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My gravest movie misgivings: toy writers

J

jayrath

Fleet Captain
Fleet Captain
Let me tie this firmly to TOS: the original series was written by, among others, Sturgeon, Bloch, Ellison. A happy confluence of talent made it what it is; yet it all began with the written word. All else followed from that.

So much is being made of the casting for the next movie. But isn't anyone else a bit creeped out, as I am, that it's being written by the super-young authors of a Japanese shape-changing-toy movie?

Can we not do better?

Who'll be tapped for the sequel? Writers of "He-Man"? "Thundercats"? "She-Rah"?

I can name a half-dozen Trek novelists whom I would have more confidence in, and a dozen serious screenwriters.

Ick . . . just . . . ick!
 
Big applause of agreement. The #1 most important element of a film is the writing (comprising both the plot structure and the dialogue). Yes, decent acting is important, but I think that good writing can tend to lead to better performances - when the performer knows they're doing something that isn't crap, it shows. And while it's true that mediocre writing can be saved by an amazing performance ("Monster", anyone?), I really don't think we're going to find an "Amazing" performance in this movie. What's the last "amazing" performance in any star trek movie? Khan, if you're generous.
 
^^And they had a great deal of respect for the original Superman films (we don't acknowledge III and IV, and neither did the film makers of Superman Returns as that movie took place right after II).

I'm glad to know the writers of the next Star Trek film care a great deal about TOS.....but when it's all said and done, can they walk the walk?
 
we shall see.

And I'm not sure the pool of Trek novel writers is necessarily a better place to tap, though. A novel writer does not a screenwriter make, necessarily, though they are a talented lot for the most part.

I'm afraid we don't seem to live in an era of great screenwriting. At least we can hope they have some respect for the material. Not the canon, not the franchise: frak them. Have respect for the story.
 
No, what we know about the writers doesn't bother me a bit. It's probably a good idea to bring in writers who've never had anything to do with "Star Trek," at this point.
 
They have TV and movie writing and producing credits going back over 10 years. About the same a Roddenberry when he wrote and produced "The Cage."
 
^^And this time, they don't have Michael Bay's grubby hands all over the script with a red pen.
 
Didn't JMS write for some of the 80's cartoon shows? I know he wrote for Wheeled Warriors.

You gotta start somewhere.
 
jayrath said:
So much is being made of the casting for the next movie. But isn't anyone else a bit creeped out, as I am, that it's being written by the super-young authors of a Japanese shape-changing-toy movie?

Can we not do better?
Click to expand...

Kurtzman & Orci are also veterans of Hercules, Xena, Alias, The Island, The Legend of Zorro, and Mission: Impossible 3. They're not "toy writers" just because they wrote one movie based on a toy franchise, any more than Hugo Weaving is a "toy actor" because he played Megatron in that movie (a role which, by the way, Leonard Nimoy played in the animated Transformers movie way back when). They're writers. They get hired to do various projects and they adapt themselves to the needs of those projects, just like actors adapt their performance to the different characters they play.

Indeed, I seem to recall reading that Michael Bay hired them for Transformers specifically because of their proven ability in other kinds of movie and show, so that they'd write a script that worked as a movie rather than just a toy commercial or fanboy lovefest.
 
Funny... Trekkies making fun of Transformers fans. Which is what's being done by calling the writers of the hugely successful Transformers "toy writers." I believe they've already been greenlighted for two sequels. Trek could be so lucky.

P.S. Nimoy voiced Galvatron in the cartoon movie, not Megatron.
 
jayrath said:
Hercules, Zorro and Xena?

Oh, yes; giants of screenwriting.
Click to expand...

Name a succesful Star Trek movie written by a "giant". Even TOS was mostly written by TV vets not "giants'. I'm sure Ellison can fil you in on the re-write process TV scripts go through. Even those written by "giants".
 
jayrath said:
Hercules, Zorro and Xena?

Oh, yes; giants of screenwriting.
Click to expand...

Your criticism is invalid. Harve Bennett worked on The Six Million Dollar Man and a couple of crummy invisible-man TV series before he did Trek movies, but he also did the acclaimed A Woman Called Golda.

Screenwriters are people who get hired by other people to do jobs and write the kind of story they're hired to write. It's absurd to assume they're only capable of doing one thing, or that they're bad writers just because they've been hired to work on one or two projects you find unimpressive. They're working men and women and they need to pay the bills, so they do the jobs they're hired for and they do the best work they can within that context. A job is a job, a chance to hone your craft, no matter what the subject is.
 
Christopher said:
jayrath said:
Hercules, Zorro and Xena?

Oh, yes; giants of screenwriting.
Click to expand...

Your criticism is invalid. Harve Bennett worked on The Six Million Dollar Man and a couple of crummy invisible-man TV series before he did Trek movies, but he also did the acclaimed A Woman Called Golda.

Screenwriters are people who get hired by other people to do jobs and write the kind of story they're hired to write. It's absurd to assume they're only capable of doing one thing, or that they're bad writers just because they've been hired to work on one or two projects you find unimpressive. They're working men and women and they need to pay the bills, so they do the jobs they're hired for and they do the best work they can within that context. A job is a job, a chance to hone your craft, no matter what the subject is.
Click to expand...

Agreed, it would have been hard for ANY writer to make those shows sound intelligent.

As for Trek, I think in this case it's MUCH more important that Abrams and Lindlehoff are involved. These guys have proved very well with Lost and their other shows that they're not hacks, and I'm sure their shit detectors would have gone off big time if the Trek script wasn't up to par.
 
Kirk: Come, come, Mr. Scott. Young minds, fresh ideas. Be tolerant!

We need young blood keep the franchise alive.
 
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