Orci To Direct Star Trek 3

83 thoughts on “Orci To Direct Star Trek 3”

1. Having taken time to read his open letter, I see that the points he makes are valid, and are stated mostly objectively. This is hardly an ad-hominem rant. Also, what makes you think he’s submitted this only to one site?

2. Boy, boy, crazy boy!
   Stay loose, boy!
   Breeze it, buzz it, easy does it.
   Turn off the juice, boy!
   Go man, go,
   But not like a yo-yo schoolboy.
   Just play it cool, boy,
   Real cool!

3. Zing!

4. I downloaded Star Trek Into PirateBay so I could see just how bad it was. Afterward, I felt like I’d just watched bad porn in my grandmother’s bedroom. It pissed me off even more that about 10% of the film is actually good, and of that, about half, 5% of the whole, is actually good Star Trek.

5. What’s worse is they seem to have taken the picture with him sitting on his face.

6. Agreed! This is shaping up to be a big year for fan productions all around. Could it be… could it be that people who actually care about Star Trek wanted to actually exert some creative effort for the 50th anniversary?

7. Nope. Coto is “too television”. Small timer in their eyes. This is why other “small timers” like Andy Probert, who in addition to the -D and refining the refit Enterprise designed a certain familiar DeLorean; Greg Jein, who built models for bloody Stephen Spielberg; Rick Sternbach, who practically midwifed CGI in science fiction; Doug Drexler and John Eaves, who have done outstanding design and concept work for genre productions for decades, and many others were just overlooked. Too unhip, too small-screen, too Star Trek.

8. Profitability is not a valid measure of quality. However, there is no reason why you can’t have a film that is insanely profitable that is also a good, quality film. We had a pretty near miss in 2009. For many fans, including myself, the positive elements well outweighed the negative ones. It was a very promising start.
   And then, Into Darkness.

   Paramount is doing exactly what Orci and Kurtzman (those knuckleheads) have always done on sequels: gotten as giddy and exciteable as wiggly puppies, as turned on as a high school prom queen on X by all that money and adulation. All of a sudden, the product of their bowels smells wonderful. And so, having lost any benchmark for quality and having apparently no idea what they did right in the first place, said bowel products are what ends up on the page, and thence the screen.
   I think Paramount has made a poor decision in allowing an overly exciteable, combative virgin to direct a hundred-plus million tentpole summer film. They, like Orci, and such film luminaries as Michael Bay, only hear that lovely ch-ching!
   But then again I’m obviously old and out of touch. I sit and talk about insanely profitable films of old like Jaws, Close Encounters, Raiders that are regarded as some of the best films of their era; of sequels with double the budget of their predecessor like Empire Strikes Back, and then Return of the Jedi, whose production teams didn’t go money-drunk and screw up the film; of first-time directors who start with a film that demonstrates clear vision and a commitment to quality, like Duncan Jones and Gareth Edwards, before moving on to insanely big-budget productions like Godzilla and World of Warcraft.
   I don’t need Roberto Orci doesn’t have to be the second coming of Spielberg. I would settle for him not being the second coming of Michael Bay.

9. I’ve always found that puzzling, when even first-year film students and armchair critics like Honest Trailers can deconstruct it into a thin puddle. Or I did find it puzzling, until I noticed the positive reviews peppered with phrases like “popcorn movie”, “entertaining romp”, “good summer fun”, “not as bad as you’d think”, and my personal favorite, “didn’t split my head open like a watermelon”.
   The short of it is, one can overlook the flaws in it so long as one chooses not to think about it at all. if you like films like Independence Day or Transformers Dark of the Moon, you’ll think it’s a good film… until the next bit of fluff comes along.
   Let me put it this way. I have Trek 2009 on my shelf. It rewatches quite well. I don’t have STiD; I saw it once, pirated, and it didn’t grip me enough to want to watch it again. My father, Papa Kang, who loved STiD all to pieces in the theater, also doesn’t own it. As he put it, “it’s great, it’s fun, it’s exciting… and it’s not Star Trek. Meh. Where’s my waffle iron?”

10. Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice!

    Nope. Nothing. Have to disagree with you on that one.

11. Heh heh. Hah. Ahehahah. HahahahHAHAAAHAAAHAAAAAAAAAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH
    Ah. Sorry. Everything’s better with thorazine.
    All of those people are too small-time, too out-of-touch with today’s hip, hot, happenin’ seat-butting audience. Except Nimoy, since he’s already been a plot device in the previous two. And good luck weaning Bob off his revenge plots and scary dark ships, or his absolute conviction that Star Trek is “all about the villain”. Because if we could… we might actually get a decent film out of the lad.

12. Giant transforming robots who pee oil on people and hump girls’ legs, than you very much. Credit where credit’s due.

13. Ummmm…..
    Before directing Search for Spock, Leonard had directed for television. He has four prior credits before Star Trek III. Bobbo has… bupkiss.
    Not to mention Star Trek was not at the time considered to be a particularly important property for Paramount. The budget was small, and while the studio was impressed that Star Trek II made a nice profit, it was hardly the runaway juggernaut that would have made Paramount actually care about the quality of the output.
    Additionally… Star Trek III’s strength comes pretty much entirely from Nimoy’s knowledge of and devotion to Star Trek. Not from his directorial talent. The film is shot very much like television: Static two-shot, static two-shot, medium closeup, talking head, static two shot. And this is with Nicholas Meyer’s coaching and assistance. I’m not dogging on Leonard, he did a good job for his first time and learned a lot in the process, but, there it is.
    I know Orci’s got a lot of production credits, and I suspect he’s also done well as a producer. I think he knows what a good scene should look like. My concern is, can he make one? Will he let another writer upstage him if it makes the film better? Will he listen and respond constructively to his actors, his producers, his assistant directors? Or will he pull a queen bitch Michael Bay my-way-or-the-airlock snit and end up with a higher budgeted Star Trek V?

14. I must add that Zach Quinto makes an excellent Spock, when he’s not being henpecked by his girlfriend; Zoe Saldana makes a fine Uhura when she’s not being a nagging bitch; I like Anton Yelchin’s Chekov; I can tolerate Simon Pegg, though Deep Roy keeps upstaging him; and I think Chris Pine might make a great Kirk if they ever let him play it as a grown-up. John Cho I think would be great in another part besides Sulu.

15. One can hope. But Orci’s track record with Lindehof-free sequels is also pretty appalling. I’d like to see him prove me wrong, but I have little faith in that occurring.

16. You seem familiar. Didn’t you get your bitch ass banned?

17. I guess appalling is a matter of opinion, but going by his actual track record on IMDb, his hits outweighs his misses (and is probably why he keeps getting work). Granted, not everything he’s done has pleased everyone, but there’s no one that has ever done that, IMO.

18. The wormhole prophets say his shows will be cancelled and his movies will be box office flops because he made a huge mockery out of Star Trek. And the prophecy seems to come to be coming true, because last week three of his shows were cancelled.

19. If I had to pick two performances/actors, it’d be Quinto as Spock and Urban as McCoy. Everyone else I’d recast.

20. Hi Kang,

    I will edit the letter down to pretty much the first paragraph only, although I will also keep the twitter comment “As I love to say, there is a reason I write movies and you don’t” because this is a comment in which Orci seems to be drawing a qualitative distinction between himself and the person he was arguing with – in terms of directing there is no distinction, he is literally no more qualified or experienced than anyone else. I have posted elsewhere and will continue to challenge this appointment. I will also forward to the DGA. Obviously I expect nothing will come of it but I do want to exercise the right to ask the question.

    Cheers
    Chris

21. My two picks as well. Those two really aced their roles – everyone else just made good attempts.

22. I forgot to mention how cool Michal Dorn playing Kor would be.

23. Or did anyway before his rant.

24. Really? In the real World? Ok.

25. I have to question your numbers.

    http://1701news.com/node/527/what-most-profitable-trek-movie-all-time.html

26. So tell me, how did you feel about Braman Star Trek because I had no issues with any new Star Trek till JJ got here. So unless you “loved it all,” I’d zip my lip about the hate if I was you.

27. Last week was nice. 😀

28. Tell that to every part three that has ever sucked. You know who they are!

29. I go along with Urban as McCoy…that’s it.

30. I paid for the last two; it’ll be tough to see this one. My favorite parts of Trek are the little talks — lines, not scenes — Kirk and Spock used to have while hashing out problems. That cannot happen in the new movies — the characters just aren’t skilled or mature enough; Spock isn’t even really operating without emotions, and let’s forget Vulcan pacifism. Kirk cannot be the great strategist here — not enough experience. I understand some of the changes have been made to create a new property, i.e., changing characters means NuTrek is new and therefore less royalties are paid to Roddenberry’s estate (same with all reboots). Mr. Orci has defended the brewery in the past so it might stay. If they got some original cast members in that would be good. Many fans have mentioned a “Deadly Years” scenario in which any or all remaining cast members could temporarily appear – this could be a minor plot point – McCoy ( not stricken ) could cure them fast, but it would give the TOS cast a scene or two. Short of that, this film will need a good story, for me, anyway.

31. I’m not planing on seeing this film anyway, but I agree, getting the other remaining members of the TOS cast in the film would seem appropriate. Especially since this is the 50th anniversary film.

32. The quote, “For everything, there is a first time,” you attribute it to Spock in ST6. Rather, it should be credited to Spock in ST2 as he allows Saavik to pilot the Enterprise out of spacedock. Correct that before you send off your abridged letter.

33. All the new film needs is an intro by Criswell, er, Alex Jones!

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