Roberto Orci is part of JJ Abrams’s creative team, and he’s co-written the 2009 reinvention of Star Trek, along with his former partner Alex Kurtman. Orci was up to direct the next Star Trek movie, but now he’s apparently stepping down from the bridge.
This was going to be Orci’s directing debut, but for reasons unknown at this time, he won’t be helming the third Trek after all, and now Collider tells us Edgar Wright could be taking over.
This would certainly be a very left of center choice, and perhaps one that’s needed to revitalize the franchise after many found Star Trek Into Darkness a disappointment. There’s of course the risk that Trek could get wacky with Wright at the helm, but he has enough respect for genre that he’ll probably keep any of that under control without totally subverting his irreverence.
Paramount is still hoping to have Star Trek 3 out in 2016 in time for the franchise’s 50th anniversary, so we assume the director slot will have to be filled very soon to make the deadline. The third Trek indeed has had some hurtles to overcome since Abrams left to direct Star Wars, and we’ll see if it can finally overcome those hurtles to make it to the big screen in time to celebrate its birthday.
