Has Trek ever tried to court any Directors (Capital "D")?

[blockaderunner]

Why didn't they ever put the call out to a Spielberg or Ridley Scott or James Cameron to handle a Trek movie instead of directors on the tail end of their careers (TMP), in-house people too familiar with the material (Nimoy, Frakes, etc.) and people who have no business in a director's chair (Baird)? Contrary to what many Trekkies believe, I don't think a good director has to "get" Trek no more than Sam Peckinpah "got" the old west when he made The Wild Bunch. All they need to know is a keen sense of characterization, story pacing, and visual flair. All the things that Trekkies like, the things they feel a director must "get", is all window dressing to hang on what should be a very taut, real human drama.

I know I'm in the minority to think this and I'm sure I'll get a slew of examples as to why I'm wrong. But I felt it had to be said.

 

[Kegek]

Robert Wise was a Director. The twilight years of his career, maybe, but that's no discouragement. It was around this time that the venerable master Akira Kurosawa made his incredible comeback, you know.

This said, it is a pity. Compare the Star Trek franchise to, say, the Alien franchise: Ridley Scott (Blade Runner), James Cameron (Terminator), David Fincher (Fight Club), Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Delicatessen). I'm not saying I like all these directors, or their Alien films, nor am I saying they were all chosen with the foreknowledge they were great directors (some of these directors had their classics resting in the future). But it's an impressive list none the same.

After Robert Wise, the only real shot at a director would be Nicholas Meyer. After that, we have TV directors (Carson, Frakes), actor-directors (Nimoy, Shatner, Frakes) and... Stuart Baird deserves a category of his own, really.

 

[Data Holmes]

Re: Has Trek ever tried to court any Directors (Capital "D")

Kegek said:
Robert Wise was a Director. The twilight years of his career, maybe, but that's no discouragement. It was around this time that the venerable master Akira Kurosawa made his incredible comeback, you know.

This said, it is a pity. Compare the Star Trek franchise to, say, the Alien franchise: Ridley Scott (Blade Runner), James Cameron (Terminator), David Fincher (Fight Club), Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Delicatessen). I'm not saying I like all these directors, or their Alien films, nor am I saying they were all chosen with the foreknowledge they were great directors (some of these directors had their classics resting in the future). But it's an impressive list none the same.

After Robert Wise, the only real shot at a director would be Nicholas Meyer. After that, we have TV directors (Carson, Frakes), actor-directors (Nimoy, Shatner, Frakes) and... Stuart Baird deserves...

To stay his ass in the editors room.

 

[Kinnison]

Re: Has Trek ever tried to court any Directors (Capital "D")

Yeah, sorry blockaderunner, but Robert Wise counts. The thing is, good directors cost more, and most Trek movies have been rather low-budget, TMP and the new movie excepted.

 

[cardinal biggles]

Re: Has Trek ever tried to court any Directors (Capital "D")

Maybe I'm wrong in thinking this, but didn't one of the making/art/history of Trek coffee table books reproduce an internal Paramount wish list of directors for TMP? I think it included Spielberg and Lucas; why, I don't know, since after Close Encounters and Star Wars, neither would have needed Roddenberry to punch their meal ticket.

 

[cardinal biggles]

Re: Has Trek ever tried to court any Directors (Capital "D")

hutt359 said:

Stuart Baird deserves...

To stay his ass in the editors room.

In fairness to Baird, he was just trying to do what Robert Wise himself had done several decades prior: make the jump from the editing room to the director's chair (Wise was the editor on Citizen Kane, among other films). Some people can make the jump, others can't. The fact that Baird hasn't had a directing gig since Nemesis would either illustrate that he's learned his lesson, or that nobody wants him touching the director's chair with a 10-foot pole.

 

[Nebusj]

Re: Has Trek ever tried to court any Directors (Capital "D")

cardinal biggles said:
Maybe I'm wrong in thinking this, but didn't one of the making/art/history of Trek coffee table books reproduce an internal Paramount wish list of directors for TMP? I think it included Spielberg and Lucas; why, I don't know, since after Close Encounters and Star Wars, neither would have needed Roddenberry to punch their meal ticket.

I don't know about such a wish list, but it seems credible they'd have some directors they'd love to get, and people who've shown commercial and artistic expertise in the genre would naturally top it out.

As to why Spielberg or Lucas might do Trek, well, why not? They may not have needed Star Trek to get their next projects done, but perhaps they'd find the particular challenges of working in the Trek idiom interesting, or perhaps they'd find working on a project with reasonably certain expectations and budgets and such a way to do useful work between the projects that inspire them, or perhaps they'd turn out to be Trekkies from the first time the show aired and would do it for a lark. It doesn't hurt to make up a wish list, and it isn't particularly harmful to try a long shot even if it doesn't turn out.

 

[Data Holmes]

Re: Has Trek ever tried to court any Directors (Capital "D")

cardinal biggles said:

hutt359 said:

Stuart Baird deserves...

To stay his ass in the editors room.

In fairness to Baird, he was just trying to do what Robert Wise himself had done several decades prior: make the jump from the editing room to the director's chair (Wise was the editor on Citizen Kane, among other films). Some people can make the jump, others can't. The fact that Baird hasn't had a directing gig since Nemesis would either illustrate that he's learned his lesson, or that nobody wants him touching the director's chair with a 10-foot pole.

True, and Baird is a fairly decent editor, but I really think he was brought in because he was a friend of Stewart. And the there was a back room deal made. I mean, they basically had him do two uncredited edits of paramount films and then ordered Rick Berman (According to the story) to higher him...

 

[I am not Spock]

Re: Has Trek ever tried to court any Directors (Capital "D")

I can see Spielberg doing one. He is probably a fan (didn't he visit the set of Trek XI?), but I can't see Lucas helming an ST film.

Baird should stick to editing. Although, the editing on Nemesis was a total 'MTV music video' mess. He should never sit in the director's chair again.

 

[cardinal biggles]

Re: Has Trek ever tried to court any Directors (Capital "D")

hutt359 said:
...but I really think he was brought in because he was a friend of Stewart.

I wasn't aware of that.

And the there was a back room deal made. I mean, they basically had him do two uncredited edits of paramount films and then ordered Rick Berman (According to the story) to higher him...

Basically.

 

[Maurice]

Re: Has Trek ever tried to court any Directors (Capital "D")

I'm sure name directors have been approached, but I suspect would have turned down the films due to the budgets and the baggage. I mean, the hardcore fans bitch about everything...so you're just painting a bullseye on your back if you take a Trek assignment.

 

[Candlelight]

Re: Has Trek ever tried to court any Directors (Capital "D")

I would really liked to have seen a Trek film written & directed by James Cameron. He is very good at characterisation and can direct a mean action sequence.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Re: Has Trek ever tried to court any Directors (Capital "D")

Robert Wise was the only "name" director associated with the old Trek movies - Meyer had one or two low-budget films in his background and at least one TV movie. He would not go on to build much of a directing career in film apart from "Star Trek."

 

[Candlelight]

Re: Has Trek ever tried to court any Directors (Capital "D")

And JJ Abrams is hardly a big name either. I've never watched any of his "hits".

 

[Balrog]

Re: Has Trek ever tried to court any Directors (Capital "D")

cardinal biggles said:
Maybe I'm wrong in thinking this, but didn't one of the making/art/history of Trek coffee table books reproduce an internal Paramount wish list of directors for TMP? I think it included Spielberg and Lucas; why, I don't know, since after Close Encounters and Star Wars, neither would have needed Roddenberry to punch their meal ticket.

In "The Making of Star Trek: The Motion Picture", it is mentioned that Paramount considered and perhaps courted some big-name directors such as George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, and Francis Ford Coppola, among others. Apparently, they were all either doing other projects, rejected the job outright, or both.

 

[A beaker full of death]

Re: Has Trek ever tried to court any Directors (Capital "D")

This thread boggles my mind. I can't imagine a more reputable, high caliber director than Robert Wise.

 

[Rico]

Re: Has Trek ever tried to court any Directors (Capital "D")

Robert Wise, Nick Meyer, and now JJ Abrams I'd say are all pretty darn good. And for me at least it's the story and script that is most critical. A great director can't make a bad script good. But even an average director will probably make a good film with a great script.

 

[Kegek]

Re: Has Trek ever tried to court any Directors (Capital "D")

Rico said:
A great director can't make a bad script good.

Depends on his script control and how good a rewriter he is. If memory serves, Nick Meyer did an extensive but uncredited rewrite on TWOK's script.

 

[Peach Wookiee]

Re: Has Trek ever tried to court any Directors (Capital "D")

That's cool! I loved Meyer's version of the Trekverse, but that's just me.

 

[Nebusj]

Re: Has Trek ever tried to court any Directors (Capital "D")

Rico said:
A great director can't make a bad script good.

Sure they can. Movies are hugely impressionistic affairs, and something can make emotional sense and appear to make logical sense regardless of what is actually on the script page.

And real, supreme greatness in directors has its perils too: when they get bad, they can produce works of mind-boggling badness. A merely average director may have a limit to their potential badness; genius knows no such bounds.