‘Star Trek 3′: Roberto Orci Wants to Direct

[MakeshiftPython]

Orci might have been prevented from making the perfect Star Trek movie all this time because of input from other members of the supreme court who have now moved on to other things..... for example, I believe it was Lindelof who pushed for Khans inclusion?

I wish I could take this viewpoint on Orci being this one good writer who had to work with a bunch of other bad writers, who is now finally having the means to make the Trek film he always wanted to make, but he's contributed some stupid shit as well that I can't feel optimistic about it.

 

[BillJ]

...but he's contributed some stupid shit...

So has Gene Roddenberry... Harve Bennett... Rick Berman... Ira Steven Behr... Manny Coto... Brannon Braga...

That list is really endless.

 

[BigJake]

[To add insult to injury, the latter from the article is the accidental leak of the villain.]

Post of the day. Beautiful.

 

[MakeshiftPython]

...but he's contributed some stupid shit...

So has Gene Roddenberry... Harve Bennett... Rick Berman... Ira Steven Behr... Manny Coto... Brannon Braga...

That list is really endless.

The big difference being they actually have good work to their credit, whereas Orci does not, even outside of Trek.

 

[SalvorHardin]

I know that for me, it just won't feel like Star Trek now if there isn't an overwhelming amount of lens flare. Totes true.

Can an inexperienced director be trusted to handle the lens flare right? I mean, Abrams made it look easy, but it can't be easy...

Goddamn Paramount.
I knew hiring Orci was a bad idea

Headline, Variety, sometime in early 2016:

"Roberto Orci Blinds Cast Members of Star Trek"

"The rookie director blinded several of the cast while attempting to do a lens flare during a shot on the bridge of the Enterprise."

"I was delivering my lines, and all of a sudden there was a bright light that just kept getting brighter until I could see nothing else at all," said Chris Pine (Captain Kirk). "Then, everything went black."

"I wish I had had that Vulcan extra eyelid," said Zachary Quinto (Spock).

"He's a writer, not a director," opined Karl Urban (Dr. McCoy).

"He didn't know there's an art to doing them," said producer, J.J. Abrams. "It just went really bad for him."

Ocri could not be reached for comment. A spokesman said Orci suffered burns to his hands from the heat of the lamp he was holding.

"Shooting is expected to resume when the cast is able to see, again. Doctors say it could be two to three weeks before they have full vision. In the meantime, the scenes with Scotty and Harry Mudd will be filmed."

[To add insult to injury, the latter from the article is the accidental leak of the villain.]

Excellent

Though I think it's missing a line generalizing on fan reactions to the incident.

 

[BillJ]

The big difference being they actually have good work to their credit, whereas Orci does not, even outside of Trek.

Since I like the two Trek films, even though they have flaws, I would tend to disagree.

With the standard some folks hold Orci and Company to, I wonder how they ever ended up being Trek fans to begin with?

 

[MakeshiftPython]

Lindelof is a Trek fan too. One of the episodes of LOST was a big homage to "All Good Things...". I'm not doubting these guys as Trek fans, I'm doubting them as writers. If Abrams walked up to my door and asked "wanna write the script", I'd reply "can I settle for story credit?". I can throw out a bunch of ideas, but I'd want a professional writer to take them and mold them in a way that makes them work, even come up with ideas and suggestions for how things will play better than I could have come up with. All of the Bad Robot folks come off to me as sci-fi nerds who come up with ideas for films/tv, many intriguing, but don't know how to properly execute them. But they're good enough for studios because that's all they need to market a film and make it a hit on opening weekend.

 

[Mudd]

If Abrams walked up to my door and asked "wanna write the script", I'd reply "can I settle for story credit?". I can throw out a bunch of ideas, but I'd want a professional writer to take them and mold them in a way that makes them work, even come up with ideas and suggestions for how things will play better than I could have come up with.

Wow.

The most common, insulting, and stupid thing that's said to writers in social situations is one variation or another of "I have a lot of good ideas - why don't I tell them to you, you write them up and we'll split 50/50?"

In other words, "I can't write or won't be bothered to try. I want a writer to do all the real work. I'm lazy or untalented but would like some money and credit."

Writers write. They don't sit around admiring their "bunch of ideas" and talking about what they'd do and what smashing successes they'd be if they ever did the goddamned work of writing their stuff down and learning the process of submitting their writing to get the attention of the folks who are buying.

Ideas are a dime a dozen - actually, not even that. Writers have more ideas than they know what to do with (producers, maybe not so much ).

It's work. You've never made the effort and this is why neither Abrams nor anyone else will ever knock on your door, hat in hand, and ask you to do anything.

I guarantee that Orci is a thousand times the writer you are, just as I can guarantee that Uwe Boll is a thousand times the director you are - because you're not a director, either.

 

[Amaris]

^ A-fucking-men.

 

[MakeshiftPython]

You should probably reread the last part of where you quoted me. Honestly, what I suggest is not even different from the policy they had for the tv shows where fans submit their stories and the writers make something better out of it.

 

[Flake]

You should probably reread the last part of where you quoted me. Honestly, what I suggest is not even different from the policy they had for the tv shows where fans submit their stories and the writers make something better out of it.

People submitted full scripts not story ideas. They had a team of people reading the scripts and the vast majority were discarded (presumably all fanwank & unfilmable or too expensive etc) and the odd one that was acceptable still would have gone through other drafts as it got passed around the writing staff and by the original author. I saw a documentary about it on the TNG blu-rays.

 

[MakeshiftPython]

You're right on that, I stand corrected. However, it's bullshit to suggest that the writers are left to their own devices and conjure something up (STID should prove that enough). It's not unheard of that writers would take inspiration from someone else's ideas. Hasn't it been mentioned several times that that's what screenwriters do in these flicks?

The point I was trying to make earlier is that they don't make good screenwriters and I wouldn't pretend to claim I'm any better if Abrams walked up and asked me to write a script.

 

[trevanian]

The real question noone is asking is:

What about the lens flares? Will Orci include them or will he violate nucanon and discard them?

The funny thing is that the people who have bitched the loudest about them will also bitch the loudest if they aren't in the next film.

That's an immensely stupid thing to say. I've bitched about the misuse of lens flare in TREK more than anybody on earth by now I think, and if they're not in the next movie it would make it much easier to watch the movie ... but then again, I'm not gonna watch a movie made by Orci (because I don't think his creative stuff is any good, not for ancillary reasons).

I already had to see ID in the theater because my wife likes Cumberbatch, and that one trip is one too many Abrams theatrical experiences in my lifetime.

 

[Mudd]

You should probably reread the last part of where you quoted me. Honestly, what I suggest is not even different from the policy they had for the tv shows where fans submit their stories and the writers make something better out of it.

It's entirely different, sorry. You have no idea what you're talking about.

 

[BillJ]

That's an immensely stupid thing to say.

You wait and see. There's a whole subset of fandom who hang their existence to being contrary to whatever is on the screen at the time.

 

[trevanian]

And his job sucked pretty bad. Don't even want to imagine what he would have done had he been in charge.

He is in charge on that new SHOWTIME series I fell asleep on, the one that sounds so good on paper, with Timothy Dalton.

Except for RANGO, I don't know that he has ever written anything good (he only did a bit of useable stuff in GLADIATOR, and his version of the AVIATOR pic was from 1996 and doesn't resemble the final, whether the WGA says so or not), and if you're one of the zillions of folks who was suckered by SKYFALL, then you have my condolences, because he pissed all over Bond with that in a huge way, far worse than NEM IMO, enough to keep me from seeing the next one even if I get an assignment to cover it.

Logan is one helluva networker, though, I'll give him that. It'd be interesting to really find out all of the history on ON ANY SUNDAY, which is something a development guy with Oliver Stone had him crank out really fast in response to another football script already done and slated for production for the same company but at the behest of a different development guy there.

 

[Sindatur]

Is anyone saying that? It's an idiotic notion.

Absolutely it's an Idiotic Notion, that was my point exactly. As to the Quotage, I see that's already been answered for me, sorry for not replying directly to a Quote to show context

 

[trevanian]

Fans have been yapping for years about how Trek needs a real fan who loves the franchise to be in charge.

Well, you just got what you asked for.

What, he's the wrong kind of fan? Yeah, look around the boards again and see how many people post here that you massively disagree with about what Trek is and how it should be handled and what constitutes "real Star Trek." Then ask yourself what the odds have ever been that if a real Trekkie ever took the reins he/she would be someone whose understanding of Trek you approved of.

You can fairly call Orci a hundred bad things (including a whacked-out conspiracy theorist, which again given what can be read here on TrekBBS seems to be an overlapping set with fans) but don't dare try to pretend for a moment that he's less into "Star Trek" and less knowledgeable about it than any of you.

+1

+2

Meyer and Bennett came into Star Trek cold, immersed themselves in the characters, and became good and faithful custodians of them. Orci is at least that good.

Ignoring that last sentence in order to keep my blood pressure in check, I'm just gonna say that Meyer hardly became a good custodian of the characters. More like he hit a real amazing grace note -- especially on Kirk -- with TWOK, delivered what was needed in TVH and then crapped all over Kirk & Spock on TUC with their prejeudice & pride issues.

 

[BillJ]

...and then crapped all over Kirk & Spock on TUC with their prejeudice & pride issues.

I like how he handled Kirk and Spock in The Undiscovered Country. Being on the precipice of all-out war for thirty-plus years and having a member of that race execute your son may color someone's judgement towards that race.

 

[MakeshiftPython]

That's an immensely stupid thing to say.

You wait and see. There's a whole subset of fandom who hang their existence to being contrary to whatever is on the screen at the time.

And I say "who cares?". Contraians are what they are. I don't like nuTrek as a whole, but I'm not gonna be against everything that's happen on the screen just for the sake of it.