REPORT: Orci out as “Trek 3” director

ROBERT ORCI on the set of ENDER'S GAME

BREAKING: Deadline Hollywood’s Mike Fleming is reporting that Roberto Orci will no longer be at the helm of the next Star Trek film:

Roberto Orci is beaming off the bridge of the Starship Enterprise on Star Trek 3. Rampant rumors are swirling and I’ve confirmed there is fire behind the smoke that he won’t be directing. I even hear that Edgar Wright and others are on a short list to take the job.  Orci stays on the project as producer, I’ve heard.

The film is intended to be Orci’s debut as a film director, as well as his first solo project after parting with long-time writing and producing partner Alex Kurtzman.

This story is very fluid at the moment, and TrekMovie will bring you more details as we get them.

UPDATE: Variety is also reporting that Orci is no longer directing.

 

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What? ?!?!

Yasss!

My 2 cents-

Bob wanted to do a deep space story with less action and more “Trek”
If you will and Paramount wants to go in a different direction.

The only person in JJ’s group that actually understands what Trek is about… This is a travesty…

Bad news for Shatner then as Orci was keen to get him onboard. Will a new director still want Shatner?

If poster #3 is correct, too bad. Doubt it. He helped write all that action in the last two..

damn, hell of a time to jump. aren’t they supposed to be shooting by spring??!! What’s up Bob?

Yikes Paramount! It’s a little late in the game to be swapping directors, isn’t it? If this turns out to be true, I feel bad for Mr. Orci. I was looking forward to seeing a trek movie by a genuine longtime fan of the property.

Where is my pitchfork?

I’d like to start the baseless rumor that Shatner will direct.

Let the rampant unfounded speculation begin!

I’m not trying to be a dick to Bob here. And he’s apparently still producing (and writing?). But hopefully this shows they’re serious about Trek. Although, Edgar Wright’s name seems to be increasingly associated with development hell.

The first two movies would indicate the opposite of poster 3 is correct.

Regardless no word that the script is being re written so the story is locked, no?

Maybe studio lost confidence?

for all the trek fans cheering, i think this is going to mean less deep space travel. and probably NO shatner. i really hope the star was teaser had nothing to do with this. will be interesting to see where this goes.

I told you this about a month ago…

Bummer…was really looking forward to having Bob in the Capt’s Chair
LLAP Bob

It’s really a shame. Now probably Paramount wants to just milk every cent of their current library of Star Trek and just shut down Trek. This is an insult to every fan. Star Trek 3 will not be released in ’16 will probably be the next news out of Paramount. You just wait and see.

Well this sucks.

This nobody gets Trek myth is just that. The worst Trek movies have come from insiders who very much got Trek.

Another myth: that Trek was meant to be action-free and conflict-free. It was never about peaceful exploration. A future where we’d stopped killing each other and the planet and started working together? Sure.

And if you think they’re going to release a $200-million movie without some action, then you’ve never seen a movie.

Ahh the games afoot.

Or, if we’re all really lucky, the movie franchise will implode. That will leave CBS with the opportunity to swoop in and announce a new Trek series.

Because let’s face it, Trek (regardless of “generation” or “timeline”) never really shined on the big screen. It deserves to be in a setting where it can tell all kinds of stories without having to worry about being the blockbuster of the week. Give me a periodic series (notice I didn’t say weekly because there doesn’t seem to be such a thing anymore) that can give us varied stories.

Well… You know watt trek isn’t supposed to be? Endless movies about earth and khan wanna-be villains.

wow, that’s unexpected. although I was wondering that it has gotten pretty quiet around the next trek movie lately. not sure if it is a good thing or a bad thing… actually I was pretty optimistic about him directing. anything you want to / can say to us @BobOrci?

Just what we need — turmoil amongst the upper ranks. That’s just wondertastic.

I wish we had great news about the new Trek movie for once. Heck, I’d settle for GOOD news.

Wonder if JJ will return as director & Paramount will wait for him as he will finish Star Wars in the next few months & can review the VFX whilst directing Trek & let Lucasfilm oversea the final aspects of post production like they do on all SW movies.

Orci at least wanted Shatner back I wonder if the next director will be so keen?

Or maybe JJ will be available again and decided he wants to take the helm one more time?

The possibilities of our returning from this mission in one piece may have just doubled.

Now…Shatner can star AND direct!!
Seriously though…Not sure how to react to this. Need more information!

Hmmm…Star Wars has wrapped, maybe the king of multitasking is having second thoughts? hope so! hate that Bob is out of the directorss chair but his script is what counts most! paramount probably got cold feet with Bob being a first timer. No worries, he can cut his teeth on a smaller project and come back to direct Star Trek 4 :)

seems there was more than a grain of truth in the recent rumours… I wonder if that will affect the script as well. Reset to zero?

I’m not sure if he’s available but I’d sale my own ass to the Orion Syndicate to see James Gunn direct the next Star Trek movie. He blew Guardians of the Galaxy out of the water!

Not the best sign since filming is supposed to happen so soon. Wonder whats going on…

I’m fine with this. He hasn’t direct anything before and this film is too important to “give the director’s chair a shot”.

#26 Dunsel Report – Well played.

It will all hinge on who get the Director’s chair. I will continue to have low expectations.

Many will speculate why this is happening, but until FACTS appear, all those speculating are not making anything better. In other words, unless you know for certain, shut up.

Oh and if this means no Shatner? Then I am DOUBLY excited for this news. I I mean Shatner? Really? What is this, 2007?

I don’t suppose there’s any hope that Nicholas Meyer, Leonard Nimoy, or Jonathan Frakes will direct.

29. northstar –
” I wonder if that will affect the script as well. Reset to zero?”

My guess, northstar, is no. At least not in any major way. Bob’s still producer and presumably still the main writer.

But in truth, as Alice said, “It just gets curiouser and curiouser.”

Still and yet, all my hopes for the

50th!

BTW: It’s so ironic that we were discussing rumors and lack of Trek-movie news lately in the comments section from the communicators article. And now, this happens.

And it’s weird, too, that not too long ago Bob Orci was on these boards implying that he was directing. He never actually stated he was, but seemed confident about it. So, something must have happened. Now I sound like a conspiracy theorist like Bob, but it’s gotta be something bad. And I do not have high hopes about Edgar Wright.

I think this is really bad news. Orci was promising some real deep-space stuff and actual sci-fi plot elements. I wonder if that’s what Paramount didn’t like, that the movie was “too cerebal” and not enough action. This is not unlike Paramount’s response to Roddenberry’s first pilot, “The Cage.”

It’s so funny that even 50 years later Paramount wants more ‘splosions in Star Trek. Bummer.

Just………..damn.

This has the potential to be a real gut-punch to the next film actually happening. Though an untried ‘captain’, Orci is clearly a knowledgeable fan and very capable writer. I hope the Enterprise can ride out these stormy waters. :(

Ah this sucks! Sorry to her it Bob, I was really looking forward to a Trecker directing Treck!

Great – can we have a proper sci-fi author wrote the script, and a Director of the calibre of Duncan Jones who can do justice to sci-fi and knows how to get great performances from his actors and do something with depth.
Trek has been hampered by semi fan-fic type stories and – ironically for a film seties designed to break free of it – canon! It needs to get into more exploration and break free of the increasingly boring villain of the week routine.
Get Kirk Prime & Spock Prime back together, and back into their own universe (what better way to celebrate 50 years of Trek by having a proper and happy send off for those two, and forget about ‘Kirk’s’ apparent ‘death’ in generations!). Sets up the 4th film (and a series….) to truly get out there and do its own thing then.

Well said, 20 and 21. What we DON’T need from the next movie is:

– More self-referencial stories
– Shatner or Nimoy (although I love them, you’ve gotta cut loose)
– Stories that simply serve as setups to massive CGI set pieces
– Stories that pay lip service to TOS episodes or TOS movies

Sadly, Orci scripts seem to be guilty of all the above.

I might get totally flamed for these comments, since they harken back to “old school Trek” and “old school story-telling”… but I think we need Nicholas Meyer, or someone LIKE him… a great storyteller who is a complete stranger to the franchise…someone who will come in, take the time to watch the existing and relevant “Trek Universe” material… fall in love with and totally “get” the characters. This person would make a connection from Trek to something near and dear to their own heart (The way Nick Meyer did with the Horatio Hornblower stories) and write/direct an incredible, exciting, character-rich Trek film… a film filed with what Dee Kelly was quoted as saying was always at the core of Trek’s appeal… lot’s of “Star Trek Moments”. Sure, there was loads of actions in Meyer’s Trek films. But what do I remember the most about them? What keeps me going back and re-watching them? Certainly not the eye-popping special effects or the mind blowing space battles. It’s these moments… moments that can make me smile even when I only read them in print:

“Don’t mince words, Bones. What do you REALLY think?”
“I’m not a drama critic”
“You green-blooded…. inhuman…”
“Here it comes”
“You lied” “I exaggerated”
“I don’t like to lose”
“Did she change her hairstyle?” “Hadn’t noticed”
“I feel old… worn out”
“Can I cook, or can’t I?”
“Jim…be careful” “WE will!”
“I had a wee bout, but Dr. McCoy helped me through” “A wee bout of what?”
“Shore leave, Admiral”
“Of all the souls I have encountered in my travels, his was the most… human”
“Remember”
“I feel…. young!”

I could go on and on… but I think I made my point. One of the things that really grinds my gears about movie (and television) making today, is the constant need to “re-invent” “re-imagine” and “reboot” the crap out of stuff.
You know what? STAR TREK doesn’t NEED to be “re-anythinged” It’s a concept as wide, deep and vast as the universe itself. In my opinion, what it DOES need is someone who is willing to see that what we love about this show is the characters… the family feel of a group of folks who truly care about each other and would endure a gaggle of Klingon Pain Sticks or a head full of Ceti-Eels for each other.

Maybe this can’t happen with a new cast. Maybe we feel this way about the Original Series because we truly HAVE known these people for nearly 50 years…. we’ve laughed, cried, suffered, celebrated and grown old with them. I don’t know. I’d like to think we could capture that feeling again. But I don’t think the way to do it is to destroy Vulcan, kill Spock’s mother or kill Kirk’s father, making him a bar fighting smart-ass delinquent who stumbles into Starfleet on a dare from Captain Pike. We don’t do it by creating a Spock/Uhura romance, or by making Spock the sort of person who would put a cadet in an escape pod and leave him in the middle of nowhere…. I think all that is just unneeded junk designed to make these characters somehow “edgier” or “hipper”. Dammit, they’re edgy and hip already.

I’ve got to stop this “stream of consciousness” tirade or I’ll be here all night. I hope all this makes sense when I go back and read it.

Gosh… I really intended for this to be a 4 lined comment about Nick Meyer. Oh well.

LL&P… y’all! :-)

If Edgar Wright gets the gig, then I’m out as a fan. I’ll hang up my phaser and be done as a fan. I absolutely HATE anything that he has ever worked on. And if he gets his dirty hands on my beloved franchise, then I’m sorry, but I can’t deal with that. Almost 20-years as a Trekkie down the toilet.

It’s still Orci’s story, so the true Trek blood (if there ever was any) is still in there, and if Edgar Wright really does step in, it could be a real blast, while keeping the true Trek approach (if there ever was any). But honestly, I was fine with Orci directing… I was even looking forward to it. Ah well, $&/t happens. I just want a new TV series, not with the current movie cast, something new, something in the *future*, i.e. in the future of the Trek we’ve known until now, e.g. a couple of generations from VOY/DS9/ENT. Orci should create that series, make something monumental, not just a blockbuster space action Star Trek flick.

ELATED.

Absolutely, profoundly, ecstatically ELATED.

boborci — If you were shoved out the hatch because you had a vision and stuck to it, then I thank you!
It’s a stupid town, but they know you’ll make ’em money, so we all know you’ll have other projects. When the smoke clears, I’m sure people here would love to hear what you WANTED to do. And that’s not taking shots at the next director, just learning what you would have brought to the Trek universe.

Again, all the best!

Great News! Hopefully this is just the first step in TAKING BACK TREK!! =D

Edgar Wright would be welcome, and a VAST IMPROVEMENT!!! =D

…but i’ve HAD ENOUGH of nu-trek; just let it die, PLEASE?!?

Axanar + Shat = Awesome 50th!!! =D

Alright! Now, if we can just adjust some of the production design… maybe number 3 has a shot at being more than a flashy popcorn flick!

I’m not happy. As much as I lampoon the writers. Bob clearly loves Trek. I have less confidence today. Unless this was Bobs decision for some reason it’s indicative of a studio that has no idea what to do with this franchise.

And if it means no Shatner and Nimoy then it is a travesty.