Nick Meyer - why didn't he become one of the greats?

[Botany Bay]

Just read that Nick Meyer is presenting a screening of TWOK soon in Hollywood, and presumably taking questions from fans etc. Now that's cool, but I just thought "what a waste - why isn't this guy making films rather than talking about them?"

I have to admit I haven't seen anything non-Trek by Nick Meyer, but he did rewrite and direct Star Trek 2:The Wrath of Khan, the best Trek film, IMO, and my personal favourite all time film.

I find his director's commentaries fascinating - the guy is obviously ridiculously intelligent and well read, he could write, he could direct, and he made TWOK work with a budget of about $2.50...but his career never went anywhere apart from his Trek projects as far as I can tell.

Why do you think he never went on to bigger and better things?

His ego? Choosing bad projects? Hollywood dismissing his work because it was on Star Trek? Or did he retire from movies?

I don't think it was an accident the TOS films he was involved in were the better ones, but you may disagree. Would love to know your thoughts guys.

 

[JarodRussell]

He's probably doing what he likes to do.

 

[Gepard]

Well, by Meyer's own admission, he does much better taking other people's ideas and creations and futzing with them a bit to make a story; not so much when it comes to creating from scratch. That may have something to do with it – in interviews, he's always very passionate about film in general, but seems sort of lackluster when it comes to his own creative process. His recounting of how he got involved with TUC, for example, makes it sound like he was dragged in without much passion for the project and sort of had to get his fires stoked by Nimoy and others before he really got engaged. It may be that he just doesn't care enough on his own to pursue film making any further than he has.

 

[BillJ]

Seems he is still writing... and he is 66 years old.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0583292/

 

[Greg Cox]

It's shame he didn't direct more, but he did write at least one bestselling novel, The Seven Percent Solution, and directed at least one other classic sf film, Time After Time. And, of course, The Day After was a huge ratings hit--and a very big deal at the time.

Not a bad track record!

 

[Gepard]

More than most of us have accomplished, that's for sure.

 

[Botany Bay]

Seems he is still writing... and he is 66 years old.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0583292/

No way! I always had the impression he was a 25 yer old whiz-kid when he did TWOK. He sure looks good for his age on those DVD interviews.

It's shame he didn't direct more, but he did write at least one bestselling novel, The Seven Percent Solution, and directed at least one other classic sf film, Time After Time. And, of course, The Day After was a huge ratings hit--and a very big deal at the time.

Not a bad track record!

No doubt, and I'll have to track these down. I'm not trying to be critical of him, my reason for posting is more to reflect my surprise that he didn't go on to direct many more blockbusters in the 80's/90's.

By the way Greg, if I haven't told you before, I thought your Khan book, To Reign In Hell, was superb. A worthy story to bridge Space Seed and TWOK. I hope you revisit TOS again someday in your writing.

 

[Greg Cox]

By the way Greg, if I haven't told you before, I thought your Khan book, To Reign In Hell, was superb. A worthy story to bridge Space Seed and TWOK. I hope you revisit TOS again someday in your writing.

Thanks! By coincidence, I just started writing a new TOS novel, The Rings of Time.

 

[Maurice]

Personally, as much as I like Meyer, I don't think he was all that spectacular a director. Sure, he got TWOK and TUC done with some verve and under very tight budgetary conditions, but I can't say that I got a sense that he had an special knack as a director in the way one might say of Coppola or Speilberg or Malick.

It could also just be the luck of the draw. Sometimes the dominoes line up for talented people and sometimes they don't.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

Speaking of Nick Meyer, here he is reading and discussing his memoir at a San Francisco book shop.

 

[Harvey]

Here's the link to the film festival where Meyer will be presenting Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, if anyone is interested. Tickets are 45.00 a person for the double feature, which seems quite exorbitant to me, but maybe someone else here is interested.

http://events.latimes.com/herocomplexfilmfest/

 

[Expo67]

The industry is certainly missing out on the incredible talents that Nicholas Meyer has to offer. He has made excellent contributions to the cinematic, television, and literary arts over the past three decades.

With the way the business is now, it could certainly use an injection of creativity.

Fresh creativity from Meyer, himself.

 

[JarodRussell]

The industry is certainly missing out on the incredible talents that Nicholas Meyer has to offer. He has made excellent contributions to the cinematic, television, and literary arts over the past three decades.

With the way the business is now, it could certainly use an injection of creativity.

Fresh creativity from Meyer, himself.

There is an inflationary over-use of only very small group of people in Hollywood. Look at Abrams/Orci/Kurtzman and how many projects they are attached to. Or how almost the entire cast & crew of Inception migrates into The Dark Knight Rises. It would be a lot better if a lot more people were involved in these.

 

[number6]

No it wouldn't. They got the right people for the right job, your personal taste not withstanding.

 

[Harvey]

Meyer has been working steadily as a screenwriter for the past three decades, so I'm not sure where the idea that Hollywood is missing out on his talents comes from. And to those complaining that Orci/Kurtzman/whoever is writing the Star Trek movies now and not Meyer, I'd point out that Meyer thought the latest film was "spectacular."

http://trekmovie.com/2009/12/09/exc...-meyer-talks-star-trek-sequel-opera-and-more/

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Personally, as much as I like Meyer, I don't think he was all that spectacular a director. Sure, he got TWOK and TUC done with some verve and under very tight budgetary conditions, but I can't say that I got a sense that he had an special knack as a director in the way one might say of Coppola or Speilberg or Malick.

It could also just be the luck of the draw. Sometimes the dominoes line up for talented people and sometimes they don't.

Yep. There are a great many directors who manage one or two good, reasonably popular films but don't go on to extraordinarily successful careers. We're aware of Meyer only because of his association with the thing we're fans of, not because he ever set the world on fire.

 

[Ensign_Redshirt]

Didn't know that he was nominated for the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay back in 1977. Just looked him up on IMDb.

Also nominated for the Emmy for directing The Day After.

 

[Potemkin_Prod]

He's a good director, and he did fine with Star Trek and his other films. But Hollywood is a fickle town. I often have wondered why Ridley Scott hasn't gotten the same sort of recognition as other, less talented directors, have received.

 

[Maurice]

Relatedly, I read Meyer's novel "The Seven Percent Solution" (the screenplay adaptation he was nominated being for adapting his own work) last year and, frankly, I was underwhelmed. The concept was great, but the story just sort of ran out of gas in the second half.

 

[ScottDS]

I've often wondered this myself. I understand he's written several screenplays in the last several years but almost none of them have been turned into films. (When I saw Meyer do a Trek II Q&A in 2006, he said he was working on a script about FDR for Martin Scorsese - who knows if that'll ever get made.)

Here's a review for a cool script he adapted a couple years ago called The Crook Factory: http://scriptshadow.blogspot.com/2009/12/crook-factory.html

In terms of directing, I agree with Dennis above - there are countless directors who crank out perfectly good films but they don't become household names. And there's nothing identifiable about Meyer's films in terms of style or craft that make them "Nicholas Meyer movies." On the other hand, you could say the same thing about Sydney Lumet or Robert Wise (who once said that his style was whatever worked for that particular film). But this is a conversation for another day.

I'm sure if Meyer wanted to direct more, he could. I'm surprised he hasn't dabbled more in television, given all the high-quality TV programming that's out there. (Seriously, why isn't he directing the occasional episode of Mad Men or Game of Thrones? If Abrams and company are fans, why not hire Meyer to direct an episode of Fringe?)

Or maybe he doesn't want to. I once saw Back to the Future producer/co-writer Bob Gale do a Q&A and, when asked why he wasn't more active in filmmaking, he said, "Because I don't want to write or direct crap like Starsky and Hutch 3!"

On an unrelated note, what's Meyer's secret?! He looks 15 years younger than he is!