The recent news that Paramount has dumped Roberto Orci as director of Star Trek 3, along with most of the art department that had come in a few months prior to start pre-production on the 3rd in the series of reboot films, tells me this franchise is going nowhere fast. Don’t me wrong, this Sci-Fi tentpole has been broken and busted like a two dollar hooker before, 2002 rings a bell, when the mis-fire that was Star Trek Nemesis was released in theaters. However, in my opinion, it’s in an even more sad state of affairs given how much potential is being left on the table by the people that own the rights to this famous property. That means you Paramount! Let’s talk shop shall we….
For starters, what in god’s name was the studio thinking allowing there to be almost 4 years in between the successful reboot that had even average fans clamoring for more of the new crew? Head scratcher at best, and I’m not buying it that they felt they had to wait for JJ Abrams and co to drag their feet for that long to drum up a sequel. The really sad part about the wait is that most “die-hard” Trekkies seemed to dislike the follow-up, Star Trek Into Darkness. Me? I actually loved it, but for my own reasons, however, if you’re going to take 4 years to conjure up a sequel it had best be epic and original on many levels. That means rehashing the old villain Khan, and even redoing a death scene from one of the previous films doesn’t fall under “original” category by any stretch of the imagination. Either way, time was wasted, and if I had been the top dog at Paramount I’d have just brought in another director, and writers once it became clear Abram’s crew couldn’t deliver another film in a reasonable amount of time.
Fast forward to 2014 and for awhile it looked like Paramount Pictures were moving forward with Orci as their man to direct the third film, and there was even chatter amongst Karl Urban (Dr. McCoy) that the storyline would be very pleasing based on what he’d heard at that point. Here’s the exact quote from Urban: “I’m going to meet with J.J. [Abrams] in a couple of days and I’m looking forward to that. And the important thing is that it is going to be phenomenal. Based on what I hear of the concept, it’s going to rock and you guys are going to love it.” Well, so much for that. Add to it, some tweets between William Shatner, and Orci regarding Old Kirk returning started to gain a lot of momentum among fans in generating more interested for what would be seen in the next installment. It really seemed like a plan was in place, and at different points it was reported the studio even enjoyed Orci’s script for the film, enough to green light the picture. And then like a fool dropping a match into a pool of gasoline the whole plan was reportedly obliterated as of yesterday. Sites like Deadline.com, Variety, and Trekcore.com all reporting Orci was dumped as director, as well as the script he wrote with Patrick Mckay and J.D. Payne was also jettisoned. This last minute decision making usually never works out well, which makes me question why Paramount green lit this story and production to begin with…
Now, the story (supposedly) would have revolved around the Vulcans, and Starfleet racing to find some time travel device that would allow the Vulcans to go back in time and save their destroyed planet from destruction. If that’s true, in Paramount’s defense, I can see why the idea of another time-travel story scared them off. It’s a plot device that’s been over-cooked and beaten to death like Apollo Creed far too much in the history of Star Trek. However, it sounded like it would have been the glue that allowed for Shatner to make an appearance as the Kirk from the old timeline. In the end, now Paramount has to scramble and A) Find a solid director and B) Bring in a writer who can rewrite the story altogether. Two words: Good luck!
And it leads me to my overall point with how this franchise has been handled over the years with the films: Incompetence. Unlike the Marvel film’s franchise that has well thought out ideas for future films, Paramount has seemingly kept a careless attitude about their own baby. Why? Can’t they see $$$$, and limitless potential for getting butts into the seats for spin-off films, on top of their primary sequels? Star Wars may have Bounty Hunters, but Trek has Harry Mudd (don’t laugh), and if you cast the right actors/actresses in certain roles you can certainly create enough interest among fans to see interesting stories within the Trek playground that doesn’t necessarily have to include the primary crew of the Enterprise. Hell, why not make spin-off films regarding the Klingons and Romulans? But again, cast properly, and hire competent writers and directors to make it happen. If nothing else, bring back the Next Gen cast in piece-meal form, and pepper in some original faces as well. Do something because something is better than nothing at this point…
So here we are not too far from the franchise’s 50th anniversary, and there’s still no announcement from Paramount as to their game-plan moving forward without a director, and a story that’s apparently been scrapped as well. Brilliant!! Why does it have to be such a science project to get out a third trek film? I understand that Hollywood “suits” and execs can get in the way of various projects getting off the ground, but we’re not talking about green-lighting an Indie film about people who live in tree forts, we’re talking about arguably the most well-known Sci-Fi property in the history of TV and Film. Perhaps “Artie” from the Larry Sanders (YouTube him, trust me) show needs to show up at the lot and kick some major ass for a long-term plan to be formulated? Regardless, either figure it out, or sell it to another studio that will extract the most out of Star Trek’s limitless potential. Nuff said. Thanks for reading. (Follow me on Twitter @ Trekkienerd007)
— Trek Clips throughout the years>> (Paramount Pictures own all the rights to the following clips)
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