Photo: Art Streiber
After writing as a unit for more than a decade and turning into something of a production company powerhouse/hive mind, Star Trek scribes Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci have decided to call it quits. No, snark fans, they’re not quitting the biz but merely focusing on separate film projects, which in Kurtzman’s case means negotiating to direct Amazing Spider-spin-off Venom and in Orci’s, lobbying to sit in the big chair for **Star Trek 3.
The directorial news is not that surprising. Kurtzman, after all, already has one credit under his belt with indie People Like Us and both have worked on more than enough huge movies to learn a thing or two. But while we can see Sony handing the lower-risk Venom on to a relative newcomer in the director’s chair, it might be a harder sell for Paramount to pull a Starfleet and give control of one of its franchise jewels to a man who, like Chris Pine’s Kirk, has no experience directly running the show.
Star Trek 3, which Orci is writing with Patrick McKay and John D. Payne, has been the subject of much speculation over who might direct it now that J.J Abrams is a bit busy in another galaxy far, far away. Attack The Block’s Joe Cornish was seriously considered but long appears to have turned down the idea. Orci would be a bigger risk, but in his favour has his franchise writing credits and vast experience running TV shows.
Talking of the small screen, it appears that while the pair – who have mutually and amicably decided to separate their creative partnership – will split their developing film projects between them, they will likely keep the TV side of their business united.