the computer, but pops in, makes a comment, and then pops out. Like many of us do when we’re busy with our lives.

2) Orci probably isn’t going to respond to a person who doesn’t offer criticism, but an insult, like referring to something they worked hard on and liked as something that “stunk up the place, and I mean, really bad.”

3) Orci probably doesn’t think any good conversation will ever occur with a grown man (or minor, possibly) who uses the moniker “Harry Ballz”

All of those are valid theories.

I’m doing this and doing that, you know just hanging around telling people all the stuff I’v got my hand in. Go for coffee eat lunch and then tell everyone all the new ideas I came up for movie plots while eating lunch on my own. Like a vampire movie you know its my style staying behind the curve and thinking inside the box.

And the twist is werewolves I’ll put werewolves in it and they can be teenagers and one teenager is a wolf and one is a vampire and they are in love but there mortal enemies. Man I’m a genius I could stretch that out over 4 trekmovie articles. Wow now I have my own franchise doing nothing but saying Im gonna.

Gonna what bob? what exactly are you doing?

“Paper Products production company”

couldn’t have said it better myself.

Wait I have a new idea out of my lunch box “Hackers’ I will do a movie about Hackers no one has done that before.

Wait where did everybody go………………. :(

Come on now…show me any random production company where they just do one project at a time. Spielberg seems to have his name on a third of everything on the big and small screen, no one believes he’s actually working on all those projects. Of all thing things to get worked up over, this really is near the bottom of the list….

@ 3. boborci – August 7, 2014

“the fact that I have responded indicates my commitment to trek..”

I don’t see how responding to an online comment, without giving any real new information, is an indication of his commitment to Trek!

In any case, he is not writing the “Vampire Chronicles”, just producing it.

Since Anthony is back, perhaps Bob can do an interview for Trekmovie to give us an update on the project.

I don’t care that Orci is producing other things.

The trouble I’m having is that well, what the hell is going on with the Star Trek franchise? Why isn’t CBS and Paramount being a little more aggressive with it?

I see this amazing franchise and its potential being squandered at every opportunity.

Why isn’t there a TV show in development?

Why isn’t there more continuity, more synergy between Abrams Star Trek and classic Star Trek?

Why is it that there seems to be such a reliance on OLD Star Trek?

Why is it that there’s been no animated series?

Why isn’t there more merchandise?

Why isn’t the Star Trek franchise more active?

What I’m seeing from my standpoint is a franchise torn in two without the necessary leadership to bring any kind of focus to the brand. We’ve got CBS seemingly willing to milk only the classic stuff through a mess of licenses, grabbing any licence willing to take on Star Trek without any cross over merchandise between the new current Star Trek’s with the old. Have these studios learnt nothing from Marvel and DC?

Why isn’t Abrams Star Trek being given the priority? I mean I love TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY and ENT and I believe that they should all be remastered for Blu-Ray and I believe that there should be products out there for fans of those shows but my god! Why isn’t there more being done with the current Star Trek? And why aren’t the two more joined up?

Why aren’t CBS exploiting the huge leap in popularity for geek culture with the likes of The Big Bang Theory by producing a new TV show?

It angers me so much that when we’re seeing the likes of Warner Bro’s getting their act together seemingly with DC and the juggernaut that is Marvel and Star Wars powering on with these huge far fetched plans in place… Star Trek is languishing, crippled because of it’s owners not being able to see the potential in it.

Orci going off to do something else is just another example of how poorly managed Star Trek has become. One of these studios needs to make a move otherwise Star Trek is always going to be something we remember fondly rather than look forward to.

Someone needs to get a grip.

Also why is there so much fear surrounding Star Trek? As if it were this troubled, unlikeable franchise?

Lets see a bit more confidence in the brand, it’s amazing, it’s not some inspired yet crippled little show canceled after only 79 episodes anymore, it’s this multi-billion dollar franchise with its potential dying every year!

@Bob Orci – I for one love the new movies, so long as the new film continues in a similar vein – I’m one happy trekkie.

@35. Well, the short answer still seems to be that CBS and Paramount don’t want to play in the same sandbox. As long as there is sniping among management, expect dysfunction to continue.

Bob… are you concerned that maybe the “vampire mania” wave has crested and you’re catching a dying fad? After all, “Vampire Academy” flopped earlier this year, “Vampire Diaries” is fading fast, and “The Originals” (both on The CW) is languishing with low ratings even by CW standards. Several other supernatural-themed movies have flopped in the last two or three years as well, such as “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter”, “Mortal Instruments” and “Beautiful Creatures” (also based on popular books.) It really seems to me that the public has had its fill of vampires.

By the way, I loved Into Darkness. I thought the ending should have been more “Space Seed” than “Wrath of Khan”, but I loved it anyway.

Zombies seem to be the flavor of the day, at the moment, though the public can be fickle. Was also under the impression that Anne Rice was through with the vampires since she rediscovered her faith.

A bit of trivia, from right here in Riverside, CA….
American author Anne Rice, who’s famous works include Interview with a Vampire, so enjoyed the (Mission) Inn on her many visits, she incorporated it into her 2009 best-seller Angel Time. The book, much of which was written in the exquisite Amistad Suite, is the first in Rice’s Songs of the Seraphim series, which tells the story of Toby O’Dare, an assassin with a tragic past, who uses The Mission Inn as his refuge.

no, Bob, what would demonstrate your commitment to Trek would be a film all Trekkies can be proud of, not that mess that was STID. Paying lip service to a few fans on a message board is not a sign of committment. Geez.

Well, I’m pretty sick of Vampire movies, so I will pass on this one.

Give Bob Orci a break. We have no idea what his schedule + the teams schedule that he works with is like. It’s total conjecture on the part of posters who claim that Orci is spread to thin.

It seems logical to me that the man would want to make his directing debut a memorable one. I simply don’t believe that he would mail in such a huge opprortunity so he can focus on other projects.

All this negativity about ST from its fans sucks. Let’s not forget that this franchise was dead + buried before ST 09 arrived and much of the credit of the series revival can be attributed to Bob Orci + the rest of the creative team who made ST relevant again. For those of you who are wishing for the “glory days” of Enterprise + Voyager to return (by glory days I mean ST having no audience + no longer being relevant) GET OVER IT. Those days are luckily behind us.

Those same fans also have to understand that the modern movie audience in general prefers action oriented Sci/fi to slow philosophical (I think they have done a good balance of the two) driven films like TMP…The goal here was to get people back in the theartre’s + excited about ST again…MISSION COMPLETE!!!

For those of you who thought I was insulting to Bob Orci…..keep in mind, with Bob currently juggling 697 different projects, I know he has a short attention span, so I figured I better get right to the point. He doesn’t have the time to read through any lengthy discourse.

@44. Harry Ballz

” with Bob currently juggling 697 different projects”

My sources telling me that Bob is working on 666 different projects :)

Vampire is Orci’s 666th project? The devil you say!

@46 Easy come, easy go. My familiarity with Ms. Rice only extends to her presence at the Inn, where I do grab dinner with the family from time to time….

I’m looking forward to seeing what these guys do with The Mummy, wondering if it’ll be actually creepy, or goofy. Interested in seeing if they can produce some real horror for these Universal reboots.

Not to be a wet blanket, but I’m not too hopeful about it. Perhaps though, along with the next Trek, I’ll be pleasantly surprised.