Orci, Kurtzman Updates Status of Star Trek Sequel

The writing team of Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman provided an update on the status of the script for the sequel to Star Trek to TrekMovie.com this weekend. The interview occurred before the Saturn Awards where the pair was honored with the George Pal Memorial Saturn Award. Star Trek won a Saturn for Best Make-Up. The video can be found here, highlights below.

- Orci: "We have a story and now the next step is we all get together and try to destroy it. ...try to shake loose and see if it stands up to our scrutiny. If it does we do it and if doesn't we do a little more drawing board."
- Orci: "We have a front runner [for villain]."
- Kurtzman: "…the emphasis is little bit different in that in the first movie ...it’s really about watching the team coming together. That doesn't go away in the second movie. In the second movie it’s about how the team know they are on their journey, live together as a family."
- Kurtzman: "Relieved to have [Damon Lindelof] full time now. Now we are going to really dive into Trek next week..."
- Orci noted sequel title can't be Star Trek 12, Star Trek 2 (or II), but said would "take it to the court and see" about the idea of following in the path of The Dark Knight and choose a title that invoke the franchise.

To sum up, it seems the real effort on the script is about to begin to try and have a final script by the end of the year. In regards to the title, I think the team will take a page from Transformers and go with a number- less title and colon since Trek doesn't have famous "nicknames" like Batman does. About the only title that would work would be "Enterprise" but that is out do to the TV series. From a creative perspective I am sure they might want it but from a marketing perspective trying to sell a Star Trek film without the title Star Trek would be a nightmare.