Star Trek 3: Is This The Real Reason Roberto Orci And Paramount Split?
Could Orci be the good guy in this situation?
This article is more than 2 years old
Yesterday we heard that there are five names on Paramount’s shortlist of directors they would like to take over the helm on Star Trek 3 now that Roberto Orci has been ousted. There are plusses and minuses to all of them, but now the motivation for the split between the studio and would-be first time director is coming into focus. A big part of the reason appears to be that Orci’s vision for the film didn’t jive with the shifting ideas the studio has about the picture, as they saw how successful Marvel was with Guardians of the Galaxy and want the next Trek adventure to be more like that.
Don’t get us wrong, we loved Guardians of the Galaxy, and it’s definitely the best attempt to make a Star Wars movie since Return of the Jedi, but it’s hard to imagine that aesthetic translating well to Star Trek. There’s plenty of action, but it’s not necessarily of the swashbuckling, serial-influenced sort, and while there’s humor in Trek, the sarcastic, smart ass silliness of Guardians would be really out of place (though Star-Lord does at times feel like a send up of Captain Kirk). And apparently Orci felt the same way.
Badass Digest shared some intel they gathered. While the first two Trek movies made a good amount of money, neither was the out-of-this-world blockbuster they hoped for, and with the success of Guardians, just about every studio is looking to copy that formula wherever they can. Looking at characters like Rocket and Groot, they wonder why some of the weird ass creatures in the Trek universe can’t have a more prominent role. One name thrown out is Keenser, the Starfleet engineer that we first meet hanging out with Simon Pegg’s Scotty in J.J. Abrams’ 2009 reboot.
You could definitely incorporate elements from the Marvel approach into Star Trek, like the quick, snappy dialogue, but it’s unclear precisely what they’re talking about when they say they want their movie to be more like Guardians. But whatever their vision, Orci apparently didn’t share it. This report cites two different sides of the story they’ve heard about his departure. One is that he quit because of a profound difference with Paramount over what they want out of the movie. The other is that “Paramount shut the picture down a month ago and spent the time talking to other filmmakers before officially taking Orci off the project.” That’s when Edgar Wright was reportedly offered the job, but it sounds like he was unwilling to step into what is obviously a troubled situation.
As it stands, the five directors who Paramount wants to take over are Rupert Wyatt (Rise of the Planet of the Apes), Daniel Espinosa (Safe House), Justin Lin (The Fast & The Furious), Morten Tyldum (The Imitation Game), and Duncan Jones (Moon, Source Code). We’ll still have to wait and see if any of them steps in, but if the production still wants to start shooting in February, a decision shouldn’t be too far off.
No matter how you approach it, this just sounds like a mess. Hopefully they won’t rush a movie just to get something into theaters in 2016 for the 50th anniversary of Star Trek. What do you think? Are you on board with Star Trek 3 being more like Guardians of the Galaxy, whatever that means? Do you want them to stick with a more traditional approach? Sound off below.
