With J.J. Abrams off in that galaxy far, far away, Paramount wasn’t willing to put the Star Trek franchise into dry dock and wait for the producer/director to be available again to oversee the Enterprise. So for a while now, word has been spreading that Roberto Orci is after the big gig for the third film, and Variety brings news that he’s now hammering out a deal to do just that.
Despite never having directed a film before, Orci has been screenwriter, producer or both on plenty of big projects, including the Transformers films, Cowboys & Aliens, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Mission: Impossible III and, of course, both of Abrams' **Star Trek **films. Audience feelings towards his work with long-time co-writer/producer Alex Kurtzman have been mixed, however, and the news won’t exactly be greeted with universal joy.
Orci and Kurtzman, who have announced that they’re ending their partnership to focus on solo projects, with Kurtzman looking to make Spidey spin-off Venom, are currently writing **Star Trek 3 **alongside J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay. The plot is naturally being kept a secret for now.
While no official casting has been announced, expect the regular crew led by Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Simon Pegg and company, to return. There’s also no official release date yet, but we figure Paramount would want it ready for 2016, which happens to be the 50th anniversary of Kirk and co.